women as keepers of the language

Tue May 8 20:46:07 UTC 2012

In Belize and Honduras the Garifuna language (originally Arawakan, but  
with some West African influences) contains words that differ if spoken by  a 
woman or a man. Often these words are entirely distinct, and although 
mutually  intelligible, there are gender distinctions that are pervasive. I don't 
know  about any syntactical differences, but the vocabulary differences make 
this an  extremely interesting language.

Dorothy Martinez-K

In a message dated 5/8/2012 1:36:05 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,  
clairebowern at GMAIL.COM writes:

That was  a totally gratuitous and unnecessarily sexist comment.   
In Australia, I've lost count of the number of stories I've heard about  
women who've gone to great lengths to pass on their languages, sometimes at  
great risk to their personal safety. Haven't heard too many stories about the 
 blokes taking the same risks. Some of these stories are documented in the 
1997  "Bringing them Home" report; others in the 2003 FEL proceedings from 
the  conference held in Broome (both should be easy to find). It's also 
fairly well  documented in a number of remote Aboriginal communities in Australia 
that  community language programs are overwhelmingly run by older women (in 
part  because of demographics, more women live longer, in part because of 
other  factors).
Claire

On Tue, May 8, 2012 at 4:15 PM, Rolland Nadjiwon <_mikinakn at shaw.ca_ 
(mailto:mikinakn at shaw.ca) > wrote:

That is not so, the family, the community and  each other were the users 
and learners of the language. It was not a  responsibility of anyone:  it just 
was. Of course in. this neoculture  age of illusion, anyone can start any 
'tradition' anyone wants to and make  it traditional because you say so. It 
doesn't need to have anything to do  with or any connection with the people 
or the community. Put it in writing  in all of the languages and it will have 
much more power of enforcement. I  guess that's why 'the women' always tell 
the men to 'be quiet' or 'shut  up'...so they will not pass on any 
language...hmmm...maybe you are onto  something here...eh.

wahjeh
rolland nadjiwon
_____________________________________
 “You won’t recognize Canada when I  get through with it” – P.M. Stephen 
Harper

____________________________________
 From: Indigenous Languages and Technology  
[mailto:_ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU_ (mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU) ] On Behalf Of Tammy  DeCoteau
Sent: May-08-12 3:13 PM
To: _ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU_ (mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU) 
Subject: [ILAT] women  as keepers of the language

Does anyone know of any writing that talks about women being the  keepers 
of the language and it being the mothers and grandmothers that pass  language 
down?  There is a mother's day event at which they are asking  for our 
program to have a booth and I would like to create a handout and  hope to quote 
something.

Tammy DeCoteau
AAIA Native Language  Program 

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