I am currently trying to recall my cupla focal of Gaelic, so when I read Manchan Magan's article in The Irish Times, Can you bring a language back from the dead?
I was moved to write something.
https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/heritage/can-you-bring-a-language-back-from-the-dead-1.3159014
They are on the brink
Mandaic, Champorro, Kashubian, Bukhari
Half of the world's languages
Stranded in a rock pool
Tongues culled
for the sake of:
Imperialism
Colonialism
Market Expansion
Monocultures
UNLESS
They are rescued by some language activist
Some Jessie Little Doe Baird
who revived Wampanoag from documents that survived its extinction
giving it an after life.
"It's a matter of justice," he says
This global salvaging:
of Diversity
of Folklore
of History
of Memory
Copyright with Cathy Leonard 2017
Interesting, though, that sometimes the coloniser's language disappears over time, like Latin! Languages live and languages die.
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