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The Audio Long Read

From the archive: The race to save a dying language – podcast

The Audio Long Read

The Guardian

Society & Culture

4.32.4K Ratings

🗓️ 16 June 2021

⏱️ 34 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

We are raiding the Audio Long Reads archives and bringing you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors. This week, from 2016: The discovery of Hawaii Sign Language in 2013 amazed linguists. But as the number of users dwindles, can it survive the twin threats of globalisation and a rift in the community? By Ross Perlin. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hi, my name is Hannah Frankson, I'm a Peloton instructor and I teach classes on the Peloton

0:05.0

Bike and the Peloton Trud.

0:07.0

Nothing motivates me more than the thought of enjoying life to the fullest.

0:11.7

Life is always full with so many different challenges and chapters.

0:15.3

For me movement and exercise has been there throughout every stage of my life.

0:19.0

Just living life to the max is what motivates me.

0:22.0

The Guardian Lives has partnered with Peloton to help you find motivation that moves you.

0:26.1

To find out more visit thegardian.com board slash motivation with Peloton.

0:30.4

This message was paid for by Peloton.

0:36.7

The Guardian

0:38.5

Hi, my name is Ross Perlin and I'm the author of the piece you're about to hear.

0:42.5

I've been researching endangered languages and writing about them for the last 15 years

0:46.3

or so.

0:47.8

And the genesis of this particular piece was the realization that I hadn't really looked

0:52.7

at sign languages. I think in general the hearing world just has a kind of almost total ignorance

1:00.1

of the world of the deaf in general and of sign languages in particular.

1:05.0

I was at a gathering of linguists and language activists in Hawaii which is a place that has

1:10.6

really been central for the larger kind of renaissance of indigenous languages and the

1:16.2

announcement of a sort of newly discovered sign language was made.

1:21.4

This was Hawaii sign language.

1:23.4

And I didn't know much about it at the time but I sort of kept in contact with some people

1:28.1

and over the years just tried to sort of piece together bits of the story.

...

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