Endangered languages, lost knowledge and the future

Huffduffed by jeffvancampen on May 20th, 2009

Daniel Everett discusses the Pirahã and their language. The language has no words for numbers, no words for right and left and lacks any examples of recursion. This last trait forces us to rethink everything we thought we knew about language.

The discussion of the Pirahã language itself is excellent, but Everett’s discussion of why endangered languages need to be preserved is absolutely fascinating. His recommendations for preserving endangered languages include preserving natives speaker’s land and their heath. He also recommends studying and documenting these languages over a long period of time, as he has done with the Pirahã language.

From http://www.longnow.org/projects/seminars/

More information on this seminar is available at http://blog.longnow.org/2009/03/23/daniel-everett-endangered-languages-lost-knowledge-and-the-future/

download

Tagged with

Also huffduffed as…

  1. Endangered languages, lost knowledge and the future

    —Huffduffed by adactio on May 20th, 2009

  2. Endangered languages, lost knowledge and the future

    —Huffduffed by Wordridden on January 1st, 2010

  3. Endangered languages, lost knowledge and the future

    —Huffduffed by olishaw on November 12th, 2009

Possibly related…

  1. Interview with M.N. Srinivas

    Audio extract of a filmed seminar interview with the Indian sociologist and anthropologist M.N. Srinivas, in which he reflects on his research and teaching in India and his role in building up anthropology and sociology.

    Professor M.N. Srinivas, in a discussion led by Jack Goody (JG) and Stephen Levinson (SL) on 24th May 1982. Those present include Deborah Swallow (DS), Caroline Humphrey (CH), Gordon Prain (GP), Marcus Banks (MB), Alan Macfarlane (AM), Sarah Harrison (SH) and Michael Madha (MM). The film is approximately 1 hour 37 minutes long and was filmed by the Audio Visual Aids Unit in Cambridge, under the direction of Martin Gienke.

    For the full video interview, visit the Anthropological Ancestors website here: http://www.alanmacfarlane.com/ancestors/srinivas.html

    Summarized transcript of the seminar: https://www.dspace.cam.ac.uk/bitstream/1810/436/1/SRINIVAS.DOC

    download

    Tagged with

    —Huffduffed by AnthropologicalAncestors one week ago

  2. LongNow: Daniel Everett, “Endangered languages, lost knowledge and the future”

    Really cool talk about the knowledge lost as languages vanish. Pretty amusing, too. From http://longnow.org/seminars/02009/mar/20/endangered-languages-lost-knowledge-and-future/

    download

    Tagged with

    —Huffduffed by tiffehr 3 months ago

  3. SALT : Sam Harris

    Seminars About Long Term thinking: Sam Harris - The View from the End of the World

    download

    Tagged with

    —Huffduffed by norelpref one year ago

Share