Marie Smith knows that her language – the Alaskan tongue of Eyak – will die with her. And she mourns its passing.

On June 13, 2004 Dennis O’Brien , for the Baltimore Sun, wrote  Ancient tongues fade away: Languages: As roads, technology and the global economy reach once-isolated areas, old ways of communicating are dying off.   This article explores the disappearance of languages and possible reasons.  “Krauss and other linguists blame the losses on economic and social trends, politics, improved transportation and the global reach of telecommunications.”  Global economics pull people from the smaller isolated areas. And for those who don’t leave, the internet and WWW reach into their homes.  O’Brien relates that over half the world’s population  communicate using only 15 languages.  Thus many other languages are only spoken by handfuls (or less) of people.

“Krauss says that about half of the 200 languages native to North America will probably die out over the next century because so few children are picking up them up”  As the language dies , so too does part of the culture. “The fight to save other dying languages is more of an uphill battle. Critics argue that it’s a waste of time and money if cultural trends dictate their eventual demise.”  Yet some languages are being saved.  With great, effort people are recording and transcribing. While others are passing along the sounds and nuances to younger generations.

“Linguists say that a society’s culture and history die out when its language expires”  After all,  language is connected to culture.

Speaking of saving languages, here is a new article dated Sept, 2013.  It tells of  “Dr. Marguerite MacKenzie and her team are finalists for the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Insight Award in recognition of their groundbreaking work on the preservation of the Innu language.” The group created an online dictionary to translate from English to the Innu language.  All is not lost.