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What do you mean survival? They are all declining, but there are efforts to teach them in schools now. Of the Native American languages, I think Navajo will survive the longest. Most will be gone in less then a hundred years. By gone, I mean native speakers who speak it on a day to day basis.
Gaelic is somewhat isolated so I personally think could survive the longest. Irish probably has the most speakers, but they are losing numbers fairly quickly and there are not many who speak Irish on a day to day basis. English is too dominating in Ireland.
So, I suppose I think Gaelic will last the longest in the remote islands of Scotland. There are places where 70%+ of the people still speak Gaelic on a day to day basis. The communities are small, but there isn't a lot of outside influence.
What do you mean survival? They are all declining, but there are efforts to teach them in schools now. Of the Native American languages, I think Navajo will survive the longest. Most will be gone in less then a hundred years. By gone, I mean native speakers who speak it on a day to day basis.
Gaelic is somewhat isolated so I personally think could survive the longest. Irish probably has the most speakers, but they are losing numbers fairly quickly and there are not many who speak Irish on a day to day basis. English is too dominating in Ireland.
So, I suppose I think Gaelic will last the longest in the remote islands of Scotland. There are places where 70%+ of the people still speak Gaelic on a day to day basis. The communities are small, but there isn't a lot of outside influence.
OK by surviving I mean having functional native speakers. I wonder if any native speakers will exist for any of these languages in 50 years and which group has a better chance of having them.
OK by surviving I mean having functional native speakers. I wonder if any native speakers will exist for any of these languages in 50 years and which group has a better chance of having them.
I was reading about Gaelic some and according to a 1901 census there were 75% Gaelic speakers. In 2011, that number was still at 75%. That's for the Outer Hebrides region. So in a hundred years, there has been little decline in some of these areas.
BBC Alba is a Scottish Gaelic language channel and most road signs are in English and Gaelic. I don't think any Native American language has either of those.
I was reading about Gaelic some and according to a 1901 census there were 75% Gaelic speakers. In 2011, that number was still at 75%. That's for the Outer Hebrides region. So in a hundred years, there has been little decline in some of these areas.
BBC Alba is a Scottish Gaelic language channel and most road signs are in English and Gaelic. I don't think any Native American language has either of those.
Agreed lot of indigenous communities in Canada have bilingual road signs with English and the Indigenous language and probably some in the US too like the Navajo Nation but can't confirm that because haven't been there. In Canada, APTN broadcasts some programming in Indigenous languages and I think CBC north has some programming in Inuktitut.
Agreed lot of indigenous communities in Canada have bilingual road signs with English and the Indigenous languages and probably some in the US too like the Navajo Nation but can't confirm that because haven't been there. In Canada, APTN broadcasts some programming in Indigenous languages and I think CBC north has some programming in Inuktitut.
I don't know much about Canada's native community. I've been to Navajo Nation a few times and I don't recall ever seeing any Navajo language except for a few random signs for businesses or at the Navajo Tribal Park. But I wasn't really paying much attention to be honest.
I was reading about Gaelic some and according to a 1901 census there were 75% Gaelic speakers. In 2011, that number was still at 75%. That's for the Outer Hebrides region. So in a hundred years, there has been little decline in some of these areas.
BBC Alba is a Scottish Gaelic language channel and most road signs are in English and Gaelic. I don't think any Native American language has either of those.
The Navajos have local TV stations in several communities, operated by the highschool students in the bilingual schools, and they have a radio station in Gallup, NM. The communities that have bilingual schools K-12 are the ones producing fluent speakers of Navajo.
There's an area of Wisconsin that has road signs in the local language, not sure what it is: Ojibway, maybe. I don't know if they have a Native language radio station there.
In general? Well we need the actual numbers to do the math correctly.
For instance how many European Celtic languages and dialects are there, compared to North American Indigenous languages and dialects?
My guess, that there are far, far more North American Indigenous languages and dialects than Celtic ones. In my province of British Columbia alone, there are 34 indigenous languages and 61 dialects !! Now add in all of Canada, the USA, Mexico and the other countries in North America. You probably have hundreds.
So the odds are...???
You also don't have people just sitting around watching languages die. Some do care about preserving them.
I think a more closely matched comparison would be comparing the indigenous languages of Russia since it can match the diversity and numbers of those in Anglo America and many also face extinction, with several already extinct.
Although there are some languages with many native speakers such as
Tatar: 6,500,000
Chuvash: 1,640,000
Bashkir: 1,450,000
Chechen: 1,340,000
there are also many that have very few Nivkh: 200 Ulch: 150 Chulym: 44
Welsh seems in a fairly decent position despite not having a huge number of speakers. It's maintained its current size for about 40 years, it has geographic strongholds full of first language speakers, its own media, its own schools, legal privileges, etc.
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