Can translation help teaching an endangered language?

Can translation help self-teaching and endangered language? It seems yes, it the translation is accurate. Let us check with the verb parlà (to speak). In this case, the translation is 100% accurate, so it can help (but we need to check other verb categories and other tenses). Other verbs of the same group are verbs that end with : manghjà (to eat), saltà (to jump), cantà (to sing), etc.

To begin with: conjugations, present simple:

  • je parle (I speak), tu parles (you speak), il/elle parle (he/she speaks),
    nous parlons (we speak), vous parlez (you speak), ils/elles parlent (they speak)
  • je parlais (I was speaking), tu parlais (you were speaking), il/elle parlait (he/she was speaking),
    nous parlions (we were speaking), vous parliez (you were speaking), ils/elles parlaient (they were speaking)
  • je parlerai (I will speak), tu parleras (you will speak), il/elle parlera (he/she will speak), nous parlerons (we will speak), vous parlerez (you will speak), ils/elles parleront (they will speak).

Of interest:

  • French ‘parle’ is ambiguous since it can translate into parlu (I speak) or parla (he/she speaks).
  • French ‘parlais’ is ambiguous since it can translate into parlavu (I was speaking) or parlavi (you were speaking).