America the Multilingual (fwd link)

[Phillip E Cash Cash]

Lance A. Twitchell <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lance-a-twitchell>

Assistant Professor, Alaska Native Languages, University of Alaska Southeast


America the Multilingual
Posted: 12/27/2012 11:44 am



A language dies every fourteen days. According to many modern linguists,
including Grenoble and
Whaley<http://www.cambridge.org/gb/knowledge/isbn/item1114985/?site_locale=en_GB>,
half of the worlds six to seven thousand languages will be gone in the next
century. This is undoubtedly due to colonial forces over the last several
hundred years and the globalizing prospects of capitalism and world-sized
religions. For Native American people and scholars, the prospects are
terrifying. We have heard through American Indian systems of education the
mantra, "kill the Indian, save the man," and the Indian is on the verge of
dying.

Access full *blog* article below:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lance-a-twitchell/native-american-languages_b_2319510.html
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