“From a linguist’s perspective, English, German, French – they’re very similar in terms of their structure,” she says. “Exposure to a language which is so different in structure would open up to people the idea of the diversity of languages, the diversity of the ways in which people think. People who speak different languages think about the world in so many different ways.”
There are cultural benefits, too. Crowell says she learned a great deal about historical events like the Sand Creek Massacre by learning an indigenous language. “The languages pull people together and help them learn who they are,” she says. “It’s a matter of supporting each other.”
Bonvillain remains cautiously optimistic about the impact of language revitalization efforts across the United States, noting that the success rate varies from community to community.
“I don’t think it’s likely to go from a community where there’s a quarter of the people who are native speakers to being a community of native speakers – at least within our lifetime,” she says. “Those kinds of programs are really going to end up with a very solid minority of people who speak the native language.”
She says it also depends on the way the language is used – communities where the indigenous language is used alongside other languages, in every day conversation and signage, for example, are much more likely to be successful in revitalizing and preserving their language.
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