Even Hindi falls behind

In Wikipedia woos India with local languages , The Hindustan times reports on WikiConference India 2011.

Though the article only mentions major Indian languages, rather than any of the 197 languages of India listed in the Unesco Atlas, I thought that the following paragraph was notable in the scope of this blog.

Wales said that the Indian page editors have experienced technical complications due to the lack of digital archiving and difficulty in accessing keyboards enabled with regional script. “The number of Indian language pages on Wikipedia is very small compared to the number of people who speak the language,” said Wales. “Globally, there are more than 35,000 Wikipedians, who make at least five edits on the English page everyday. However, in terms of numbers, the Hindi page is far behind with barely 50 Wikipedians making five edits daily,” he added.

In Wikipedia, we have a major international and multilingual resource; but even Hindi, with 180 Million speakers falls way behind English, due to differences in internet penetration and a Latin bias in computer hardware.

BBC and Independent report on Andaman dictionary

In First Andaman dictionary a 'linguistic treasure trove', Alastair Lawson reports on Prof. Anvita Abbi's  forthcoming Multilingual Dictionary of Great Andamanese, containing content from Bo, Khora, Jeru, and Sare.

The article emphasises the age of the Andamanese culture and languages.  There is also a short piece of audio content, playing some Andamanese words and phrases, alongside their English equivalents

In Breathing Life into a Dying Language , The Independent also reports on the same story.  It's emphasis is on the death last year of Boa Sr, the last speaker of Bo.

Last of the Manchus

In The last of the Manchus: Et tu Manchu,The Economist reports on the decline of the Manchu language from "National Language of a vast empire" to near extinction in just a century, putting a human face on the decline in the form of Ms Zhao, one of the only two fluent speakers of Manchu in her village.  The decline turns out not to be so rapid, as 100 years ago, it wasn't as widely spoken as the opening line implies.  However, the report does raise some important points:

1. Opression can cause language loss:
• As the "language of the oppressors", the decline was accelerated by the revolution in China, when "Hundreds if not thousands of Manchu civilians" were "were massacred during the revolution by vengeful Han troops".  At the same time, many Manchu would have stopped speaking the language to avoid punishment.
2. Language death can lead to a loss of history, even in a literate society: 
• "2m out of 10m Qing documents in the country’s collection are written in Manchu."
3. Reporting on speaker numbers is difficult, the article states that Ms Zhao is one of the last two fluent speakers in her village.
• According to the article, " In 1979 there were 50 fluent speakers left"
• Ethnologue reports that there were 60 speakers in 1999,
• UNESCO Atlas gives a "compromise figure" of 10, with no date on that statistic.
4. Language revitalisation projects can be too late:
• "About six years ago Sanjiazi set up the country’s first Manchu school. But Ms Zhao does not think this will make much difference. The Manchu teachers, she says, do not understand her Manchu"

ELA on Today Programme

This morning's Today Programme, on BBC Radio 4, included an item on the Endangered Language Alliance.  The report stated that they are mostly working with the New York members of various diasporas, and included  interviews with speakers of three minority languages, Nahuatl, Shugni, and Circassian.

The brief summary given in the online timeline is:

"It is estimated that world languages are dying out at the rate of one every fortnight. This statistic has prompted a small group of linguists in New York to form the Endangered Language Alliance. Our reporter Matt Wells visited them at their field station in the middle of Manhattan, to see how they are trying to preserve minority voices from disappearing."

Programme: Avoiding Language Extinction

All words in Ninde start with N

In An Idiot Abroad, Series 2 Episode 1, "Desert Island", the protagonist spends a night alone on a small island in Vanuatu, after meeting with the residents of a nearby island for some instruction and cultural background.

The locals speak Ninde.  It is implied that all Ninde words begin with n, and a joke is made that games of I-Spy must be boring.

He also visits other communities in Vanuatu, (the Yaohnanen, and a community that practices Land Diving), but nothing is said about language there.

Berenstain Bears in Lakota

A new children's cartoon series, featuring the Berenstain Bears is to be aired in Lakota , called "Matho Waunsila Thiwahe" or "Compassionate Bear Family".

I first saw this article in the Dickinson Press in early August, but I've been waiting for it to break on a less local news source, and also to come to a site without a paywall. Four days ago, AP published the story, and as such has now spread to Time and CBS

The Age on Children's books

In Silly Stories with a serious message, Elisabeth Tarica reports on The Naked boy and the Crocodile, a book edited by children's author Andy Griffiths but comprised of "13 stories written and illustrated by children that he had met" travelling to remote communities in Australia.

She also comments on the low literacy rates amongst Indigenous Australian children, and also mentions the Book Buzz programme, under which, "popular picture books such as The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Dear Zoo and Where is the Green Sheep? are translated into local languages and supplied to preschoolers in remote communities." The project has "achieved amazing results because the books are translated into the Ngaanyatjarra language.

The article highlights the importance of literacy to the individual in "today's print-driven world", but makes no mention of the importance of written materials in the survival of a language in such a print-driven world, by maintaining the prestige of a language.

The Age: New chapter for ancient songbook

In New chapter for ancient songbook, Andrew Bock writes about The Song Peoples Sessions, a project to produce both archival material, and commercial releases of traditional and contemporary indigenous Australian musicians.

The article claims that "This is the first project to help contemporary indigenous musicians learn traditional language and record music with song people from their own families", and relates the stories of some of the musicians involved.

Languages mentioned: Yanyuwa, Warumungu

The Economist on the Berber Spring

In Springtime for them too?, The Economist reports on the "Berber renaissance taking place across north Africa", alongside the Arab Spring.

The article notes that "Moroccan Berber" has recently been recognised by the Government there. Ethnologue lists Five Berber languages spoken in Morocco: Ghomara, Tamazight (Central Atlas), Tachelhit, Senhaja de Srair, and Tachawit



It includes a short history of written Berber:

A written script for the various Berber dialects was created only in the 20th century. Algeria’s Kabyles, a Berber people said to number 4m, have usually preferred the Latin alphabet, whereas a Tuareg alphabet, called Tifinagh, is now officially used in Morocco and has been adopted by Libyan Berbers who were banned from using it under the colonel. (The Tuareg are nomadic Berber pastoralists living mainly in southern Algeria, eastern Mali and western Niger.)

Although, in the most part, it speaks of Berber Languages as a group, Tamazight is mentioned by name, referred to as: "Tamazight, the Berber tongue". In context, that phrase could be interpreted as having an implied "... spoken in Libya", but a casual reading might assume it is the Berber language. Although not identified as languages, the Tuareg and Kabyle people are also mentioned.

Crikey Reposts a Paradisec post.

In Deeply depressing news from the North – the slow death of bilingualism in remote Northern Territory schools, Bob Gosford reports on a post by Jane Simpson on the Endangered Langauges and Cultures blog, bringing the issue to a broader audience

Gosford states (about Simpson and her post):

She knows what she is talking about, so when she writes in such dramatic terms we should all sit back and listen.

ABC Reports on Indigenous translation of National Anthem

In Kutju Australia, our land is girt by red dust
, ABC reports on a new translation of the Australian National Anthem into Loritja Pintupi.

The translation was undertaken by "politician Alison Anderson and musician Ted Egan", "to increase awareness about the language of Australia's first people."

The article claims that it is the first translation in to an indigenous Australian language.

FastCompany reports on LiveAndTell

LiveAndTell, A Crowdsourced Quest To Save Native American Languages

FastCompany reports on the LiveAndTell Project. Originally set up "as an efficient, easy-to-use way to pass the Lakota Sioux language (and others) from older generations to younger ones", with a goal of "just lowering the barriers and the costs for everybody"; and described in the article as " an attempt to preserve endangered indigenous dialects such as Lakota and Ho Chunk"

The author comments that although there is plenty of learning material available in Spanish, French or German, "For Native American languages, there's a scarcity of learning materials,”. The article contrasts the organic, crowdsourcing nature of LiveAndTell with the scientific approach of Rosetta Stone.


Other projects mentioned in the article:

• Livemocha
• Rosetta Project
• Rosetta Stone Endangered Langueages Project

Al-Jazeera on Libyan Berbers

Al-Jazeera English reports on Amazigh speakers in Libya.



Although the language appears not to be endangered (Ethnologue reports the language to have at least 2,540,000 speakers in Algeria, and it isn't included on the UNESCO list, notably, ehtnologue does not list any speakers in Libya); this clip describes attempts by the Libyan Government to stamp it out, and a new radio station, newspaper, and school class in the language. All coming into existence since the recent uprising.

Breath of Life Project

In: UTA helps Native Americans learn to save own languages, The
Arlington Star Telegram Reports on the Breath of Life Program.

The program is "a joint effort by experts from the University of Texas at Arlington and the University of Oklahoma -- in which linguists mentor American Indians so they can better recover endangered languages."

According to the article, members of the Osage, Otoe and Natchez communities took part in the first workshop.

The project is modelled after a project of the same name at Berkeley

Language Activist recognised in Queen's Birthday Honours

Channel Nine: Language lover listed in Queen's honours

Arrernte elder, Veronica Mary Dobson has been appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for service to the indigenous community as a linguist, naturalist and ecologist.

Not only is it pertinent to this blog that she has been honoured in this way, but also that Channel Nine saw fit to create an article specifically about her receipt of the medal, rather than as a footnote in a larger Honours List article.

The Existential Problems of minority cultures.

The Australian: Speaking one's mother tongue is vital



Noel Pearson writes in The Australian on the existential problems of Indigenous Australians, and by extension, other minority cultures ("Where are the Livonians today?", and "The Swedes on the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea...under Russian or Soviet domination").

He makes particular mention of the Guugu Yimdhirr, to whom the author "belongs historically and linguistically, and through descent.", but also mentions the Yolngu.

He states that "Anglophones, such as non-indigenous Australians, have difficulty understanding the existential angst of small ethnicities." because "The English language and the Anglophone culture are the most powerful forces in history."

He ends with a plea:

If you don't know an indigenous Australian language, learn one. (People with no indigenous Australian family may learn the language of the area with which they have the strongest ties.) If you know an indigenous Australian language, improve your grasp of it; literacy in Australian languages is still rare.


Then speak it to the children. This is the noblest and worthiest cause for an Australian patriot.

Guardian: on the Kayapó people and the Belo Monte dam.

In The Brazilian tribe that played by our rules, and lost, Jacqueline Windh, writes for The Guardian on the effects of the proposed Belo Monte Dam on the Kayapó People.

The dam is planned to flood the Xingu River Basin, displacing the Kayapó. The Kayapó attempted to block the project by "launching petitions and protests, and engaging media and lawyers."

Notable features of the article

The issue is personalised. It is accompanied by a photograph of "Raoni Txucarramãe, chief of the Kayapó people", rather than simply "A Kayapó person".

Unlike many of the articles I have reported on so far, this article makes good use of links to reference sources. Linking to the wikipedia pages for Kayapo People and Yaghan People not only allows the reader to gain more in-depth information about the subject, it also makes it far easier to find out exactly who is being referred to, by disambiguating between groups with similar names, and providing a form of canonical identifier, where alternate spellings exist.

Rather than linking to Wikipedia when mentioning the Selk'nam People, they link to their empty review page for the book Drama and Power in a Hunting Society, a book about the Selk'nam.

Also Mentioned

The Selk'nam and Yaghan people (speakers of Ona and Yaghan, respectively).

Amondawa Time

Several sources report on Professor Chris Sinha's paper, When Time is not Space: The social and linguistic construction of time intervals
and temporal event relations in an Amazonian culture., which discusses the nature of the time as space metaphor in the Amondawa Language:

• PressTV: Tribe with no concept of time found
• BBC: Amondawa tribe lacks abstract idea of time, study says
  
• Sun: Time? What's that?
  Tribe has no dates or ages
  
• Telegraph: Amazonian tribe has no calendar and no concept of time
  
• Metro: Amazonian tribe discovered with no concept of time
  

Notable points:

• Both Metro and PressTV report the discovery of this tribe, rather than the analysis that they lack an abstract concept of time. This is contrary to The Sun's report that they were "first contacted by the outside world in 1986".
• PressTV independently refer to the Amondawa as a "Primitive Tribe"
• The Sun points out that "They have learned Portuguese and there are fears their own language is dying."
• Metro link this story to the story of the last two Ayapeneco Speakers
• The BBC Article also includes the views of Pierre Pica, (mentioned on this blog recently, regarding Mundurucu perceptions of Geometry)
• The BBC Article mentions that although they don't map events in time to passage through space, "When the Amondawa learn Portuguese ... they have no problem acquiring and using these mappings from the language."

Don't listen to us, go and do chores

A dance for the winds


Australian Geographic reports on a new work by dancer/choreographer Elma Kris.

What is interesting for this blog is that she mentions the nature of language use in her childhood home life:

When she was growing up her mother didn't speak much "language" as she calls Kalaw Lagaw Ya, the language of the western and central Torres Strait Islands, but would converse in Creole, a form of English. "The only time you got to see them talk language was when there was an event on the island or people coming to a celebration. My mother would always say to me, 'don't listen to us - go and do chores'."

This highlights one of the causes of language death. The reluctance to use a language around one's children, favouring a different language perceived to be more "useful" in some way. Whether it be more widely spoken or prestigious.

Geometry skills are innate, Amazon tribe study suggests

Geometry skills are innate, Amazon tribe study suggests

The BBC Reports on the study Flexible intuitions of Euclidean geometry in an Amazonian indigene group

The study investigates perceptions of geometry amongst Mundurucu speakers. The Mundurucu Language is notable in that its vocabulary of numbers stops at 5, and that words for higher numbers are approximate.

The article notes that, the Mundurucu participants outperformed their US & French counterparts in the study, when dealing with lines on the surface of a sphere. This is attributed to the prejudices of those educated in Euclidean Geometry.

This appears to be a follow-up of a study published in 2006, Core Knowledge of Geometry in an Amazonian Indigene Group by most of the same team.
which was reported on by National Geographic in 2006 (Amazon Children "Spontaneously" Understand Geometry)

Children's book aims to save dying Alaskan language

Children's book aims to save dying Alaskan language

The Guardian Reports on the Tlingit children's book Aanka Xóodzi ka Aasgutu Xóodzi Shkalneegi.

The book was originally written in English by Ernestine Hayes (Author of Blonde Indian: An Alaska Native Memoir, and translated. It was inspired by The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse.

The article mentions the challenges of "translating an oral language into text", and that first language Tlingit speakers are often literate in English, but not Tlingit.

According to the article, the translation appears to take a purist approach, stating that:

... there are no words for cars, bear-proof garbage cans, bird feeders or hamburgers in the pre-contact Tlingit language. With the story following the adventures of a forest bear visiting his relative in town, the translators had to find their way around these issues; the bears are chased through town in "the thing that drives around", for example.

Free copies are being provided to Alaskan schools, and an Audio version, read by elders, is due out soon.

At the time I write this, it is notable none of the Reader Comments on the Guardian post are negative.

Global Post reports on language death in Colombia

Colombia: Saving dying languages

Languages mentioned in the article include: the already extinct Tinigua (Ethnologue reports 2 speakers left, UNESCO, 1); and also Nasa, Uitoto, Embera and Wayuu, the four of which are taught at the National University.

This demonstrates some problems with printing language names without context. After reading the article, I could find no language called Nasa in Ethnologue or the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger. Embera is a family of six languages, 5 of which have Embera in their canonical name in Ethnologue, and two of which have an alternate name of simply "Embera". Uitoto, I surmise, may refer to either Minica Huitoto, or Murui Huitoto.

The article points out some of the causes of the demise of indigenous languages in the area: The "ongoing drug and guerrilla war", that has uprooted thousands of indigenous people; the prestige associated with Spanish, coming from pressure to assimilate; and that Spanish is the medium of education in any public schools not.

SIL activities in the area are also mentioned.

Elar's David Nathan writes for The Mark

Confronting the Mass Extinction of Languages.

David Nathan, Director of the Endangered Languages Archive, describes the discipline of Documentary Linguistics and its origins.

"Last Silent Movie" at Tate Britain

As part of the Susan Hiller retrospective at Tate Britain, her work "The Last Silent Movie" is on display.

The work consists of recordings of various endangered and extinct languages. Visually, an otherwise blank screen, displays subtitles translating the speech into English. Notably, the speaker of Khulkassi is not subtitled because no one can translate the lullaby she sings.

The Telegraph says that the piece

Takes the theme of extinction and memory and what remains of us when we die to its logical conclusion. For what we are listening to are the last speakers of extinct or endangered languages.

and the Independent states that

Hiller's film is like the voice of a ghost, speaking a dialect of the dead

and declares that one speaker's assertion that "We will speak Comanche forever." isn't true, because "only a handful of people now use the language, all of them old."

In their reviews of the retrospective, The Guardian, and the London Evening Standard do not mention this piece at all.

The languages used in the piece are:

• K'ora,
• Cajun French, 
• Xokleng, 
• Ngansan, 
• Manx, 
• Waima'a, 
• Klallam, 
• Lower Sorbian, 
• Silbo Gomero (Listed on Ethnologue as a dialect of Spanish),
• Jerrais (Listed on Ethnologue as a dialect of French)
• Livonian, 
• Lenape, 
• Southern Sami, 
• Ngarrindjeri, 
• Potowatomi, 
• Border Cuna,
• Wampanoag, 
• Kulkhassi, (Extinct since before Ethnologue/ISO 639)
• Yao Kimmien, 
• Welsh Romany, 
• Ubykh, 
• Kolyma Yukaghir, 
• Jiwarli,
• Comanche.
• Blackfoot

The full credits are listed in the article: Translating Death.

Various papers report on the last two Ayapaneco speakers

Various papers report that the last two fluent speakers of Ayapeneco, refuse to speak to each other.

They all report on an Indiana University project to create a dictionary, and also the National Indigenous Language Institute attempts to set up classes in the language.

In Only two people speak dying language Ayapaneco – but refuse to talk, The Metro calls this a "last-ditch attempt to protect the language".

In Language spoken by only two people dying out as they won't talk to each other, The Telegraph states that "previous efforts have failed to lead to an upsurge in speakers".

The Age, chooses a play on words for the headline. Duo's Mexican standoff bodes ill for language on verge of extinction

The Guardian goes on to list five more languages from around the world, that are on the brink of extinction:
Ter Sami, Kayardild, Lengilu, Mabire, and Tehuelche.

The Metro also mentions an unrelated project: Indigenoustweets.com, that "logs global tweets in 68 languages, including Kreyòl ayisyen and Gamilaaray.".

PC Mag reports on Google Cherokee

Google Search, Now in Cherokee Language


PC Mag reports on Google's new Cherokee interface

The interface also supports input of Cherokee Syllabics through an on-screen keyboard.

The report includes a quote from Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chad Smith:

"We have been working hard to get our young people interested in learning our Native tongue but we cannot be successful unless they can read and write in the medium of their era – all the digital devices that are currently so popular."

Language decline as model for decline in religious affiliation

A report about the decline in religious affiliation, Religion may become extinct in nine nations, study says, compares that decline to the decline in use of lesser-spoken languages.

One of the team, Daniel Abrams of Northwestern University, put forth a similar model in 2003 to put a numerical basis behind the decline of lesser-spoken world languages.

At its heart is the competition between speakers of different languages, and the "utility" of speaking one instead of another.

"The idea is pretty simple," said Richard Wiener of the Research Corporation for Science Advancement, and the University of Arizona.

"It posits that social groups that have more members are going to be more attractive to join, and it posits that social groups have a social status or utility.

"For example in languages, there can be greater utility or status in speaking Spanish instead of [the dying language] Quechuan in Peru, and similarly there's some kind of status or utility in being a member of a religion or not."

Wired reports on British Library "Playtimes" project - Includes songs in endangered languages

British Library documents a century of playtime

Wired magazine reports on the new British Library microsite, documenting children's games and rhymes since 1900.

The article mentions that the collection contains content in Warumungu and Mutpurra. "Eritrean" is also listed in the article as one of the languages in the archive.

The British Library site itself, mentions "games in Norwegian and Eritrean languages (recorded Norway 2002)", which suggests that this content was recorded from Eritrean immigrants in Norway (speaking whichever eritrean language those children use), and that native languages of Norway other than Norwegian may be included.

NRK Reports on Ainu after the Fukushima explosion

We are surprised that this could happen

In the wake of the recent tsunami, and the explosions at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant, Norwegian national broadcaster, NRK, interviews Shiro Kayano, leader of the World Indigenous People's Network AINU (WIN-AINU).

The broadcaster states that "So far, there have been no reports that any Ainu have been affected by the catastrophe" ("Det er foreløpig ingen rapporter om at ainuer har blitt rammet av katastrofen").

Dance act features endangered language recordings

Elisa Monte Dance season at the Joyce Theatre

The Elisa Monte Dance Company are presenting a production entitled "Dialogue with Vanishing Languages", featuring recordings of speakers of endangered languages.

According to this article on broadwayworld.com, the featured languages include Quileute, Dalabon, Jawoyn and Hokkaido Ainu

A trailer for the show, including some audio from the performance, is available on Youtube:

ABC reports on language survival in South Australia

The soon to be lost languages of our Indigenous cultures


ABC reports on a five year project at the University of Adelaide, tracking the survival rates of several indigenous languages.

Pitjantjatjarra and Yankunytjatjara, are reported as being the two dominant indigenous languages of South Australia, with others being "severely endangered".

The article states that generational attitudes and relocation are leading to languages not being passed on to younger generations, and that most of the interviewees involved in the study primarily speak English.

A positive point mentioned in the article is that a sense of ancestral pride and heritage, along with a sense of language ownership and "a wish to continue dialect preservations through non-governmental agencies."

It is interesting to note that, despite the assertion by one interviewee in the university's report that

"It is everybody‟s responsibility to keep Indigenous language alive, by supporting the teaching of it in schools. And acknowledging that they are languages in their own right and not dialects."

The word dialect appears three times in the ABC article, in reference to indigenous languages. However, this could be interpreted as a stylistic effect, driven by the appearance of the word language in about half of the paragraphs.

Also included is a link to the full report delivered to the Office for the Arts (http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/201103/r728637_5853358.pdf)

Mind your language! Save dying 100

Mind your language! Save dying 100 - HRD ministry plans rescue effort in schools & varsities

Telegraph India reports on the upcoming launch of a programme to "save over 100 Indian languages that are fast vanishing"

Various initiatives are mentioned - including

• The foundation of departments in universities, with the intent that these departments will set up libraries and museums
• The teaching of these languages at primary schools
• The preparation of  Roman and Devanagari instructional material for unwritten languages.

Guardian: Half of living languages face extinction

Half of living languages face extinction

The Guardian reports on Cambridge University's World Oral Literature Project

The article mentions that Gamilaraay and Southern Pomo still have speakers, but Laghu and Old Kentish Sign Language haven't.

Mark Turin gives an overview of the project and its history, stating that, although it is only updated by academics at the moment, he hopes that in the future, it will become a "Wikipedia-style web 2.0 project"

Mention is made of major collections that have been, or could be lost, having been stored in personal collections rather than archived. Turin tells story of Reverend John Whitehorn, who donated tapes that he had been keeping at home since the 1950s, after the Cambridge Museum of Anthropology accepted artefacts he donated, but didn't know what to do with his recordings.

Digital Love Letter to a Dying Language

A Digital Love Letter to a Dying Language


It's International Mother Language Day today, and Nataly Kelly writes about Irish in the Huffington Post.

She quotes David Harrison in highlighting the crucial nature of young speakers in maintaining the vitality of a language, and mentions how technology may help in the prevention of language loss.

New Project to preserve Wirangu

"AN Aboriginal community risks losing its language because too much emphasis is placed on Pitjantjatjara."


The South Australia Sunday Mail reports on a new three year project to "preserve and regenerate" the critically endangered local language Wirangu. The article states that one of the causes for endangerment is a focus on Pitjantjatjara in schools, and states that Wirangu only has two fluent speakers left.

A language dies every two weeks

A language dies every two weeks

Swiss Newspaper 20 Minuten reports on language loss, ahead of the upcoming "International Mother Language Day".

The article tells that the 2010 update to UNESCO's Atlas of endangered languages mentions 230 languages that have disappeared since 1950, and 572 "Acutely threatened" languages in the Americas, Southeast Asia, Oceania and Africa.

On a local level, the article highlights the 8 languages of Switzerland that are in the UNESCO Atlas: Franc-Comtois (which ethnologue refers to as a dialect of French), Romansh, Francoprovençal, Lombard, and Bavarian, as well as Yiddish and Romani.

The vulnerable lives of Bengal's Birhor tribals

A report in the India News Post about the effect of poor health and deforestation on Birhors in West Bengal.

The Birhor Language is Critically Endangered, with 2000 speakers, according to UNESCO estimates, or 10000 according to Ethnologue.

The Independent reports that there are > 100 uncontacted tribes in the world

In 2011, there are 100 uncontacted tribes worldwide


Following the publication of a photo of a group of people in the Brazilian Amazon, The Independent reports that there an estimated 100 isolated tribes worldwide. The report concentrates on the Amazon, and highlights the risks posed by gold miners and oil exploration in the area.

Rosetta Stone Inupiaq

Alaska natives team with Rosetta Stone

The Seattle Times reports that the North Slope Inupiaq version of Rosetta Stone language learning software is to be released in Spring.

The article comments on the state of Alaskan Languages, mentioning that only Inupiaq and Central Yup'ik have over 1000 speakers. And that Eyak is now extinct. It offers a poor prognosis for Inupiaq, stating that children are brought up in English Only Households.

The article also describes the distribution model of the software, with 800 free copies already having been distributed, and that 150 have been sold.

Another project from the Rosetta Stone Endangered Languages Programme has been mentioned in this blog: Rosetta Stone Navajo

QI Column mentions last speakers

QI: QI goes off on one

A column of interesting facts about the number 1, contains an entry on last speakers.

The current last speakers of Yaghan and Kaixána are mentioned. The article also mentions the last native speaker of Cornish, prior to its revival