NY Indian Tribes Want Their Lost Languages Back

"Conversion of the Indians" (East Hampton Free Library)

Unlike many New Yorkers who are just now losing their native inflections, much of the state's Indian population hasn't had a mother tongue for centuries. Shinnecock and Unkechaug are two extinct Long Island languages that tribal leaders and academics want to bring back to life, the Times reports. Ultimately they'd like Native American kids to start learning the languages in school: “When our children study their own language and culture, they perform better academically,” said Chief Harry Wallace, elected leader of the Unkechaug Nation. “They have a core foundation to rely on.”

The Long Island efforts—supported by linguists at Stony Brook University—are part of a nationwide language reclamation movement among Native Americans, who have lost all but 175 of the 300 languages once spoken in the country. Because each tribe must piece its language together on paper before ever speaking it, many fail. Still, a dormant language of the Miami Nation was partially revived and, unrelated to Native Americans, modern Hebrew is an example of a dead language successfully resurrected.

The Unkechaug project will rely heavily on a word list recorded by Thomas Jefferson (excerpt here) during a 1791 visit (even at the time he said that only three women could speak the language fluently), as well as deeds, legal papers and religious documents and anything else experts can get their hands on. “When we have an idea of what the language should sound like, the vocabulary and the structure, we’ll then introduce it to people in the community,” said Robert Hoberman, chairman of linguistics at Stony Brook. Even then it's almost certain they'll sound like foreigners. “Would someone from 200 years ago think we had a funny accent?” Mr. Hoberman asked. “Yes. Would they understand it? I hope so.”

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By Sabrina Jaszi in News on April 6, 2010 3:47 PM

Comments [rss]

ANGRYGOD11

This has little to do with race and everything to do with power. Ask the Irish how the English tried to eliminate their Gaelic language.

interlard

Gee. You mention race and all the racists come out of the woodwork to comment. I think the point is: it's interesting to learn about your ancestors' culture and it can help to give kids a sense of pride.

BTW, I think it's weird people still say "Indian" for native Americans. It's been a few hundred years since Columbus figured out he didn't find a route to India.

horseplay

Stories like this are just reminders of how ashamed of our race us white people should be. We use the word terrorist when we talk about (example) the 9/11 attacks and other tragedies. But in reality, this country was founded and developed through terrorism, murder, racism, ofcourse slavery and barbarism. And looking at today, not much has changed. Has it?.... Though i am white, lets admit this

white people = terrorism

justthinkin

WTF? Given your argument, how do you think blacks should feel about Rwanda? Or the Chinese about Nanking? Terrorism is about power.

Snoopy

Are Arabs white?

Snoopy

I would really like to speak street level Roman as they did at the opening of the second century, only with a southern Italian accent just like my ancestors did.

Såkandulæredet

Modern Hebrew I think is the only example of a dead language being truly revived. All other attempts I think have not really done so well. It's interesting to read about.