Language on the brink

By Rob Reynolds in

* Americas on May 13th, 2010


"A long time ago, man never known on earth was all alone... then he made the first man, Having Power to Carry Light... then he made the first woman, Bright Shining woman."
-Wichita Creation Story, as told by Doris McLemore

In a meadow in rural Oklahoma, I sat and listened to a language that soon will be gone forever.

Doris McLemore is 83 years old, and the last fluent speaker of Wichita, a native American language that once was spoken by upwards of 10,000 people on this continent.

She is a short, slightly cranky woman who has not lived an easy life. Yet she alone possesses this priceless human treasure. The Wichita, who now number about 3,000, admire and respect her; but few bother to learn any of their ancestral language from her.

The Wichita words for earth and sky, joy and sorrow, essentially will die with her.

The daughter of a white man and a Wichita mother, Doris was raised by her Wichita-speaking grandparents in rural Oklahoma. She remembers a time when the language thrived in their community outside Anadarko, Oklahoma.

"You could say things in Wichita that were so funny," Doris said, a smile briefly lighting up her face. "You wouldn't dare, the way some of them talked- you wouldn't dare say it in English." When I asked what she meant, she said a lot of Wichita banter was risqué, to put it mildly.

But the dominant English-speaking society gradually destroyed the old ways. Generations of Native American children all over the United States were shipped to boarding schools, forced to learn English, and punished if they spoke in their mother tongue.

"The white people did not value it," Doris said. "They wanted it to be gone. just like everything else. They wanted to annihilate all the Indians."
White America failed to annihilate Native Americans, but their languages were, in many cases, casualties of the cultural assault.

Hundreds, perhaps thousands of languages and dialects have already disappeared, and many more are endangered.
When I asked Doris how she feels to be the only Wichita-speaker left, she shrugged. "You know, I never think about it. That's just the way it is. I just don't dwell on it."

Wichita is just one of thousands of small languages world-wide on the brink of oblivion. Swarthmore College professor K. David Harrison is director of the Living Tongues Institute, which seeks to preserve endangered languages.

"We're seeing an unprecedented rate of language extinction or language death," Harrison says. "Approximately half of the world's languages are considered to be endangered. And we may be losing a language as often as one every 2 weeks."

Harrison and his colleagues have identified several language "Hot Spots" around the world where clusters of endangered languages are concentrated. They include northern Australia, eastern Siberia, central South America and two regions in North America: the Pacific Northwest and Oklahoma.

"Languages disappear for many reasons, but usually it's because the speakers are pressured to assimilate to a more dominant culture," Harrison said. "They are made to feel from a very young age that their language is not as good, is not as worthy, is not as modern as other languages that may be spoken."

With the death of each language, an immeasurably valuable piece of humanity's inheritance disappears.

"When a community loses its language, especially if it's primarily an oral language that is passed on that is transmitted mouth to ear and stored only in peoples' memories, they really lose their history," Harrison said.

"They lose their connection to the past; they lose all of the wisdom and knowledge that has been accumulated over centuries about how to live in a sustainable manner on this planet."

Wichita tribal officers sadly agree with that assessment.

"The language that she carries represents our identity," says Tribal Secretary Terri Parton.

She has been working with Doris and linguists from US universities to record and preserve as much of the language as possible.


There are many tribes in North America, Parton says, but "The language sets us apart from other tribes. It's the one thing we have that is Wichita. And once it's gone... it's gone."

But extinction need not be the fate of all small languages. In Part Two of this blog, I'll describe successful efforts by Native Americans to save another language.

http://blogs.aljazeera.net/americas/2010/05/13/language-brink

Official seeks media cooperation for development of Sulu

By NONOY E. LACSON
February 18, 2010, 2:45pm

Jolo, Sulu – Sulu Gov. Abdusakur Tan appealed to local and national journalists here to extend more credits to the phase of development of the province and downplay incidences that could pull backward the socio-economic development introduced by the provincial government of Sulu to the people here.

This was the message extended by Tan during the inauguration of the newly renovated government-owned radio station here, Radyo ng Bayan-DxMS, Monday.

“I would like to take this opportunity to appeal to our friends in the media to give more space and attention to the better things that are happening in Sulu instead of sensationalizing news which is affecting the good image of the province," Tan said during the inauguration.

“Despite the portrayal of the province as violence-prone as we usually see in the news and hear over the broadcast medium, we always treat media as friends and allies of the government. The power of media in shaping public opinion is well acknowledged,” he said.

“The renovation of Radyo ng Bayan is a good barometer of how we in the government service value friends from the media,” the governor said.

Engineer Mike Pangilinan, of the government’s Bureau of Broadcast Services, who represented Director John Manalili, expressed his gratitude to the support of Tan to the Radyo Ng Bayan-Jolo.

“Radyo ng Bayan is an ally of the provincial government for progress and development, Thank you to Governor Abdusakur Tan for helping in the renovation of the radio station here,” Pangilinan said.

He said Radyo ng Bayan-dxSM will soon have its own digital audio and video capabilities, including teleconferencing facilities.

Zenaida Masong, station manager of the dxSM, expressed her gratitude to Tan for funding over P500,000 for the renovation of the radio station.

The radio station also added some P300,000 more for other improvements.

She said the improvements included the building now housing the radio station, among others.

“This is the first time that a government official has given Radyo ng Bayan assistance of this scale and Governor Abdusakur Tan made us feel the importance and value of media in public service,” she said.

http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/244032/official-seeks-media-cooperation-development-sulu-province

Sulu gov inaugurates renovated Radyo Ng Bayan building

Jolo, Sulu (15 February) -- Sulu Governor Abdusakur Tan recently inaugurated the renovated government-owned radio station last February 8, 2010 at the DXSM Radyo ng Bayan Sulu Station.

In his speech Gov. Tan said that "the renovated Radyo ng Bayan, constructed with the support and assistance of the Provincial Government is a testament of how we value friends from media."

In attendance were Hon. Hussin U. Amin, Mayor of Jolo, Engr. Mike Pangilinan representing John Manalili, Director IV, Bureau of Broadcast Services, BGen. Rustico Guererro, Commander Task Force Comet, BGen. Celestino Pereyra, Commander 3rd marine Brigade, Management and Staff of DXSM.

DXSM Station Manager Zenaida Masong expressed her gratitude to Gov. Tan for his support in making the renovation possible and even recalled that it was during the time when the governor was still congressman that the Radyo ng Bayan Sulu was able to acquire a 10 KW Harris transmitter to upgrade their signal thru his assistance.

Ms. Masong said that the total cost of renovation is PHP 500,000.00, improving all the structures of the building including the broadcasting booth, eliminating water leaks that may disrupt broadcasts of radio programs.

"This is the first time that a government official has given Radyo Ng Bayan an assistance in this scale, Gov. Tan made us feel the value of media and support for information of the people," added Ms. Masong.

Bureau of Broadcast Services Engineer Mike Pangilinan, conveyed a message of gratitude from Dir. John Manalili, saying that "Radyo Ng Bayan and the Sulu Provincial Government constructive collaboration in providing information to the people and the community is a noble duty. Radyo Ng Bayan is an ally of the provincial government for Progress and Development, Thank you to Gov. Tan."

According to Engr. Pangilinan, in addition to the building improvement, Radyo Ng Bayan Sulu will soon have digital audio-video capabilities, and teleconferencing facilities.

Gov. Tan in his statement appealed to media to give due space and attention to the better things that are happening in Sulu. "Despite the mis-portrayals of the province as being violent-prone, as we usually see and hear over the broadcast medium, we always treat media as friends and allies, to an extent of almost pampering them. The power of media in shaping public opinion is well acknowledged," Gov. Tan stressed. (Sulu-PIO/PIA9-BST)

http://www.pia.gov.ph/default.asp?m=12&fi=p100215.htm&no=46

Cell phone ‘per pulse’ billing starts

By Paolo Montecillo
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 23:52:00 12/05/2009

Filed Under: Telecommunications Services, mobile phones

MANILA, Philippines--Beginning Sunday, the public will only have to pay for the time they actually use in making mobile phone calls.

The National Telecommunications

Commission (NTC) on saturday announced a new “per pulse” rate for voice calls on cellular phones which would make billing more reflective of the real costs of a call.

The new scheme does not change the per-minute cost of cellular phone calls but it would reflect calls that last less than a minute.

Under the new rates, telecom firms will be allowed to charge a “flag down” rate of P3 for the first two pulses, or a total of 12 seconds. Every succeeding pulse will then be billed. Each minute has 10 six-second pulses.

To illustrate, assuming the prevailing rate is P7.50 per minute, every pulse after the flag down rate will cost 56 centavos. After the first minute, the per-pulse charge will increase to 75 centavos.

The resulting cost of a call per minute would still be P7.50 but calls under one minute would cost less. A 30-second call would cost P4.69.

The new billing scheme takes effect at 12:01 a.m. Sunday for calls made within one network.

Calls made from one network to another would be covered by per-pulse billing on Dec. 16, the NTC said, to give telecom firms more time to make adjustments.

“The NTC issued a landmark regulation directing all cellular mobile operators to implement a six-second pulse billing mode for mobile calls to take effect on Dec. 6,” Commissioner Gamaliel Cordoba said in a briefing in Quezon City Saturday.

The new directive was a result of a memorandum circular issued by the NTC in July after Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile criticized the billing system.

In the same briefing, Enrile explained that the costs for calls were not brought down so as not to put too much pressure on telecom firms’ finances.

“We have to think of the interest of the telcos here, as well as the interest of the consumers,” he said. “I think consumers will be really happy with this new regime.”

Cordoba said the implementation of the new rates would be observed for two to three months to see if the telephone companies are able to cope or if problems arise.

Representatives from major telecom brands Smart Communications, Globe Telecom and Sun Cellular could not be reached for comment as of late yesterday afternoon.

The three companies earlier asked the NTC to push back the implementation of the new rates to January next year, saying the changes in the billing system may add to the expected problems brought by increased network traffic during the holiday season.

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net