Catawbas revive heritage in own words (fwd)

[Bizzaro, Resa Crane]

Hi, everyone.  I find this note very interesting, as my husband did some work with the research Frank Speck collected on the Catawba language.  Speck maintained that he was speaking with the last three Catawba speakers in the early 1920's, I believe.  After their deaths, he presumed the language was dead.  
 
Do any of you know about this topic?
 
Resa

	-----Original Message----- 
	From: Indigenous Languages and Technology on behalf of phil cash cash 
	Sent: Sun 11/28/2004 12:38 PM 
	To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU 
	Cc: 
	Subject: Catawbas revive heritage in own words (fwd)
	
	

	Catawbas revive heritage in own words
	
	By Denyse Clark The Herald
	http://www.heraldonline.com/local/story/4246875p-4039913c.html
	
	[photo inset - Claudia Priest, linguist at the Catawba Cultural Center,
	paints a sign Friday in preparation for today's Yap Ye Iswa festival.
	The sign shows the Catawba word "wide-buye," which means live deer.]
	
	(Published November 27‚ 2004)
	
	CATAWBA INDIAN RESERVATION -- People know vaguely who the Catawbas are,
	tribal officials say. But now, there's a spoken language to teach the
	community how the Catawbas sound in their native tongue.
	
	The annual Yap Ye Iswa festival will be today from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at
	the reservation's Catawba Cultural Center.
	
	This year's festival features the tribe's official language in words,
	phrases, stories and songs. People can learn to count, greet friends
	and talk about the weather, said Claudia Priest, the tribe's linguist.
	
	"We're doing this to make people aware of the Catawba language," Priest
	said. "It's a way to show what the language looked like and how it
	sounded."
	
	Priest painted a language sign Friday with the word "wide-buye,"
	(pronounced weedah-bo-yae), meaning a live deer, and not the meat, she
	said.
	
	A display above the center's fireplace shows three ways to speak of
	"smoke" in the Catawba language, Priest said. It includes the Catawba
	word for chimney -- "suksuré" (pronounced sook-soor-ray), meaning
	"smoke there is."
	
	Displays throughout the cultural center show plants, animals, cooking
	utensils and everyday life ways of the tribe.
	
	The "At Home With The Catawba Language" display includes the words for
	mother, yaksu (pronounced yauk-soo), and father, nane (pronounced
	nah-nay).
	
	Catawba Cultural Center executive director Wenonah Haire said the tribe
	wants to get the language more in use rather than just in classes at
	the cultural center.
	
	"It's a language that hasn't been used," Haire said. "We've tried hard
	to get it into the community."
	
	Several Catawba language classes were held to help revive the use of the
	language among the tribe, Haire said. But only a few tribal members
	attended those sessions.
	
	The language now is available on compact disc with a companion text for
	$15, center officials say. The CD includes recordings of Catawba tribal
	members and the tribe's linguist sharing numbers, phrases, children's
	stories, poetry and much more. It is designed to teach ways to use the
	language and not just how to say the words, Priest said.
	
	Tribal officials also plan to apply for grants to expand the use of the
	Catawba language in distance learning projects, Haire said.
	
	"We want to take Catawbas out of a book and put their heritage into use
	in everyday language," Haire said.
	
	Denyse Clark • 329-4069
	dclark at heraldonline.com