Here you go - knock yourself out.
What if a language was dying, but the last two speakers refused to speak to each other?
I was surprised that Google could pull that up. I couldn’t remember the language’s name or the location.
Although there is an article saying that they made up and are speaking to each other now. (The language is Ayapaneco.)
You mean education in Haitian Creole?
Education of any kind. Haiti has the weakest educational system in the Western Hemisphere.
To quote the Wikipedia article on the Haitian education system:
Does this mean that, education in both Haitian Creole and French is poor?
Probably?
As was noted previously in this thread, to the extent that the education system in Haiti works at all, it’s probably working for the upper class. Education in Haiti, particularly for the upper classes, is likely to largely be in French, as has also already been pointed out.
As the Wikipedia article I linked to notes, and has also been pointed out upthread, the lower class in Haiti is largely under-educated (if they are educated at all). Only 22% of Haitians receive a secondary (i.e., high school) education, and only 1% receive a university-level education; I will guarantee you that the majority of those Haitians are in the upper classes.
According to UNESCO, Creole is listed “potentially vulnerable”
@Jagraze1: Yes, as you stated in an earlier post in your own thread here, UNESCO lists it as “potentially vulnerable.” Not sure why you’re restating it again – we get it, and restating it doesn’t add anything to the discussion.
Just a note, since we’re talking about language: “potentially” means something, and it doesn’t mean “actually.” “Vulnerable” also means something. Together, these words mean that the languages are, well, possibly in a weak position, which isn’t actually saying ANYTHING about them. (They seem to have a definition for “vulnerable,” but I couldn’t find one for “potentially vulnerable.”) Other languages UNESCO has in this category are Afrikaans, American Sign Language, Azerbaijani, and a whole host of other languages that are just fine.
Wikipedia says there are 12 million native speakers of Haitian Creole, which sounds like enough to make it for a while.
There also are works of literature in Haitian Creole.
There are two issues here, ISTM: the language-survival issue and the human-rights issue. Is Haitian Creole likely to go extinct any time soon, given that it’s the native language (and in many cases the only fluent language) of millions of people? No.
Is it fair or acceptable that non-elite Haitian Creole speakers don’t have decent educational opportunities in any language, and that they are often punished for speaking their native language in French-medium educational environments? No.
Is there any formal measure that the United States in its official capacity as a sovereign nation can or should undertake to improve either of those outcomes? Not really. We can directly provide support to Haitian Creole speakers and writers in the Haitian diaspora, e.g., with multilingual materials including Haitian Creole for immigrants from Haiti. And we can continue to fund humanitarian efforts through organizations like USAID. But none of that can or should replace what the Haitian government itself ought to be doing for its people.
And if you think the US should try to fix that by just overthrowing the Haitian government… well, look how well a government coup in Haiti worked out last time. Let’s not go there.
Here in Miami signs and government paperwork commonly do have English, Spanish, and Kreyol. It’s not universal by any stretch, but it’s also common enough to be unremarkable.
Yes but there is a level after called “safe” which includes languages like Italian and Spanish
Humanity will eventually speak just one language. In that sense, all languages but that one are already doomed today. The difference is entirely how many centuries or millenia from now the last of the others will die off.
All of these things are relative. You seem to have a very difficult time understanding “relative” and want things to be absolute instead. Nearly nothing in human behavior or society is absolute. Never was, isn’t now, and never will be.
But Spanish is a lot safer than Italian. And some of the Italian dialects are distinctly moribund.
Aren’t Spanihs and Italian eqaully safe
No. Italian is only spoken as a national language in Italy itself, plus a few small countries within the peninsula or quite nearby (e.g. Malta). Spanish is the national language of dozens of countries, and the number of Spanish speakers is orders of magnitude larger than Italian speakers, as both first and second languages.
Italian is in good health and in no danger of going anywhere: Italy is a decent-sized country and its language is prestigious, and critical for some of the fine arts. It’s just that Spanish is much more healthy.
According to Statistics, Italain has 85m speakers and is the official language of Croatia, Slovenia, Italy, Switzerland and is the 20th most spoken world language. There is no reason to think, the Italian language is going to die out even if it is not as healthy as Spanish. But I can see where you are getting
It is not the official language of Croatia, Slovenia, or Switzerland—it has official status to varying degrees in parts of those countries. But yes, you take my point. Italian isn’t going anywhere, but “heathy” isn’t really a binary so much as a scale.
Note: I’m not trying to disagree with you, just sharing my thoughts
No worries at all!