The Endangered Language Blog
Hello everyone! Over the last few months, I've come across some great websites on the endangered writing systems of the world. Just as minority languages are marginalized by global superpower languages - English, Mandarin, Spanish, Arabic, etc. - minority writing systems struggle for prominence over dominant scripts such as the Latin alphabet, Chinese characters, Cyrillic, and… Continue reading Sources for Learning About Endangered Writing Systems
Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone! In honor of this holiday, today's Language Spotlight features the Irish language! Irish has a richer history than I realized and was extremely interesting to research. I knew it had a history of struggle and has been undergoing a revival, but I was surprised to learn of its extensive literary… Continue reading Irish – Language Spotlight
On this twentieth anniversary of International Mother Language Day, we must remember that all mother tongues count and that they are all essential to building peace and supporting sustainable development. ~Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO[1] February 21st was International Mother Language Day. This year marked the 20th anniversary of this observance, which was first declared… Continue reading A Weekend of Celebration for International Mother Language Day
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9FMvfvkBro C' 'na luna mezz'u mare Mamma mia m'a maritare Figlia mia a cu te dare Mamma mia pensace tu! One of my earliest memories from my childhood is of when my dad used to play CDs of old Italian songs during car rides. He would tell me that these were the songs my grandfather,… Continue reading The Moon Amid the Sea: Languages of Italy
This past Monday, UNESCO held its official launch event for the International Year of Indigenous Languages (IYIL2019) in Paris. I wrote a post summarizing this initiative a couple weeks ago; to recap, the United Nations declared 2019 the International Year of Indigenous Languages due to the drastic increase in the rate of language endangerment and… Continue reading Follow-Up: The Year of Indigenous Languages has officially begun!
Happy New Year, everyone! 2019 is going to be an amazing year for endangered language awareness, as it has been declared the International Year of Indigenous Languages! But who exactly made this declaration and why? And what are the goals for bringing awareness to the thousands of indigenous languages that are in danger of going… Continue reading 2019 International Year of Indigenous Languages (IYIL2019)
With Thanksgiving having just passed, I wanted to devote the first Language Spotlight to not only a Native American language, but the language of a tribe that had contact with the first English settlers of the Plymouth colony. The Wampanoag tribe, located predominantly in what is now Massachusetts, played a major role in the early… Continue reading Wampanoag – Language Spotlight
Hello! As a holdover until my first endangered language spotlight, I wanted to share and give a brief description of two sites I visit often to learn about endangered languages, as well as what's going on in the field of endangered language research. These sites are not only super informative but are also user-friendly and… Continue reading My go-to sites for info on endangered languages
"What are the endangered languages?" This is the question I get when I tell people that I'm passionate about this topic. The truth is, the amount of languages that are dying out is not something that can be counted on both hands. To start, the total amount of languages that exist in the world is… Continue reading Endangered Languages – Greater and closer than you know!
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