r/endangeredlanguages

my native regional language in northern italy, present in the city of Bologna, is part of Gallo-italic languages, particoulary of Emiliano group, counts between 17-20 vocal letters, and has a very complex artificial writing system that varies for each town.

“Tótt i èser umàn i nâsen lébber e prezîṡ in dgnitè e dirétt. I an la raṡån e la cusiänza e i s an da cunpurtèr ón con cl èter cunpâgna di bón fradî.”

(Universal declaration of human rights in bolognese)

the language varies a lot inside the city and outside, in nearby villages, changhing pronunciation and vocaboulary

the language now counts around 60000-100000 speakers, depending on the fluency rate; but mostly are people over 40/50.

> Between 2016 and 2021, several Indigenous languages in Canada showed measurable growth in the number of conversational speakers. These include Inuktitut, Mi’kmaq, Atikamekw, Blackfoot, Mohawk, Squamish, Heiltsuk, Haisla, Cayuga, Ktunaxa, and Tsuu T’ina, among others.

basically title. as in any archives or anything that may preserve them, and have some audios/stories in an endangered language. thanks so much!

Here is a little rant from a 4th generation American living in the midwest.

Personally I think the schools should be encouraging these languages vs the big ones.  English, French, German and Spanish will be around for a while.  The others are less likely because there seems to be little interest from people in minority languages when everything these days is economically driven.  But the school system can change that.  By making them a prerequisite the way they have been with the mentioned more established languages.   The whole point of requiring a foreign language was based on cultural literacy (the liberal arts ideal), a broadening perspectives.   Learning another language was seen as a primary vehicle for understanding different worldviews, historical traditions, and social structures.

In the past perhaps the problem is finding teachers that can teach the smaller languages.  But with online classes these days they can do this virtually.

The way I see it, most of the midwest is pretty boring here.  It's only about 175 years old in terms of starting to become well populated and buildings and such going up. 

Native/indigenous Americans where here for a long time. And sadly even less of their culture is around today other than a lot of place names that have a morphed version of their spelling mixed with French and English. Fortunately they have had support from the government to document their language. I am referring to the substantial European arrival influx that occurred about 175 years ago. Germans, Scandinavians, Polish, Belgians, Dutch, etc. The bulk of the physical culture that remains today is from them. Yet their languages are nearly non existent here today.

When you look at Europe where people have lived for a very long time, and you'll see some really old pieces of history like castles and such.

The one thing we could have kept here in America as living history was the languages all the people brought.. but we dropped that culture ball in favor of a default language. :-(  One not ever decreed by the government, but more or less pushed unto everyone by the school systems.

I'd like to see them change their tune.