Language in the News

Some days, I use Google News and search for "language" to see what turns up. A lot of the time it's articles about shopkeepers trying to learn some Spanish or dissections of the use of various acronyms, SMS abbreviations, and hip hop or l33t influences on spelling.

But other times, there are some interesting stories about language survival/promotion:

• a press release about the Kanien'kehaka Onkwawén:na Raotitiohkwa in Kahnawa:ke, Québec, using Rosetta Stone software to teach the Kanien'kéha (Mohawk) language;


• Microsoft developing a Te Reo Māori version of Windows XP, leading to the Microsoft Community Glossary Project, which is looking for suggestions from users about how to translate thinks like hotkey, hyperlink, n/a, and launch into Kannada, Māori, Nepali, Tamil, and Vietnamese. Sadly, it doesn't seem to let you look into the existing suggestions;


• Heritage Malta’s plans for a museum for the Maltese language in the Auberge de France in Vittoriosa;


• efforts in Oklahoma to preserve the Euchee language; and
  
• weather forecasts being delivered in Cajun French at KATC-TV in Lafayette (although it's not fair for the station's weather website not to include Lucille Briscoe, the Cadien weather reader, among its list of forecasters).