FOUNDATION)FOR)ENDANGERED)LANGUAGES) ! ! ! OGMIOS ! ! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !! ! An#ancient#model#in#gold#of#the#raft#which#carried#the#Chibcha#zipa#to#his#inauguration## in#the#waters#of#the#circular#lake#at#Guatavita,#north#of#Bogotá.#This#ritual#was#the#substance#behind#the# legend#of#El'Dorado,#the#Gilded#One,#which#so#drew#Spaniards#(and#Englishmen)#into#South#America#in# the#16th#century.#The#last#zipa,#Sagipa,#was#deposed#and#killed#in#1538#by#the#Spanish#conquistador,# Gonzalo#Jiménez#de#Quesada.#The#Chibcha#language#was#the#adopted#as#a#lengua'general#for#the#new# Spanish#dominion,#the#Nuevo'Reino'de'Granada.#Chibcha’s#subsequent#career,#and#present#prospects# for#revival#are#discussed#in#an#article#by#Nicholas#Ostler#and#Facundo#Saravia.## ! OGMIOS)Newsletter)51:)—)31)August)2013) ISSN)1471A0382))))))Editor:)Christopher)Moseley) ) ) Published*by:* Foundation!for!Endangered!Languages,! 172!Bailbrook!Lane,!! Bath!BA1!7AA,!England! * 2 ) OGMIOS)Newsletter)51) )31)August))2013* ) ! )Contact*the*Editor*at:* Assistant)Editor:) ) Christopher!Moseley,! ) )))))))))Adriano)Truscott)) 9!Westdene!Crescent,! Contributing)Editors:)) ) ) ) Roger)Blench,)Joseph)Blythe),)Serena) Caversham!Heights,! D’Agostino,)Christopher)Hadfield,)Francis)M)Hult,)Nicholas) Reading!RG4!7HD,!England! Ostler,)Andrea)Ritter.* * ! 1.! Editorial! 3! New!dictionary!preserves!fading!Mien!language! and!culture!.........................................................................!16! 2.! Development!of!the!Foundation! 3! Zimbabwe:!mother!languages!and!identity!........!17! FEL!XVII:!Ottawa!2013:!Endangered!Languages! Manx:!Bringing!a!language!back!from!the!dead!17! Beyond!Boundaries!..........................................................!3! Mexican!Constitution!to!be!translated!into!10! Annual!General!Meeting!2013!......................................!3! indigenous!languages!....................................................!18! 3.! The!Chibcha!language:!Discovery!to!Recovery Iranian!Kurdistan:!Restriction!on!use!of!minority! ! 4! languages!............................................................................!18! Discovery!of!Chibcha!and!the!Muysca!.......................!4! 5.! Appeals,!News!and!Views!from!Endangered! Chibcha!as!a!Lingua!Franca!............................................!5! Communities! 18! Documentation!of!Chibcha!.............................................!5! Petition!to!save!Australia’s!Aboriginal!cultural! Decline!of!Chibcha!..............................................................!5! heritage!sites!.....................................................................!18! Location!of!the!Muysca!.....................................................!5! Frisian!dialects!in!the!World&of&Languages!..........!18! Related!peoples!...................................................................!6! Declaration!in!relation!to!the!political!offensive! Chibcha!Literature!..............................................................!6! against!the!use!of!Catalan!by!the!authorities!of! the!Kingdom!of!Spain!....................................................!19! New!Life?!................................................................................!7! Judeo`Spanish!(Ladino)!to!be!taught!at!University! Modern!studies!....................................................................!8! College!London!.................................................................!20! Conclusion!..............................................................................!8! New!technology:!a!lifeline!for!endangered! 4.! Endangered!Languages!in!the!News! 9! languages!............................................................................!21! Switzerland’s!fourth!language!under!pressure!.....!9! 6.! Obituaries! 21! Livonian!language!dies!..................................................!10! Last!native!speaker!of!Livonian!dies!aged!103!..!21! Rosetta!Project:!summer!interns!!document! 7.! Publications,!Book!Reviews! 22! endangered!languages!...................................................!10! At#The#Foot#of#The#Snows!by!David!Watters,! New!‘mixed’!language!discovered!in!northern! 2011,!Seattle,!WA:!Engage!Faith!Press,!$16.95,! Australia!...............................................................................!10 ! 375!pages.!...........................................................................!22! Welsh!Twitter:!Capturing!language!change!in!real! Breogán’s#Lighthouse:#An#anthology#of# time!........................................................................................!11! Galician#literature.!Edited!by!Antonio!Raúl!de! Evolution!of!spoken!language!decrypted!and! Toro!Santos.!Francis!Boutle!Publishers,!2010.!..!22! reconstructed!by!computer!algorithm!...................!12! 8.! Places!to!go!on!the!Web! 22! Silent!Plains:!the!fading!sounds!of!native! languages!.............................................................................!12! Reviving!Yurok:!Saving!one!of!California’s!90! Push!to!preserve!the!Tibetan!language!in!China languages!............................................................................!22! !..................................................................................................!13! First!Languages!Australia!............................................!22! Concern!as!minister!rejects!Welsh!language!plan Rapping!to!preserve!a!nearly!extinct!Arctic! !..................................................................................................!14! language!..............................................................................!23! ‘More!supporters,!not!laws’!call!for!Welsh! 9.! Letter!to!the!Chairman! 23! language!campaign!.........................................................!14! 10.! Forthcoming!events! 23! Welsh!language!rally!marks!50!years!since! Conference:!The!Intellectual!Benefits!of!Bilingual! Trefechan!Bridge!protest!.............................................!14! Education!............................................................................!23! Scientists!strive!to!save!dying!spoken!language!of! Conference:!Contested!langs!of!the!Old!World!..!23! Jesus!.......................................................................................!15! Conference:!Voices!from!Indigenous!Siberia!......!23! Half!of!India’s!1600!languages!yet!to!be!traced!.!15! # Zambia!grapples!with!language!challenge!...........!15! Ogmios 51 31 August 2013 3 ! The conference’s full title gives some insight into its theme: Community Connections, Collaborative Approaches, and Cross- 1. Editorial! Disciplinary Research. !! The many endangered Indigenous languages across Canada make As an international charitable organization, our Foundation tries to Ottawa an excellent setting for a conference that will explore collabo- spread the geographical range of its annual conferences: thus, last ration, community involvement, and cross-disciplinary research on year we were in New Zealand, this year (see the repeated announce- endangered languages. The conference will highlight community ment below) we are in Canada, and plans are afoot for our 2014 con- connections, collaborative approaches, intergenerational cooperation, ference, to be held in yet another direction. Of course, in each case, technological and social media related innovations, and community- we are dependent on invitations from willing hosts. Miraculously, researcher alliances. We seek to bring together speakers, activists, willing hosts keep turning up, and the geographical spread of our and researchers, from a range of disciplines, organizations, and gov- conferences has just been fortuitous; and so the message of language ernments, all striving to understand and improve the situation of en- endangerment and its possible solutions continues to be spread even- dangered languages, and to broaden awareness of the importance and ly around the world. If you or your institution would like to consider implications of language maintenance and revitalization for individu- hosting an FEL conference in the future, we would always be glad to al and community well-being overall. hear from you, and can offer you our past experience and logistical The conference will include a prior trip to Kitigan Zibi. The Anish- support. nabe of Kitigan Zibi have been working since 1980 to recover and In this issue we note the passing of the last native-born speaker of promote the Algonquin language in their community. They have Livonian – not on her native soil in Latvia, but in a retirement home implemented language programs in their community schools and in Canada, with no-one to talk to in the language. What is interesting have used technology to promote it on their website. Kitigan Zibi about the terse newspaper report is the assumptions that journalists School offers a half-day Algonquin Immersion program to students make about endangered languages. We reproduce some of the discus- from grade 1 to 6. sion in a linguists’ blog about those assumptions. Livonian is a sub- More!details!of!the!conference,!including!a!Registration!page,!are! ject dear to your editor’s heart, but the press treatment of this issue of dying languages, in Britain at any rate, applies to any language that now!available!at:! loses its last native-born speaker. http://www6.carleton.ca/fel2013/! Even languages at the safer end of the scale of endangerment can find themselves threatened by hostile legislation. You might have thought Annual!General!Meeting!2013! that the future Catalan is assured and that that language is one of the As Secretary