[torstenvl]

I feel like there's a deep deep tragedy in the loss not just of individual languages, but of entire language families.

While it's sad that a language like Auvergnat will likely die in a generation or two, it almost feels like less of a loss because other Langue d'Oc languages will likely survive (e.g., Gascon probably).

But the northern (a)nishn[aabe|abe|ini]m(o)w[e|i]n languages (Ojibwe, Oji-Cree, Odawa, Chippewa, etc.) are so much more endangered, have so little learning material, and are fragmented, making a concerted effort to save any one of them almost doomed to failure, let alone all of them.

I'm not saying linguistic ethnicide is acceptable, just that linguistic genocide is so so much more heartbreaking. An entire line of peoples will lose their connection to their ancestors in just a generation or two.

My step-father was Odawa. He never spoke it. But I try to study it some, to honor his memory. The Nishnaabemwin Reference Grammar and Odawa Language and Legends book are... helpful but hardly sufficient.

[meristohm]

I feel similarly. I have no indigenous Turtle-Islander roots, as far as I know, except some cultural absorption having grown up fairly open-minded in northern Minnesota. I've been practicing the animate and inanimate Anishinaabemowin (Ojibwe) color-names with my child who really likes colors. I like that such distinction exists, and I'm curious what else is out there in other languages that will help me experience existence in healthier, richer ways. "In living color", if you will. There are more and more children's books in English that also include earlier languages. One of our favorites is On the Trapline, by David Robertson and Julie Flett [0].

From listening to The Blindboy Podcast I'm interested in learning some Gaeilge (Irish Gaelic) for the same reasons.

[0] library reference: https://www.worldcat.org/title/on-the-trapline/