Cultural Post #9

[David R. Stevens]

I found this NY Times article very interesting.  There are so many languages out there and it is sad to think that some of those languages, cultures, and histories will be lost forever because we will not be able to bring them back.  This was a very inspirational article knowing that atleast a few languages have been saved from extinction.   Hebrew was once a semi-dead language.  We know how it is spoken, but it was never spoken in daily language because it was lost with the destruction of the Second Temple in the early First Century.   So when Hebrew became modernized in the 1960's it was considered to be revived from the dead.  I also have recently interviewed a friend of mine from the Former Soviet Union and she spoke to me during the Interview about how when she was younger she used to speak "Juli" (A mixed language of Russian, Arabic and Hebrew) with her family.   But now she doesn't remember much and she tries to get her mother to speak to her only in Juli to make sure she doesn't forget the language.   Going back to the article, I think it is great that the high School has now allowed the language of Siletz to be a recognized language to study.  It is a great opportunity for the students.