I found so many interesting articles and videos about
languages. One of the videos that really grabbed my attention was about a dying
language that only one person knows how to speak. Marie Wilcox is a Native
American and is the last person who can speak fluent Wukchumni. It is the
language of her tribe that has less than 200 members remaining. Marie is
creating the first Wukchumni dictionary and her family also learned some of the
language while helping her create it. I chose this video because during class
we were talking about how hundred languages are dying every day and that got me
intrigued.
It made me want to know more about preserving one’s culture
and taking the time to learn about others. I know a few people that don’t know
how to speak their native language or that don’t know much about their culture.
When I ask if they would like to learn their native language or more about
their cultural roots many of them say yes. My great, great grandma came from an
Asian country in the early 1900’s but we don’t have much left of her belongings.
I wish I did know what part of Asia, so I can discover that culture that she experienced
when she was young before moving to California then Mexico.
Dying languages are happening constantly and we don’t hear
much about it. This article made me realize how precious it is to conserve
one’s roots wither its language, traditions or old folk stories. We keep losing
languages and with that we are losing so much culture, its actually really sad
if you think about. I admire what Marie and her family did to try to preserve their
language.
