Seventeenth Century Dutch and Ojibway

There's lots of bad reporting about language out there, and anyone with an internet browser will be able to find a tsunami of blogs overflowing with exasperated rants on the subject (as if each poorly presented news article was a personal affront to God or Chomsky).  As for me- I say, why go negative?  Here's a couple of interesting media pieces about language (the first, albeit loosely):

The New York Times ran an article about the translation of colonial Dutch documents from New Amsterdam which revolved around the translator, Charles T. Gehring.  It is easy for a non-professional historian like myself to overlook  the tremendous effort that translators like Mr. Gehring put forth in order to provide scholars (not to mention artists and writers) with their "raw material."

The second piece is an interview on the APM show "The Story" (link goes to the podcast directory, interview is halfway through the December 28th show).   The guest is Helen Roy, an Ojibway speaker who is working to preserve her native language, having herself held on to it during her time at a "residential school" whose mission was to erase Native languages.  Her story of life at the "school" (and I use that term loosely) is harrowing, but I was taken mostly by the determination and creativity with which she approaches language preservation/revitalization.

Well, that's all the good news I have right now.  Come back in a week or so when my New Year's Resolutions have faded for a balancing dose of bitterness and sarcasm.  Until then, may this new year start off as well as the last.  By which I mean, sleep deprived and dehydrated, of course.