Originally Posted by
neloon
claimed to have recovered a moribund dialect of Western Apache on the basis of a single(!) contact.
Actually this is common with Native American languages. There are a large number of languages which have very few surviving speakers or a single surviving speaker.
Oftentimes this person dies with the language never having been recorded in any form, and is lost forever.
In the lucky few cases someone has been prescient enough to record the last speaker. Any reconstruction must, therefore, be based on the "single contact" you mention. There ain't no more.
Found this bit online... don't know if it's accurate or not.
According to a recent survey, out of hundreds of languages that were once spoken in North America, only 194 remain. Of these, 33 are spoken by both adults and children; another 34 are spoken by adults, but by few children; 73 are spoken almost entirely by adults over 50; 49 are spoken only by a few people, mostly over 70; and 5 may have already become extinct.
Last edited by OC Richard; 14th March 16 at 07:23 PM.
Proud Mountaineer from the Highlands of West Virginia; son of the Revolution and Civil War; first Europeans on the Guyandotte
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