Post by blackcrowheart on Jun 4, 2007 20:33:51 GMT -5
Native voices going extinct A few tongues survive in Canada
Peter Calamai
Science Writer
Ivan Skoblin, of the
Chulyms in Siberia, hears his recorded voice for the first time. SAN
FRANCISCO�"Every time a language dies, experts warned here
yesterday, the world loses irreplaceable scientific knowledge as well as
cultural richness. The potential toll is immense, with an estimated half
of humanity's current 7,000 languages struggling to survive, often
spoken by just an elderly few. A 1996 UN report classed aboriginal
languages in Canada as among the most endangered in the world and
Statistics Canada concluded that only three out of 50 �" Cree,
Ojibway and Inuktitut �" had large enough populations to be
considered secure from extinction in the long run. "The accumulated
knowledge is fragile because most of the world's languages have no
writing," said linguist David Harrison, director of research with the
Living Tongues Institute. Harrison said that Western biologists are only
now beginning to unravel the diversity of plants and species that local
inhabitants have long understood and catalogued in their rich
vocabulary. For example, recent research discovered that a butterfly in
Costa Rica wasn't one species but 10. Yet the local Tzeltal people had
already called the caterpillars by different names, because they
attacked different crops. "The knowledge that science thinks it is
discovering about plants, animals and weather cycles has often been
around for a long time," said Harrison, a professor at Pennsylvania's
Swarthmore College. "It is out there, it is fragile and it is rapidly
eroding," he said. Yet recent success in reviving several aboriginal
tongues is rousing hope that the tide of language extinction is not
inevitable, delegates at the annual meeting of the American Association
for the Advancement of Science heard. Some examples: The language of
Miami-Illinois Indians, long classed as extinct, is now spoken daily by
at least 50 people after a major "reclamation" effort. Languages on
the brink of extinction are being recorded for future revival �"
such as that of the Chulym, a tribe of hunters and fishers in Siberia.
A master-apprentice program is rejuvenating some of the 50 threatened
aboriginal languages in California. More than 2,000 schoolchildren
are now fluent speakers of Hawaiian, a language banned from schools in
Hawaii for almost a century. "The reason that a lot of indigenous
languages went extinct was that they could not be used in school," said
William Wilson, a professor of Hawaiian Language and Studies at Hilo,
Hawaii. Despite a policy of official bilingualism, the native Hawaiian
language was in its death throes, but that changed dramatically after
the state legislature in 1987 scrapped a 90-year-ban on using Hawaiian
in the schools. Now, students are taught in their native language from
pre-school to college. Yet Hawaiian-speaking students also study
Japanese in the first six grades, Latin in Grades 7 and 8, and English
throughout. "We feel children can learn many languages if they have a
solid base in English and Hawaiian," the language professor said. Wilson
said in an interview that the architects of language recovery in Hawaii
worked closely with aboriginal groups in Canada, including the Squamish
in Vancouver and the Six Nations at Brantford. The Hawaiian group also
produced a multilingual book in co-operation with the Inuit. The
preservation of aboriginal languages in Canada was dealt a major blow
last year when the Harper government scrapped a 10-year, $173 million
language revitalization program. Yet Miami tribe member Daryl Baldwin
told a news conference that even a supposedly extinct aboriginal
language can be brought back to life. That's what happened with the
Miami language previously spoken over a wide region of the lower Great
Lakes. At Miami University in Ohio, Baldwin and colleagues pored over
written records to help interested tribe members again speak the
language. And the language is kept up to date, he said. In Miami, the
word for a computer translates as "the thing that thinks fast."
Peter Calamai
Science Writer
Ivan Skoblin, of the
Chulyms in Siberia, hears his recorded voice for the first time. SAN
FRANCISCO�"Every time a language dies, experts warned here
yesterday, the world loses irreplaceable scientific knowledge as well as
cultural richness. The potential toll is immense, with an estimated half
of humanity's current 7,000 languages struggling to survive, often
spoken by just an elderly few. A 1996 UN report classed aboriginal
languages in Canada as among the most endangered in the world and
Statistics Canada concluded that only three out of 50 �" Cree,
Ojibway and Inuktitut �" had large enough populations to be
considered secure from extinction in the long run. "The accumulated
knowledge is fragile because most of the world's languages have no
writing," said linguist David Harrison, director of research with the
Living Tongues Institute. Harrison said that Western biologists are only
now beginning to unravel the diversity of plants and species that local
inhabitants have long understood and catalogued in their rich
vocabulary. For example, recent research discovered that a butterfly in
Costa Rica wasn't one species but 10. Yet the local Tzeltal people had
already called the caterpillars by different names, because they
attacked different crops. "The knowledge that science thinks it is
discovering about plants, animals and weather cycles has often been
around for a long time," said Harrison, a professor at Pennsylvania's
Swarthmore College. "It is out there, it is fragile and it is rapidly
eroding," he said. Yet recent success in reviving several aboriginal
tongues is rousing hope that the tide of language extinction is not
inevitable, delegates at the annual meeting of the American Association
for the Advancement of Science heard. Some examples: The language of
Miami-Illinois Indians, long classed as extinct, is now spoken daily by
at least 50 people after a major "reclamation" effort. Languages on
the brink of extinction are being recorded for future revival �"
such as that of the Chulym, a tribe of hunters and fishers in Siberia.
A master-apprentice program is rejuvenating some of the 50 threatened
aboriginal languages in California. More than 2,000 schoolchildren
are now fluent speakers of Hawaiian, a language banned from schools in
Hawaii for almost a century. "The reason that a lot of indigenous
languages went extinct was that they could not be used in school," said
William Wilson, a professor of Hawaiian Language and Studies at Hilo,
Hawaii. Despite a policy of official bilingualism, the native Hawaiian
language was in its death throes, but that changed dramatically after
the state legislature in 1987 scrapped a 90-year-ban on using Hawaiian
in the schools. Now, students are taught in their native language from
pre-school to college. Yet Hawaiian-speaking students also study
Japanese in the first six grades, Latin in Grades 7 and 8, and English
throughout. "We feel children can learn many languages if they have a
solid base in English and Hawaiian," the language professor said. Wilson
said in an interview that the architects of language recovery in Hawaii
worked closely with aboriginal groups in Canada, including the Squamish
in Vancouver and the Six Nations at Brantford. The Hawaiian group also
produced a multilingual book in co-operation with the Inuit. The
preservation of aboriginal languages in Canada was dealt a major blow
last year when the Harper government scrapped a 10-year, $173 million
language revitalization program. Yet Miami tribe member Daryl Baldwin
told a news conference that even a supposedly extinct aboriginal
language can be brought back to life. That's what happened with the
Miami language previously spoken over a wide region of the lower Great
Lakes. At Miami University in Ohio, Baldwin and colleagues pored over
written records to help interested tribe members again speak the
language. And the language is kept up to date, he said. In Miami, the
word for a computer translates as "the thing that thinks fast."