Ma-iskEm ... -Reply

[Henry Zenk]

Henry.  I believe my dissertation is available from UMI.  It is an
Anthropology dissertation, University of Oregon, 1984.  It is summarized
in a short article in the International Jo. of the Sociology of Language
71 (special issue on pidgin-creole studies, J. Rickford ed.), 1988.  The
article is probably more readable than the dissertation, though needless
to say the dissertation has more detail.  If you do get the dissertation
let me know, as I have an errata sheet to go with it!

I say a little about the "actual process of language replacement" in the
article.  There were two phases:  1, replacement of tribal languages by
Jargon and English, 2, replacement of Jargon and English by English.  The
replacement process seemed to follow generational lines pretty closely.
Take the Hudson family, for example.  The parents of Ila Dowd, now 90 and
one of the last Grand Ronde elders capable of connected speech in Jargon,
both spoke tribal languages (her father, John B. Hudson, was Jacobs's
principal Kalapuya-language informant) AND Jargon AND English.  As was
typical at Grand Ronde, they had different tribal languages, hence shared
Jargon and English.  While they used both Jargon and English at home,
Jargon seemed to have a special significance for them--it was, I am sure,
the language of their courtship, which happened at a time when Jargon was
heard from nearly everyone everyday on that small reservation (J. B.
Hudson was born in about 1860, so we're talking about the last 20-25 years
of the 19th c.).  The Hudson children, of which Ila is now the last
surviving, grew up with both Jargon and English.  As Ila herself once told
me, "I can't think of a time when we didn't know Jargon and didn't know
English ..." (quoted in my dissertation, which I don't have before me so
it may not be quite exact).  As children, they hardly if ever heard their
parents' tribal languages.  Another Hudson sister once told me that she
never even knew that their father HAD a tribal language, until an elder
on his deathbed requested their father to come and talk it--the guy wanted
to hear his native language spoken one last time! (I remember Ila telling me
though that when he was near HIS end, and rather delirious, it was Jargon
he was mainly speaking.)  Ila's late sister (and my friend) Mrs. Eula
Petite made the first beginning at reviving Jargon in the Grand
Ronde community (those Title IV classes in the 1970s I was mentioning in
some previous emails).  But I also remember her telling me about the long
period in which they (and many others) largely neglected the language.
There was a period when many GR Indians were more concerned about joining
the mainstream of American society than about preserving such vestiges of
Native identity.  I don't believe that any of the sisters used Jargon at
home with their own children:  they still used it occasionally with each
other (it was especially handy when they didn't want their children to
know what they were talking about!), but with their children, they used
English.  I have observed a certain contradiction in some elders:
very proud of being Indian and speaking "Indian" (as Jargon was known at
Grand Ronde if not everywhere), but indignant at the idea of teaching it
to their own children ("that's going backwards," as one elder put it to
me; the same elder was very proud of being the "last" speaker of "really
good Jargon").  Henry

On Thu, 11 Feb 1999, Henry Kammler wrote:

> > 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
>