When your language dies...

[Harsimrat Kaur]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Atma Singh <atmas...@gmail.com>


"One language system is lost every two weeks. Of 6,000 known human languages, half are in imminent danger of disappearing and 90% could be erased forever within a century."

- United Nations Cultural Agency


"When a language dies,
the divine things,
stars, sun and moon,
the human things.
to think and to feel,
are no longer reflected
in this mirror.

When a language dies,
all that there is in this world,
oceans and rivers,
animals and plants,
do not think of them,
do not pronounce their names;
they do not exist now.

When a language dies,
the window and the door
are closed up
to all the people of the world,
no longer will they be shown
a different way
to name the divine and human things which is what it means
to be and to live
on the earth.

When a language dies,
its words of love,
intonations of pain and caring,
perhaps the old songs,
the old stories,
the speeches, the prayers,
no one no matter whom
will be able to repeat them again.

When a language dies,
then many have died,
and many more will die soon,
mirrors forever broken,
shadows of voices
forever silenced.
Humanity grows poorer
when a language dies."

- 'When a Language Dies', translated from the Aztec by Miguel Leon Portillo & John Ross.

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If anyone out there wishes to learn how to read and write Gurmukhee, the script our Guroo Sahib invented for you and me, both easily and quickly, please contact me and I will help. Now download this and get started:

https://files.me.com/atma_singh/263kg7

Please note that there are some mistakes in that primer (I think due to more than one person compiling it and people not communicating with one another - oh, the irony!) but I can tell you about them in advance so that you don't learn incorrectly. That aside, it's completely amazing and actually life-changing.

For all you fellow twits out there ;-) :

"Follow @PunjabiRefill & learn a Punjabi word every day.Keep ur #language alive,& then ur history & culture stays alive #sikhs

Can't read #punjabi Follow @learnpunjabi for 1 word everyday.Keep the #language alive & u keep ur history & culture alive #sikhs"

ਅਾਤਮਾ ਸਿੰਘ
twitter: @atma_singh



Harsimrat Kaur

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