<
https://endangeredlanguages.com/story/response-sometimes-its-ok-let-language-die>
"The
New Yorker has chosen to publish a review of
How to Kill a Language,
“Sometimes It’s O.K. to Let a Language Die,” which shows a profound
misunderstanding of language revitalization, while also perpetuating the very
narratives designed to eradicate languages and their speakers.
As a group of Indigenous language revitalization practitioners, scholars,
advocates, and allies, we are intimately familiar with these narratives about
Indigenous and endangered languages. They have not changed very much in
centuries. These discourses need to shift – it is long past time. We feel a
responsibility to speak back when these colonizing narratives surface yet again
in such prominent venues. This is especially important when people with no
connection to Indigenous or endangered languages, like writer Nikhil Krishnan,
position themselves, or an unspecified audience of
New Yorker readers and
non-Indigenous policymakers, as having authority to speak for us and our
choices.
We choose to respond by voicing our own truths about the survival and
reclaiming of our languages: this is the story of an incredible global movement
of people protecting what is important to them, against all odds. It is a story
of human persistence, endurance, and love for our languages and communities."
Via Rod Mesa and Christoph S.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
