Indigenous Languages facts
While investigating facts about Indigenous Languages Act and Indigenous Languages Canada, I found out little known, but curios details like:
Native Americans created a universal sign language that allowed 2/3 of all Indigenous tribes to communicate across most of North America, hundreds of years before Europeans invented a sign language of their own.
how many indigenous languages in canada?
An indigenous language in Mexico nearly died out in 2007 after the last two remaining speakers stopped talking to each other
What indigenous languages are spoken in guatemala?
In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across answering what indigenous languages are spoken in vancouver. Here are 49 of the best facts about Indigenous Languages Of Mexico and Indigenous Languages Australia I managed to collect.
what indigenous languages are spoken in victoria and melton?
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About Maroons, enslaved Africans who quickly escaped in the countries they were brought to and often joined indigenous populations to form warrior tribes with their own complex language, war and living cultures. Many Maroon warfare tactics have been co-opted into global army training today.
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Ayapaneco, an indigenous language in southern Mexico, was in the brink of extinction because the only 2 native speakers refused to talk to each other.
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The last two speakers of an indigenous language, Ayapaneco, refuse to talk to each other because they don't get along.
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Nuxalk, an indigenous Canadian language, has the word clhp'xwlhtlhplhhskwts'. This word features no vowels and means "Then he had had in his possession a bunchberry plant." Nuxalk is believed to challenge the very notion of a syllable.
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The word for 'sweet potato' is 'kumara' in Maori and the language of Easter Island, and 'kumar' in Quechua (Peru), suggesting possible ancient contact between Polynesians and indigenous Americans
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When Microsoft released a version of Windows translated into Mapudungun, an indigenous Chilean language, they were sued by a group of the Chilean natives because they had not asked permission before making the translation.
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There is a indigenous group of people in British Columbia called Kwakwaka'wakw. Their language, called Kwak'wala, is now spoken by less than 250 people.
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Among all Mexican states, Yucatan has the highest percentage of indigenous language speakers at over 30% and the highest number of Yucatec Maya speakers. More than 65% of the state's population is listed as indigenous, which is the second highest among all Mexican states.
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Ket, an indigenous language from Krasnoyarsk, Russia is probably related to Navajo
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There are 22 indigenous languages spoken in Alaska by approximately 5.2% of the population.
Indigenous Languages data charts
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Why indigenous languages matter?
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According to a 2000 census, 1.5 million Mexicans speak Nahuatl, the indigenous language of the Aztecs. Only 14.9% were monolingual and women represented two-thirds of the total number.
In Paraguay 90% of people can speak Guarani, the indigenous native American language. Only 87% can speak Spanish. - source
The Indigenous Languages section in Brazil's National Museum is believed to be completely destroyed by fire. All recordings since 1958, original ethnic-historic-linguistic maps localizing all ethnic groups in Brazil and the archeological references of all such groups since 1600.
Greenland is the sole (semi-independent) country in North America where an indigenous language is the only official language—Greenlandic, since 2009. Before 2009 Greenlandic and Danish were both official languages. - source
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Kenyan author Ngugi wa Thiong'o chooses now to write and create only in his native Gikuyu language to build up an indigenous literature while Chinua Achebe chose to write in "African English" to express "a new voice coming out of Africa, speaking of African experience in a world-wide language"
How many indigenous languages in australia?
The US has no official national language, but English has acquired official status in 32 of the 50 states; Hawaiian is an official language in the state of Hawaii, and 20 indigenous languages are official in Alaska
The name "Queretaro" is probably derived from an indigenous language, although the precise origin and meaning has been a subject of debate.
There are over 250 Indigenous languages in Australia but awareness about them is very low. Most Australians still believe that there is a single Aboriginal language. The myth of the single Aboriginal language has allowed for filmmakers’ uncritical use of Djinpa, based in other regions
Some of the basic vocab of Germanic languages appears to be of non-Indo-European origin. Nobody is sure how this happened - one theory is that proto-Germanic was a pidgin created by the merging of Indo-European with the language of the indigenous population of Scandinavia or north Germany.
Papua New Guinea, population 8 million, has some 850 indigenous languages. That's about an eighth of all the languages in the world.