Monday, October 18, 2010

Bumper sticker against Native language?

Just this morning I saw the following bumper sticker:

Okay, I'm all for the first part. Literacy has had some negative effects on Native languages, but that's mostly a side-effect of the way literacy has been implemented rather than an inherent problem with literacy itself. But the second part? Thank a soldier that we're reading this in English? Isn't that just about the same as thanking a soldier that we are NOT reading this in a Native language? I guess in some sense it IS ultimately soldiers who are responsible for the demise of Native language in Alaska.

1 comment:

  1. I suspect that the intended meaning is that we speak English because soldiers have defended the US against invasion, whereas we might speak, e.g., German if the Nazis had won WWII, or Russian if the Soviet Union had won the Cold War. The creator of the bumpersticker probably wasn't thinking one way or the other about native languages.

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