New home movies resurrect endangered Native American language (fwd link)

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New home movies resurrect endangered Native American language

Educator develops multimedia tools to share, preserve Ojibwe language.

By Science Nation Mon, Nov 21 2011 at 5:38 PM EST
USA

University of Minnesota Duluth education professor Mary Hermes says
saving an endangered language goes beyond just enriching the people
who speak it.

"I think people have got to get beyond thinking it's just for the
Ojibwe people, that we want to save their Ojibwe language. There's
10,000 years of human evolution and knowledge in that language," she
says.

With support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Hermes is
combining the skills of native speakers with video technology to help
others, young and old, learn the language in the most natural way.
She's doing it by videotaping short movies of everyday situations,
from going to a rummage sale to planting a garden to helping out a
sick relative.

Access full article below:
http://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/stories/new-home-movies-resurrect-endangered-native-american-language#