Language is often intimately tied to culture.
However, nothing lasts forever, it seems. According to the research of some linguists, as many as 90 percent of the languages spoken on Earth today may go extinct over the next century as the last survivors who speak them die off.
With each dead or forgotten language, humanity also loses the cultural perspective that can come along with it.
The ancient language of the Yavapai could very well be a candidate for that list, said Gertrude Smith, the new Yavapai culture manager at the Yavapai-Apache Nation Cultural Resource Center.
It’s something Smith is working hard to try to keep from happening.
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For the full story, see the Wednesday, May 16, edition of The Camp Verde Journal.
