Imelda Perley1 Cultural Social Economical Political

Imelda Perley2 Spiritual Emotional Physical Mental

Imelda Perley3 Listening Speaking Writing Reading Literacy Oracy

Imelda Perley4 Linguicide  When people make the conscious decision to stop using their language or not to pass it on to their children  One of the characteristics of gradual death is when the younger generation are more proficient in the dominant language and learn the obsolescing language imperfectly if at all.  The degree of language loss can be affected by our response to the threat  Unlike the normal idea of an archive which continues to exist long after the archivist has died, the moment the last speaker dies, the archive disappears forever.

Imelda Perley5 Language Death  When a language dies which has never been recorded in some way, it is as if it has never been..  A language is saved when recorded as “it lives on” but needs fluent speakers to be a “living language”  When a language dies, the world it described is dismantled too, place name by place name, custom by custom, saga by sage...  A nation without language is a nation without heart  Preservation is what we do to berries, salmon in cans, books and recordings can save a language but only people and communities can keep them alive.

Imelda Perley6 What Do We Lose When We Lose A Language? We lose our culture We lose our greetings We lose our praises We lose our laws We lose our songs We lose our cures We lose our legends We lose our prayers We lose our wisdom We lose our way of life...( Fishman)

Imelda Perley7 Why Should We Care about Language Death?  Because we need diversity  Because languages express identity  Because languages are repositories of history  Because languages contribute to the sum of human knowledge  Because languages are interesting

Imelda Perley8 Green Linguistics The diversity of living things is apparently correlated with stability, variety may be a necessity in the evolution of natural systems in its applications to human development A native language is like a natural resource which cannot be replaced once it is removed from the earth Each language constitutes a certain model of the universe, a system of understanding the world. If we have 4000 ways to describe the world, this makes us rich. We should be concerned about preserving languages just as we are about ecology.

Imelda Perley9 Worldviews on Language One story does not make a worldview, a worldview emerges through the accumulation of many stories from a community, its myths, legends, its account of traditions and practices, and a vast amount of cultural knowledge which is all summed up as “heritage”. What would happen to Creator’s law if the robin couldn’t sing its song anymore? We would feel bad, we would understand that something snapped in nature’s law. What would happen if you saw a robin and you heard a different song? If it was singing the song of a seagull?

Imelda Perley10 Worldview on Language You would say “ robin that is not your language, that is not your song” It was not meant for us to lose our languages; we broke the cycle and today we have nothing to stand on if our languages are going to die...Elder Mitchell Wolasuweltomuwakon Nuhkomossok naka Nmuhsumsok Woliwon ‘ciw latuwewakon Kisi Monuwehkiyeq ‘ciw nilun Nilun oc tokec, nuleyutomonen ‘Ciw weckuwapasihtit. Nit Leyic

Imelda Perley11 Language Honour Code Grandmothers and Grandfathers Thank You for the Language That you have saved for us, It is now our turn to save it For the ones who are not yet born. May that be the truth! Opolahsomuwehs 94