The NY Times article, "Tribe revives language on verge of extinction," details the efforts of the Siletz tribe to preserve their threatened language, and by extension, their culture and way of life. I found it interesting how the article concentrated on the importance of "stabilizing" a language by creating a larger pool of speakers through the use of technology. The online dictionary that one tribe member has been working on is just one important way to document their language. Instead of limiting the availability to Siletz language families, this also allows for people all around the world to have access to it, as the web hits from such places as Italy, Switzerland and Poland indicate.
The "digital divide" is not the only bridge an endangered language must cross. There is also the generational gap to consider: "what can also bridge an ancient language's roots to younger tribe members...is that it sounds pretty cool." Certain sounds unique to the Siletz language, such as a sound one makes as if they were going to spit, prove enticing to newcomers of the language.
The article seems to skim over its admission that a language's unique properties help its chances for survival by attracting interest. The conclusion to be drawn from the connection between a language's chance of survival and the qualities that make it attractive in the first place is that if an endangered language is not 'unique,' 'fun,' or 'interesting' enough to attract new speakers, then it may only survive through recordings, dictionaries, grammar books and history books, becoming a recorded dead language rather than a living spoken language. Though 'unique,' 'fun,' and 'interesting' are subjective categorizations that linguists tend to not use, the truth is that certain languages appeal to some people more than others. It is a cautiously optimistic portrait the article depicts for the Siletz language, but I can't help but think of those other languages that are marginalized and probably doomed to extinction, those languages not deemed as "cool" as Siletz.
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