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More on language, 2015.

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LANGUAGE MATTERS

Language Matters asks what we lose when languages die and how we can save them. It was filmed around the world: on a remote island off the coast of Australia, where 400 Aboriginal people speak 10 different languages, all at risk; in Wales, where Welsh, once in danger, is today making a comeback; and in Hawaii, where a group of Hawaiian activists is fighting to save the native tongue.

Language Matters is a co-production of David Grubin Productions and Pacific Islanders in Communications. Major funding provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities with additional funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, the National Endowment for the Arts.

[This showed on PBS on 1/19/2015. It might be a long show, but don’t skip to the back, it is well worth watching from the beginning! Click the picture below.]

Language Matters

Language Matters

Language, 2014.

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Here is something to think about. The olelo noeau is indeed true, “Make ke kalo a ola i ka palili.” (The oldsters die, but they live on through their offspring.)* Language however is something that needs to be consciously worked at, for if we let it disappear, “when you cover him with dirt, language is not like a plant that grows again…”

*The old taro stalk dies, but lives on through the shoots. Also seen as “Make ke kalo, ola i ka naio.”