'So we won't be lost' (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

Saturday, October 13, 2007

'So we won't be lost'
Device helps preserve American Indian languages

By Samantha Bates
of the East Oregonian
Saturday, October 13, 2007
http://www.eastoregonian.com/main.asp?SectionID=13&SubSectionID=48&ArticleID=67830

[photo inset - Modesta Minthorn, right, helps Fred Hill Sr. record phrases
from the Umatilla language Wednesday at the Cay-uma-wa Education Building
in Mission. Staff photo by Nicole Barker]

Preserving American Indian languages is important to members of the
Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. They believe
language ties them to their culture, history and identity.

"It's God's gift," said Walla Walla speaker Cecelia Bearchum. "That's the
language that was given to us."

Umatilla speaker and teacher Fred Hill Sr. agreed, saying preserving the
languages is important.

"So we won't be lost," he said. "It points us to the religions. It directly
ties us to this land and connects us to our past."

This week, the CTUIR language department is training to use a new technology
to help preserve the languages. The Phraselator LC is a device that records
American Indian phrases and translates them into English.

Working with Thornton Media Inc., tribal members and linguists are
cataloging translations in Walla Walla, Cayuse and Umatilla.

Don Thornton, founder of Thornton Media Inc., said the Phraselators can
store about 80,000 phrases that can be accessed on a touch screen or can be
spoken into the device in English or American Indian languages.

The tribes purchased three Phraselators to use in the language department,
which teaches at Nixyaawii Community School and the tribal HeadStart
program. It also has two second-language apprentices for each language. The
Phraselators, which are about the size of a half-loaf of bread, may be used
in the classroom or in everyday situations.

"It's a crucial tool to carry out these purposes," CTUIR Education Director
Zenaida Lyles said. "Few tribal members are first-language speakers. This
captures the character of the languages."

"We're hoping it will help us with access to languages," CTUIR Linguist
Modesta Minthorn said. "We want to make sure everyone has access."

Minthorn also hopes this will open the door to allow the linguistics
department to use technology in teaching American Indian languages. Rather
than seeing technology as an obstacle, it should be viewed as an
opportunity to reach out to young people, she said.

"I was really a little afraid to even open the box," Minthorn said when the
Phraselators first arrived. "I was glad to get the training. I'm more at
ease now. But I'm very optimistic for it's uses as well."

As she gets more practice, she said the device becomes easier to use.
Minthorn hopes this will increase the chances people will use it.

"The easier something is to use, the more likely you are to use it," she
said.

Lyles also pointed out the portability of the device, allowing it to be used
almost anywhere.

"You could put it in your purse," she said.

On Wednesday morning, Minthorn was recording Umatilla phrases with Hill.
Along with being a first-language speaker, he teaches Umatilla at
Nixyaawii.

He said he learned Umatilla and Yakima from his grandmother, who raised him
and didn't speak English. As a result, he's one of about five individuals
who speaks Umatilla as a first language and are a part of CTUIR's
linguistics program.

On Wednesday morning, he spoke phrases into a headset with a microphone. As
he did so, Minthorn recorded Hill's voice on a laptop computer. The
recordings were later transferred to a Phraselator via an SD memory card.

Hill said he had to be careful when recording phrases, as intonation is an
important aspect of the Umatilla language.

"We're wanting to make sure everything is properly pronounced," he said.
"Some has been overrode by the English language so much, sometimes words
get slurred the wrong way."

For instance, when someone asks a question in English, the voice lifts up at
the end of a sentence. But in Umatilla, the voice lifts up in the middle of
the sentence and drops down again at the end.

Having proper intonation will help with learning, Hill said.

"One thing it'll be good because of the repetition," Hill said. "Students
will be able to mimic exactly the way we're speaking it. That's what we're
really after - consistency.

"Our language is not meant to be a harsh language," Hill continued. "This is
a good way to preserve that - the pureness of it."

Bearchum is one of first-language Walla Walla speaker with the linguistics
department.

"Walla Walla is most endangered," Bearchum said. "There are fewer
first-language speakers, so I get to talk real fast."

Growing up, she said Walla Walla was spoken as the first language in her
home. But when she reached school age, she was sent to boarding schools
where she was forbidden to speak her native tongue. But Bearchum didn't let
that discourage her. She still spoke Walla Walla when she came home for
summer breaks.

"If we had been allowed to speak all the time, we wouldn't have to do this,"
she said, referring to recording her voice on the Phraselator.

Hill, Bearchum and other first-language speakers will continue recording
phrases on the devices throughout the week. Theoretically, Thornton said,
they could continue recording for the next ten years and not run out of
memory.

But in the end, those in the linguistics department hope the Phraselators
will record more than just words.

"It's important to preserve our language because our language is a unique
perspective of us," Minthorn said. "It's our history, our relationship, our
religion. ... If we don't preserve it, we lose it. It's extremely important
to preserve our language."