<
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/oct/21/funding-cuts-could-mean-death-of-sami-languages-say-indigenous-parliaments>
"The Indigenous parliaments of Sweden, Finland and Norway have warned that some
Sámi languages could disappear if Stockholm and Helsinki press ahead with plans
to cut funding that could hit a critical preservation body.
Sámi Giellagáldu was created to safeguard, promote and strengthen the use of
the nine Sámi languages across the Nordics, including North Sámi, which is
spoken by an estimated 20,000 people across Norway, Sweden and Finland and
classified by Unesco as endangered, and the much smaller Pite Sámi and Ute
Sámi, which have fewer than 50 speakers each.
But just two years after it was made a permanent institution working to promote
the languages and develop new terminology and standardisations essential for
keeping them alive, the Swedish and Finnish governments have announced funding
cuts.
Mika Saijets, the director general of Sámi Giellagáldu, described it as a
regressive step that would take the region “50 years backward” and accused the
governments of “cutting the heart out of the language”.
There is a tangible risk that the languages could vanish as a result, he said.
“It’s a big risk that some of these languages will disappear. All Sámi
languages are defined as threatened or critically threatened according to
Unesco.”
There are 80,000 to 100,000 Sámi people in northern Europe, the continent’s
only Indigenous group."
Via Susan ****
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
