Thursday, January 24, 2008

Aloud and browsing

Because I'm bored at work (and because I should stop changing the font colors on the library's website every two minutes just for the hell of it), I'm trawling The Internets. Mi Hermana is a linguist, so I forwarded this story to her:
Last Alaska language speaker dies (BBC)
A woman believed to be the last native speaker of the Eyak language in the north-western US state of Alaska has died at the age of 89.
We used to be a tad obsessed with the story of Ishi, the "last Yahi," when we were kids. (Though apparently there is new anthropological debate over whether he really was truly the last of his tribe and the last native speaker of its language....)

At any rate, it doesn't take a linguist to recognize the importance, both intellectually and culturally, of mapping and documenting oral languages before native speakers pass away.

Plus, it keeps me from confusing the library's website visitors...

Also, I'm experimenting with Safari, Camino, and Opera.  It's kind of fun!

2 comments:

Xtina said...

i was listening to NPR once and they were talking about two old guys who were the last native speakers of their language but wouldn't talk to each other.

Rainster said...

That is HILARIOUS!