Just about everyone under the age of 50 has fond childhood memories of the Berenstain Bears. For decades, they have dominated children’s story hours in schools, libraries and homes. Over 260 of the books have been published in 20 different languages, and the Bear family has also made the leap from print to TV multiple times.

Now, the Bears are adding yet another language to their repertoire: the  Native American dialect of Lakota.  Spoken by the Lakota Sioux Nation, there are about 6,000 native speakers.  While it’s stronger than many Native American languages, UNESCO still lists the Sioux language as a whole as “vulnerable.” As with other Native American groups, there is a generation of Lakota who were forcibly discouraged from speaking their own language as children.  As tribe member Kenny Little Thunder told the Associated Press, “You couldn’t speak your language _ you were hit. They beat the language out of you.”

When it comes to protecting a language, children really are the future. Per Wikipedia, a language can have tens of thousands of speakers, but if children aren’t speaking it now, it’s classified as “moribund.”

Lakota elders hope that “Matho Waunsila Thiwahe,” the Lakota version of the Berenstain Bear’s cartoon series, will encourage Lakota children to take the language to heart. Lakota Language Consortium  executive director Wilhelm Meya told the AP that “The bears are doing their part to save a language. Kids love cartoons. This is a great way to reach them to engage them in the language in a fun and yet educational way.”

So far, reaction from the tribe’s children seems to be positive; Chad Morsette Jr, age 10, said

“It’s pretty good. Awesome, really. I think a lot of kids are going to like it.”

The Lakota dialogue was voiced by Lakota tribe members familiar with the language and dubbed over the existing animated series.  Naomi Last Horse, who did the voice-over for Brother Bear, noted that the way the Lakota language is structured made playing a boy quite challenging:

“I thought it was funny at first but then I also know that Bart Simpson is played by a girl so that kind of gave me motivation at first. I was like, `no, boys and girls they have different endings.` So I had to say yello instead of ya like a female would so it was fun translating over.”

A story in Time Magazine notes that Jan Berenstain, who still writes new books for the series, has waived the normal licensing fees for the tribe.  You can watch the trailer on YouTube below.

Orginal Article on K International's Language Blog | The Berenstain Bears Now Speak Lakota

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The tiny island of New Guinea is a hotbed of linguistic diversity. Though the island is only 462,840 square kilometres in size, approximately one sixth of the world’s languages are spoken here. More than 1,000 languages have been counted on: around 800 in Papua New Guinea and 200 on the side of the island controlled by Indonesia.

Still, language death is a problem even here. According to China Daily, many New Guinea languages are in danger of going extinct, especially those spoken by smaller tribes. For example, anthropologist Yoseph Wally told China Daily that based on his experience, on the Indonesian side of the island:

“It’s Indonesian more and more. Only the oldest people still speak in the local dialect,” he said. Certain languages disappeared very quickly, like Muris, which was spoken in an area near here until about 15 years ago.”

In fact, the same factors that created New Guinea’s linguistic diversity are what make many of its languages so vulnerable. Steep mountains and almost impassable terrain kept tribes isolated from each other, encouraging each to develop their own unique language. However, that means that many of New Guinea’s languages were spoken only by small groups to begin with, and when it comes to keeping a language alive, there really is strength in numbers.

Nico, the curator of the museum at  Cendrawasih University, explained that:

“Every time someone dies, a little part of the language dies too because only the oldest people still use it.”

What are the younger people speaking? As mentioned earlier, it’s Indonesian on the Indonesian side of the island. In Papua New Guinea, on the other hand, it’s English.

Still, Mr. Wally told China Daily he sees a glimmer of hope, in that indigenous languages are still used during traditional celebrations, so young people

“will want to discover the language to understand the meaning of the songs”.

Orginal Article on K International's Language Blog | New Guinea’s Languages Fall Silent

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Every two weeks, another language disappears from the world forever. According to National Geographic, more than half of the world’s 7,000 languages are expected to be extinct by the year 2100. According to Laura Welcher, a linguist with the Long Now Foundation, some experts believe the situation is even more dire, and that 90% of all languages currently spoken will be extinct by the end of the century.

Via the foundation’s Rosetta Project, Welcher is trying to use technology to preserve as many of these languages as possible.  People sometimes question whether dying languages are even worth the effort of trying to save. In an interview with Fast Company, Welcher gave an eloquent explanation:

“If languages are our how-to guides for living on planet earth, and we stand to lose up to 90% of them, then that seems like we are looking at handing our descendants an encyclopedia of human life on Earth with all of the pages ripped out, except sections X, Y, and Z.”

So, how do we preserve sections A through W? Traditionally, linguists have worked one-on-one with speakers of endangered languages, making recordings, encoding rules for grammar and compiling dictionaries. Through the use of technology like cell phones and webcams, Welker envisions a future in which people can document the languages they speak on their own, quickly building storehouses of knowledge for linguists to sift through and organize. She told Fast Company:

“In the future, say within the next 10 years, I’m counting on ubiquitous Internet access through mobile devices, and those are the same ones that can be used to create language documentation. My want-to-have killer app would be a cross-platform “push this button and archive your language video in the Rosetta Project Collection.”

Of course, all of this information needs to be stored somewhere, and data formats can change over time. For example, who even has a computer that takes floppy disks any more? To ensure that the data isn’t lost, the Rosetta Project will be transcribing vocabulary and grammar guides for every single language it documents (and their goal is to document all of them) in microscopic print on sheets of pure nickel: truly a Rosetta stone for the 21^st century!



Orginal Article on K International's Language Blog | Preserving Languages

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It’s a story that’s been repeated thousands of times in the past: an indigenous language is eventually replaced by another, more common tongue, finally dying out completely along with its last speakers.

That’s what’s happened to the indigenous Mexican language of Ayapaneco over the centuries. When Spanish became the language of education, children were discouraged from speaking Ayapaneco and the language was lost. Only this time, there’s an interesting but sad twist: the last two people who speak Ayapaneco refuse to speak to each other.

The two elderly gentlemen,  Manuel Segovia and Isidro Velazquez, only live 500 metres in the tiny village of Ayapa. They must have known each other all of their lives, but they haven’t talked to each other in years, possibly decades.

Why not? Is there an old quarrel, an ancient argument? The men won’t talk about that, either. But it’s more likely to be a simple case of clashing personalities.

Daniel Suslak, a linguistic anthropologist helping to record the language before it disappears for good, told the Guardian that the two men:

“don’t have a lot in common. Segovia, he says, can be “a little prickly” and Velazquez, who is “more stoic,” rarely likes to leave his home.”

Although both men are working with linguists to produce a dictionary,  the more outgoing Segovia is more involved in attempts to preserve the language, even attempting to teach classes on it in the village.  He told the Guardian:

“I bought pencils and notebooks myself. The classes would start off full and then the pupils would stop coming. When I was a boy everybody spoke it. It’s disappeared little by little, and now I suppose it might die with me.”

Orginal Article on K International's Language Blog | Last Two Speakers of Dying Language Won’t Speak

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We often read about the struggle to document and preserve endangered spoken and written languages.  But what about disappearing sign languages? Deaf people all over the world have their own regional languages and methods of communicating, some of which are also vanishing.

For example, a new documentary by the Highland Council’s Deaf Communication Project aims to capture Scottish Highland finger-spelling before it is completely replaced by standard sign language. As project manager Jenny Liddell explained to the BBC:

“Older deaf people don’t use as many signs, but instead use their fingers to spell out individual letters. It sounds like a slow way to communicate, but in fact it’s amazingly fast and beautiful to watch, and its part of our heritage.”

To make the documentary, researchers recorded and edited approximately 9 hours of footage and spoke with 15 different deaf people who use finger-spelling to communicate.

In an article posted on the Highland Council’s website, researcher Jean Pentland said that finger-spelling is just as much a part of the local culture as Gaelic, and that it deserves to be recorded and preserved:

“I’m glad this project has been completed. It’s good for Gaelic that they get so much financial support, but our Highland Deaf language and culture sometimes gets forgotten about. I’m glad people will have the chance to find out more about our community through this film.”

The movie took three years to complete and was funded in part by a £50,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund. It debuted on Friday, March 25^th at Eden Court in Inverness, and copies will be distributed to libraries, museums and schools in Scotland as well as to the Highland Archive Center.

Scottish Heritage Lottery Fund head Colin McLean told the BBC he was “delighted that HLF has been able to help capture the legacy of Highland finger-spelling before it dies out completely.”

Orginal Article on K International's Language Blog | Scottish Finger-Signing Gets Its Own Documentary

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Is the German language in danger? According to The Guardian, some German linguists think so.  Apparently English, German’s bigger brother, is encroaching on its sibling’s turf.

The problem is especially notable when it comes to technology – English is coining new buzzwords like “follower” and “livestream” and exporting them at an astounding rate, so quickly that the English versions catch on before German translations can gain traction.

The German Language Association, or VDS, has been trying their hardest to play catch up. This month, for example, they suggested that Germans say”Anhänger”instead of “follower”, “Direkt-Datenstrom” instead of “livestream” and “Geselligkeit” instead of “socializing.”

But VDS spokesman Holger Klatte told the Guardian that their efforts simply aren’t having enough of an impact:

“German has been losing its importance for 100 years. Particularly in the areas of technology, medicine, the internet and the economy, English is becoming ever more important. There are not enough new German words being invented, and many people are shut out of the conversation because they can’t understand it.”

It’s not just shiny new internet terms, either. “Marketing,” a field that has been around for decades, is translated as “das marketing.”

The VDS wants the German government to issue French-style protections for the language, but it should be noted that the French system is often seen as too slow in coming up with new equivalents for the latest buzzwords, as well.

Also, not everyone sees the German language as being under siege. Andrea-Eva Ewels, the managing director of the  Society for the German Language, told the Guardian that while a significant minority of Germans were admittedly unhappy with the number of English loanwords that have been popping up recently, the situation isn’t as dire as it seems:

“Contrary to common belief, only 1%-3% of the average German’s vocabulary of 5,000 words is made up of anglicisms. We don’t see English as the enemy. We’re of the opinion that English can enrich our language, just as many other languages, for example French and Latin, have influenced German over history.”

Orginal Article on K International's Language Blog | Is English Threatening German?

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Do you speak Scots? If you’re not sure how to answer that question, a new website created by the Scots Language Center is designed to help clarify things.

While it seems like the question should be relatively straightforward, the Scots language has become more and more intertwined with English over the past few centuries. This has created a perception that Scots isn’t really a language of its own.  A survey performed last year by the Scottish government even found that 64 of respondents “don’t really think of Scots as a language – more a way of speaking”.

Speaking to the Belfast Telegraph, Michael Hance of the Scots Language Centre explained the conundrum:

“Many people speak Scots every day but may not realise they are doing so, thinking that it is slang or even bad English.”

This year, the government is trying to determine how many people in Scotland can speak and/or understand Scots and to gauge their Scots proficiency. Mr. Hance explained that the Language Centre created the website to help people answer these questions accurately:

“This website, which allows people to listen to recordings of Scots words and phrases and distinct regional pronunciations, should clear up any uncertainty and help people work out how to answer the Scots language question in the census.”

The website, amusingly enough, is called “Aye Can.”

This is the first year that the government has asked about Scots proficiency as part of the census. The Scots language is classified as “vulnerable” by Cambridge University and language activists have recently called for increased study of the language in Scottish schools. Getting an accurate picture of how many people can speak and understand it should help increase the effectiveness of preservation efforts.

Orginal Article on K International's Language Blog | Do You Speak Scots?

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Can you imagine hearing the lost language of your ancestors in a dream? Linguist and Wampanoag language activist Jessie Little Doe Baird claims that the inspiration for the Wampanoag Language Reclamation Project she founded came to her in a recurring dream she had as a young woman. She recounted the dream for the Lexington Minuteman:

“People were talking to me and they looked familiar. I knew these people but I didn’t personally know them. I had no idea what they were saying. I was in a place where everything had been burned … purposefully burned. There was a yellow house, and inside, circles of Indian people making circles, chanting. I’m going around this massive room listening,” said Baird. She tried to leave but was blocked. “Someone asked me: ‘What does this mean?’” But it wasn’t in English. “I don’t know,” Baird replied.

The dream inspired Baird to study linguistics at MIT, where she graduated with a Master’s degree in 2000.

The language of the Wampanoag and Massachusett tribes, Wampanoag was once spoken by tens of thousands of Native Americans in what is now New England. It was the language of Tisquantum (Squanto), Massasoit and the other Native Americans who helped keep the Pilgrims from starving during their first winter in America. Unfortunately, by the mid-19^th century, it had been replaced by English as the Native Americans were converted to Christianity, assigned to reservations and decimated by disease.

However, the Wampanoag tribe’s close association with the early colonists has made the task of reviving it much easier, as before it fell into disuse many of the tribespeople had learned to write using the English alphabet. Missionaries also translated the King James Bible into the language, and that translation has survived.

With these written texts to work with, Baird has managed to become fluent in the old language, and now offers classes to other members of her tribe. She’s also compiled a 11,000 word dictionary and has written a children’s book in Wampanoag, called “Sâpaheekanuhtyâtôh,” or “Let’s Make Soup.”

Orginal Article on K International's Language Blog | Dream Inspires Native American Language Activist

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The Welsh community of Abergele has a long history that stretches back to the days of the Roman Empire, when it was an old trading town. However, residents are afraid that the community will lose its character under a new development plan, which calls for 855 new homes to be built over the next 10 years.

According to the North Wales Weekly News, the Conwy County Council’s Local Development Plan (LDP) calls for the new houses to built in 6 sites across the community. Many local residents believe that’s too many, saying the proposal leaves too little green spaces and natural areas and would turn the region into a suburb of nearby Chester.

One tool concerned citizens plan to use to force revisions in the proposal is a clause in the LDP that restricts projects that would be detrimental to the Welsh language. Currently, Conwy County has the 5^th highest density of Welsh speakers of all the principal areas in Wales (per Wikipedia.) Since most of the newcomers would presumably be from somewhere else, it’s unlikely that they would speak Welsh.

Cllr Phil Edwards explained to the North Wales Weekly News that this could give residents the ability to halt the controversial development:

“The Welsh language and heritage could actually come to our aid here. There is a section in the LDP that talks about language and heritage. If a development is likely to have a detrimental effect on this, then developers will have to produce a language assessment report. If you insist on having Welsh language assessments conducted by developers, and if they turn out to be detrimental to its future, you can effectively use this to stop it going ahead. The death knell of the language will not be stopped by a county boundary.”

Orginal Article on K International's Language Blog | Welsh Town Tries to Protect Language

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Popular language-learning software maker Rosetta Stone is all set to unveil its newest offering: the  Alaskan dialect of Inupiaq.  Inupiaq is an Inuit language spoken by Native Americans in Alaska. According to Wikipedia, there are 4 main dialects of Inupiaq and several sub-dialects.

According to the Seattle Times, Rosetta Stone has been working on the project as part of its endangered language program. The company works with native speakers of disappearing languages to create software that can be used to teach both adults and children alike.

Currently, Inupiaq is one of the stronger Native languages in Alaska, but that doesn’t mean it’s in very good shape.  Including all the different dialects and sub-dialects, the language is spoken by somewhere between 2,420 and 1,500 people.

“The language is in danger of becoming extinct after maybe one or two generations,”  Edna MacLean, an Inupiaq professor for the University of Alaska who helped Rosetta Stone develop the program. To help protect the language, NANA Regional Corporation, a company owned by Native Alaskans, is purchasing the software and distributing it to homes and schools in the region.

Efforts to protect languages like Inupiaq are relatively recent, unfortunately. The older generation, who spoke Inupiaq at home and still remember it today, also remember being punished for doing so. Edna MacLean described one such instance to the Seattle Times, describing a time when she “yelled something in Inupiaq at the girl in front of me and (my third-grade teacher) came over and pulled my ear.”

In the video below, Inupiaq kindergarten teacher Mary Huntington describes how the memory of these punishments has made it more difficult for younger Inupiat to learn the language. Hopefully, the new Rosetta Stone software can help overcome these obstacles.

Mary Huntington on Inupiaq Language

Orginal Article on K International's Language Blog | Rosetta Stone Now Teaches Inupiaq

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