Language Revitalization
As of the 2000 census, the language had about 680 speakers. As of 2007, "there are about 300 first-language speakers and an equal or greater number of semi-speakers out of a total Jicarilla tribal population of 3,100." In 2003, "the Jicarilla Apache Nation ... the first tribe in New Mexico to take advantage of a new teaching certificate" that enables community members to be certified to teach a Native American language. Revitalization efforts (as of 2012) have included compilation of a dictionary, classes, and seasonal camps for youth.
Read more about this topic: Jicarilla Language
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“The etymologist finds the deadest word to have been once a brilliant picture. Language is fossil poetry. As the limestone of the continent consists of infinite masses of the shells of animalcules, so language is made up of images or tropes, which now, in their secondary use, have long ceased to remind us of their poetic origin.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)