How social media help save an endangered language (fwd link)

[Phillip E Cash Cash]

How social media help save an endangered language

17/02/2012 22:01:00

ANN ARBOR, Mich.—There was a time when everyone living in Michigan grew up
speaking the native language of the area's indigenous people. Now less than
10 people born in the state are fluent, yet more than 2,700 people "like"
the language on Facebook.

Howard Kimewon, who teaches in the University of Michigan's Ojibwe Language
program, part of the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts Program
in American Culture, was born in Ontario and grew up speaking the language
there. His colleague Margaret Noori learned the language later in life in
Minnesota, where she grew up. And now she is combining her background in
linguistics and marketing with a facility for social media and technology
to leverage interest in the language she has come to love.

"I want to use every available platform to its utmost," said Noori,
director of the U-M Comprehensive Studies Program and a lecturer in the
Ojibwe language and literature. Noori is making a presentation on crossing
the digital divide to help save endangered and minority languages on Feb.17
at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of
Science (AAAS) in Vancouver, Canada.

In her talk, she will explore ways that tools of modern life from Facebook
and Twitter to YouTube are helping to keep the native language of the
Ojibwe people—called Ashininaabemowin—alive.

"We started our website—www.ojibwe.net—in 2006," Noori said. The goals: to
produce proficiency in the next generation, and to archive the
contributions of fluent elders.

Access full article below:
http://www.healthcanal.com/life-style-fitness/26778-How-social-media-help-save-endangered-language.html
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