#saving languages

[bobholman-blog-blog]

I became interested in Endangered Languages through Hip Hop. When you study the African-American oral tradition and learn about the griot traditions of West Africa, you learn how many small languages are dying. We can’t afford to lose the knowledge, wisdom and culture that are in these languages, just like we need endangered species of plants and animals to keep the ecosystem healthy.

[bobholman-blog-blog]

There are over 6000 languages remaining in the world. We lose one every two weeks. Hundreds will be lost within the next generation. By the end of this century, half of the world’s languages will have vanished.

[judeoceltische]

The Yurok Tribe’s extensive campaign to revive the language serves as a model to the many other tribes that are undertaking similar efforts, experts say.

[bobholman-blog-blog]

I think that there’s an ecology of consciousness just as there is an ecology of landscape, of land use, and they’re very interrelated. Language comes out of the land and is connected to a specific place, and how to make the best use of the place where you are is inside the language. A kind of wisdom that can’t be translated, that goes into such detail for the plants and animals, but also contains a cultural way of life that is in balance with the place.

Bob Holman