And now:Sonja Keohane <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: Monday December 14, 6:40 pm Eastern Time Many Indian languages face extinction in Canada OTTAWA, Dec 14 (Reuters) - Canada's Indians are losing their native tongues as many of their languages are swallowed up by English and French, a study reported on Monday. Only three of 50 aboriginal languages -- Cree, Inuktitut and Ojibway -- had large enough populations in 1996 to be considered truly secure from the threat of extinction in the long run, Statistics Canada, the government statistics agency, said in its report. ``I view it as a sign of loss of culture, and it's also a sign of the assimilation process we were subjected to,'' Maryjane Jim, a vice-chief in the Assembly of First Nations, the largest aboriginal grouping in Canada, told Reuters. Statistics Canada said 10 aboriginal languages became extinct in the last century and at least a dozen were on the brink. Among Canada's 30 million people, only 800,000 claim an aboriginal identity. Just 26 percent of them said an aboriginal language was their mother tongue. Even fewer spoke it at home. A large base of speakers is among the key to viability. Cree, Inuktitut and Ojibway all have 20,000 native speakers, while endangered languages rarely have more than a few thousand and often only a few hundred, the agency said. Maryjane Jim, speaking by telephone from the Yukon Territory, which adjoins Alaska, said many aboriginal groups in the Yukon were trying to reestablish their language. Part of that involves writing the language for the first time, and establishing language classes in the school system. ``The numbers are continuing to decline, but I think that the more that we recognize in the territory that the numbers are continuing to decline the more effort and emphasis is put on the preservation of the language,'' she said. ``In some cases it's been absolutely too late.''
