Great article, thank you shanks. Can any one of our linguists explain this statement from the article:
With the disappearance of some versions of, for instance, Maori languages the loss is not just linguistic.
What versions of Maori have disappeared? I know of two main "versions" of Maori, NZ Maori (with its several regional variants) and Cook Island Maori, aka Rarotongan. Neither Maori has disappeared, and NZ Maori is undergoing a renaissance, not a withering. Given that it is once again not hard to find children who cannot speak English, and who remain inmonolingually Maori schools until they are around eleven, the idea of Maori "versions" disappearing caught me by surprise. Cook Island Maori does not seem to be disappearing either, though my perceptions may be coloured by knowing dozens of people for whom it is their first language, and several others who have learned it. What other "versions" of Maori were there, and when did they disappear? NicholasW, anybody, please?
