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Término:  



La torre de Babel se desmorona (The tower of Babel is crumbling)


She is the last known speaker(hablante) of Eyak, a language native to Alaska and one that is expected to become extinct(extinguirse) when the 83-year-old Smith passes away(muera).  "It's horrible to be alone," she told The Associated Press on Monday. "I have a lot of friends. I have all kinds of children yet(pero, sin embargo) I have no one to speak to(nadie con quien hablar)" in Eyak. Eyak isn't the only language with a grim(sombrío) future. Among the world's 6,800 tongues(lenguas), half to 90 percent could become extinct by the end of the century, linguists predict. One reason is because half of all languages are spoken by fewer than(menos de) 2,500 people each, according to(según) the Worldwatch Institute, a private organization that monitors(controla) global trends(tendencias).

Languages need at least
(por lo menos) 100,000 speakers to survive the ages, says UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. War and genocide, natural disasters, the adoption of more dominant languages such as Chinese and Russian, and government bans(prohibiciones) on language also contribute to their demise(desaparición, fallecimiento). "In some ways it's similar to what threatens(amenaza) species," said Payal Sampat, a Worldwatch researcher(investigador) who wrote about the issue(tema) for the institute's May-June magazine.

Udihe and Arikapu, spoken in Siberia and the Amazon jungle, are among the endangered tongues
(lenguas en peligro). About 100 people speak Udihe, and Arikapu is down(se ha reducido) to its last six speakers, Worldwatch says. Linguists also confirm that Smith is the last known speaker of Eyak. It's becoming a struggle(lucha, esfuerzo), too, to find many who can say "thank you" in the Navajo language of the American Indian tribe (ahehee), or state proudly(con orgullo) in Cornish: "Me na vyn cows Sawsnak!" (I will not speak English!)

The losses
(murmullos) ripple(ondear) far beyond(mucho más allá de) the affected communities. When a language dies, linguists, anthropologists and others lose rich sources(fuentes) of material for their work documenting a people's history, finding out(averiguando) what they knew and tracking(rastreando) their movements. And the world, linguistically speaking, becomes less diverse(diverso).

In January, an earthquake
(terremoto) in western India killed an estimated 30,000 speakers of Kutchi, leaving about 770,000. Manx, from the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea, disappeared in 1974 when its last speaker died. In 1992, a Turkish farmer's passing(desaparición) marked the end of Ubykh, a language from the Caucasus region with the most consonants on record, 81.

Eight countries account for
(contabilizan, representan) more than half of all languages. They are, in order: Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Nigeria, India, Mexico, Cameroon, Australia and Brazil. That languages die isn't new; thousands are believed to have disappeared already. "The distinguishing thing(causa diferenciadora) is it's happening at such an alarming rate(promedio alarmante) right now(ahora mismo)," said Megan Crowhurst, chairwoman(presidenta) of the Linguistic Society of America's endangered languages committee.

Linguists believe 3,400 to 6,120 languages could become extinct by 2100, a statistic much grimmer
(sombría) than the common estimate of about one language death(muerte) every two weeks. But some languages are coming back from the dead(regresando de la muerte), so to speak(para hablar).

In 1983, Hawaiians created 'Aha Punana Leo to reintroduce their native language throughout
(por todo el estado) the state, including its public schools. Hawaiian nearly became extinct after the United States banned schools from teaching students in the language after annexing(anexar) the country in 1898. 'Aha Punana Leo, which means "language nest(nido)," opened Hawaiian-language preschools in 1984, followed by secondary schools that produced their first Hawaiian-taught graduates in 1999. Some 7,000 to 10,000 Hawaiians currently(actualmente) speak their native tongue, up from fewer than 1,000 in 1983, said Luahiwa Namahoe, the organization's spokeswoman(portavoz). "We just want Hawaiian back where she belongs," Namahoe explained. "If you can't speak it here, where will you speak it?"

Elsewhere
(en otras partes), efforts(esfuerzos) are under way to revive Cornish, the language of Cornwall, England, that is believed to have died around 1777, as well as ancient Mayan languages in Mexico.

Hebrew(hebreo) evolved(evolucionó) in the last century from a written language into Israel's national tongue, spoken by 5 million people. Other initiatives hope to revive(reactivar) Welsh, Navajo, Maori and several languages native to Botswana.

Governments can help by removing bans
(eliminado prohibiciones) on languages, and children should be encouraged to speak other languages in addition to their native tongues, said Worldwatch's Sampat, who is fluent(habla con fluidez en) in French and Spanish and grew up(creció) speaking the Indian languages of Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati and Kutchi.
 

 
 
Fuente: http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,44631,00.html

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