Last Lonely Speaker of Tribal Language

[Neytiri]

Ancient tribe becomes extinct as last member dies - CNN.com (http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/02/05/india.extinct.tribe/index.html?hpt=C1)

This article makes me so sad. The world's languages are dying out fast. I don't disagree with the concept of having a unifying language like English, but not at the cost of the imperalism that is killing off cultural diversity. The Navi Movement supports cultural diversity, as a human right.

btw there's a typo in the title of this thread...lol. Last Lonely SPEAKER, I meant.

[Karyu]

That's so sad. We need to help keep our past alive as best we can, I think.

[Jamza]

I agree. We do need to preserve all our languages and there is nothing wrong with speaking multiple languages like your own home language and then a unifying language like English.

I'm trying to keep my countries language alive so a few years ago I learned Gaelic. Halò! Ciamar a tha sibh an-diugh? (hello! How are you today? :P )

[Malu tek tek]

humans, sometimes i think that we desrve to die

[Neytiri]

I agree. We do need to preserve all our languages and there is nothing wrong with speaking multiple languages like your own home language and then a unifying language like English.

I'm trying to keep my countries language alive so a few years ago I learned Gaelic. Halò! Ciamar a tha sibh an-diugh? (hello! How are you today? :P )

Wow, that's impressive. I think Gaelic sounds beautiful.

[Anna]

I never really thought much of tribes and the few isolated cultures of people out there before Avatar came around. And now that I know.. this kind of stuff really just makes me sad sinse theres nothing anyone can really do about it =/

[Prometheus]

It's sad but it's the way of things....there are hundreds of languages and tribes that have gone extinct in the last 500 to 1000 years...more so in recent years. It's just a continuing process of cultural evolution. However, if it's possible to do so, the language should be preserved through recordings and such. So should the material culture.

I don't know if you noticed but that lady had all the anatomical features of Australian Aborigines....and a fairly similar language to some of the languages spoken out here. The Bo and others come from the same group of people. You'll also find similar people in Sri Lanka and southern India.

Also, the earliest settlers in the Americas were the same group of people.

[i love neytiri!]

Yeah its really sad you can't really help them, but it doesn't help when quite a few lose their home to loggers who have even been reported as using violence against them and I read one report when they try to prevent them in a peaceful way from having their homeland destroyed and the loggers killed them. Greed just rules so many hearts and minds. Really upsetting.

[Iknimaya]

I fear that soon, it won't be just the fringe languages that die out. I studied Italian in school and really love it. When I went to Italy, I got a lot of compliments on my language abilities, but most of the people I spoke to would respond in English because they wanted the practice :/

[joeylovesgaia]

humans, sometimes i think that we desrve to die

We're not all bad. So many of us were raised as Sky People, isolated from others and Gaia. The Selfridges and Quatriches of the world do everything in their power to kill your soul. But one taste of tsahaylu breaks a lifetime of conditioning. At least it does for those of us who still have the ability to bond. Heard of ayahuasca, of DMT? As for the others, well, they're Sky People. And the only real question about them is, how do we put up a united front against them?

[Calenar]

It is a shame when the last one remaining of a tribe dies and with her the knowledge that she possesees. I don't necessarily find it sad. It is sad if she was alone, with no social contacts or a decent life. And if she could not speak any other language and thus not converse with others who are not knowledgable of her language.

If that is so, I would/will feel sad for her. If not, then all it means is that she lived to a good age, had a decent/good life (despite the lose of her family and tribes members, though regardless of race, we all lose important people to us.) and had contact with people.

It is only natural that people die. All things come to a end. And that knowledge gets lost is normal as well (there are plenty of stuff that we don't know of Romans, druids and so on). Preferable not, but that's life.

Unless people live in a isolated place, surrounded by only people of their own and having families with only those people, knowledge and ethnic groups will die out. There are a lot of humans, but even though we are with many, most knowledge will not be remembered or learned, simply because it has no purpose in our lives. As example, why learn Russian if you won't use it? And even if you learn it, if you do not use it, you will forget it.

I find it more upsetting when a animal species goes extinct. Every animal has it's purpose on this planet (though I guess you can argue about some species, like the giant turtles). If a species becomes extinct, it won't always have a immediate effect on the eco-system, but if too many disappear it will mess it up.

[Feyd]

We're all gonna be speaking Mandarin or Cantonese in the next decade.

[Na'viking]

awe:( very sad and full of sorrow

[allrock123]

It is very sad to see the last member of the Bo people pass away , so many indigious comunitys have much to teach us if we chose learn to listen there is much we could learn , So called "progress" in many parts of the world is taking the land and the lives of those peoples, I do see hope on the horizon as people are realy starting to wake up, yet in many countrys like Brazil and Peru view indigenous peoples as a threat to progress, I feel its important for us to be aware of issues with pressured and uncontacted peoples and when we feel they are at risk bring the voice of the global comunity behind them, there is one issue people do need to be aware of, Aid groups helping tribal peoples often cause cultural damage to tribal comunitys by forcing religious change, so we save the people but kill there cultural identity in the process, aid groups are often run by religious organizations that offer aid (and something more) be mindfull of this when you chose to donate chose aid groups that respect cultural identity and religious rights.