dying languages

(Newser) - Starting in September, preschoolers in a small community in central Sweden will start getting lessons in a dying language thought to date back to the time of the Vikings. It is called, awesomely, Elfdalian, reports the Local . Those hoping for a Tolkien-esque link will be disappointed to learn that it...

(Newser) - It's called Boontling, and the back-country dialect has been spoken for 160 years or so in Boonville and the surrounding hamlets of California's Mendocino County. But because so little "bahl harpin'" (fluent speaking) is going on today, Boontling is "pikin' to the dusties," or...

(Newser) - In two Holy Land villages—and, randomly, Sweden—efforts are being made to revive Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke that has been almost dead for centuries. The Palestinian village of Beit Jala, near Bethlehem, and the Arab-Israeli village of Jish, in the Galilean hills where Jesus taught, were both inspired...

(Newser) - The centuries-old Mexican Ayapaneco language isn't quite dead yet—but there may never be another conversation in it. There are only two people left alive who speak it fluently, and they don't want to have anything to do with each other, reports the Guardian . Apart from the language,...