Actually Richard I couldn't agree more. I would argue that the language acquisition focus on the formal without the informal is too narrow. Intergenerational transmission is contingent on parents speaking the language to their children in the home and it's environs, no matter where those environs are. For Māori today over 80% live and work in urban contexts. Our ideology is deeply embedded in cultural practices which no longer apply. I do not know of any acceptable solutions but I do know we first need to properly define our problems.<div class="gmail_extra">
<br clear="all">Ewan Pohe<div>Research Fellow<div>Māori Studies, Victoria University Wellington</div><div>50 Kelburn Parade, Room 210</div><div>04 463 5444</div><div>027 534 5473</div><div>H 04 383 5473</div><div><i>Whāia te iti kahurangi, ki te tuohu koe, me he maunga teitei</i></div>
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<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Nov 15, 2012 at 4:08 PM, Richard Zane Smith <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:rzs@wildblue.net" target="_blank">rzs@wildblue.net</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
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Phil,<br>
this has happened here in Oklahoma, where our Iroquoian family languages aren't spoken daily.<br>
But languages are surviving in speeches and our ceremonial songs . ceremonies persist even when the language begins to whither.<br>
(Though sometimes those who are learning will have their "cheat sheets" handy in case they lose their place.)<br>
Many of the songs have passed orally, so they change and evolve naturally with each singer.
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We have also been able to REintroduce forgotten songs that were recorded from old wax cylinder recordings.
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there are also some problems that come with this. We have inadvertently created something akin to a "religious Latin"<br>
by using the language only ceremonially. But then our whole ceremonial structure has become more symbolic (and religious)<br>
as well. We do the Maple, the Strawberry and Blackberry ceremonies, but because Walmart shelves are full of produce (all year)<br>
we certainly do not have in our being the same connection and thankfulness at seeing first wild strawberries as our ancestors did.<br>
<br>
theres a kind of separation drift happening between sacred and secular in our lives.....which i feel is unfortunate...even alarming.<br>
we offer special thanks and tobacco when we cut cedar branches ...but what do we do when we are filling up at the gas station?<br>
BUT....Its a big topic and probably the majority of people here aren't interested in this stuff....<br>
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-Richard<br>
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On Wed, Nov 14, 2012 at 8:00 PM, Phillip E Cash Cash <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:cashcash@email.arizona.edu" target="_blank">cashcash@email.arizona.edu</a>></span> wrote:<br>
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<font face="tahoma, sans-serif">Greetings, I also want to add here that there is a rich but poorly documented aspect of 2nd language acquisition, that of ritual induced 2nd language acquisition. Typically, in the ritual life, there is "music" present but not
always. I imagine that that there may be similar situations as in my own indigenous community where there are a growing number of younger practitioners who are 2nd language learners. They acquire both the ritual practices and associated language simultaneously.
I will be addressing this phenomenon in my AILDI course offering here in Tucson in 2013. :) Hopefully, we can find some supporting articles, etc. Let me know if you find/know of any. </font>
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<div><font face="tahoma, sans-serif">Life and language always,<br>
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<div><font face="tahoma, sans-serif">Phil Cash Cash</font></div>
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<p><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:Georgia"></span><b>For it hath ever been the use of the conqueror to despise the language of the conquered and to force him by all means to learn his. - Edmund Spenser, (1596)<br>
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