#Language Revitalization

[linguist-breakaribecca]

“Grandma’s House is not like a drop-off daycare or an immersion school where only the children learn. Through a grant from the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota Foundation, parents get paid to learn alongside and speak with their children in Ojibwe five hours a day, four days a week.

…

‘Learning Ojibwe in college and pursuing learning the language and teaching the language, I hadn't really thought about babies speaking it as their first language,’ Erdrich said.

‘It seemed like this impossible thing because of how much work it would be, how hard it would be to have a whole community and other babies to be speaking Ojibwe, but it's happening! And it's amazing because it's the peer language here so the kids are speaking Ojibwe to each other,’ she said.

…Grandma’s House is not like other college language programs. Learning a Native language in an academic setting is beneficial for language revitalization, but academic learning does not usually include learning the traditions, heritage or spirit within a Native community.

…

Although it’s common to refer to a language no longer commonly spoken as a ‘dead language,’ some people in the language revitalization movement instead refer to them as ‘asleep.’ The idea is that sleeping languages can be awakened through family and community efforts.

Waking up Native languages can also bring intergenerational healing.”

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Decades after being punished in a residential school for speaking his own language, Sol Mamakwa will hold the powerful to account at Ontario's legislature in the very same language past governments tried to bury. On Tuesday, Mamakwa, the only First Nation legislator at Queen's Park, will rise in the legislative chamber — with his mother, sister, brothers, friends and elders watching from the gallery — and ask a question in Anishininiimowin, known in English as Oji-Cree. For the first time in its history, the Ontario legislature will allow, interpret and transcribe a language other than English and French. It will also be a birthday gift to his mom, Kezia Mamakwa, who turns 79 that day, and a nod to his late father, Jerry Mamakwa. "Language is nationhood, language is identity, language is where history comes from and language is me and my people," Sol Mamakwa, a 53-year-old NDP legislator, said in an interview. "It's important because there's so many of us who are losing our languages. I think it's a step toward reconciliation and a step toward reviving our languages."

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @newsfromstolenland

[reasonsforhope]

Interior Department Announces New Guidance to Honor and Elevate Hawaiian Language

"In commemoration of Mahina ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi, or Hawaiian Language Month, and in recognition of its unique relationship with the Native Hawaiian Community, the Department of the Interior today announced new guidance on the use of the Hawaiian language.  

A comprehensive new Departmental Manual chapter underscores the Department’s commitment to further integrating Indigenous Knowledge and cultural practices into conservation stewardship.  

“Prioritizing the preservation of the Hawaiian language and culture and elevating Indigenous Knowledge is central to the Biden-Harris administration's work to meet the unique needs of the Native Hawaiian Community,” said Secretary Deb Haaland. “As we deploy historic resources to Hawaiʻi from President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, the Interior Department is committed to ensuring our internal policies and communications use accurate language and data."  

Department bureaus and offices that engage in communication with the Native Hawaiian Community or produce documentation addressing places, resources, actions or interests in Hawaiʻi will use the new guidance on ‘ōlelo Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian language) for various identifications and references, including flora and fauna, cultural sites, geographic place names, and government units within the state.  The guidance recognizes the evolving nature of ‘ōlelo Hawaiʻi and acknowledges the absence of a single authoritative source. While the Hawaiian Dictionary (Pukui & Elbert 2003) is designated as the baseline standard for non-geographic words and place names, Department bureaus and offices are encouraged to consult other standard works, as well as the Board on Geographic Names database.  

Developed collaboratively and informed by ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi practitioners, instructors and advocates, the new guidance emerged from virtual consultation sessions and public comment in 2023 with the Native Hawaiian Community. 

The new guidance aligns with the Biden-Harris administration’s commitment to strengthening relationships with the Native Hawaiian Community through efforts such as the Kapapahuliau Climate Resilience Program and Hawaiian Forest Bird Keystone Initiative. During her trip to Hawaiʻi in June, Secretary Haaland emphasized recognizing and including Indigenous Knowledge, promoting co-stewardship, protecting sacred sites, and recommitting to meaningful and robust consultation with the Native Hawaiian Community."

-via US Department of the Interior press release, February 1, 2024

--

Note: I'm an editor so I have no idea whether this comes off like as big a deal as it potentially is. But it is potentially going to establish and massively accelerate the adoption of correctly written Native Hawaiian language, as determined by Native Hawaiians.

Basically US government communications, documentations, and "style guides" (sets of rules to follow about how to write/format/publish something, etc.) can be incredibly influential, especially for topics where there isn't much other official guidance. This rule means that all government documents that mention Hawai'i, places in Hawai'i, Hawaiian plants and animals, etc. will have to be written the way Native Hawaiians say it should be written, and the correct way of writing Hawaiian conveys a lot more information about how the words are pronounced, too, which could spread correct pronunciations more widely.

It also means that, as far as the US government is concerned, this is The Correct Way to Write the Hawaiian Language. Which, as an editor who just read the guidance document, is super important. That's because you need the 'okina (' in words) and kahakō in order to tell apart sizeable sets of different words, because Hawaiian uses so many fewer consonants, they need more of other types of different sounds.

And the US government official policy on how to write Hawaiian is exactly what editors, publishers, newspapers, and magazines are going to look at, sooner or later, because it's what style guides are looking at. Style guides are the official various sets of rules that books/publications follow; they're also incredibly detailed - the one used for almost all book publishing, for example, the Chicago Manual of Style (CMoS), is over a thousand pages long.

One of the things that CMoS does is tell you the basic rules of and what specialist further sources they think you should use for writing different languages. They have a whole chapter dedicated to this. It's not that impressive on non-European languages yet, but we're due for a new edition (the 18th) of CMoS in the next oh two to four years, probably? Actually numbering wise they'd be due for one this year, except presumably they would've announced it by now if that was the case.

I'm expecting one of the biggest revisions to the 18th edition to add much more comprehensive guidance on non-Western languages. Considering how far we've come since 2017, when the last one was released, I'll be judging the shit out of them if they do otherwise. (And CMoS actually keep with the times decently enough.)

Which means, as long as there's at least a year or two for these new rules/spellings/orthographies to establish themselves before the next edition comes out, it's likely that just about every (legit) publisher will start using the new rules/spellings/orthographies.

And of course, it would expand much further from there.

[canisvesperus]

The demo is free! Check it out and consider donating!

[hanaflorbloom]

i told my coworker i was starting to learn Irish and he was like "why? at least learn a cool language like latin". O_O like...huh?

aside from the fact that all languages are cool in their own right, saying that about a language that has been historically suppressed is just wild to me.

[llyfrenfys]

I'm making my opposition to the proposal to severely reduce language provision at the University of Aberdeen known - Scottish Gaelic, an endangered Celtic langauge, is one of the languages at risk of being cut. This would do immense damage to the language revitalisation effort. @uniofaberdeen must reverse this decision and commit to protecting Gaelic and other languages in their institution.

If you feel the same way, you're encouraged to make more posts and stories about the issue to show the University of Aberdeen just how much this decision is frowned upon. Use the hashtag #saveuoalanguages in your posts to get the word out about this.

I'll be travelling tomorrow and wish I could do more right now. But together we can make it known just how unpopular this decision is.

[linguisticdiscovery]

How the Mohawk community is working to revitalize their language

[itskindofareallyniceday]

Something new for Native American Heritage Month this year:

This playlist features indigenous musicians from North, Central, and South America. It includes a variety of genres (post-classical composers, folk punk, indie pop, pow wow punk rock (yes, that's a thing!), indie rock, etc.), as well as a variety of languages (Wolastoqey, Inuktitut, Atikamekw, Cherokee, Navajo, Cree, Quechua, Greenlandic (Kalaallisut), Tłı̨chǫ, English, French, and Spanish).

[uwmarchives]

Native American Heritage Month at UWM Archives

In honor of Native American Heritage Month, we offer this selection of materials from our collections that begin to illustrate Native American presence and power at UWM.

📸: Sandra Harris Tran tables for the Native American Student Movement (NASM) at UWM, circa 1980. The NASM has been a key vehicle for Native student organizing, support, and expression since the late 1960s. NASM is now known as the American Indian Student Association. Call Number: UWM Photographs Collection, UWM AC 6, Box 18.

📸: A Milwaukee Sentinel clipping pictures American Indian students organizing for a dedicated academic program outside Chapman Hall in 1971. Call Number: UWM University Communications & Media Relations Records, UWM AC 134, Box 2.

📸: The cover to a 1974 catalog shows the fruits of Native student organizing in the form of the UWM Native American Studies Program (now American Indian Studies). Call Number: UWM Office of the Chancellor Records, UWM AC 46, Box 54.

📸: The UWM Native American Studies Program announces the pilot of the Wisconsin Native American Languages Project (WNALP) in 1974. This announcement is from "Anishinaabe News: UW-Milwaukee American Indian News," a newsletter of the Native American Studies Program and NASM. Call Number: UWM Office of the Chancellor Records, UWM AC 46, Box 54.

📸: Margaret Richmond offers language instruction to a class of Native "youngsters" as a Menominee Language Resource Consultant for the WNALP in 1976. Call Number: UWM Photographs Collection, UWM AC 6, Box 18. The earlier Native American Studies Program WNALP announcement anticipates an appropriate caption: "We've a lot to learn from our elders!"

In cooperation with the Great Lakes Intertribal Council, UWM Archives stewards the Wisconsin Native American Languages Project Records, 1973-1976 (UWM Mss 20). With extensive instructional materials from the WNALP, the collection continues to serve as an important resource for the study and revitalization of Wisconsin's Native languages for citizens of Wisconsin's Ojibwe, Menominee, Oneida, Potawatomi, and Ho-Chunk nations.

- Eli

[karekuat]

Yek tanestuk amehemet, I have good news!

I will be teaching an Indigenous language starting in the summer this year!!

More details:

What is Nawat?

Nawat (sometimes spelled Náhuat) is an Indigenous language native to the western half of Guxgatan, what is now called El Salvador.

Why teach it?

Unfortunately, due to colonization the language only now has around 50 native speakers in El Salvador. We would like to help share it with the Salvadorean diaspora and publish things like books, plays, music, and more in order to revitalize our language.

Where is it being taught?

There are many places in El Salvador that teach Nawat, however most of these places are run by the government and use colonial sources that don't accurately reflect the way Nawat is spoken in Indigenous communities.

ANIS, the national association of Indigenous Salvadoreans, has initiated a school called Xućigisa An Ne Náwat and employs actual native speakers who live in Indigenous communities to teach the language and culture, as well as Indigenous values and worldview. On occasion, we also offer elective classes with the subject of Indigenous queerness, traditional medicine, embroidery/weaving, and singing.

The language classes are easy for both English and Spanish speakers, but the elective classes tend to be Spanish based only.

Unlike most government run Nawat classes, Xućigisa An Ne Náwat is also a queer and trans focused community, with our queerness being an inherent part of our Indigenous culture and identity.

If you are of the Salvadorean diaspora and are interested in reconnecting with our Indigenous roots, please consider reaching out to sign up for classes with ANIS, I will also be making updates when enrollment is actively available year round. Tuition is based on what you can give and can be as low as $10 per month, all tuition is so that we can support the Indigenous teachers who currently live in poverty.

If you are not Salvadorean or just don't have an interest in taking classes, please still consider donating to help us create more resources in order to keep our language alive.

Anyone is free to send me an ask or DM about further information.

Sujsul padiux !!

EDIT:

If you are reading this, Please check the reblog on this post by me for updated info on this. I will no longer be a TA for this school!!

[tlajtollirambles]

YouTube Channels for learning Nahuatlahtolli

Classic Nahuatl

(for spanish & english speakers)

(for spanish speakers / pa' quienes hablan español)

Sierra Negra of Tehuacan

(for spanish speakers, pa' quienes hablan español)

Huasteca Veracruzana

(for spanish speakers/ pa' quienes hablan español)

Milpa Alta

(For spanish speakers / pa' quienes hablan español)

Huasteca Nahuatl

(for english speakers)

Huasteca Hidalguense

(for spanish speakers / pa' quienes hablan español)

Unknown Variant

(for spanish speakers / pa' quienes hablan español)

(for english speakers)

[eth-alisanru]

Gaulish Translation 1 :

Source : Arknights https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=137187401178598&set=pcb.137188081178530 Auteur/Author :@Lalvice_沙離dr在銭鎖双狼 https://passport.weibo.com/visitor/visitor?entry=miniblog&a=enter&url=https%3A%2F%2Fweibo.com%2Fu%2F5207773548&domain=.weibo.com&sudaref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bing.com%2F&ua=php-sso_sdk_client-0.6.36&_rand=1675412986.2487 It's not an "litteral" translation because some words aren't simply existing in reconstructions or are attested, so I tried to fill the gaps by modifying a little bit the dialogs. ----------------------------- Ce n'est pas une traduction "littérale" car certains mots n'existent simplement pas dans les reconstructions ou attestés, alors j'ai essayé de combler le manque en modifiant un peu les dialogues Translation (French-English) : Silverash : Il y a ici un "complément de cause", alors quel mot je dois mettre Exusiai peut-tu répondre ? There is here an "adverbial phrase of "reason", so which word should I put ? Exusiai, can you answer ? Exusiai : OUI, c'est...c'est/YES, it's...it's Mostima M.Silverash a demandé quelle était ta nourriture préré Sir (Lord) Silverash asked what is your favorite food Exusiai: Oh ! (ma) nourriture préférée/Oh ! Favorite food ! J'aime les tartes au pommes ! OUI ! I like apple pies, YES ! Silverash : Sors de (cette) salle ! Get out of this room

[speaknahuatl]

¡Versiones en español próximamente!

[phonaesthemes]

Indigenous language learning is on the rise, with about 3,000 more learners than in 2018, according to a new report from the First Peoples' Cultural Council (FPCC).

There are "about 17,000 people learning their First Nations language here in British Columbia," FPCC CEO Tracey Herbert said, adding that's up about 20 per cent from the council's last Report on the Status of B.C. First Nations Languages in 2018.

Living on the traditional territory of the Stó:lō Nation in Chilliwack, Roxanne Dool has been working one-on-one with an elder to learn her ancestral language of Halq'eméylem, through a mentorship program with the FPCC.

"It's emotional because of how much was taken away and how hard we have to work to get back to it.... we only have one fluent speaker left in our dialect," said Dool.

With the hopes of making at-home language learning easy and accessible for other families, Dool created a YouTube channel, enlisting the help of her five-year-old son Brody Bear to share a different word of the day, in the family's traditional language.

"Even if it's just one or two words that you're exchanging from English to Halq'eméylem, it's growing the language stronger and stronger," said Dool's husband, Cody Dool.

Last year, the province provided $35-million in funding to the FPCC and the First Peoples' Cultural Foundation, to support First Nations languages, arts, and cultural heritage revitalization programming and operations. The investment built on a $50-million grant provided to FPCC in 2018, to address the language crisis and help revitalize Indigenous languages in British Columbia.

The 2022 Report on the Status of B.C. First Nations Languages shows that progress is being made, Herbert said, adding multi-year government funding is needed to ensure long-term learning and revitalization.

"We've had some wonderful investment that's happened both from the federal and provincial government," said Herbert. "However, it's not long term, so we're not able to make a commitment to communities to say here's your funding for five years and that's really what's needed."

[llyfrenfys]

i must admit i know nothing of welsh history or language. im reclaiming learning the irish language bc i know the history of it and bc i think it's essential to protect native languages of various places. but as someone who doesn't know welsh history, i see "its not like welsh people were beaten for speaking it" and i recoil in a sense of distaste. because while i may not know the history, i very much doubt no one ever in the world has been beaten for speaking welsh, that's a pretty huge assumption to make even if a language isn't being legally oppressed (assuming thats what op really meant). but also, i just loathe the idea that only minority languages are worth saving or caring about if they're being beaten out of people. genocide happens in many ways and only some of them are actually active violence/assault, most are subversive, and purposefully so

idk if i should even be speaking on this bc i dont know the history of welsh but i feel like you literally dont need to know the history behind it to see something very wrong with "speakers of a minority language should shut up if they're not actively being killed for it"

Sorry I took so long in getting to this ask (post anon is referring to) but yeah- that post was gobsmacking to me as a Welsh speaker. I've studied language loss and revitalisation and I can name several endangered languages in which children (and adults) were beaten and abused for speaking their native tongue. For example, we covered the Tlingit language in Alaska (one of the few North American languages I've studied) which is subject to a revival- some Tlingit wanted to learn the language, while others (usually older people) had an aversion to the language. One man said that whenever he speaks Tlingit he can taste soap because he was punished as a boy for speaking Tlingit by having a bar of soap put in his mouth. Language loss via abuse is real and prevalent in many, many endangered languages. The audacity to assume Welsh is somehow immune to that was astounding.

But even if Welsh *was* immune to that somehow (it wasn't) you're right in that we should care about the decline of a language even if it doesn't involve overt suppression. More surreptitious kinds of linguistic genocide lie within the state apparatus. For example, when Wales was merged into the Kingdom of England (see: the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542) the language of the legal system in Wales was changed to English-only, depriving monolingual Welsh speakers (Welsh was spoken in pretty much every part of Wales at this point) of legal services. This meant that Welsh speakers were effectively pressured indirectly to learn English in order to have a chance at any legal services in court. Over time, the privileging of English over Welsh created a pressure to abandon Welsh in favour of English, because there were 'more opportunities' in English than in Welsh.

Similarly, the true Treachery of the Blue Books wasn't that the British Government in 1847 had ordered a review into Welsh schools and found that too many people were speaking Welsh- but that Welsh-speaking parents began to forbid their children from learning Welsh and supported the findings of the inquiry because they too had felt that pressure of English-language supremacy. Believing that there's more opportunities in English than in Welsh. It's an unfortunate legacy and attitude which still persists today- and none of the Commissioners of the Blue Book Inquiry shed any blood in doing so. But the impact was nonetheless dire. It's also a self-creating cycle: There are no opportunities in Welsh -> People learn English instead of Welsh for opportunities -> There's fewer Welsh speakers to create more opportunities in Welsh ->There are no opportunities in Welsh.

But yeah, I have no idea what the OP of that other post was thinking but it was offensively ignorant in any case. I'm glad though that Welsh's struggles are seen by others at least, in this day and age.