From Endangered Languages Media Watch: Post “Elar’s David Nathan writes for The Mark” — “We’ve come a long way in documenting the 90 per cent of languages facing extinction, but rescuing them is another story.”
From Talking Alaska: Post “Commission on Alaska Native Languages” — Meeting tomorrow in Anchorage.
Living Languages 
20 April 2011 at 09:27 |
Well, rescuing languages is not that difficult if native or fluent speakers are still alive. Those have simply to get up and begin to pass their knowledge on to others. It is to the others to urge them to do so. At the beginning, few people can reach many people by travelling around.
It is no use waiting for professional plans to teach languages at school, children’s care and other children’s activities. It is worth simply becoming active at once before the decline gets even worse. In the long run, professional plans and teacher training are of couse necessary to assure continuing success.
20 April 2011 at 09:54 |
It takes a lot of time to learn a language and is not easy. Methods have been developed, such as the Master-Apprentice program. There is a great story about it in the Green Book of Langauge Revitalization.
In that story, the apprentice follows everything the master tells him, but purposefully finds a way to do something unexpected so that the master has to provide more instructions and provide more vocabulary. One example I recall is that when the master said to set the table, the apprentice put the dishes upside down and was able to learn how to say “put them right-side up,” not an expression used in everyday conversation.
See Workshops by CILO – US for two references on the Master-Apprentice program.