indigenous language survival

[MJ Hardman]

Yes, you are right.  I heard this same thing from the director of the
college on the Navajo reservation; he was trying to keep the college from
splitting up what was NOT split up in Navajo culture, like,
art-music-medicine was not three things.  For this reason I am trying to
turn all of my old  materials into Œliterature¹ for the young ones ‹ or they
will translate from Spanish ‹ something we have had severe problems
convincing the Ministry, who want only new materials ‹ exactly as you
describe below, while we are saying, OK, but, at least only those written
originally in Jaqaru, but NO TRANSLATIONS.  I tell my Field Methods students
that no sentence from translation can be used for grammatical discovery: it
tells you about the original sentence not language.  It happened in class
this week.  English demands subjects.  The students didn¹t get a
translation. I foolishly Œhelped¹ them by telling them the subject (excuse:
I¹m not well) and right there the consultant added in a subject ‹ sentence
ruined.  I apologized and the sentence went back to the proper way, and it
was a serendipitous lesson for the students, but, as always, Richard, you
are so right.  MJ

On 10/21/10 12:39 PM, "Richard Zane Smith" <rzs at WILDBLUE.NET> wrote:

> Kweh all,
> just some thoughts....
> I know linguists can't hep but be linguists, as artists can't help but be
> artists.
> but when i read about the threat of EVEN the Maori language extinction,
> it really got me thinking.
> Many are busy creating indigenous words for NON-indigenous thought paradigms.
> At an immersion school in Aotearoa I visited, students science classes were
> being taught
>  with a myriad of NEW designed Maori words to describe atoms,particles etc...
> in other words "things" that many of our indigenous cultures never broke down
> in a traditional context other than perhaps stories about "how things are all
> connected"
> 
> Might this forced and continual translation of noun based colonized terms into
> indigenous terms
> be actually turning our languages into "codes" to basicly think the same
> thoughts
> but to represent them as indigenous characters and sounds?
> Are we paradigm shifting basic-thought pattern of OUR languages when we do
> this?
> 
> Ok, now we will all have gadgets to text message in Cherokee,Swahili,Chinese,
> English,Mohawk
> but what if the whole IDEA of text messaging isn't weighed "culturally" and
> every NEW gadget is now "NDignized" just like we have Nammy Awards instead of
> Grammy Awards, Native RAP version of Ghetto RAP, An NDN version of every WHITE
> thing the dominant (even parasitical) culture comes up with. What are we
> doing? Are we thinking about what we are doing?
> Aren't we the people who are supposed to lead the way to LIFE sustainability?
> The dominant system of conquest is still marching, and its cancerous to our
> planet.
> 
> We KNOW in our minds that a language survives/thrives only in context of its
> own healthy culture.But unless children grow up imbedded in Wyandot
> culture(life/ways), 
> going to school and learning to speak Wyandot does not a Wyandot make. 
> They are only speaking Wyandot code . the new code talkers?
> If this is true, dying languages are only PART or symptomatic of a bigger
> problem.
> Our minds are changing, our children's minds are changing, and if we want them
> to be strong in their languages they are going to need a whole lot more than
> Wyandot language classes.
> or free gadgets to do Wyandot texting. 
> 
> The reason the languages are dying is because there is a replacement of
> thinking.
> Its EASIER ,maybe even more appropriate? to use English when students are
> dissecting 
> a frog because its the nature of that kind of thinking to dissect things and
> solve problems by taking things apart.  Is that OUR way? 
> When we Wyandotized the process of dissecting a frog, we lose Wyandot
> paradigm.
> If you dissect a frog and learn science that can cure cancer thats wonderful,
> Kids should learn that ALSO.
> but I'm just wondering the benefit of mixing.blending thinking paradigms.
> 
> Traditionalist always tell me - ceremony has to stay OUT of politics
> for that very reason...the various "thinkings" don't mix well.
> 
> I  heard just at ONLA from a Cherokee language teacher in Talequah 
> that a modern childs attention span is now 9 seconds .
> why? Its the average time it takes to send a text message.
> what are we doing folks? Are we simply getting on board this Titantic
> because OUR language needs to be on the ship??
> Maybe we need to strengthen our cultural roots/languages/arts/communities
> and be VERY selective/careful about introducing all these new shiny toys?
> Shall we talk about the addiction of "the new" ?   
> uuuh ...some other time...
> 
> just some thoughts, i don't know the answers 
> I'm someone who still plays in the mud ....for a living!
> 
> Richard Zane Smith 
> Wyandotte Oklahoma
> 
> 
> 

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