Bringing Our Languages Home

by Leanne Hinton

"Throughout the world, individuals in the intimacy of their homes innovate, improvise, and struggle daily to pass on endangered languages to their children. Elaina Albers of Northern California holds a tape player to her womb so her baby can hear old songs in Karuk. The Baldwin family of Montana put labels all over their house marked with the Miami words for common objects and activities, to keep the vocabulary present and fresh. In Belfast, three generations of the Mac Póilin family cluster together in a neighborhood of ''Irish houses'' that strive for bilingual fluency through community...