Page 11 - ARUBA TODAY 7 NOV 2015

WORLD NEWS A11
Saturday 7 November 2015

Brazil project aims to save endangered indigenous languages

Brazilian Paresi indigenous women use their cell phones during million to 5 million in pre- “We have several peoples rying white people, and
Columbian days, five cen- who’ve completely lost it all gets more and more
the World Indigenous Games in Palmas, Brazil. Experts warn turies of disease, violence their languages and want diluted,” said Pataxo,
and poverty have whittled to try to recover them; we who has two children, five
that 40 percent of Brazil’s remaining indigenous languages that to under 1 million. have some peoples where grandchildren and two
Now, Brazil’s original inhab- there are very few speak- great-grandchildren, none
could be lost in the next few decades, as elders die off and itants make up less than 0.5 ers left; some where there of whom speak the tribe’s
percent of this country of are generational conflicts; mother tongue.
young people get more access to television, the Internet and 200 million. and some where the in- The Pataxos’ ancestral
The indigenous population digenous language has home is along Brazil’s Atlan-
cell phones. (AP Photos/Eraldo Peres) is splintered into 305 tribes, become the second lan- tic coast and there are his-
some with just several doz- guage,” he added. torical accounts of associa-
JENNY BARCHFIELD part by UNESCO, the U.N.’s en or fewer members. Portuguese is now the first tion between the tribe and
“In Brazil, nearly 40 percent language of most mem- Europeans dating back to
of indigenous nations have bers of the Pataxo nation, the 1500s. Five centuries of
fewer than 500 members,” including handicraft ven- contact, including efforts
said Levinho. “Studies have dor Guaricema Pataxo. to “civilize” the Pataxo by
shown that these days, “Our people often leave removing their children
such small populations our lands to study out- and forbidding them from
aren’t able preserve their side and they meet lots of speaking their language,
languages.” people and end up mar- took a toll.q

Associated Press cultural and educational
PALMAS, Brazil (AP) — agency, aims to give a
Guaricema Pataxo’s indig- fighting chance to nearly
enous roots are the corner- three dozen threatened
stone of her identity. The languages. Over nearly
53-year-old great-grand- eight years, the program
mother lives on her Pataxo has helped 35 tribes to
people’s reservation and transcribe their languages,
makes a living by hawk- develop dictionaries and

ing their handicrafts, fully teaching tools for children
decked out in traditional and document their rich
regalia. oral traditions.
But ask her to speak Pa- “We used to learn our lan-

taxo, and she can only guage and the stories of
stumble through a few ba- our people with our elders,”
sic words and phrases. said Elly Mairu Karaja, of
Her situation is not unusual. the Karaja people of cen-

Of the estimated 2,000 tral Brazil, a schoolteacher
who’s worked with the pro-
indigenous languages gram. “But now, with tech-
nology, the youngsters are
thought to have been spo- living in the white world

ken in pre-Columbian times

in what is now Brazil, only

around 160 survive today. even while they’re on our
Experts warn that as many land. There are many now
as 40 percent of those re- who don’t want to be in-
maining could be lost in digenous anymore.”

the next few decades, as Along with the problem
elders die off and young of anemic interest from
people get more access to younger generations, de-
television, the Internet and mography itself is playing

cellphones. against the survival of many
The pace of change has indigenous languages, said
been accelerated by big Jose Carlos Levinho, direc-
agriculture’s push into the tor of Rio de Janeiro’s Indi-
hinterland, bringing roads, an Museum, which ran the

electricity and outsiders to project with Brazil’s indig-
areas with a high concen- enous affairs agency.
tration of indigenous peo- While the country’s indige-
ple. nous population is thought

A program spearheaded in to have numbered from 3