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https://theconversation.com/waking-a-sleeping-language-our-plan-to-revive-the-speaking-of-ta-re-moriori-218023>
"When is a language extinct and when is it merely dormant? There are certainly
languages that have passed over that line, and many remain threatened today.
But what of those in the twilight zone – can we revive them, and what would
that look like?
Languages that no longer have native speakers – that is, no one who learned it
as a child – are often considered “dead”. And yet it’s not quite as clear cut
as that.
Take the Moriori language from the Chatham Islands, for example. Ta rē Moriori
has no native speakers, with the last having died in the early 20th century.
But it also has a relatively rich historical record, and is similar in many
ways to te reo Māori.
This has inspired a project at the University of Auckland, in collaboration
with the Hokotehi Moriori Trust, which looks after the interests of Moriori
people in New Zealand and around the world.
Our work will involve transcribing, translating and trying to fully understand
all the existing texts. This will give us insights into the grammatical
properties of the language, with the end goal being to produce a language
grammar.
The project is still in its infancy, but it raises the intriguing possibility
that in the future we might hear small children speaking ta rē Moriori as their
first language."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
