Say That Again in Pumpokol

 A fascinating list of extinct languages here.

I noticed that many American Native languages died out in the 1920s and 1930s- a period where the educational goal was assimilation. I remember that people in Alaska have memories of being beaten for speaking their native tongue. Missionaries, doing god's work again.

In Alaska, if memory serves, there at at least 40 Native language and dialect groups. One of the most heartbreaking stories I ever read was the last two speakers of I think a Dena'ina dialect- twin sisters in their 90s, one of who had just passed. She had become the last one to think in the unique thoughts made possible by this language, and sang as she walked through the berry patches. 

General resource on Alaska languages.

Cultural and language eradication is happening, often deliberately, now in Tibet, now in South America, now in the U.S. The loss is forever. And yet it is also true that the astounding proliferation of English gives hope for the communication essential to prevent the human race destroying itself.

Hard to know what to think, other than to support preservation efforts, end political oppression, and surf the convenient dominance of English. Human cultures do not exist trapped in amber, yet every language and cultural practice lost is the end of a way of thinking.

English serves business and education well, much as Latin and French and German once did. However, the dominant ideas woven inside the English language might be crushing everything else. It's great for marketing this so-called "iPhone," (to which my near-total indifference has not prevented this presumptuous gadget from staking a neural colony in my brain); but what's the compelling, persuasive word for "please stop paving everything you look at"?

I expect there is perfect phrase for this, in Pictish.