Date: Tue, 4 Nov 1997 15:34:25 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <199711042034.PAA12493@locke.ccil.org> Reply-To: John Cowan Sender: Lojban list From: John Cowan Organization: Lojban Peripheral Subject: Re: bilingualism X-To: Lojban List To: John Cowan X-Mozilla-Status: 0011 Content-Length: 894 X-From-Space-Date: Tue Nov 4 15:34:44 1997 X-From-Space-Address: LOJBAN@CUVMB.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU Andrew Sieber wrote: > John Cowan wrote: > > Most Federal public schools for Indians banned the speaking of the > > children's native language for decades. > But there was no restriction on the language > spoken in the home, only the one spoken at school. Yes, this is bad, > but not nearly as bad as prohibiting children from even learning their > parents' native tongue. I forgot to mention that these were boarding schools, often located hundreds of miles from the reservations, so in effect the native languages *were* completely banned. The result is that many Indian children lost their native languages, and therefore so have their children --- a very few of whom are trying to relearn their "own" languages either from surviving elders or even from books. -- John Cowan http://www.ccil.org/~cowan cowan@ccil.org e'osai ko sarji la lojban