Dances with Wolves.

[cstelfer at ucalgary.ca]

> her Assiniboine tapes to an audience that included Stoneys.  The Stoneys
> couldn't understand the spoken language, but related totally to the
> signs.
>

I recall an anecdote which suggested that Stoneys could understand the
spoken language of the Assiniboines, but the reverse was not true.  I
think it was Linda Cumberland who told a story along these lines, but I
could be mistaken, or have the relationship reversed.

On another note, I know an older Stoney man who has been mute due to a
fever he had when he was somewhere around 12-14 years old.  He has
developed his own sign language which he uses to "speak" to his family
(he can hear fine, so his family only need to know how to "listen" to the
signs, not how to produce them).  What is of interest is that this sign
language bears no relationship to Plains Sign Talk as far as I know, as
his relatives tell me that they are the only ones who can interpret for
him.  So it seems that perhaps, at this point in time, the Stoneys have
lost Plains Sign Talk altogether.  Another interesting part of this story
is that this man's wife sometimes helps him "practice" ASL, I guess
because their ad hoc sign language isn't considered to be "real".
However, for a person who lives in an isolated area, has several relatives
and descendents (he's a grandfather) who can interpret for him and who has
no contact with a deaf community, it seems completely futile to learn ASL
-which probably explains why he has never mastered it.

Corey.







>
> 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
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > _____
>> >
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>> > Yahoo! Search presents - Jib Jab's 'Second Term'
>> > > e/jibjabinaugural.html>
>> >
>> >
>>
>>
>>
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