Teachers try to revive dying language

[P. Kerim Friedman]

I was referring to ingressive pulmonic air.

<http://pandora.cii.wwu.edu/vajda/ling201/test2materials/
articulatory_phonetics.htm>

That it is a long shot is an understatement. The SIL ethnologue claims
that there are 5,000 Tsou speakers in Taiwan, out of a population of
around 6,000.

<http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=Taiwan>

However, SIL researcher Greg Huteson has estimated the actual number of
speakers to be around 350! This is based on the number of Tsou who are
over 50 years old, which seems to be a reasonable approach (given the
history of Aborigine language and education policies). Aborigine life
expectancy is much lower than the rest of the population, due to
poverty, difficult access to health care, dangerous working conditions,
and high rates of alcoholism. So the future is certainly bleak.

- kerim

On Jan 16, 2004, at 9:16 AM, Stan & Sandy Anonby wrote:

> Are you agreeing Tsou revival is a long shot, or that Tsou has
> ingressive
> pulmonic air?
> -Stan
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "P. Kerim Friedman" <kerim.list at oxus.net>
> To: <lgpolicy-list at ccat.sas.upenn.edu>
> Sent: Friday, January 16, 2004 9:30 AM
> Subject: Re: Teachers try to revive dying language
>
>
>> Yes it is.
>>
>> - kerim
>>
>> On Jan 16, 2004, at 8:12 AM, Stan & Sandy Anonby wrote:
>>
>>> Sounds like a real long shot, but the process might still be
>>> worthwhile.
>>> Tsou is one of the (extremely rare) languages reported to use
>>> ingressive
>>> pulmonic air for some of its phonemes, no?
>>>
>>> Stan
>>
>