LING 1010 Lecture Notes - Lecture 20: Indigenous Languages Of The Americas, Edward Sapir, Language Documentation
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Document Summary
6% of the world"s languages take up 90% of the world"s population. A language is alive if there are living human beings who speak that language natively. A language dies when the last native speaker of that language dies. Language death occurs when parents stop teaching their language to their children. This is an issue of power not science or linguistics. Connecticut used to be the home of at least 5 native american languages. Most native american languages have died or are dying. Vast majority of native americans killed by disease. Edward sapir was a famous linguist who contributed significantly to the linguistics study of native american languages in the early 20th century. A language is the most massive and inclusive art we know, a mountainous and anonymous work of unconscious generations . Each language is an example of what the human mind can do. Once we lose those examples, they"re gone forever.
