Australia tries to halt loss of Aboriginal languages
| FEATURE |
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SYDNEY — Lorraine Injie smiles as she remembers the rich patchwork of Aboriginal languages used during her childhood in Australia’s remote Pilbara region.
“In my community, it was common to speak 10 languages. Speaking three wasn’t that impressive,” she says.
However, use of native tongues has declined at an alarming rate, from hundreds just 200 years ago, the time of European settlement, to about 20 now.
“There would be less than 50 speakers of Banyjima, less than 10 still speaking Yinhawangka. As it was forbidden to use our own languages, they have disappeared. It is very upsetting,” Injie says.
Injie, 48, is part of a program which is trying to stop languages dying out by training teachers, who can pass them on to schoolchildren..... MORE
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20101026com6.html
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