Reviving a dead language

It is well known that the English language has been imperialistic throughout history and often the goal of assimilation caused certain languages to become extinct within a generation or two. One such language that suffered from this radical attack is Dena'ina which used to be the language of native peoples living in Alaska. Students at the University of Alaska Anchorage have been studying the Kenai dialect of Dena'ina and because the last Kenia dialect speaker died years ago, they are forced to use dictionaries and grammar derived from linguists which the professor described as "harder than differential calculus."

Despite the difficulty, the students and those working to revitalize the language remain determined. They want to rectify a wrong perpetuated by the United States government during the beginning of the 20th century in which children had their mouths washed out with soap or faced corporal punishment for speaking their native tongue. Unfortunately these efforts to help assimilation resulted in the decimation of languages within a couple generations. Not only were the words and syntax lost, but the thought patterns embedded in the grammar of these languages were destroyed. "For example, Dena'ina has a grammatical construct for causation; a Dena'ina speaker subconsciously inserts a barred-l sound (not in English) at a certain place in the verb to mean, "cause it to happen. Thus every Dena'ina speaker would intuitively understand the veracity of causation."

As discussed in class, a common and useful way for people to revive languages is not only its reconstruction but finding ways to get young people to use the language. For now, the Alaska Native Language Center is putting forth strong efforts to put together the broken pieces of the language Dena'ina. Whether or not the language will become widely used once the pieces are put together remains to be seen.

Here's the link to the article: http://www.adn.com/2010/04/16/1229502/as-languages-die-we-lose-diversity.html