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CASAVARIA TO PUBLISH BOOK II OF DON QUIJOTE, IN SPANISH Casavaria Publishing, which publishes Sentido.tv, is soon to release part two, or book II of El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha, by Miguel de Cervantes. Part I was published earlier this year in commemoration of the 400th anniversary of its initial publication, and of four centuries of amazing worldwide success. [Full Story] |
SABORES PERDIDOS: 3.500 IDIOMAS EN VÍAS DE EXTINCIÓN Si las tendencias actuales se realizan, en menos de un siglo, más de 3.500, la mitad de todos los idiomas actualmente hablados, desaparecerán. La civilización humana está enfrentando el momento de mayor peligro para las culturas más locales y periféricas, y será necesario tomar en cuenta lo que se va a perder en este proceso de purgación involuntaria y extinción. El chauvinismo de las grandes culturas puede ser un accidente histórico más que chauvinismo, pero su peso es innegable, y hemos de comparar lo que pueden ser las luchas históricas que ocurren en lugares como Catalunya, donde un idioma con más de 10 millones de parlantes nativos se ha visto en ciertos momentos amenazado por la ignorancia y la persecución. Es necesario pensar qué es lo que busca una cultura en la debilidad de otra, por qué no puedcn coexistir muchos idiomas no sólo en una sola persona, sino en un lugar y en un momento, solapados y sanos. [Siga leyendo...] WORLD'S LANGUAGES DISAPPEARING AT ALARMING RATEHALF OF ALL KNOWN LANGUAGES MAY DISAPPEAR BY 2100 6 October 2006 The world's three most widely-spoken languages, English, Spanish and Mandarin, each enjoy more than 450 million speakers worldwide. These languages are increasingly useful for international business and for diplomacy in an interconnected global society. But languages with fewer than 10 million speakers are now considered "minor" and many long-standing cultures are in danger of disappearing, as only a handful of people remain who can speak them. [Full Story] THE ILLUSION OF THE DEFINITE & INVASIVE 'OTHER' The identity of groups, or for that matter of individuals is not implacable, nor is it absolutely relative. It follows the vicissitudes of the human health and mind, and requires sincere dialogue with the other in order to reach its fullest potential. The push to establish a single national language can only be sustained on the basis of a number of false premises, all of which work against the interests of both a democratic society and American tradition itself. [Full Story] Brazil has launched the world's first museum devoted solely to the history and evolution of a language: Portuguese, the national language since the colonial era and independence. The museum is located in the Station of Light, a train facility built by the British at the turn of the 20th century, and a national architectural landmark. [Full Story] CATALÁN SUPREME COURT RULES GOVERN MUST PROVIDE BILINGUAL INSTRUCTION For the 3rd time over the span of roughly 1 year, the Supreme Court of Catalunya has ruled that the Generalitat must provide bilingual instruction —the option to study in Castilian instead of Catalán— at least until the age of 8 in primary schools. [Full Story] POLITICS OF LANGUAGE IN DIVERSE SPAIN Spain's opposition PP has accused the regional government of Catalunya of "investigating, inspecting and sanctioning" businesses that put signs exclusively in Castilian (the language commonly known as "Spanish", though it originates in the central Spanish region of Castile, and other regions use other languages), according to La Vanguardia newspaper. [Full Story] TWO LINGUISTS STAND AS LAST BASTION OF FADING CALIFORNIA LANGUAGE MotherJones reports this month that the 82-year-old linguist, William Shipley, is one of the last handful of speakers of Mountain Maidu, a language spoken by aboriginal Californians. He is passing his knowledge of the language to a young "protégé", who is actually of Maidu descent and seeks to return the language to use among his people. Shipley has devoted many years of his life to the study and propagation of knowledge about Maidu. According to Dashka Slater's report, "He developed a system for writing the language and has published a grammar, a dictionary, and a lyrical translation of Maidu myths and stories. He is now one of the last living speakers of the language... [Full Story] LANGUAGES ENDANGERED WORLDWIDE As many as half of all known languages may die out during the next century. That figure is already staggering, but paired with the estimate of 6,800 believed to be spoken today, it represents a looming cultural catastrophe. In a world where languages with less than 10 million speakers are considered to be "minor" or "obscure" languages by many people, the world's native and regional languages are threatened. 154 native languages still spoken in North America, compared with the estimated 300 which would have been spoken 500 years ago. When languages are lost, the cultural fabric of a people or a continent can shift dramatically. Daniel Everett, of the University of Manchester, describes this loss in his report "From Threatened Languages to
In such a climate of community breakdown, the larger cultural fabric also suffers this loss of overall coherence, along with the loss of language-specific concepts, philosophies and solutions. [Full Story] MULTILINGUAL SOCIETIES SHOW NEW DYNAMISM Both North America and Europe are becoming increasingly mixed societies, drawing from large pools of legal and illegal immigrants, many of whom are migrating to countries whose predominant language they themselves do not speak. The US, for example, is the world's fifth largest Spanish-speaking country, with some 35 to 40 million native speakers. In New York City, more than half of all residents speak a language other than English in their homes. [Full Story] | ||||||||||||||||||||
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