Dances with Wolves.

[ROOD DAVID S]

You need to read Brenda Farnell's book on this topic, which I have to
confess I know only from hearsay and/or conference presentations I've
seen.  As I understand it, northern plains tribes use sign language in
parallel with spoken language for story-telling; people say that it's the
signs that give the story its "atmosphere".  I once saw Brenda demonstrate
her Assiniboine tapes to an audience that included Stoneys.  The Stoneys
couldn't understand the spoken language, but related totally to the signs.


David S. Rood
Dept. of Linguistics
Univ. of Colorado
295 UCB
Boulder, CO 80309-0295
USA
rood at colorado.edu

On Fri, 21 Jan 2005, David Kaufman wrote:

>  -- They are not only speaking native Lakhota, they are using
> traditional sign language to go along with their speeches. -- This
> prompts me to ask: I had always heard that tribes used sign language
> when communicating with other tribes who spoke different languages.
> But does this Lakhota example of using sign language in "Dances With
> Wolves" even among themselves mean that they also routinely used sign
> language amongst themselves to supplement their common spoken language?
> Just curious.
>
> Dave
>
> ROOD DAVID S <rood at spot.Colorado.EDU> wrote:
>
> All of the main characters in this film are speaking Lakhota that they
> learned just for the movie -- essentially they learned to mouth nonsense
> (to them) sounds. That the results resemble rather comprehensible, but
> definitely non-native, Lakhota is kind of a major tribute to the actors'
> imitative abilities. But there is one scene that remains my favorite.
> In a tipi after the buffalo hunt, some older women are discussing the
> event. They are not only speaking native Lakhota, they are using
> traditional sign language to go along with their speaches.
>
> David S. Rood
> Dept. of Linguistics
> Univ. of Colorado
> 295 UCB
> Boulder, CO 80309-0295
> USA
> rood at colorado.edu
>
> On Fri, 21 Jan 2005, Rankin, Robert L wrote:
>
> > That's interesting. I had heard that at least one Pawnee specialist
> > couldn't identify the language as Pawnee in the short clip in which it
> > was used. As for the Lakota, I heard several different versions. One
> > was that some of the film was done in Canada and that a number of Cree
> > speakers had to be coached on the Lakota dialog. Others have told me
> > that most of the actors were actually Lakotas. At least Floyd Westerman
> > and some of the other Lakota "elders" in the film seem to be fluent.
> > Bob
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: owner-siouan at lists.colorado.edu
> > [mailto:owner-siouan at lists.colorado.edu] On Behalf Of Jonathan Holmes
> > Sent: Friday, January 21, 2005 11:23 AM
> > To: siouan at lists.colorado.edu
> > Subject: Re: Dances with Wolves.
> >
> >
> > When "Dances With Wolves" first came out I found out that a
> > couple of Lakota friends (Doris Leader Charge who is also in a couple of
> > non-speaking scenes, and Albert White Hat, Sr.) had been instrumental in
> > teaching the cast how to speak Lakota. Unfortunately other Lakota
> > speakers from both Pine Ridge and Rosebud who watched the movie gave the
> > cast an overall B+ for their ability. My Pawnee friends gave higher
> > marks for the Pawnee language used in the movie. "They spoke good
> > Pawnee." Still, the movie did much better than some other movies in the
> > past.
> >
> >
> > "R. Rankin" wrote:
> >
> > For those of you who like Kevin Costner or Floyd Red
> > Crow Westerman and want to hear some spoken Lakota (or
> > that mysterious language no one can identify that is
> > supposed to be Pawnee), I see that the PAX network has
> > the movie scheduled for tomorrow (Friday) evening at 8
> > p.m. Central Time. I don't know about other zones, but
> > the network is nationwide.
> >
> > Bob
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > _____
> >
> > Do you Yahoo!?
> > Yahoo! Search presents - Jib Jab's 'Second Term'
> > > e/jibjabinaugural.html>
> >
> >
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------
> Do you Yahoo!?
>  Yahoo! Mail - Find what you need with new enhanced search. Learn more.