Those who don't speak the dominant language of their region as their first language know all too well that language status—and the consequences of it—are real. Without being entirely conscious of it, all societies have developed language hierarchies that place some languages in positions of prestige, at or near the top of the hierarchy, while relegating other languages to positions of subordination, at or near the bottom of the hierarchy. This is most evident in regions where, long ago, a colonial language established its dominance by declaring its superiority, while simultaneously suppressing the use of the indigenous languages that had been present in the region since the beginning of time. In this episode, we hear how awareness of language statuses played out in a remote Baoulé village in central Côte d'Ivoire in the mid 1980s when a woman from the village took a visitor from the United States to school, so to speak, regarding the topic of language hierarchies. We learn some handy Baoulé proverbs along the way. Also discussed: threatened languages and moribund languages. 

Marie's Dictionary: The Last Speaker of Wukchumni: https://youtu.be/iRDmRXCizEM?si=D0H3T4CHUCqYRi3l

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