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<div>I've read about the phraselators for a little while now and I
want to ask about the format they record in. They sound like a great
delivery tool for learning, but once they are being used to create
lots of primary recordings then the community for whom these
recordings are being made should be aware that they are not as good
quality as proper recorders with good microphones.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>It's a balance between the ease of use of units like the
phraselator and the longer term view of making the best possible
recording now so it will be available to language learners in future.
Of course any recording is better than none, but if we have a choice
shouldn't we be making as good a recording as we can?</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>All the best,</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Nick Thieberger</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>At 8:26 AM -0700 10/7/07, Susan Penfield wrote:</div>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><font size="+3"><b>Recording and
preserving the Dakota language</b></font><br>
<font size="+3"><b></b></font></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>
<ul>
<li><a
href="http://www.startribune.com/audio/rich_media/1288840.html"><b
>Audio:</b> Wayne Wells and Curtis Campbell, Sr.</a></ul>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Dakota language teacher Wayne Wells
pulled a chair next to tribal elder Curtis Campbell, who had settled
into his favorite living room rocker to begin an unusual recording
session. Wells clutched a gray metal box called a "phraselator,"
an electronic interpreter first introduced in Iraq and Afghanistan for
use by U.S. soldiers at military checkpoints and security zones. He
handed a microphone to Campbell, and asked him to repeat -- in Dakota
-- decidedly civilian phrases such as "I want some
coffee."<br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Campbell responded, "Pezutasapa
mak'u wo." And the words were added to a databank of hundreds of
phrases and sentences stored in the device. Word by word, the effort
is helping students at Prairie Island Indian Community preserve their
fragile native language.<br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>"There's only about two or three
people here who speak Dakota fluently, so time is of the essence,"
said Wells, the language teacher at the community outside of Red Wing.
"If the kids don't learn it now, there won't be anyone left who
knows it."<br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Last year, the Prairie Island Community
became one of more than 50 Indian communities nationwide to integrate
phraselators into their arsenal of language preservation tools. The
hand-held device resembles a small computer, with a monitor showing
tabs for "weather,"family,"animals" and
"Dakota virtues and values," among other subjects.<br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>"You can scroll up and down and find
different phrases," explained 12-year-old Kachina Yeager, one of
Wells' students, sitting on her front porch and fiddling with the
tabs. "Say I want to hear the word for 'mother.' I can find it
here and then tap it. Or I can just speak 'mother' into the top of the
phraselator."<br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>A few seconds after explaining this,
Campbell's deep voice boomed "een na" out of the
phraselator.<br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>The first batch of phraselators was
loaded with phrases in languages such as Arabic, Pashto and Farsi,
said John Hall, president of VoxTec International, the device's
Maryland-based manufacturer. The stock phrases would include
"show me your hands" or "stay away from the area,"
he said. But a few years ago, it began catching on with Indian
communities as well, Hall said.<br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Because Campbell is one of just a handful
of native speakers left, he and Wells have spent hundreds of hours
together in his living room decorated with tall Indian vases from the
Southwest and Native American art on the walls.<br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Last week, the two were completing a
section on food. The session showed the challenges of bringing ancient
languages into modern times. Wells asked Campbell to translate,
"I want some cake."There is no word for 'cake',"
responded Campbell. "How about 'sweet bread'?" Ditto for
"restaurant."How about 'food house'?" he asked.<br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Campbell, a retired construction worker,
said he speaks Dakota fluently in part because of a lucky turn in his
childhood.<br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Growing up in the 1940s, he was able to
avoid being sent to a Indian boarding school, where children were
beaten if they spoke their native language. He did, however, have to
cut his long shiny hair in order to start school at a little one-room
schoolhouse, he recalled, and had to learn to speak English fluently.
But he continued to speak Dakota at home.</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Wells wasn't so fortunate. He said his
grandfather refused to speak Dakota with his children because he was
so "traumatized" by the boarding school experience. So Wells
learned Dakota at the University of Minnesota. He's still nowhere near
fluent, but recording with the phraselator is helping, he said.<br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Kachina's mother, Shelley Buck-Yaeger,
has been so impressed with the device that she's planning to buy one
for the family. Her parents didn't speak Dakota either, she said, and
she's always wanted to learn.<br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Plus the phraselators are practically
indestructible, a key feature given the wear and tear they can undergo
at the hands of active children. Made for combat, they can be dropped
6 feet onto cement without damage, according to the VoxTech
advertisements.<br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>The phraselators aren't cheap: The cost
of purchasing three of them, plus installing the software, and
receiving training and technical support, was about $25,000, said Alan
Childs, treasurer for the Prairie Island tribal council.<br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>But the device can be used for more than
just basic translation, he said. It can also preserve traditional
Dakota songs and stories, said Childs, who is a singer in the
community.<br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Over the years, there have been other
attempts to preserve the Dakota language, which now only has about 100
fluent speakers in four Indian communities in Minnesota, Childs said.
It's still too soon to tell whether the phraselators are going to make
a breakthrough, he said. But a combination of a fancy high-tech tool
and a dedicated teacher from the tribe could start making a
difference, he said.<br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>"You start building the wheel,"
Childs said, "and eventually it will start turning."<br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Jean Hopfensperger € 612-673-4511 € <a
href="mailto:hopfen@startribune.com"> hopfen@startribune.com</a><br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite"
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<blockquote type="cite" cite><br>
--<br>
____________________________________________________________<br>
Susan D. Penfield, Ph.D.<br>
<br>
Associate Director, Center for Educational Resources in Culture,
Language and Literacy (CERCLL)<br>
Department of English (Primary) <br>
American Indian Language Development Institute (AILDI)<br>
Second Language Acquisition & Teaching Ph.D. Program (SLAT)<br>
Department of Language,Reading and Culture<br>
Department of Linguistics<br>
The Southwest Center (Research)<br>
Phone for messages: (520) 621-1836<br>
<br>
<br>
"Every language is an old-growth forest of the mind, a watershed
of thought, an ecosystem of spiritual possibilities."<br>
<br>
<span
></span
> <span
></span
> <span
></span
> <span
></span
> <span
></span> Wade Davis...(on a Starbucks
cup...)</blockquote>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
<x-sigsep><pre>--
</pre></x-sigsep>
<div><font color="#19261D">Project Manager</font></div>
<div><font color="#19261D">PARADISEC</font></div>
<div><font color="#19261D">Department of Linguistics and Applied
Linguistics</font></div>
<div><font color="#19261D">University of Melbourne, Vic
3010</font></div>
<div><font color="#19261D">Australia</font></div>
<div><font color="#19261D"><br></font></div>
<div><font
color="#19261D">nicholas.thieberger@paradisec.org.au</font></div>
<div><font color="#19261D">Ph 61 (0)3 8344 5185</font></div>
<div><font color="#19261D"><br></font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">PARADISEC</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">Pacific And Regional Archive for Digital
Sources in Endangered Cultures</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">http://paradisec.org.au</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000"><br></font></div>
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