|
families. Let me help you put that basket into the hole. It looks so heavy. |
Moana: |
That’d be nice. |
Track 10
About 2,500 languages worldwide face extinction. According to National Geographic, Peru
is one of the countries with the greatest number of endangered languages.
Taushiro and Resigaro are two of the endangered languages in Peru. They are amoung 17
languages that are critically endangered in this country.
Amadeo Garcia and Pablo Andrade are the last speakers of their mother tongues. Garcia
speaks the indigenous language Taushiro, while Andrade speaks Resigaro.
Garcia, who is 67 years old, is the last living Taushiro, an indigenous group native to
northern Peru. The group was destroyed by disease and poisoned river water. The Taushiro
were also killed during fights with outsiders who came to take rubber from nearby trees.
Andrade, who is 65, has also watched his people and their language disappear. He lived
until recently with his sister, Rosa, the other surviving speaker of Resigaro. Last
month, she was killed, leaving him with no one to talk to in their dying Amazonian
language.
There were 37 Resigaro speakers left 10 years ago, but the others have all married into
a larger ethnic group, the Ocaina. As a result, they have stopped speaking their mother
tongue.
At least 37 indigenous languages have already disappeared. This is mainly because of the
Spanish language. Spanish is used in the government, schools and on TV. Since Spanish is
everywhere, children are less likely to learn another language.
The government is working to help indigenous languages survive. They are developing
writing systems for the larger languages. For the smaller ones, they are making audio
recordings.
Track 11
- excessive - too much
- artificial - made or produced to copy