Monterey Language Services' Blog » National Language https://www.montereylanguages.com/blog Translation reaches every corner of our culture. Our blog shares stories related to translation, culture, language, quality, writing & interpretation through the eyes of translation professionals. Thu, 23 Apr 2026 23:32:29 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.35 Danger for Rare Languages https://www.montereylanguages.com/blog/danger-for-rare-languages-1566 https://www.montereylanguages.com/blog/danger-for-rare-languages-1566#comments Mon, 07 May 2012 19:04:41 +0000 http://www.montereylanguages.com/blog/?p=1566 Danger for Rare LanguagesArnel Valencia is 39 and a village elder in Porac, Pamanga (in the Philippines) He says that during his time in his first-grade classroom his teacher would tell him, “Stop talking like a bird. You should use English or the national language.” The reason for this is because he chose to speak the language he used at home and in his village, which is just one of the Philippine’s 175 native languages.

There are only 3,000 people that speak Ayta Magindi and they live in the hills northwest of Manila. Because so few people speak the language, and people like Valencia’s teacher prefer students speak in English or Tagalog (the native language of Manila) this language has a chance of dying out.

Ayta Magindi is not the only language that could be lost forever, according to the chief anthropologist at the Philippine National Museum, Artemio Barbosa, up to 50 of the country’s minor languages could be lost within 20 years.

Info: http://www.rappler.com/nation/4537-a-long-fight-begins-to-save-philippine-languages
Picture taken from: http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/lofiversion/index.php/t66996.html

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