Catawbas revive heritage in own words (fwd)

[Susan Penfield]

Hi,
I'm not 100% positive about the content, but I do know that  there are some
recordings done as part of the Doris Duke American Indian Oral History
Project in the mid to late 1960's which supposedly contain some spoken
Catawba. These should be on file at the University of Florida Library
(Gainesville).
S.
Susan D. Penfield, Ph.D.
Department of English
Second Language Acquisition and Teaching
Indigenous Languages and Technology
Language, Reading and culture
University of Arizona,
Tucson, AZ 85721
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bizzaro, Resa Crane" <CRANEM at MAIL.ECU.EDU>
To: <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
Sent: Monday, November 29, 2004 8:55 AM
Subject: Re: Catawbas revive heritage in own words (fwd)


> 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 27Â~B 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 Â~U 329-4069
> dclark at heraldonline.com
>
>
>