BOOKS: Can language preservation battle be won? (fwd link)

[Phillip E Cash Cash]

BOOKS: Can language preservation battle be won?

By RICHARD L. CARRICO For the North County Times
US

Imagine speaking a language that is spoken by fewer than 200 people.
Visualize a culture where much of your spirituality, moral codes and
traditions are transmitted solely through spoken stories. Now put yourself
into a society where your sacred stories are seen by the dominant culture
around you as being nothing more than quaint, childish tales.

That and more is the linguistic and cultural plight of scores of native
people in our hemisphere. From at least 500 major languages spoken at the
time of Columbus' arrival in the Americas, many scholars believe that fewer
than 200 are spoken today. Worse yet, perhaps as many as 90 percent of the
languages extant today are now threatened with extinction or are spoken by
only a handful of elderly people.

Access full article below:
http://www.nctimes.com/entertainment/books-and-literature/books-can-language-preservation-battle-be-won/article_c86293bf-ac0b-57c6-be28-6b6a4668c379.html
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