Finding a Voice

Finding a Voice

More than half the languages spoken around the world today will be gone before the century is over. What does that mean to the people who speak them? What does that mean for the rest of us? Finding a Voice explores the connections between language and identity at a time of dizzying change.

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Feature stories heard in this hour

Ladino Transformation
Bulgaria's Jews are survivors, but the language they have spoken for centuries is in trouble. Since the 1940s, Ladino—a mix of Spanish, Hebrew, Arabic and several other languages—has retreated from the streets to the kitchen to the social club. Now it may be headed for the archives. Sandy Tolan visits with some of Bulgaria's last Ladino speakers as they try to keep the tongue from going silent.

Welsh Renaissance
Languages around the world are disappearing at an unprecedented rate. But Welsh is making a comeback, and children are leading the way. Today about 25% of all children in Wales attend Welsh immersion schools. Now the challenge is to move the language from the classroom back to the home. Jon Miller spends a day with the Steel family, native English speakers from Clydach, a suburb of Swansea.

Occitan Rock
Two centuries ago, Napoleon declared the language spoken in northern France the official language of the republic. Since then, French has been at the core of national identity. Now some musicians from the south are challenging that notion, using a blend of reggae, Brazilian rhythms and the musical forms of the medieval troubadors. Julian Crandall Hollick listens in.

Tell Me WAI
Musicians Mina Ripia and Maaka McGregor learned to speak Maori in college, after the New Zealand government made it an official national language. Now they sing exclusively in Maori, and use a mix of modern and traditional instruments. They're part of a new generation of Maoris who have decided to move their culture forward rather than leave it behind. Dmae Roberts meets them at their home in Wellington.

The Zapotec Bible
In the indigenous Mexican village of Yaganiza, Rebecca Long is translating the New Testament into the local Zapateco language. Long works with a Dallas-based Christian group that has helped document and preserve hundreds of dying languages. But her presence—like the group she works with—has not been without controversy. Producer Marianne McCune tells a complex story about language, religion, tradition and trust.

Resurrecting the Zápara
The Zápara people once ranged far across the western Amazon. By the 1970s, anthropologists had concluded that their culture was extinct. But a handful of native speakers survived in Ecuador and Peru. With help from UNESCO, the Zápara are now trying to resuscitate their language and culture. But a new danger looms. Alan Weisman and Nancy Hand travel to the jungle to see how they are faring.

Series credits

Executive Producer: Jon Miller
Associate Producers: Lara Ratzlaff and Melissa Robbins
Senior Producers: Sandy Tolan and Alan Weisman
Host: María Hinojosa
Engineer: Robin Wise of Sound Imagery
Theme music: Samite, whose non-profit organization is Musicians for World Harmony
Website design: Jackie Cerretani of Lost Art Media

Thanks to (alphabetically): the AIR listserve, Jay Allison, Chris Ballman, Helen Barrington, Vincie Bertolino, Deb Blakeley, Peter Breslow, David L. Brown, Steve Burke, Bill Buzenberg, Betsy Gardella, Deborah George, Peggy Girshman, Nancy Hand, Beckie Kravetz, Loren Jenkins, Martha Little, Ingrid Lobet, Margaret Low Smith, Joyce MacDonald, Amy Mayer, Rebecca Nelson, Eric Nuzum, Keith Porter, Nancy Postero, Jeff Ramirez, Rod Richards, Marcus Rosenbaum, Didi Schanche, Steve Schultze, Stu Seidel, Jacqueline Sharkey, Bill Sokol, Sue Schardt, Bari Scott, Lynn Szwaja, Gwen Thompkins, Jeff Towne, Cecilia Vaisman, Gosia Wojniacka, Ellen Yuan.

Thanks also to the following people for granting interviews for the Worlds of Difference specials: Vohra Anupam, Hurriyet Babacan, Tyler Cowen, Wade Davis, Jonathan Friedman, Chip Gagnon, Barry Gills, Michael Hardt, Debra Harry, Mickey Hart, Ronald Inglehart, Pico Iyer, Mark Juergensmeyer, Smitu Kothari, Luisa Maffi, Ali Mazrui, Bill McKibben, Walter Mignolo, Ashis Nandy, Brendan O'Leary, Agnes Pareiyo, Kaiping Peng, Jules Pretty, Amartya Sen, Richard Chase Smith, Suresh Sharma, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, Rhajib Vohra, Owens Wiwa, Mato Wyacopi.

Major funding for Worlds of Difference comes from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Polson Institute for Global Development at Cornell University and the Department of Journalism at the University of Arizona.

Homelands Productions is a non-profit journalism cooperative specializing in radio documentaries. Its mission is to illuminate complex issues through compelling broadcasts, articles, books and educational forums, and to foster freedom of expression and creative risk through the media arts.