Talk:Mutsun

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An entry from Mutsun appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know? column on 4 April 2006.

[edit] NPOV

OK, here's the problem I have with the article. It cites a single source, which is (and is welcome to be) a booster of the language and people. That's potential bias right there. More factually, though:

• the language did not go extinct until 1930, long after Spanish control (see Talk:Main page). That's a problem.
• I can learn a language, and have, and I could even be forced to learn and use a language, but I still know and use English. A language doesn't go extinct because someone is forced to learn a new one, it goes extinct because people stop using it. What are the causes that led the Mutsun to stop using their language? Potentially:
  • Legal. Persecuted for using Mutsun.
  • Economic. Need to use Spanish for trade reasons.
  • Technological. Use the language that has the words for the new items you encounter.
  • Social. Live around mainly Spanish speakers, or around few Mutsun speakers.
• So after Mexico secularized the missions in 1834, how did the legal control continue? Or did the extinction happen as with many languages -- because a niche language is less useful in an interconnected society.

I recognize the imperialism of Spain and the questionable voluntary character of religious conversions of the era by modern standards, but the flat statement "went extinct when they were forced to learn Spanish" is not just questionable, it's obviously factually wrong, because the extinction occurred more than a century later. --Dhartung | Talk 07:40, 5 April 2006 (UTC)

That map is incorrect -- it is not a map of the area in which Mutsun was spoken, but rather a map of the area in which the Utian languages were found. Utian is the larger language family in which Costanoan and Miwokan are classified. The map should be changed. -Anonymous, 9/27/06