endangered languages

Update from Busuu.com

Wow! More interesting news just came in from the folks at Busuu! They've done something, well, unprecedented as far as the Free Language team can tell: they've added an endangered language called Silbo Gomero to be learned right through their website!

This language is not spoken, but whistled (silbar = to whistle in Spanish), and is used by the people of Gomera, one of the Canary Islands off Spain, to communicate between long distances and over rough terrain. How cool is that!

Check out this video from Busuu about this fascinating language:

From Website

Become a Silbador!

The existence of the whistled language of Silbo Gomero on the beautiful Spanish island of La Gomera has for years fascinated linguists and language enthusiasts alike.

Silbo Gomero was invented in order to facilitate communication between the people of the island across the deep gorges and valleys long before mobile phones were invented. The tradition continues even now with the local government including it in the educational system of the island.

Learn Silbo Gomero at Busuu.com

Summary

The Linguist List, from Eastern Michigan University, has an amazing list of language links that just couldn't go unmentioned. Included are links regarding linguistics, endangered languages, natural languages, constructed languages (conlangs), writing systems, language meta-sites and language families.

From Website

This area of the LINGUIST list contains information on languages and language families, plus links to websites devoted to natural and constructed languages, to writing systems, and to language resources, e.g., dictionaries.

Visit LinguistList.org Language Links

Got an email the other day from the person that runs the Save Tanii Website. Tanii is an endangered minority ethnic language of the Apatani people of the Ziro plateau in the Lower Subsansiri district in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh.

Here is an excerpt from the Save Tanii website:

During the last 50 years, tremendous change in culture, custom and tradition has taken place on Ziro plateau. Today the last serious point of modernization is that the young Tanii (Apatani) generation is not anymore able to understand its own tradition, nor the terms or words quoted in our heritage language. Let us save Tanii culture, let us teach and learn Tanii language.

It is, indeed, a sad thing to lose a language. I wish the best to this project and hope that it succeeds in bringing some attention to the language and culture of the Apatani people.