Endangered Languages

In the New York Times, I stumbled across an interesting article about the prevalence of endangered languages in New York City. Experts estimate that over 800 languages are spoken in NYC and around 400 are considered endangered; Daniel Kaufman, a professor of linguistics at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York said, "We’re sitting in an endangerment hot spot where we are surrounded by languages that are not going to be around even in 20 or 30 years.” These endangered languages are from Indonesia, Belize, Tajikistan, Poland, and more. They include but are not limited to Aramaic from the Semitic family; Bukhari (a Bukharian Jewish language, which has more speakers in Queens than in Uzbekistan or Tajikistan); Chamorro (from the Mariana Islands); Irish Gaelic; Kashubian (from Poland); indigenous Mexican languages; Rhaeto-Romanic (spoken in Switzerland); Romany (from the Balkans); and Yiddish. Some of these languages actually have more native speakers in NYC than in their home countries.

In an effort to conserve and revive these languages, Professor Kaufman and several associates have created a non-profit organization called the Endangered Language Alliance (ELA). The group identifies endangered language speakers and brings them into labs to research and record the dying languages. They're mission statement is as follows: “to further the documentation, description, maintenance, and revitalization of threatened and endangered languages, and to educate the public about the causes and consequences of language extinction.”

One specific case highlighted in the video that accompanies the article is the tribal Darfurian language Massalit. The linguists brought in Daowd I. Salih, a Darfurian refugee, to interview. They ask him how to say simple phrases such as "a man holds a fish" in Massalit, and they look for patterns in grammatical formation and vocabulary. They are attempting to record the language for the first time in the hopes of preventing its extinction in Sudan.

Other groups are following suit and joining the fight to revive endangered languages. Speakers of an indigenous language from Belize called Garifuna are offering classes at the Yurumein House Culture Center in the Bronx and the Biko Transformation Center in East Bushwick. A father teaching his young daughters folk songs in the language said, "It’s going to give them a sense of self, to know themselves. The fact that they’re speaking the language is empowerment in itself.”

http://endangeredlanguagealliance.org/main/about

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/29/nyregion/29lost.html?pagewanted=2

VIDEO: http://video.nytimes.com/video/2010/04/28/nyregion/1247467719180/city-of-endangered-languages.html