| Abstract | Conflict and Consensus about First Nations' Languages Emmon Bach UMass(Amherst) SOAS(U London) OSU 2008 Many years ago, in response to my explanation about why an American linguist like me wanted to study the language of a village in northern British Columbia, the respected Haisla elder Mike Shaw asked: Mike Shaw's Question: I understand what you want. Why should we help you? This talk will be about Mike Shaw's questions and possible responses to them: • My answer to Mike Shaw's first question. • My answer to Mike Shaw's second question. All over the world, local languages are facing possible or probable extinction. It has been estimated that by the end of the century as many as 90% of the worlds' some 6,000 languages will have died. The situation is nowhere more acute than in the regions now called the United States of America and Canada. In the face of this situation many people have become interested in studying endangered languages. Interest in threatened languages comes from many different sides. We will consider these issues: • Why do languages die? • Who cares? • Conflicting interests and aims • How can linguists help? • Some points of consensus My talk will reflect my experience as a theoretical linguist and a field linguist working with speakers of endangered North American languages: primarily Wakashan (Pacific Northwest) and Western Abenaki (Northeastern North America). |