What examples are there of the last surviving speaker of a language being unable to speak in any other?

Jimmy68

Although some people claim to still speak Cornish the last person to speak it as their mother tongue died just over a hundred years ago. http://www.clas.demon.co.uk/html/body_history_of_cornish.htm#TheDeclineOfCornish Oct 31 03, 5:51 AM

gmackematix

When I asked this, I vaguely remembered reading about a Native American who was both the last of his tribe and the last remaining speaker of his language. I think his own language was all he spoke making him rather lonely. Can anybody supply details? Nov 12 03, 8:07 PM

griffinj

The Native American part gave me a clue. I think you mean Ishi, the last survivor of the Yana tribe. The Yana were a tribe native to the foothills of Mt. Lassen, California. Their story is nothing less than tragic; of the more than 2,000 Yanas alive at the beginning of 1864, perhaps no more than 50 were alive at the end of 1865. Ishi was discovered in Oroville CA in 1911. Ishi did however eventually learn to speak some English. He died in 1916. (“The Last Stone Age Man in America”, C. W. Campbell, reprinted in “The People’s Almanac #2” 1978, pp. 36ff.) It was originally printed in "American History Illustrated", June 1977. Nov 12 03, 8:30 PM