Can a Salvadoran Gang Save an Endangered Language?  Image
source: Markarinafotos  Image source: Markarinafotos  “Every 14
days a language dies. By 2100, more than half of the more than
7,000 languages spoken on Earth—many of them not yet
recorded—may disappear.” – National Geographic/Enduring Voices
Project  A recent report by El Diario de Hoy about how
Salvadoran gang members are learning Nahuat, caught my eye.
Members of La Mara Salvatrucha (also known as MS13), have been
instructed by gang leaders to learn Nahuat and other indigenous
languages of the Central American country; languages which are
highly endangered or almost extinct, and some of which have less
than 100 native speakers currently living, according to the
report.  Unfortunately, the gang’s purpose of learning these
languages isn’t at all altruistic and they have no intention of
learning the languages fluently. Gang members have been
instructed to learn enough vocabulary to create an
indecipherable code which will make it more difficult for la