I read somewhere that my Dad's first language (Sardinian) is also "endangered". The island of Sardinia, small though it is, has several regional variations of Sardinian, so that a person from the north of Sardinia may understand a person from the south, but they have different ways of pronouncing certain sounds. It's one of those things I wish I'd learned more of - I can more or less follow a conversation in Sardinian but I can't put together a sentence - and it's got a beautiful sound to listen to! One of my favourite things to do is to listen to my dad on the phone with his sister, and just bask in the sound of the language.
In Labrador, the Innu are trying to keep their language alive with a project where a few elders of the group are spending a lot of time with three babies, to try and teach them the language. Talk about pressure on those little ones! They will be responsible for carrying the language to future generations!
