Talk:Status of the Cherokee language

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Neutral, accurate presentation?[edit]

I've only researched this a tiny bit, but the lead of this article seems to present the language as being in a technologically-fueled renaissance. This documentary[1], meanwhile, is entitled "First Language - The Race to Save Cherokee" and the caption is "This Emmy Award-winning documentary chronicles the efforts of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians to preserve and revitalize the endangered Cherokee language". I wonder if the article should be improved, or if the Eastern Dialect is endangered while the entire language is not?

The article also comes off at first glance as being written by a student or someone associated the efforts to improve the language, someone that might have a desire to boast upon language revitalization efforts they are associated with. Any thoughts? Biosthmors (talk) pls notify me (i.e. {{U}}) while signing a reply, thx 18:27, 2 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I read some more and see the rest of the article sounds reasonable. I think the lead doesn't do a good job of summarizing the article as it stands. Biosthmors (talk) pls notify me (i.e. {{U}}) while signing a reply, thx 18:35, 2 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Lead[edit]

A sentence in the lead states that "The Cherokee language is one of the few, or perhaps the only, Native American language with an increasing population of speakers". I examined the source. It came from Lulu press. A quick google search shows this is a self-publishing company. WP:SPS are generally not acceptable. I've researched the author some, Michael Joyner. He publishes a lot of youtube videos on Cherokee[2], and it appears he's published other self-published books.[3] But that doesn't make him an authority on comparing all other Native American languages. Is there any evidence this source is reliable for the information it contains? Biosthmors (talk) pls notify me (i.e. {{U}}) while signing a reply, thx 17:21, 17 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Number of speakers[edit]

This article, in the lead, currently puts the speaker total over 50,000. Interestingly, the infobox at Cherokee language puts it closer to 12,000. This source: https://www.ethnologue.com/language/chr , which I believe would be more reliable for this information, puts it closer to 12,000. UNESCO puts the total closer to 12,000. I'm afraid we're not giving people high-quality information here. Biosthmors (talk) pls notify me (i.e. {{U}}) while signing a reply, thx 22:26, 20 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Misleading article (it not about the subject it's supposed to be on)[edit]

It seems this article as written should have the following title: "Official use of and revitalization efforts regarding the Cherokee language". However, that type of content should be able to be contained within the parent article for the language itself. As it stands, a much more informative summary of the true status and vitality of the language can be found in recent Cherokee press coverage: "the population of Cherokee speakers now numbers only a couple of thousand, most of whom are elderly. In March, a dozen passed away, and an average of eight die each month. Younger speakers are much less numerous, with those under 60 numbering about 250, and those under 40 amounting to just a handful."[4] I think we are providing a disservice to readers by hosting this article as it is. It seems to be a big diversion and waste of time from the actual topic it's supposed to be covering, which is very easy to summarize. Biosthmors (talk) pls notify me (i.e. {{U}}) while signing a reply, thx 16:52, 13 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Personal interview cited 4 times[edit]

I now see this article has 4 citations to a personal interview. I'm afraid this article was created with too little of an idea of WP:What Wikipedia is. As explained there, Wikipedia isn't a place for unverifiable information. (Personal interviews are unverifiable.) For what it's worth, an article now exists (created this year) of New Kituwah Academy, which is a large focus of this article. I believe I will merge this article back to Cherokee language. Biosthmors (talk) pls notify me (i.e. {{U}}) while signing a reply, thx 23:16, 13 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]