Abstract
For centuries our languages have been a reflection of those cultural distinctions that have made us who we are as a people. In a sense they have been part of the many things that have made us strong. Though we have survived centuries of contact and conflict, today we are faced with a crisis that is perhaps more significant than any we have ever faced in our histories. It is a crisis of language loss, and this crisis has reached epidemic proportions, and if we are not able to effectively pass our languages on to our youth, by the year 2025 we could witness the loss of as much as 80% of the Indian languages that are still presently spoken. This paper will share one person's eighteen years of experience fighting for Indigenous languages.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 193-203 |
Number of pages | 11 |
Journal | Canadian Journal of Native Studies |
Volume | 31 |
Issue number | 1 |
State | Published - 2011 |