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Wikipedia Monchak
Here's a chance for somebody to start an entry on the language Monchak, which as of now, does not appear in Wikipedia's admirably large database. The New York Times has a little feature on it: "If you want to tell someone where to "go" in the dying language of the Monchak, you'd better have an intimate knowledge of the river currents in Mongolia, because that's how the verb "go" is expressed in Monchak: upstream or downstream a bit or a bunch, never mind that there's no stream in sight, or maybe there are a lot of streams going every which way."
It's nice to see endangered languages get major media attention. The article has sample words from languages such as Nivkh, Pomo, Rotokas, etc. Also, it looks like the Nigerian language Eleme isn't on Wikipedia yet. Too bad, I'd love to know more about how Eleme doubles a part of a verb to negate it. (For example: "moro" means he saw you, "momoro" means he did not see you.) Eleme.org has some videos and sample sounds, for those who're interested. (ELHAM)
September 25, 2007
