A viewpoint on Aboriginal languages...

A very interesting article recently published on that munanga linguist about some of the author's work being done on dying Aboriginal languages and how they got that way...

Reviving a dead Alaska Native language

There was big news last year for the Eyak language, the arrival of 22-year-old Guillaume Leduey, a French student who had stumbled upon Eyak while randomly surfing the Internet at age 15. Leduey had taught himself to speak Eyak using materials he ordered from Alaska. His 2010 trip to the United States came at the invitation of Michael Krauss, University of Alaska linguistics professor, and the only living speaker of Eyak on the planet since the death of Marie Smith-Jones, honorary Eyak chief and the last fluent Eyak speaker of the language; and, Laura Bliss-Spaan, a former television reporter who has taken up preservation of the language as a personal mission since discovering Eyak while covering the Cordova Iceworm Festival years ago.

To continue reading about the Eyak language revitalization, click here

Languages Racing to Extinction in 5 Global "Hotspots"

From Alaska to Australia, hundreds of languages around the world are teetering on the brink of extinction—some being spoken only by a single person, according to a new study. Research has revealed five hotspots where languages are vanishing most rapidly: eastern Siberia, northern Australia, central South America, Oklahoma, and the U.S. Pacific Northwest. In the last 500 years, an estimated half of the world's languages, from Etruscan to Tasmanian, have become extinct. But researchers say the languages of the world are now vanishing faster than ever in recorded history. More than 500 languages may be spoken by fewer than ten people.

To read the full article, click here