Biloxi update

Tue Oct 12 16:51:51 UTC 2004

Well, clearly it would be up to the members of the tribe or their descendants to do the actual revitalization, depending on how eager they are to reconnect with their cultural and linguistic heritage.  As a linguist/instructor, I could give them some learning material, as you say, but I would certainly not guarantee or promise them anything.  And, if they decided they didn't want to revitalize their language or culture, that's also their choice.  We can't "force" them to do anything, nor should we!

Thanks for the input.

Dave

"R. Rankin" <rankin at ku.edu> wrote:
The Biloxis had a fellow named Day who is an archaeologist/anthropologist
working for them for awhile. I don't believe he's there any longer, but he
phoned me once and asked for copies of what I'd written and I sent him some
things. They may be in the possession of the Tunica-Biloxi tribe or Dr. Day
himself.

Language retention is one thing. Language revival is quite another. Be very
careful about making promises (or things people might perceive as promises even
if you don't) that can't be kept. About all you could do is provide some
reference and maybe a few learning materials. The rest is up to them, and when
people find out just how hard it is to master a language they know nothing
about, very, very, very few of them have the time, patience and motivation to
follow through (after all, most of them have to put food on the table!). Then
some of them will start looking around for someone to "blame" for the general
lack of success of the program, and guess who they'll turn to. . . . This
doesn't mean linguists shouldn't try: it justs means you need to be very careful
about what you claim or even suggest can be done. There are "action linguists"
who make a reputation going around the country giving pep talks to tribes about
language revival. "You can do it if you just have the will!!" is the message.
But then they leave town and YOU get to take it in the ear if people don't have
the 6 hours a day to put into language study, and coming in for a couple of
hours every Wednesday night somehow doesn't do the trick.

Sorry to sound like such a curmudgeon, but the success rate of the revival
programs isn't impressive so far. We all try to do our best, but some of us
don't have a clear idea of the possible.

Bob

----- Original Message -----
From: "David Kaufman"
To:
Sent: Tuesday, October 12, 2004 1:51 AM
Subject: Re: Biloxi update

> --The extinction of the Biloxi langauge shouldn't be confused with the
> extinction of the Biloxi people. They're still around, if consolidated
> with other groups.-- I googled the web and found the info on Tunica-Biloxi.
I wonder, if there's still a sizeable community of descendants, if they'd be
interested in a language revitalization program at some point in the future,
once the language has been adequately documented....
>
> I saw in another email that it's suggested that knowledge of Muskogean helps
with Biloxi. But Muskogean of course is a different family. Is this because of
close proximity and influence, such as the case with Latin Rumanian and its
Baltic/Slavic influences due its closer geographic proximity to these non-Latin
languages?
>
> Thanks for the info!
>
> Dave
>
>
> Koontz John E wrote:
> On Sun, 10 Oct 2004, David Kaufman wrote:
> > I would imagine documenting an "extinct" language has its own problems,
> > since there are no longer native speakers left with which to confirm
> > data.
>
> The operative phrase is hapax legomenon. Learn to love it.
>
> > But I suppose it also has its advantages in that one doesn't have to go
> > through the long and difficult process of establishing rapports with
> > native speakers and become involved in tribal politics which I've heard
> > sometimes happens in field work.
>
> The extinction of the Biloxi langauge shouldn't be confused with the
> extinction of the Biloxi people. They're still around, if consolidated
> with other groups.
>
> http://www.tunica.org/
> http://users.aol.com/donh523/navapage/tunica.htm
> http://www.nsula.edu/folklife/database/cultures/NativeAmer/TunicaBiloxi.html
>
http://www.eda.gov/ImageCache/EDAPublic/documents/pdfdocs/20louisiana_2epdf/v1/20louisiana.pdf
>
> That's just a sample of what you get by googling "biloxi tribe." It
> doesn't deal with any remants in Texas, etc.
>
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