How we can protect languages which are about to vanish?

Answer 1

Encourage other people to learn them despite oppression. So far it's worked for Irish Gaelic.

It also makes sense to have people who live in another region learn the language. That way if the culture gets wiped out in the native region, people elsewhere know it.

Answer 2

If a language is about to vanish that means that it is only spoken by a few older people. There is really little that can be done. The ONLY way for a language to survive is if children are learning it. Many of the languages that will go extinct in the next 50 years are spoken by very small ethnic groups. The problem is that the parents' generation does not speak the language, only the grandparents' generation. If a child's parents do not speak a particular language, the child will not learn it. Unfortunately, many of these languages belong to communities that are economically depressed and the parents' generation sees the ancestral language as a disadvantage. Children are economically better off if they learn the dominant language in the eyes of the parents. Therefore, there is both the fact that the children have no input in order to learn the language as well as the active interest of the parents in the child NOT learning that language.

Answer 3

Force everyone who speaks such a language to adopt three infants and raise them unilingually in that language.

Less draconian, more protective measures can be taken to protect languages which are "at risk" of vanishing, including teaching them in schools (better yet preschools).

Answer 4

if parents want their children to continue a language they will speak to their children in that language. but if they see possessing a minority language as a social and economic disadvantage then they will encourage their children to use only the high status language in their community.

my maternal great-grandparents raised my grandmother to speak only english (though they themselves were welsh / english bilingual) which is why i grew up speaking only english.

at the time (1900s) it probably seemed a good idea. the net result is that i needed to learn welsh as an adult.

but finally only the speakers of a language have the ability to meaningfully propagate it - and only they have the right to choose whether to do so.

the eu fabula project sponsors and develops subsidised learning materials for several european minority languages. i think this kind of passive fostering can usually be justified - but i would be very distrustful of any more pro-active intervention in rights that pertain properly to the original speakers of a language, and to them only.

Answer 5

Make a "Rosetta Stone"-like tablet or book or something, translating the same story into several different languages. Make it of some material that is sturdy and will last a long time.

Answer 6

you can always enroll your child in sunday school or something that is mainly teach by your own languages. encourage them to speak english (american) school and have them speaking their birth languages at home only. the best thing is to teach them both languages when they are young.

Answer 7

by getting the languages from those that still speak or write it and put it down on paper and voice tape.

Answer 8

lol like html coding?

Answer 9

you can't unless you get back on your boats and leave.

Answer 10

Such as?