Ed Young tells of his experience with 5fish and Apache Indian languages.
I have loaded programs in thirty or forty American Indian languages at a time onto some cell phones and tablets that I use for demonstration. This is so I don't need to be connected to the internet to play programs for people. I was very impressed at how fast the programs would download. The latest 5fish is a great improvement on an already good program.
I recently visited four Apache Indian Reservations in Arizona. I had been involved in some recording projects in some of these Apache dialects way back in the 1980's. I wanted to know if the language was still in use, or if people were only speaking English now.
Two of the reservations were basically not using their native language any more. Two reservations were using their native language.
I talked with a lady in her thirties, on one of the reservations where they are still using the language, and showed her how to listen to the GRN programs on her cell phone. She shared these with several people.
She wrote me an email saying "Also, I shared it with my 3 sisters and 2 brothers. It is like a buried treasure! My sister and I are thinking of sharing it on our local radio station. Do you think that is allowed? We can also promote the website and app. Let me know what you think."
That was real encouraging to me. I believe that, in most cases, the GRN programs that were recorded many years ago are still useful. But what really matters is the opinion of the speakers of the languages.
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