http://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/article_566a6bb7-0ca7-5cb0-97e4-1730ccd53214.html
A little disturbing, however, is that the script was supposedly localized by five translators in just 36 hours???
Video of auditions:
That’s cool! Do you or does anyone here study Navajo?
So many Native American languages have died and are dying I think because there is simply no good material to learn from even if there is a lot of interest in it, like a Teach Yourself series or anything with good dialogue. It’s difficult to learn the LingQ way. A movie with script would be a great tool.
As both a language and Sci-Fi nerd (although lately much more of the former, and less of the latter), I find this fascinating. It only they did this with Star Trek TNG; I’d be learning Navajo right now!
I’ve always had Cherokee on my list of “maybe one day, for fun” languages. I live pretty close to the Cherokee reservation and its always really cool to see the street signs, and writing on buildings, in the language. I know Cherokee schools teach the language. Someday I’ll look to see if they offer any workshops for non-tribe members.
I am fully aware of the disadvantages, but there is also a Rosetta Stone Navajo that is really pretty good since it has been localized (pictures of Navajo people, etc.) and since there are few spoken resources available, plus some of the proceeds go to help preserve the language.
A free demo of RS Navajo can be downloaded here:
http://launch.rosettastone.com/en/licenses/demo?from_url=%2Fen%2Fdemo%2Frs3%3Flanguage_code%3DNAV
RS is also working on other endangered languages (no Cherokee I’m afraid):
http://www.rosettastone.com/endangered/projects
“RS is also working on other endangered languages (no Cherokee I’m afraid):”
Well I don’t think its “technically” an endagered language. Still it would be cool to see on Rosetta Stone. I’m also fascinated by Quechua, which is still in wide use, and Nahuatl, we is rather alive and well, although with a lot of Spanish imports. I think I read somewhere that a lot of speakers don’t know they are even speaking it. They call the language “Mexicano.”
This dynamic is really fascinating. My dad is a doctor, and he had a patient once who apparently only spoke Spanish. The translating nurse turned to my dad and said “I have no idea what language this is, but it isn’t Spanish.”