You will soon be able to prevent endangered languages from extinction right from your home computer.
Benjamin Tucker, a graduate student from the University of Arizona, is developing a new Web site that helps children and adults to learn tribal languages phonetically.
Tucker presented his linguistics research at the second annual Conference on Endangered Languages and Cultures of Native America last Friday in the Officer’s Club.
Tucker created an interactive dictionary in which people can read and hear the tribal language Mohave at the same time.
“I was saddened by the fact that there are only 30 remaining Mohave speakers left at a local Indian tribe in Colorado,” he said. “So I decided to do something about it.”
Lyle Campbell, director of the Center for American Indian Language, is encouraging Tucker to develop his teaching materials because he doesn’t want languages to disappear.
“People are really worried that certain languages are becoming extinct,” Campbell said. “Particularly, tribal members are concerned because, once they lose their language, they lose their culture.”
Campbell said that out of the 135 native tribal languages spoken in the United States, more than half of them are going disappear in the next century.
Only 20 of the tribal languages have children actively learning them, so documents that revitalize them faster are in desperate need, Campbell said.
Victor Golla, professor of ethnic studies at Humboldt State University, delivered the keynote address at the conference and said that proper documentation is vital to keep cultures alive.
“Literature is crucial because it contains an entire tribe’s rituals, myths, beliefs and social organizations,” Golla said. “If we don’t document them, we are doomed.”
Tucker’s Web site is still in development stages. More information can be found at www.arizona.com.