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<DIV>In Belize and Honduras the Garifuna language (originally Arawakan, but
with some West African influences) contains words that differ if spoken by
a woman or a man. Often these words are entirely distinct, and although mutually
intelligible, there are gender distinctions that are pervasive. I don't know
about any syntactical differences, but the vocabulary differences make this an
extremely interesting language.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Dorothy Martinez-K</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV>In a message dated 5/8/2012 1:36:05 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
clairebowern@GMAIL.COM writes:</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px"><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2 face=Arial>That was
a totally gratuitous and unnecessarily sexist comment.
<DIV>In Australia, I've lost count of the number of stories I've heard about
women who've gone to great lengths to pass on their languages, sometimes at
great risk to their personal safety. Haven't heard too many stories about the
blokes taking the same risks. Some of these stories are documented in the 1997
"Bringing them Home" report; others in the 2003 FEL proceedings from the
conference held in Broome (both should be easy to find). It's also fairly well
documented in a number of remote Aboriginal communities in Australia that
community language programs are overwhelmingly run by older women (in part
because of demographics, more women live longer, in part because of other
factors).</DIV>
<DIV>Claire<BR><BR>
<DIV class=gmail_quote>On Tue, May 8, 2012 at 4:15 PM, Rolland Nadjiwon <SPAN
dir=ltr><<A title=mailto:mikinakn@shaw.ca href="mailto:mikinakn@shaw.ca"
target=_blank>mikinakn@shaw.ca</A>></SPAN> wrote:<BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; PADDING-LEFT: 1ex"
class=gmail_quote><U></U>
<DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN>That is not so, the family, the community and
each other were the users and learners of the language. It was not a
responsibility of anyone: it just was. Of course in. this neoculture
age of illusion, anyone can start any 'tradition' anyone wants to and make
it traditional because you say so. It doesn't need to have anything to do
with or any connection with the people or the community. Put it in writing
in all of the languages and it will have much more power of enforcement. I
guess that's why 'the women' always tell the men to 'be quiet' or 'shut
up'...so they will not pass on any language...hmmm...maybe you are onto
something here...eh.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV align=left>wahjeh</DIV>
<DIV align=left>rolland nadjiwon</DIV>
<DIV align=left>_____________________________________</DIV><FONT
face=Tahoma>
<DIV align=left><FONT size=3 face="Times New Roman"><SPAN
style="COLOR: #333333"> “<EM>You won’t recognize Canada</EM> <EM>when I
get through with it” </EM>– P.M. Stephen Harper</SPAN></FONT></DIV></FONT>
<DIV> </DIV><BR>
<DIV dir=ltr lang=en-us align=left>
<HR>
<FONT face=Tahoma><B>From:</B> Indigenous Languages and Technology
[mailto:<A title=mailto:ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
href="mailto:ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU"
target=_blank>ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU</A>] <B>On Behalf Of </B>Tammy
DeCoteau<BR><B>Sent:</B> May-08-12 3:13 PM<BR><B>To:</B> <A
title=mailto:ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
href="mailto:ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU"
target=_blank>ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU</A><BR><B>Subject:</B> [ILAT] women
as keepers of the language<BR></FONT><BR></DIV>
<DIV class=im>
<DIV></DIV>Does anyone know of any writing that talks about women being the
keepers of the language and it being the mothers and grandmothers that pass
language down? There is a mother's day event at which they are asking
for our program to have a booth and I would like to create a handout and
hope to quote something.<BR><BR>Tammy DeCoteau<BR>AAIA Native Language
Program <A></A></DIV>
<P align=left color="#000000">No virus found in this message.<BR>Checked by
AVG - <A title=http://www.avg.com/ href="http://www.avg.com/"
target=_blank>www.avg.com</A><BR>Version: 2012.0.2171 / Virus Database:
2425/4984 - Release Date:
05/07/12</P></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR></DIV></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>