Ma-iskEm ... -Reply

[Henry Kammler]

> Regarding when it fell out of use...Only the oldest elders today
> maintain knowledge of it that was gained first-hand in the home.
> However, the language remains important enough that names of tribal
> departments, and soon tribal streets, are named in Chinuk.  Also, it is
> important enough that we have a full time language program focused on
> revitalizing it.  I'm confident that this will happen.  Today myself,
> Henry Zenk and a few of the oldest elders are conversant in it.
> However, we are already beginning to teach the language in a variety of
> settings and this will continue expanding.

Right on! I am optimistic that you achieve that goal and I hope I will be
able to drop in some time and see your neat signposts in CJ and hear spoken
CJ. That would be great.

> I have to say this because I
> don't like to talk about it going out of use without mentioning its
> coming back!

Yeah, of course this is an important point to make. By asking about CJ's
social history I had in mind that it is important to look at how the actual
process of language replacement took place and how it might be possible to
reverse languge shift at the different stages if the speech community wants
it. Even today speech communities don't take the first signs of language
replacement seriously. While young adults may still be fully conversant in
their language the children are only monolingual in English (e.g. recent
cases in northern Canada and Alaska; even among the Navaho only one third of
the children still acquire Dine4 Bizaad as first lg.). Their parents make
themselves believe that the children will learn the language somehow on the
way (this might happen in individual cases but not in the whole generation
which is crucial), that the native language is still too difficult or may
interfere with the acquisition of the national language (like nowadays in
Mexico rural school teacher are still walking around telling the native
people "don't talk that Indian with your children, two languages don't fit
in their heads" which is not only ignorant but simply a lie).
While 60 years ago native communities didn't have much choice because hardly
anybody was siding with them in defending their languages, and public
opinion took it for granted that the "old" languages had to die out, today
we are able to put things into perspective and maybe develop sort of a
"seismographic device" for the endangerment of minority languages.
But maybe this is off topic again...

> I'm hoping Henry might want to jump in here also.  Henry Zenk wrote a
> dissertation related to the situation in Grand Ronde.  It is titled
> "Chinook Jargon and Native Cultural Persistence in the Grand ROnde
> Indian Community, 1856-1907: A specials Case of Creolization."  Henry
> mayka tIki munk-c!Em ukuk?

[Henry to Henry]
Is your thesis available from somewhere?

Hayu mahsi!

Henry