In Tribe Revives Language on Verge of Extinction, the New York Times does a great job of explaining how one particular American Indian language with only five speakers left has been resurfaced to face extinction. Through the internet, there has been a flurry of interest from users all over the world, from Italy to Switzerland to Poland. Language preservation is so important to small tribes like the Siletz Dee-ni have little to no population, and a declining interest in the language especially because the tribe is situated in a mostly English and Spanish speaking region.
I am most interested in the method of language preservation that the article sites. "Artifacts" and other methods of language learning available by the internet make learning "on the verge of extinct" languages more accessible and realistic. In languages where there are no equivalent consonants or vowels in the English language, internet artifacts I feel, are extremely efficient in pronunciation so that non-native speakers/learners are able to learn to speak the language properly.
I am so happy that this issue is on the radar. It is awfully sad that languages go extinct, especially when they do so because one language dominates as a result of slavery, colonialism, religion, and force. Language preservation is important, as language is so connected to culture. Different languages make us learn from one another in a way that we wouldn't be able to if we all spoke the exact same language.
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