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Our home and Native languages?
February 9, 2007 - 12:04am
Our Home and Native Languages?
One of the things that many Canadians take pride in is our multiculturalism. We live in a nation of rich diversity and tolerance we often like to say (when we’re not complaining about the complications that is…) and compared to some other less fortunate nations that’s true. What many Canadians may not be aware of, however, is how much of our social diversity and cultural inheritance is now threatened --threatened in a way that is almost always irreversible.
Many of the languages spoken in Canada --since long before there even was a Canada-- are now facing imminent extinction. A mass extinction, if you will, that will surely come to pass unless more is done to save them. I’m speaking of course about the many native languages that aboriginal Canadians have spoken for centuries and millennia past; languages which are unique in ways that make their imminent passing all the more sad.
Every language is of course unique in its own way, and every one should be valued by its community as part of their collective heritage, their identity, their culture, their particular means of communication which connect them to their ancestor’s voices in ways which only it can convey. Our aboriginal languages are particularly unique, however, in that they’re all members of very different and diverse language families, none of which are spoken anywhere else outside their small communities. Which also means that if they die out here they die out everywhere.
Before I go further into why our immigrant majority should care too, I’d first like to present a comprehensive list which shows in some detail the increasingly dire straits of our First Nation’s first languages. I only hope this stark overview can help give a better sense of the present situation:
( * I have used a number of academic and governmental sources to compile what I believe are the most up-to-date and accurate records, but had to use a degree of discretion in deciding which languages are indeed separate languages (low mutual intelligibility) and which only dialects, as well as the most plausible relationships with other language groups. There is little scholarly agreement on most larger language families or stocks, but some theories are more accepted than others. The lines immediately below mark the locales, languages, probable relationships, and speakers remaining, in the order followed)
Present State of Aboriginal languages in Canada.
# (Locations): Language: (Family Relationships): -Total Speakers, Total Ethnic Population: (% speakers) {{additional comments} **
Dead Languages:
1- (Newfoundland) Beothuk (Isolate, distantly related to Algonkian?) -extinct 1829, no known survivors.
2- (Quebec) Hochelaga/Laurentian (North Iroquoian, Iroquois-Caddo-Sioux) -extinct (??), assimilated with Huron, Mohawk? {{the name ‘Canada’ from Laurentian ‘Kan-ada’, meaning settlement/village}
3- (Quebec, Ontario, US) Huron-Petun-Attiwan/Wyandot (North Iroquoian, Iroquois-Caddo-Sioux) -extinct 1960’s, pop. 5,000. {{growing interest in reviving language}
4- (NWT, Yukon, US) Inuit-Louchoux pidgin (Inuit-English-Dene pidgin) -extinct mid-1900s?, Arctic trade language.
5- (BC) Nicola Dene/Stuwyx (East Dene, Na-Dene) -extinct early-1900’s?, assimilated with Thompson Salish.
6- (BC) Pentlach (Coast Salish, Mosan stock?) -extinct 1940’s, pop. 50?
7- (Maritimes) Souriquoian pidgin (French-Basque-Mi’kmaq pidgin} -extinct mid-1800’s?, Maritime trade language. {{Newfoundland “Jakatars” once speakers?}
8- (BC, Yukon) Tsetsaut (Tsetsaut Dene, Na-Dene) -extinct 1930’s, survivors assimilated with Nisga’a.
Languages on the Verge:
9- (Quebec, US) Abnaki-Penobscot (Atlantic Algonkian, Algic) -20 or fewer speakers, pop. 2,000. {{all speakers in CAN}
10- (US, from Saskatchewan) Atsina/GrosVentre (Arapaho Algonkian) -a few partial speakers, pop. 2-3,000? {{all speakers in US}
11- (BC) BellaCoola/Nuxalk (North Salish, Mosan stock?) -20 or fewer speakers, pop. 800.
12- (BC, US) Haida, Masset-Kaigani (Isolate, distantly related to Na-Dene?) -40 or fewer speakers, pop. 1,500.
13- (BC) Haida, Skidegate (Isolate, distantly related to Na-Dene?) -10 or fewer speakers, pop. 500.
14- (BC) Haisla (North Wakkash, Mosan stock?) -25 or fewer speakers, pop. 1,000.
15- (Yukon) Han (East Dene, Na-Dene) -10 or fewer speakers, pop. 300.
16- (BC, US) Kutenai (Isolate, distantly related to Algonkian or Salish?) -5 or fewer speakers, pop. 900. {{all speakers in CAN}
17- (Ontario, from US) Munsee-Lenape (Atlantic Algonkian, Algic) -5 or fewer speakers, pop. 400-1,000? {{all speakers in CAN}
16- (Ontario, US) Onandaga (North Iroquoian, Iroquois-Caddo-Sioux) -70-100 speakers?, pop. 19,000.
19- (US, some in Ontario) Pottowatomi (Central Algonkian, Algic) -50 or fewer speakers, pop. 25,000. {{all speakers in US, but partial speakers still}
20- (Alberta) Sarsi/TsuuT’ina (East Dene, Na-Dene) -50 or fewer speakers, pop. 800-1,000.
21- (BC) Sechelt (Coast Salish, Mosan stock?) -40 or fewer speakers, pop. 7-900.
22- (BC, US) Songhee-Saanich-Lummi (Coast Salish, Mosan stock?) -30 or fewer speakers, pop. 5-10,000?
23- (BC) Squamish (Coast Salish, Mosan stock?) -15 or fewer speakers, pop. 2,300.
24- (BC) Tahltan-Tagish (Nahanni Dene, Na-Dene) -40 or fewer speakers, pop. 2,400. {{some Tagish speak Tlingit}
25- (US, into Ontario) Tuscarora (Central Iroquoian, Iroquois-Caddo-Sioux) -15 or fewer speakers, pop. 1,000.
Threatened and Moribund (spoken by few if any youths) Languages:
26- (Quebec, Ontario) Algonquin, Maniwaki (Central Algonkian, Algic) -300 speakers, pop. 2,300. (12%) {{some youths, most prefer French or English}
27- (BC) Babine (East Dene, Na-Dene) -500 speakers, pop. 2,200. (24%) {{some youths, most prefer English}
28- (BC, US) Chinuk-Wawa (Chinook-Nutka-English pidgin) -1-200 speakers?, NW coast trade language. {{a few younger partial speakers; taught again at GrandeRonde Oregon}
29- (BC) Comox-Sliammin (Coast Salish, Mosan stock?) -350 speakers?, pop. 800-1,600. (22-45%) {{a few youths, some middle-aged; Comox dialect nearly extinct}
30- (BC, Alberta) Dunneza-Sekani (East Dene, Na-Dene) -330 speakers, pop. 1,300. (25%) {{some youths, most prefer English}
31- (BC) Gitxsan-Nisga’a (Tsimshian, Penutian) -2,600 speakers, pop. 9,500. (27%) {{a few children, some youths; some elders also speak Tsimshian}
32- (BC) Halkomelem (Coast Salish, Mosan stock?) -200 speakers, pop. 8-10,000. (2%) {{a few middle-aged, younger partial speakers; Musqueam dialect recently extinct}
33- (BC) Hieltsuk/Bellabella (North Wakkash, Mosan stock?) -300 speakers, pop. 2,800. (9%) {(some middle-aged}
34- (BC, Yukon) Kaska-Dena (Nahanni Dene, Na-Dene) -400 speakers, pop. 900. (44%) {{some youths, most prefer English}
35- (BC) Kwak’walla (North Wakkash, Mosan stock?) -240 speakers, pop. 4,900. (4%) {{some middle-aged}
36- (BC) Lilluwat (Interior Salish, Mosan stock?) -200 speakers, pop. 4,700. (4%) {{some middle-aged}
37- (NewBrunswick, US) Malecite-Passamoquody (Atlantic Algonkian, Algic) -650 speakers, pop. 3-4,000. (17-22%) {{some youths, most prefer English; US Passamaquody dialect entirely moribund}
38- (CAN, into US) Mitchif/French Cree (French-Cree creole) -1,000 speakers?, pop. 100-300,000 French Metis? (0.3-1%) {{some middle-aged, some partial speakers}
39- (Ontario, Quebec, US) Mohawk (North Iroquoian, Iroquois-Caddo-Sioux) -3,000 speakers, pop. 25-50,000? (6-12%) {{a few children & youth, some partial speakers}
40- (BC) Nitinaht-Nuchalnuth/Nutka (South Wakkash, Mosan stock?) -200 speakers, pop. 5,700. (3-4%) {{a few middle-aged; Nitinaht dialect nearly extinct}
41- (BC) Ntlakpamuk/Thompson (Interior Salish, Mosan stock?) -600 speakers, pop. 4,700. (13%) {{some middle-aged}
42- (BC, US) Okanagan (Interior Salish, Mosan stock?) -500 speakers, pop. 5-10,000? (5-10%) {{a few youths, some middle-aged}
43- (US, into Ontario) Oneida (North Iroquoian, Iroquois-Caddo-Sioux) -300 speakers, pop. 2-6,000? (5-17%) {{some middle-aged}
44- (Ontario, US) Seneca-Cayuga (North Iroquoian, Iroquois-Caddo-Sioux) -250 speakers, pop. 9-12,000? (2-3%) {{some middle-aged, some partial speakers}
45- (Alberta, US) Siksika-Pikanii/Blackfoot (Blackfoot Algonkian, Algic) -5,100 speakers, pop. 24-30,000? (17-27%) {{some children & youth, most prefer English}
46- (BC) Shuswap/Secwepemc (Interior Salish, Mosan stock?) -500 speakers, pop. 7-10,000. (5-7%) {{a few youths, some middle-aged}
47- (US, into BC) Tlingit (Tlingit, Na-Dene) -850 speakers, pop. 11,000. (8%) {{a few youths, some middle-aged, some partial speakers}
48- (BC, some in US) Tsimshian (Tsimshian, Penutian) -800 speakers, pop. 4,500. (18%) {{some middle-aged; distinct Klemtu dialect nearly extinct}
49- (Yukon) Tutchone (Tu-Taina Dene, Na-Dene) -400 speakers, pop. 2,400. (17%) {{some middle-aged}
Relatively Healthy Language Communities:
50- (Ontario, Quebec) Algonquin, North (Central Algonkian, Algic) -2,000 speakers, pop. 5,000. (40%) {(weaker in Ontario; some elders also speak Eastern Cree}
51- (BC) Carrier/Dakelh (East Dene, Na-Dene) -2,000 speakers, pop. 5-8,000? (25-40%) {{weaker in south}
52- (Ontario) Central Ojibwe-Ojicree (Central Algonkian, Algic) -8,000 speakers, pop. 10,000? (80%?) {{vigorous, all ages; some Saulteaux, Maskegon Cree also spoken}
53- (BC) Chilcotin (East Dene, Na-Dene) -2,000 speakers, pop. 2,500. (80%) {{most youths prefer English, but vigorous some communities}
54- (NWT, Alberta-Manitoba) Chipewyan-Tatsettine (East Dene, Na-Dene) -4,000 speakers, pop. 6-10,000. (40-67%) {{most youths prefer English, but vigorous some communities}
55- (Quebec) Cree, Attikemekw (Central Algonkian, Algic) -3,900 speakers, pop. 4,000. (97%) ((vigorous, all ages}
56- (Quebec) Cree, Eastern (Central Algonkian, Algic) -12,000 speakers, pop. 13,000. (92%) {{vigorous, all ages}
57- (Ontario) Cree, Swampy/Maskegon (Central Algonkian, Algic) -10,000 speakers, pop. 12-15,000? (67-83%) {{vigorous, all ages; some Ojicree also spoken}
58- (Alberta-Manitoba, into US) Cree, Plains-Woods (Central Algonkian, Algic) -70,000 speakers, pop. 130,000. (57%) {{weaker in south}
59- (US, Alberta-Manitoba) Dakota-Lakota/Sioux (Central Siouxan, Iroquois-Caddo-Sioux) - 18-22,000 speakers?, pop. 100-110,000. (16-22%) {{some children, weaker in north; Assiniboin Nakota dialects moribund}
60- (NWT, Yukon, US) Gwichen/Louchoux (East Dene, Na-Dene) -1,000 speakers, pop. 3,000. (33%) {{first language, some isolated communities}
61- (Nunavit, Quebec, Labrador) Inuktitut, Canadian (Inuit, Eskimo-Aleut, distantly related to Siberian Chukotan?) -18,000 speakers?, pop. 25-30,000? (65-72%) {{weakest in Labrador}
62-(Greenland/Nunavit) Inuktitut, Greenlandic/Kaalallisut (Inuit, Eskimo-Aleut, distantly related to Siberian Chukotan?) -48,000 speakers, pop. 50,000. (96%) {{50-100? Thule Inuit still on Ellesmere island}
63- (US, NWT) Inupiatin (Inuit, Eskimo-Aleut, distantly related to Siberian Chukotan?) -4-8,000 speakers?, pop. 18,000. (22-44%) {{some children, most prefer English}
64- (Maritimes-Quebec, US) Mi’kmaq (Atlantic Algonkian, Algic) -8,000 speakers, pop. 16,000. (50%) {{moribund in some communities}
65- (Quebec, Labrador) Montagnais-Naskapi/Innuh (Central Algonkian, Algic) -9,100, pop. 11,000. (89%) {{vigorous, all ages}
66- (Ontario, US) Odawa-Mississauga (Central Algonkian, Algic) -22,000 speakers, pop. 48,000 (43%) {{some children, weaker in south}
67- (Ontario-Saskatchewan) Plains Ojibwa-Saulteaux (Central Algonkian, Algic) -10-15,000 speakers?, pop. 35-60,000? (25-44%?) {{vigorous some communities, weaker in west; some Saulteaux also speak Ojicree}
68- (BC, Alberta, NWT) Slavi-Hare (East Dene, Na-Dene) -2,200 speakers, pop. 5,200. (42%) {{first language, some isolated communities; southern dialects weaker}
69- (NWT) Tlicho-Ndilo/Dogrib (East Dene, Na-Dene) -2,100 speakers, pop. 3,500. (60%) {{first language, most rural communities; some Tatsettine also spoken}
............................................................................................................
So out of some sixty nine native languages once spoken by Canada’s First Nations people, twenty four of them are now in serious danger of being completely forgotten within the next generation or two. Another seventeen are in even worse shape, close to joining the eight already lost, with only a handful of aging speakers left. That’s forty nine in total, over seventy percent of all those once spoken.
Even many of the twenty speech communities I classified as still ‘relatively healthy’ are uncertain of survival that much further into the future; few are heard on a daily basis anywhere in Canada now. And the situation in the States is no better. Only eight of some twenty five ancient language stocks native to North America (north of Mexico) have as much as a single language that could be considered at all vital; three of nine in Canada.
Now, this may not be on the same level of concern as the escalating extinction of plant and animal species, or the daily discrimination and hardship many aboriginal people still face, but it’s still an issue we should all care about. Some would no doubt argue that, although sad, it’s just a part of the ongoing pattern of assimilation. Whole nations have disappeared before, but their surviving descendents eventually adjusted to life in other societies.
There may be some truth to that historically, but there has never been as much cultural homogenization as now. And it’s worth remembering that this process has almost always come at great cost to these communities and individual members. Conquered people, which is what this is really referring to, often remain a disadvantaged if not oppressed minority centuries after their original cultures were abandoned. Learning to speak English in Canada’s old Indian schools, and being discouraged from using their own, has done little to actually integrate Aboriginal peoples into our mainstream. At least not in any sense that anyone is satisfied with.
It has however helped create a sense of dislocation, alienation and loss within what were once highly integrated and self sufficient communities of their own. Language is only part of the picture, but it remains an essential part. Every language not only has unique features that make it a separate language, but are also cultural hothouses of information, historical perspectives, and shared values. They might even affect the way we perceive our world.
It’s fairly well known that Inuit (Eskimo) languages have many more words for snow than English does, while English has more words for things (from high tech to cattle) which reflect our own society’s priorities and background. But it goes beyond that. Although English, French and Spanish have adopted some native words, like squash, moose, tobacco, chocolate, kayak, etc., there are always culture specific terms relating to traditional skills, customs, concepts, memories, sentiments or humour that are difficult to even translate.
Most native languages, like the Algonkian and Sioux, also possess complex “polysynthetic” grammars which can combine a whole sentence within what’s essentially one long multi-morpheme word. Complex to Europeans perhaps, but it allows a wide range of connotations, aspects, orientation and relationships to be ascribed to any natural feature or social situation. Some even describe different subjects and objects based on relative similarities, rather than dividing them into different categories as others generally do.
Whether this means our languages affect our perceptions as much as they reflect them is a question for philosophers and linguists. What anyone can appreciate is that maintaining our mother tongue also means preserving parts of our culture which might otherwise be lost, and loss of culture can mean a loss of social cohesion and personal identity. And that goes as much for others as it does for our own.
Many First Nations are starting to offer courses in their native languages and teach them to their kids again, but more needs to be done and soon. These initial programs could be expanded to more than a few short classes, with support from other Canadians; more comprehensive records can be made of dying tongues before it’s too late; even a few fluent and dedicated elders could immerse more youngsters into languages their parents might have lost.
Maybe someday every First Nation and reserve could have services, signs and media which speak to their particular heritage as well. This wouldn’t resolve everything that’s gone before of course, but it would be a positive step forward and perhaps even encourage greater understanding among all Canadians.
~ ~ ~
so, it could be done.
I think that would be the best bet to immediately breathe life into the languages.
I know several young native people and they seem keen on many traditions but language does not seem that high on the list. Perhaps if it was on wikipedia, it might help?
If you're serious about such a project, you can do the following:
(1) request a new language project; and
(2) contact a faculty member in a native studies programme at a Canadian university, and pitch the idea of getting money from SSHRC (or other funding agencies) to put together a Wikipedia in the proposed language; the funding could be used to hire young speakers for summer jobs: they can have the job or writing (or simply translating) articles on both topics particularly related to FN people and topics of general interest.
This alone is not going to save any languages. But it might get some people interested in and excited about their native languages, especially since anyone can get involved in building a Wikipedia.
(Lord help me, I just happen to have a freakishly good memory, combined with an obsession for archival research, so might as well do something with 'em. [img]smile.gif" border="0[/img] )
Turns out it's gone to the printer now anyhow so too late for any corrections after all. Not supposed to send out anywhere else before hand but wasn't sure on a few points and figured the odds of getting plagarized were low. [img]wink.gif" border="0[/img]
Brian's idea is excellent I agree, thanks to you too. I don't think languages can be preserved online no, as they need to be spoken around kids when they're young then maintained during course of everyday, but every bit can make a real difference at this point. Decided to learn the old Chinook jargon online myself, fairly simple trade pidgin but soon see how simple it really is....
[ 09 February 2007: Message edited by: EriKtheHalfaRed ]
Native voices going extinct
A few tongues survive in Canada
Feb 18, 2007 04:30 AM
Peter Calamai
Science Writer, Toronto Star
SAN FRANCISCO–Every time a language dies, experts warned here yesterday, the world loses irreplaceable scientific knowledge as well as cultural richness.
The potential toll is immense, with an estimated half of humanity's current 7,000 languages struggling to survive, often spoken by just an elderly few.
A 1996 UN report classed aboriginal languages in Canada as among the most endangered in the world and Statistics Canada concluded that only three out of 50 – Cree, Ojibway and Inuktitut – had large enough populations to be considered secure from extinction in the long run.
"The accumulated knowledge is fragile because most of the world's languages have no writing," said linguist David Harrison, director of research with the Living Tongues Institute.
Harrison said that Western biologists are only now beginning to unravel the diversity of plants and species that local inhabitants have long understood and catalogued in their rich vocabulary.
For example, recent research discovered that a butterfly in Costa Rica wasn't one species but 10. Yet the local Tzeltal people had already called the caterpillars by different names, because they attacked different crops.
"The knowledge that science thinks it is discovering about plants, animals and weather cycles has often been around for a long time," said Harrison, a professor at Pennsylvania's Swarthmore College.
"It is out there, it is fragile and it is rapidly eroding," he said.
Yet recent success in reviving several aboriginal tongues is rousing hope that the tide of language extinction is not inevitable, delegates at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science heard. Some examples:
The language of Miami-Illinois Indians, long classed as extinct, is now spoken daily by at least 50 people after a major "reclamation" effort.
Languages on the brink of extinction are being recorded for future revival – such as that of the Chulym, a tribe of hunters and fishers in Siberia.
A master-apprentice program is rejuvenating some of the 50 threatened aboriginal languages in California.
More than 2,000 schoolchildren are now fluent speakers of Hawaiian, a language banned from schools in Hawaii for almost a century.
"The reason that a lot of indigenous languages went extinct was that they could not be used in school," said William Wilson, a professor of Hawaiian Language and Studies at Hilo, Hawaii.
Despite a policy of official bilingualism, the native Hawaiian language was in its death throes, but that changed dramatically after the state legislature in 1987 scrapped a 90-year-ban on using Hawaiian in the schools. Now, students are taught in their native language from pre-school to college.
Yet Hawaiian-speaking students also study Japanese in the first six grades, Latin in Grades 7 and 8, and English throughout. "We feel children can learn many languages if they have a solid base in English and Hawaiian," the language professor said.
Wilson said in an interview that the architects of language recovery in Hawaii worked closely with aboriginal groups in Canada, including the Squamish in Vancouver and the Six Nations at Brantford. The Hawaiian group also produced a multilingual book in co-operation with the Inuit.
The preservation of aboriginal languages in Canada was dealt a major blow last year when the Harper government scrapped a 10-year, $173 million language revitalization program.
Yet Miami tribe member Daryl Baldwin told a news conference that even a supposedly extinct aboriginal language can be brought back to life. That's what happened with the Miami language previously spoken over a wide region of the lower Great Lakes.
At Miami University in Ohio, Baldwin and colleagues pored over written records to help interested tribe members again speak the language.
And the language is kept up to date, he said. In Miami, the word for a computer translates as "the thing that thinks fast.
There was also a recent article in the Independent on this topic; it goes into some detail about the example of the butterflies in Costa Rica, as well as giving an example from the Musqueam here in BC:
1) Elders have no to little experience with computers, and they are among the few that do speak the language.
We are having trouble putting into audio and written form (no thx to Harper and his cronies cutbacks last budget), and Elders can press record on a tape recorder.....
2) Who is going to check it for errors - See # 1
3) Some languages have different dialects every 30 km (Algonquin, for example), so how can a group from Kitigan Zibi do this and not recieve appeals from the other Algonquin groups in Quebec to include their dialects.
The problems I can envision go on and on, but these are the most pressing issues surrounding such a project!
Language illuminates the past
Click here to find out more!
Jack Knox, Times Colonist
Published: Saturday, February 24, 2007
When Laura Olsen died last week, it was though another light went out. The 91-one-year-old elder was one of perhaps a dozen people who still spoke Sencoten fluently.
The Saanich Peninsula language remains healthier than some others on southern Vancouver Island, though. Klallam has disappeared from Becher Bay, T'sou-ke is no longer heard in Sooke, and there is believed to be just one person left who is comfortable in the Songhees dialect of Victoria.
It's the same story throughout B.C., aboriginal languages vanishing with the few old souls who grew up speaking them. As the languages disappear, so do those slightly different ways of looking at the world, those nuanced perspectives, that are built into them.
Which is why there's a race against time to document and preserve the languages before the window of opportunity closes.
Which is why there's such frustration over the federal government's cancellation of funding for the work.
"If we had appropriate funding, we could have all languages documented within five years," says Tracey Herbert, executive director of the First Peoples' Heritage, Language and Culture Council.
.......
The council gets about $1 million a year from the province's First Citizens Fund. It was also counting on tapping into a big pool of federal money, a $172-million language-revitalization fund announced by Liberal Heritage Minister Sheila Copps in 2002. "That money was the light at the end of the tunnel," Herbert said.
Alas, the remaining $160 million of that fund was yanked off the table by the Conservatives this winter. In its place is a smaller pot that will provide B.C. with just $232,000 a year. Compare that, says Herbert, to the $37 million Ottawa invested in French-language instruction in B.C.
Compounding the frustration is a long-standing grievance over the way federal money is allocated. B.C. is home to two-thirds of Canada's indigenous languages, yet gets just 10 per cent of Ottawa's funding.
There are 40 native languages in B.C., 32 of them still in use and eight described as "sleeping." The council doesn't want to call them dead, the idea being that once a language is documented, it is theoretically possible to infuse it with new life.
Perhaps that's so, and dormant languages can be resurrected. Perhaps it's wishful thinking. Few languages, aboriginal or otherwise, survive more than a generation or two before drowning in a sea of English. Chances are if your grandparents came to B.C. speaking some other language, you don't share their tongue.
But at least your grandparents' language, and therefore their culture, exists back in the old country. Canada's indigenous languages exist nowhere else, and if they disappear, so does the ability to teach history and values in a particular way that cannot be conveyed in English. "If we lose our language, we lose everything," says Deanna Daniels, the council's language programs co-ordinator. "It would be a tragedy."
So the race against time is on. Almost all of those who speak indigenous languages are over 65. Many, perhaps most, are in their eighties. Some efforts are being made to teach new, fluent speakers, but most projects focus on documenting the old voices before those who know them are gone. ....
http://tinyurl.com/29p9gb
[ 26 February 2007: Message edited by: EriKtheHalfaRed ]
Because they are now claiming FN's were conquered people and assimulation needs to be forced.
[ 26 February 2007: Message edited by: remind ]
I disagree with the last statement, Blind Patriot. The demise of our culture and language was a direct result of the government's policy to force our people into residential schools. It was there that generations of our people were stripped of their language, suffered abuse, physical and mental, and the loss of family ties, in which culture, history and traditions are passed on to the next generation. It is a tribute to the strength of our people that we are still here, and we are still native.
Good thread.
I do disagree with the notion of language rights and would rather focus on language obligations. If you go to England, you have to learn English. If you go to France, you have to learn French. If you come to Ottawa, you should make an effort to learn Algonquin.
Yet, when I'd contacted the Algonquin Nation last week, it was confirmed that self-instruction books in the language do not exist, so unless your schedule allows you to attend lessons that are available or you have firnds who speak the language and have the patience to teach it, it's next to impossible.
We would think that at the very least, such books could be published. When I'd contacted the AFN about 2 months ago, I was told that they were having difficulties with the CPC government sinse the government was trying to pressure them to 'become Canadian', which the AFN can't accept. I know many FN don't even vote at provincial and federal elections, and even warn other FN from participating in federal and provincial politics sinse it legitimizes those governments, sinse they don't even recognize their legitimacy, and rightfully so.
When I'd contacted a member of the FPNP by phone about a month ago, he too thought that the local indigenous language should take priority over other languages. What we need is to abandon the idea of 'language rights' and instead replace it with the idea of 'language obligations', whereby all have an obligation to make at least a reasonable effort to learn the local language or, if that's not possible, then to lay the foundation so future generations could exercise that obligation more effectively.
One problem I see with this though is that the idea that the local indigenous language ought to take precedence flies right in the face of Official Bilingualism, which puts Euro-languages at the forefront based on the political power of those two languages.
The solution to this is to make all viable native languages 'official' within the regions they have claim to - and require government to provide services in said languages there.
That said, I would think some standardization of dialects would be required to make this a viable project. Something along the lines of the Académie Française for each major linguistic line. IIRC, France started out with around 70% of its citizens not speaking the 'pure' french of the Franks who ruled. Similarly, I would imagine some consolidation and blending of linguistic lines would occur.
I could agree with that in principle, but to make the local indigenous language official right away would not be possible except as lip service since there would not be enough speakers of the local indigenous language to make the provision of government services in the local indigenous language possible. Add to that that, considering how precarious those languages are now, the last thing we'd want to do is have the government compete with schools for the few precious speakers of the local indigenous language available. Where we would need them initially woud be in schools teaching the language, not in some office using it on the odd occasion if lucky.
What I could see would be for the government to provide incentives for schools to offer the local indigenous language, and for parents to choose it for their children. I would be interested in any proposal you might have in that regard.
As for making the local indigenous language official, that might be possible after a few generations of it being taught in the school system, when the necessary human resources would be available for this to be realiseable.
That I could agree with in principle, but it would not be up to provincial or federal governments to impose this standardization, as it would be up to the speakers of the language to make such decisions. As for corpus planning, that should be left to the local First Nation. The provincial government should engage only in language teaching and diffusion policy in collaboration with the First Nations.
Related thread here for Ontarians:
http://rabble.ca/babble/central-canada/ideas-local-indigenous-language-d...
Hi Machjo, forgotten about this old one.
I have a couple more ideas here but not sure if they'd work in the real world, you might be able to give me a better idea on that. I'll pick this up tomorrow afternoon on the other thread you opened.
Sorry for resurrecting an old thread.
Saulteaux is a french word identifying the Nakawe (pronounced Nah-kah-'way) people, plains-Ojibwe. The word Nakawe implies a language spoken by the group, in the same way the word French implies speaking French, a German German, an Italian Italian. It's language identity. Nakawemowin is, I beleive, for pointedly talking about the language itself.
Just to add a bit of certainty. Languages preserve a culture's laws and whole way of thinking. An english term like "rights" comes with a conceptual meaning that may not be conceptually present in the language of another culture. The idea of rights is conveyed and understood among a specific group of people.
Other english words like freedom, democracy, equality, property, ownership, sovereignty and so on contain and convey, communicate and preserve concepts. Language isn't just about being able to order food in a foreign country, they also convey legal concepts and protocols for dealing and relating to things. When the world loses a language we lose another way of communicating who we are. We lose a way of communicating our relationships with others and the world around us.
The word Anishnabe, literally, means human being. Saying "human being" doesn't convey a lot about what it means to be human from a cultural perspective. By translating the word into english we'll lose contextual meanings. Lose the language and we'll lose conceptual understandings.
Not only that.
I interviewed a linguist about 25 years ago who said that his language, Inuktitut, was absolutely vital for survival in the north, because of its vast and complex range of technical navigational terms.
He offered a few examples, one being a number of specific words for a rise of land depending on where it was in relation to a body of water. He said that without such a technical language it would be virtually impossible to get around in a landscape with only a few subtle physical reference points.
If someone were in a position where maps and GPS failed, no foreign language would be an adequate tool to navigate in the tundra.
At the last ideawave conference there were 2 speakers about losing languages. An american and a guy who was one of the last baltic german speakers. Both are working with native languages. There is also a strong UVIC university of victoria program and at least 2 of my first nations friends have expressed interest in keeping their language alive. But nobody is really going out talking to the old people and bringing younger people along for the talk. Also there is no wiki presence in "pop culture" I feel that what goes into acedemia stays there in a parallel universe.
If some of the younger people in any band or tribe started a wiki in their language, perhaps a wikipedia one (it is in a LOT of languages) the old people could complete the job on their own time at their own pace. Or, one on a separate easy to use wiki, might work, http://www.wikia.com/Special:CreateNewWiki?uselang=en is very easy to use. You just start your wiki and invite others to help. A core group of 3 people with a bit of willpower could make it happen. Then send out the invites and ask the older people to help. The Welsh people have successfully revived their language and I believe there is sufficient national pride and ability in first nation culture to do the same. BUT people MUST start on their OWN. The key is to gather the information from the old people right now, today, before they pass away. So, start a wiki, start a facebook page, start a local audio project, don't wait to get it perfect. Just do it.
Brian