Technology provides Ojibwe language a lifeline (fwd link)

[Phillip E Cash Cash]

Technology provides Ojibwe language a lifeline

Article by: JENNA ROSS , Star Tribune Updated: April 2, 2012 - 12:16 AM
USA

The University of Minnesota is launching an online Ojibwe dictionary, with
hopes it will help preserve the language few still speak.

This dictionary is no dusty old tome.

The online Ojibwe People's Dictionary features not just words but the
voices of native speakers, not just drawings but historic photographs.

Professors and students at the University of Minnesota will launch the
dictionary this week as their contribution to an urgent effort to preserve
the Ojibwe language and spur a new generation of speakers.

Across the world, linguists and activists, often with the help of
universities, are increasingly using digital technology to capture
little-spoken languages before they are lost to dominant cultures. Ojibwe
is the heritage language of about 200,000 people in the Great Lakes region
and Canada, experts estimate, but just a few thousand speak it today.

"The language is where we turn for knowledge about medicines, culture,
ceremony, philosophy," said Prof. Brenda Child, chairwoman of the U's
Department of American Indian Studies. "We can communicate in English and
still be native people, of course.

Access full article below:
http://www.startribune.com/local/145715875.html
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