SDLC 105 Journal #9 - Tribes Article and Commentary, etc.

[Rachel Poplack]

The "Tribes" article was very interesting. It shows the importance of having one motivated and dedicated language learner, and how just this can change a language's course of history, in terms of going extinct or not going extinct. In this article, Mr. Lane saves the language from just a handful of speakers by basically creating his own dictionary, which he spreads far enough around that now the language has been "resurrected" and has a healthy following. I think how languages ebb and flow is fascinating. Yiddish, for example, has all but died. Part of this is because most of the people that spoke it perished in the Holocaust. When I was in Poland, we met with a group of people who are trying to bring it back. However, this is difficult to do without a written use for the language, a place where it is spoken and a context and which it is spoken. This article on Mr. Lane and the Siletz people do show that this can be done though - all it takes is one person in the right community and a language can be resurrected. In terms of Yiddish, however, I think the community is too big to ever be influenced by just one speaker.