Where can I find books written in endangered/extinct languages?

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windoze98
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Where can I find books written in endangered/extinct languages?

Postby windoze98 » 2018-09-22, 17:20

I've been looking online for these books but I can never find any results. All of them are always in english or some other modern language. I've been looking for Havamal specifically in old norse. Another language that interests me is saterlandic books. Also maybe Cornish books. Thanks.

ceid donn
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Re: Where can I find books written in endangered/extinct languages?

Postby ceid donn » 2018-09-22, 19:16

I can't really help you with the other languages you mention, but Cornish, which is still in the process of being reconstructed and revived, has a few contemporary offerings available: https://www.thecornishstore.co.uk/produ ... -language/

Understand that when it was revived, the extant texts in Cornish only gave us an incomplete picture of the original language and much of what was lacking had to be reconstructed using Breton and other non-Cornish resources. So there isn't much pre-revival literature or other documentation in Cornish. It either didn't survive or never existed. This is sadly what has happened with many languages that went extinct in the 19th and 20th century as result of dramatic cultural changes that forced dominant languages onto these language communities--their languages just never were documented properly, and in some cases, there is either no documentation or too little to attempt reviving the language. Cornish is extraordinarily lucky that its historical sister language, Breton, continued to survive. The two language communities have had a deep connection for many centuries, and without Breton, I do not know if a Cornish revival could have been possible. Just an example of how easily we can lose these languages.

h34
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Re: Where can I find books written in endangered/extinct languages?

Postby h34 » 2018-09-22, 21:07

(stq) As for Seeltersk / Saterlandic, there is a brief description of the language on the bilingual (German / Seeltersk) http://www.saterland.de website. They mention that some of the few books ever published in Saterlandic are available at the local town council. E-mail: rathaus@saterland.de

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Re: Where can I find books written in endangered/extinct languages?

Postby Linguaphile » 2018-09-22, 22:41

h34 wrote:(stq) As for Seeltersk / Saterlandic, there is a brief description of the language on the bilingual (German / Seeltersk) http://www.saterland.de website. They mention that some of the few books ever published in Saterlandic are available at the local town council. E-mail: rathaus@saterland.de

Also some short texts online here:
Saterfriesische Lesetexte für die Altersgruppen A und B Texts in Saterland Frisian for 3rd and 4th grade
Lesetexte auf Saterfriesisch für die Altersgruppen C und D Texts in Saterland Frisian for 5th through 8th grade
Excerpts of Die litje Prins The Little Prince in Saterland Frisian
Sono di continuo a caccia di parole. Descriverei il processo così: Ogni giorno entro in un bosco con un cestino in mano. Trovo le parole tutt'attorno: sugli alberi, nei cespugli, per terra (in realtà: per la strada, durante la conversazioni, mentre leggo). Ne raccolgo quante più possibile. -Jhumpa Lahiri

h34
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Re: Where can I find books written in endangered/extinct languages?

Postby h34 » 2018-09-23, 7:45

Perhaps a coincidence but one of the featured articles on Seeltersk Wikipedia is about Cornish:
https://stq.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kornisk

Laubach
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Re: Where can I find books written in endangered/extinct languages?

Postby Laubach » 2018-10-02, 9:46

Do people actively translate books to endangered or extinct languages for some reason?
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linguoboy
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Re: Where can I find books written in endangered/extinct languages?

Postby linguoboy » 2018-10-02, 15:02

Laubach wrote:Do people actively translate books to endangered or extinct languages for some reason?

There's a small market for translations into Latin. Winnie Ille Pu kind of got the ball rolling and at least one of the Harry Potter books is available in Latin. Maybe some of these are used in classes but I suspect they're more curiosities for those who studied Latin in school and retain some fond feelings for it.
"Richmond is a real scholar; Owen just learns languages because he can't bear not to know what other people are saying."--Margaret Lattimore on her two sons

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Re: Where can I find books written in endangered/extinct languages?

Postby Trigglypuff » 2018-10-04, 13:07

Some missionary organizations translate Bible and other religious texts into some very obscure languages. Other than that I don't know. You may try to find it online available for free.

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Re: Where can I find books written in endangered/extinct languages?

Postby Aurinĭa » 2018-10-04, 13:42

linguoboy wrote:
Laubach wrote:Do people actively translate books to endangered or extinct languages for some reason?

There's a small market for translations into Latin. Winnie Ille Pu kind of got the ball rolling and at least one of the Harry Potter books is available in Latin. Maybe some of these are used in classes but I suspect they're more curiosities for those who studied Latin in school and retain some fond feelings for it.

We read a chapter of a famous Dutch children's book's Latin translation at school, along with some modern Latin poetry, when we were dealing with Latin in the modern world.


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