Dying languages

[tomthorne]

guardian.co.uk/world/2011/ap … -dying-out

For some reason this made me laugh. A shame that another language is fading away, but amusing that the last two remaining speakers have fallen out and are refusing to talk to each other.

[elektronisk]

Surely they ripped this from the onion.

[quote]Endangered languages

Ter Sami

Spoken by only two elderly people in the Kola peninsula in the north-west of Russia. Had about 450 speakers at the end of the 19th century until it was prohibited in schools in the 1930s.

Lengilu

Language from the north-eastern area of Kalimantan, Indonesia. Lengilu was at one stage spoken by 10 people. Today, there are only four.

Mabire

Three people reportedly speak Mabire in the Oulek village of Chad. The chief of the Mabire is the only Mabire speaker in his village so people doubt whether he is still fluent.

Tehuelche

Originally the language of nomadic hunters in Chile. The last four speakers live in Patagonia, Argentina.[/quote]

[GuyInTaiwan]

I liked this bit:

…Segovia and Velazquez call their language Nuumte Oote, which means the True Voice. They speak different versions of this truth and tend to disagree over details, which doesn’t help their relationship.

Evidently, it’s not the true voice then.

[tomthorne]

[quote=“GuyInTaiwan”]I liked this bit:

…Segovia and Velazquez call their language Nuumte Oote, which means the True Voice. They speak different versions of this truth and tend to disagree over details, which doesn’t help their relationship.

Evidently, it’s not the true voice then.[/quote]

And the dictionary is consequently going to have to contain both versions. So, we have two guys who refuse to speak to each other and have different versions of the language. Maybe this is from The Onion.

[GuyInTaiwan]

tomthorne: With such geniuses as the last remaining vestiges of that language, it’s probably no wonder the language is about to become extinct, and it’s probably also not such a loss to humanity either.