Saving a Language with Computers, Tape Recorders, and Radio.

Abstract

Every language is a window on the human soul, and whenever one is closed forever, that narrows our outlook much more. (Editorial, 2001) In California, efforts to save indigenous languages have a century long his-tory. The use of technology in ever-new ways is a part of that history. The earli-est technology to encounter an indigenous language was the wax cylinder. This instrument was used for recording the sounds of the languages from native speak-ers ’ voices. The newest technology involves new media uses, new recording equipment, and new multi-media software among other innovations. Teachers, students, and others communicate in their native languages through e-mail mes-sages, faxes, and web pages. Web pages exist for the Hupa, Karuk, and Kumeyaay languages of California. A Yurok language teacher sends language audiotapes to her grandson in college in Oregon (Hinton, 2001a). In the Hoopa tribe’s Aht’ine Ch’o:yalts’it Education Department, the Hupa Language, Culture, and Educa-tion program records language classes with a digital tape recorder and burns CD recordings.

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