LL-L: "Language maintenance" LOWLANDS-L, 10.AUG.2000 (10) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 10.AUG.2000 (10) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: john feather [johnfeather at sceptic1.freeserve.co.uk]
Subject: Language maintenance

There is an article about language loss in New Scientist dated 12 August. It
may be available on their website www.newscientist.com. Unfortunately the
article is headed "Lost for words: the speakers of many smaller languages
are being evicted from the Tower of Babel". Analyse that if you can!

There are some rather silly comments about modern Hebrew.

The last paragraph says: "... one Navajo woman ... took a marking pen to her
local supermarket. Beneath the English words on each sign, she wrote the
translation in Navajo." This reminded me of the recent discussion about
written Scots. Would it help awareness if ordinary people could see that the
language could be written as well as spoken? (I am not, of course, implying
that any law-abiding Scot would do such a thing without permission.)

John Feather johnfeather at sceptic1.freeserve.co.uk

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