on translation

[Rolland Nadjiwon]

There may not be a lot but there are a few 'pokes' through the colonialism that destroyed so many of the languages which have not survived into a typographic world:
 
Kegg, Maud. Portage Lake Memories of an Ojibway Childhood. Nichols, John D. Ed./ Transcriber. 1991  Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. 1993. 
ISBN 0-8166-2415-1 (pb)

Treuer, Anton, ed., Living Our Language Ojibway Tales & Oral Histories A Bilingual Anthology. St. Paul: Minnesota, Minnesota Historical Press. 2001. 
ISBN 0-87351-404-1

There are others who have done the same or similar works and, probably, many I am not aware of. It is probably not wise to restrict our thinking to only those things we believe we know. Translations of the Bible amongst the Muhkeego In-nin-nih-wug was, when spoken of amongst themselves, a book of horrors and spoken of with trepidation because of the content and as well the potential wrath of the missionaries.

To see ourselves as part of a conclusion is to miss an/or not take advantage of understanding our places within a great process much longer than our own meager lifespan. To date, so far as I am familiar, and not to be intended as an insult, linguistics/linguists have not contributed much that is positive to indigenous languages. Most revitalization language programs I have become familiar with consists of word extraction and rote delivery without retaining the cultural meanings. Most words are indicated as having an English counterpart and become Western thoughts with different phonetics. I am not a linguist but have focused on what happens to a people, mentally, physically and spiritually when their language moves from oral to typographic. Typographically words and sentences, etc. are transmitted but without their original cultural values.

Enough said before I dig myself in deeper. Postings for the last few days has been more than interesting, but so are all.  For all these technological innovations in creative applications megwetch.
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wahjeh
rolland nadjiwon

----- Original Message ----- 
  From: William J Poser 
  To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU 
  Sent: Tuesday, September 30, 2008 1:55 PM
  Subject: Re: [ILAT] on translation


  I'm not sure that I can agree with Phil's statement that native writers
  are to be found in "almost every community". My impression is that they
  are unfortunately not so common. If I think of the communities I am most
  familiar with, there aren't an awful lot of them. In part this may be because
  so much emphasis has gone into the production of elementary teaching materials.

  One interesting example is Dr. William Jones, a Fox man educated at Harvard
  who received his Ph.D. in anthropology from Franz Boas. He produced a large
  collection of Fox text while also doing other anthropological work, both
  on Algonquian and on other topics. He was killed while doing fieldwork among
  the Ilongot in the Phillipines in 1909.

  Bill
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