Endangered Languages
Some Argentine languages are critically endangered, spoken only by a handful of isolated elderly people whose children don't speak the language; they are likely to become dead languages once the remaining speakers die. Vilela has about 20 speakers; Puelche has 5 or 6 speakers; Tehuelche has 4 speakers as of the year 2000, out of about 200 ethnic Tehuelche people, (2000 W. Adelaar); and Selknam (also known as Ona) has 1 to 3 speakers (1991) and is nearly extinct; full blooded Ona people are already extinct.
Read more about this topic: Languages Of Argentina
Famous quotes containing the words endangered and/or languages:
“Man is imperfect. The reality he creates is always endangered by man.”
—Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921–1990)
“No doubt, to a man of sense, travel offers advantages. As many languages as he has, as many friends, as many arts and trades, so many times is he a man. A foreign country is a point of comparison, wherefrom to judge his own.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)