retention, revival, and promises real or imagined

[Mark-Awakuni Swetland]

Aloha All,
I just wanted to echo Bob's comments about retention and revival. It is very
easy to be perceived as making promises to pull some sort of reinvigorated
language out of the hat. Many community members have a strong desire to see
the language reborn... but like Bob said, they don't have the
time/energy/commitment/fill in the blank___ whatever it takes, to make it
happen.

mark

----- Original Message -----
From: "R. Rankin" <rankin at ku.edu>
To: <siouan at lists.colorado.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, October 12, 2004 11:05 AM
Subject: Re: Biloxi update

> Language retention is one thing.  Language revival is quite another.  Be
very careful about making promises (or things people might perceive as
promises even if you don't) that can't be kept.

. . .   This doesn't mean linguists shouldn't try: it justs means you need
to be very careful about what you claim or even suggest can be done.
> Bob
>