Desert Channels Queensland (DCQ) has secured Federal Government funding to develop the dictionaries for 14 language groups, covering one-third of the state.
DCQ spokesman Jeff Poole says it is hard to find people who still speak some of the languages, but dictionaries will help to revive them.
“It’s making it very accessible to a broad age range, so that a young child can pick it up and can begin to assimilate words into the language,” Mr Poole said.
“I think languages really help encapsulate a culture – they help you understand the way people approach things, the words that they use.
“If we lose that, we’ve lost a treasure forever.”
Mr Poole says the dictionaries will become a tool for school and community groups and should help to ensure the survival of different languages.
By Chrissy Arthur
- This article originally appears at:
- http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/07/12/2950656.htm
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