A former teacher and social worker is trying to save a centuries-old language
From her tiny lime green kitchen in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn, Elva Ambía is trying to save a centuries-old language.
The 73-year-old grandmother originally from Peru is co-founder of the 2-year-old New York Quechua Initiative, a small group dedicated to celebrating and spreading the official language of the Inca Empire.
“Quechua is such a beautiful language,” said Ms. Ambía, a retired teacher and social worker. “I want to help preserve it. I want for people to feel proud of our heritage, to feel proud about our culture.”
Ms. Ambía’s efforts range from planning cultural events across the city that promote Quechua to teaching the language to small groups or one-on-one.
Quechua is a family of languages still spoken by indigenous people in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. But Quechua is listed in Unesco’s “Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger.”
“I do not believe Quechua is dying. I cannot accept that,” said Ms. Ambía, who spoke Quechua as a child in Chincheros, Peru. “If I am alive, I am going to make it alive.” More.
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United States
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I am really proud of her.
United States
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English to Arabic
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May one observe that Quecha is a vital and popular language among a number of emigre populations resettled in southern California, particularly those in Los Angeles and Orange Counties.
That said, there reportedly is some difficulty in finding fluent English Quecha bilinguals who can interpret during legal, school, and administrative hearings.
The most-common work-around has been using two interpreters in a three-ph... See more
May one observe that Quecha is a vital and popular language among a number of emigre populations resettled in southern California, particularly those in Los Angeles and Orange Counties.
That said, there reportedly is some difficulty in finding fluent English Quecha bilinguals who can interpret during legal, school, and administrative hearings.
The most-common work-around has been using two interpreters in a three-phase process:
English -- Spanish, then Spanish -- Quecha, and v.v.
Regards,
Stephen H. Franke
Senior veteran Arabic linguist
San Pedro (Los Angeles Waterfront Area), California
[Edited at 2014-05-19 22:12 GMT]
[Edited at 2014-05-20 16:40 GMT] ▲ Collapse
Chile
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Member (2005)
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Norway
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English to Norwegian
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"The disappearance of a language is not only a loss for the community of speakers itself, but for our common human knowledge of mathematics, biology, geography, philosophy, agriculture, and linguistics. In this century, we a... See more
"The disappearance of a language is not only a loss for the community of speakers itself, but for our common human knowledge of mathematics, biology, geography, philosophy, agriculture, and linguistics. In this century, we are facing a massive erosion of the human knowledge base."
See: http://www.swarthmore.edu/SocSci/dharris2/endangered.php
" The effort to keep languages alive can lead to hard arguments, especially where limited funds are available to spend on education and official communications. In both America and Britain, some feel that, whatever people speak at home, priority should go to making sure that children know English well.
But supporters of linguistic diversity make strong arguments too. Nicholas Ostler, a scholar who heads the Foundation for Endangered Languages, a non-profit group based in Britain, says multilingual children do better academically than monolingual ones. He rejects the notion that a common tongue helps to avoid war: think of Rwanda, Bosnia and Vietnam.
Mark Abler, a Canadian writer, says the protection of endangered species is closely linked to the preservation of tongues. On a recent expedition in Australia, a rare turtle was found to have two varieties; a dying but rich native language, Gagudju, had different words for each kind."
See http://www.economist.com/node/12483451
To get a deeper feel for the subject matter, I also suggest:
http://www.economist.com/node/3518542
http://www.economist.com/node/21528592 ▲ Collapse
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