Are any native American languages actually thriving, by which I mean they are used as everyday means of communication on the tribal lands and are being learned by young people. Or are most of them confined to an ageing population of speakers? Are there any Indians who don't know or would seriously struggle with English? Does anyone know a white person who has learned an Indian language?
Native American languages
Well obviously the so called "AMERICANS" DIDN'T CARE! I mean they stole their land, took their country and Exterminate most of Native Indian Americans. Mind you the only Real Americans were the Native Americas.
So replies like "Who cares?" just shows the ignorance of Americans that stole and commited a Genocide against the Real Americans....
But hey that's Americans for YA!
Howdy doody Cowboys! (cringe)
So replies like "Who cares?" just shows the ignorance of Americans that stole and commited a Genocide against the Real Americans....
But hey that's Americans for YA!
Howdy doody Cowboys! (cringe)
Well, I don't think any of them are thriving, many are in fact endangered however, there are a few that have several thousand native speakers.
I don't want to sound like a language elitist but, the biggest factor as to why many of those languages are not around is that they weren't as useful in the modern era. What I mean by this is that many of those langauges didn't have standardized writing systems. For example the Navajo language got an alphabet designed for it just for WWII. I think the Algonquin language has been adapted to the Latin alphabet as well...
Personally though, while I have met many people who spoke native languages, I have yet to meet one that doesn't speak English. There isn't much of an imperative for not learning English as there aren't really any jobs or resources in the reservations. I believe the US government also does it's best to marginalize any real cultural movement away from the mainstream on reservations as well...
I believe Canada says that they have some monolingual Algonquin speakers, and I am sure there are some more northern natives that are monolingual but, I am sure the majority there know English or French.
I don't want to sound like a language elitist but, the biggest factor as to why many of those languages are not around is that they weren't as useful in the modern era. What I mean by this is that many of those langauges didn't have standardized writing systems. For example the Navajo language got an alphabet designed for it just for WWII. I think the Algonquin language has been adapted to the Latin alphabet as well...
Personally though, while I have met many people who spoke native languages, I have yet to meet one that doesn't speak English. There isn't much of an imperative for not learning English as there aren't really any jobs or resources in the reservations. I believe the US government also does it's best to marginalize any real cultural movement away from the mainstream on reservations as well...
I believe Canada says that they have some monolingual Algonquin speakers, and I am sure there are some more northern natives that are monolingual but, I am sure the majority there know English or French.
A language thrives by the amount of its monolinguals? So their language has the bad lack of their land being annexed by a majority Anglophonic nation? Dutch is very lucky in this case. Afrikaans is less lucky, sadly...