Culture

World Dispatch: How to keep a dying language alive

For starters, you have to come up with ways to say things like “smartphone,” today on The Outline World Dispatch.

Culture

Un-spoken Words

Culture

World Dispatch: How to keep a dying language alive

For starters, you have to come up with ways to say things like “smartphone,” today on The Outline World Dispatch.

Every Monday through Thursday, The Outline World Dispatch brings you stories about Power, Culture, and the Future. We guarantee you’ll feel smarter and more hydrated. Hosted by yours truly.

In the Lakota language, delicatessen becomes “place where they snack quickly.” In Umatilla, smartphone becomes “the black cloud that is always following.” In Navajo, cell phone is a “metal that you talk into.”

For some indigenous languages, crafting neologisms is an essential part of keeping them alive. On today’s show, I spoke with J.p. Lawrence, who has been looking into the ways people update marginalized languages for changing times.

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Culture

Translating a neologism into a Native language often means appropriating the concept

In Lakota, delicatessen becomes “place where they snack quickly.”
In Umatilla, smartphone becomes “the black cloud that is always following.”
In Navajo, cell phone means “metal that you talk into.”
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