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This reminded me of a video I saw once, many years ago. It was told by the last speaker of a language - from a tribe in El Salvador, iirc (Central America, for
by beat 9y ago
This reminded me of a video I saw once, many years ago. It was told by the last speaker of a language - from a tribe in El Salvador, iirc (Central America, for sure). Most of his tribe had been wiped out during civil war. He and his parents were the last living speakers of their language. When his parents died, he was the last. The video was a long, tearful poem, telling the story of his people and their destruction. Of course, no one could understand a word of it but him, but the emotion was unmistakable.
- Alex3917 9y agoIt's interesting that the same technologies we use to preserve language (audio/film/text) are also largely the reason for their destruction. If you just have two people talking with each other in the woods there aren't any economies of scale, no 'best' version of Wikipedia, no Hollywood movies to watch, etc. While not related to language, except for one episode, NPR's archive of lost & found sound is also worth checking out: http://www.npr.org/sections/lost-found-sound/archive?date=9-30-2008 http://www.npr.org/sections/lost-found-sound/archive?date=9-...
- nathancahill 9y agoAlong the same vein, worth checking out the archives of Alan Lomax. He spent 70 years collecting oral and folk music recordings across America, the Caribbean and the UK. Now in the Library of Congress[0]. Some of his recordings are famously sampled on Moby's Play album. [0] https://www.loc.gov/folklife/folkcat.html https://www.loc.gov/folklife/folkcat.html
- samstave 9y agoOh man, those samples on minus album are amazing. When that album came out it was the only CD I had with me on a six month back-packing trip... memories - and those samples are brilliant
- cortesoft 9y agoI don't know, languages have been dying out for a lot longer than those technologies have been around. Languages die when the cultures who speak them either get assimilated or eradicated; I am not sure what technology has to do with that?
- boxy310 9y agoBefore the printing press, there was dramatic variation in regional dialects of European nations. After the printing press, standardization and state centralization have been grinding these regional dialects into the ground. Even traditional regional languages like Irish or Scots Gaelic are going extinct.
- beat 9y agoI live in a city with tens of thousands of east African immigrants (mostly Somali). It's fascinating to me, to hear the difference between how the adult Somalis speak, and how their children speak. The teenagers, having grown up here, speak in perfect, accent-free English. Will their children even speak Somali at all? (As an aside, I totally love my little window into Somali teenage girl culture, just from riding the train and sharing a neighborhood with them. Their fashions are incredible, and they're so energetic and happy. Somali teenage boys, on the other hand, are just as glum and faux-cool as teenage boys everywhere.)
- gowld 9y ago> perfect, accent-free English. This is a myth. You mean they speak your local accent of English. > (As an aside, I totally love my little window into Somali teenage girl culture, just from riding the train and sharing a neighborhood with them. Their fashions are incredible, and they're so energetic and happy. Somali teenage boys, on the other hand, are just as glum and faux-cool as teenage boys everywhere.) Please don't be racist. Appreciate people without making convoluted assumptions about how their race and gender causes their behavior
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- omarchowdhury 9y agoWould love if you could dig this up for us.
- Robotbeat 9y agoWow, that is remarkable. Do you know where to find more info?
- jlg23 9y agoThere are many stories similar to this one; wikipedia's list of last speakers of languages[1] is a good starting point for those interested in dying languages and the attempts at their preservation. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_last_known_speakers_of_languages https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_last_known_speakers_...
- make3 9y agohow did you know what he was talking about if no one understood a word of it but him?
- Cyph0n 9y agoHave you considered the possibility that the speaker himself provided a translation to the documenters?