Terrafied Kestrel Dec 27, 2022

But seriously, as an anthropologist it drives me fucking crazy that people are so excited about learning Na’vi from Avatar and speaking fucking Klingon and trying to create new languages for their fantasy novel.

Actual human languages are dying because of colonialism and globalization and somehow nobody says “maybe I’ll use an actual dying language and get people excited about speaking that.” Nope, ima make some shit up and let that die. It’s ego over good and it makes me so sad.

Show threadEd HeilDec 27, 2022

@terrafiedkestrel The onion is 23 years ahead of you on this issue

https://www.theonion.com/klingon-speakers-now-outnumber-navajo-speakers-1819565239

(the article is literally completely false though, of course, Navajo is one of the healthiest/most widely used of Native languages, but if they'd picked a different one probably literally true)

Klingon Speakers Now Outnumber Navajo Speakers

NEW YORK—According to a report released Monday by the Modern Language Association, speakers of the Star Trek-based Klingon language outnumber individuals fluent in Navajo by a margin of more than seven-to-one.

The Onion
Show threadTerrafied Kestrel Dec 27, 2022
@edheil “this issue” being the one I wrote a series of essays about 25 years ago and revisit now because of recent news about Avatar.
Show threadEd Heil
@terrafiedkestrel (BTW, looking back at what I wrote, I realize "the onion is ahead of you" probably came off as disrespectful or belittling, I wasn't intending that when I wrote it, but I apologize that it came out sounding that way)
Dec 27, 2022 at 3:51pmWeb