Digital tools 'to save languages' (BBC)

[eppur_se_muova]

By Jonathan Amos
Science correspondent, BBC News, Vancouver

Facebook, YouTube and even texting will be the salvation of many of the world's endangered languages, scientists believe.

Of the 7,000 or so languages spoken on Earth today, about half are expected to be extinct by the century's end.

Globalisation is usually blamed, but some elements of the "modern world", especially digital technology, are pushing back against the tide.

North American tribes use social media to re-engage their young, for example.

Tuvan, an indigenous tongue spoken by nomadic peoples in Siberia and Mongolia, even has an iPhone app to teach the pronunciation of words to new students.
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more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17081573




Well, of course, Tuvan would be one of the first !

If you've got a Mac, try the "special characters" command in SimpleText to see just how many alphabets are available to you - without any special d/l's !

[flamingdem]

1. It should be mandatory to be fluent in three languages

as a part of a good education.

It's not about using them as much as learning a system, and in this way understanding ones own culture and system.

[eppur_se_muova]

2. Nah ... fluency is overkill.

There's a lot to be said for studying comparative linguistics, rather than pursuing fluency. I know a small amount about many different languages, which has been a bigger help than spending years trying to learn one language really well. Exposure to a wide variety of languages does a lot to bring out hidden assumptions you wouldn't think about otherwise.

[BrendaBrick]

3. +1