<html>
<body>
<font size=3>Well, as I understand it, wives were an important factor in
cross-tribal communication due to their bilinguality (as also were
slaves). However, whether children remained bilingual would depend on how
long they continued (or were permitted) to speak their mother's tongue. I
don't know enough about Native culture myself to guess one way or the
other.<br><br>
I believe children who transition completely to a new language before the
age of 6 may lose their knowledge of their first tongue by adolescence. I
had a high school classmate who came from Austria at 4 or 5 who couldn't
remember any German by the time I met him at 15. (He was actually taking
German I that year, and found it as difficult as his classmates.) My
grandmother spoke only German (in rural Illinois before the turn of the
century) until first taught English at about age 5; although she recalled
"still thinking in German" (to some extent) until her late
teens, she could no longer speak it by then, and could remember only a
handful of German nouns by the time I knew her.<br><br>
I'd guess if such children continued to speak their mother's tongue until
at least, say, age 10, then they probably retained bilingual
ability.<br><br>
Regards,<br><br>
Jeff<br><br>
At 01:51 PM 9/25/2003, David Lewis wrote:<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>Also, the way wives were chosen
among people of Northwest Indigenous<br>
Cultures may play a part here as well. Manytimes, wives would come
from<br>
other tribes than your own. Therefore wives would possibly have a
different<br>
first language and be from outside of their husband's cultural
context.<br>
This was a common occurrence, common enough for linguistic theorists
to<br>
place some weight on the the way children would speak the woman's
language<br>
until they came of age, where they would then speak the language of
their<br>
father, or husband, whatever their situation. (I don't have references
to<br>
this theory discussion but I have seen it in paper's from South
American<br>
tribal subjects.) Therefore, tribal people would grow up naturally
bi- or<br>
multi-lingual. </font></blockquote></body>
</html>