lowsocks wrote:It is terrible when languages die, but from stories I have read, usually the last few speakers are willing to work with linguists, to see that their language is at least documented. The situation you describe sounds very unusual. Even if they could not care less about outsiders, their decision would seem to deprive their descendants of any accurate knowledge of their ancestors' language.
I'll see if I can find it -- I read it on r/linguistics years ago (like, probably closer to a decade than 5 years even). Their reasoning was basically because linguists kept asking and they felt it was the last thing they had of their tribe that they had control over, if that makes sense. They said it was a loss for their descendants, but rather than give it up just because colonisers think they should study it, they'd rather it die with them as basically a sign of rebellion against that.