Berenstain Bears Try to Save Ancient Language

Hundreds of tongues are down to their last few speakers

(NEWSER) - Johnny Hill Jr., a 53-year-old Arizonan, talks to himself in Chemehuevi, a language once spoken by many Southwestern Native Americans. He does that because there's rarely anyone for him to speak Chemehuevi with; Hill tried to teach the language to his stepson without success. There is every chance that the tongue will die with him, Smithsonian magazine writes, in a feature on Native American languages at risk of extinction. More»

Native American speech among vanishing

(NEWSER) - A language dies about every two weeks and thousands are at risk, warned linguists, who yesterday identified five global hotspots where languages are most endangered. Several native American languages are dying out in the Southwest and regions including British Columbia, Washington and Oregon. Indigenous communication is also vanishing in rural Australia, Siberia and central South America. More»

Rate of rape much higher than the rest of the country

(NEWSER) - The official number is bad enough: One in three American Indian women have experienced rape or attempted rape, a rate more than twice the national average. But it gets worse: One survey finds that in some rural villages, the rate of sexual violence is as much as 12 times the national rate, and interviews by the New York Times found that sexual assault is so common that few, if any, Native American women living on tribal reservations escape it. "We should never have a woman come into the office saying, 'I need to learn more about Plan B for when my daughter gets raped,'" says one women's health advocate on a South Dakota reservation. "That’s what’s so frightening—that it’s more expected than unexpected. It has become a norm for young women." More»

Kummerspeck, and other great options

(NEWSER) - The German language is officially richer, thanks to its adoption of the English word "shitstorm." Now that we've given, it's time to take: Cracked argues that the English language is in desperate need of these nine foreign words, for which there is absolutely no English equivalent:

• Kummerspeck: Kicking things off with a word from our German friends, this literally means "grief bacon," or, in Cracked's translation, the extra pounds we pack on thanks to emotional eating.

Berenstain Bears co-creator was working on books until the day she died

(NEWSER) - Sad news for the millions of former kids who learned about messy rooms and those awful gimmes from the Berenstain Bears: Co-creator Jan Berenstain died on Friday in Solebury, Pa., at the age of 88. Her son told the AP that she suffered a severe stroke the day prior. Jan, along with husband Stan, wrote and illustrated the series, which now numbers some 300 titles in 23 languages. The first book, The Big Honey Hunt, came out in 1962. What followed were books that zero in on children's concerns and offer gentle guidance. "They say jokes don't travel well, but family humor does," Jan told the AP in 2011. "Family values is what we're all about." More»