Thomas A. McKean published "The Sound of Silence-Dementia, Language Loss, and Being Heard" in Cultural Analysis 19.1: Ethnographies of Silence on 25 May.
Language usually implies and embodies communication, but this paper explores the silence created when people living with dementia revert to their first language. I explore the connotations and denotations of the word “silence”, and the cultural dimensions affected by its imposition or adoption. When communication and entire languages are lost, either by attrition or hegemonic pressure, culture is lost, stories are no longer told, experience no longer valued, and our very humanity silenced.