Guardian.co.uk: American Indians work to preserve their languages

[Barnaby_McEwan]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7467093.stm

More than 300 American-Indian languages flourished in North America at the time of Columbus, each carrying a unique way of understanding the world.

And despite an often-brutal campaign to stamp them out, more than half of those languages have survived, including the Delaware Valley's Lenape, though the pool of speakers has dwindled.

Can they be saved? Last month, representatives from Indian groups around the country met with linguists and other academics in Philadelphia to see what they could accomplish together.

"We're talking about an emergency situation," said Richard Grounds, a speaker of the Euchee language and co-organiser of the meeting, held at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology.