A University program is helping people remember their oral heritage through classes in language analysis so they can retain their place in the world by holding on to their past.
Faculty and staff in the linguistics department and the Yamada Language Center are attempting to preserve Native American languages that are in jeopardy of becoming forgotten after more generations of American Indians have grown up only knowing English.
“The situation is definitely drastic,” said Scott Delancey, professor of linguistics and director of the Northwest Indian Language Institute. “It’s not just developing on the horizonit’s here.”
Both the University and the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, a 4,000-member tribal community in Central Oregon, are taking steps to solve this problem. The lingustics department and the Yamada Center sponsor a three-week-long program, taught by NILI, in which participants learn language analysis, language teaching methods and how to use linguistic materials. The program covers a variety of American Indian languages.
Delancey said there are few American Indians younger than 50 years old who can speak their native languages, because the generation before them was forced to attend boarding schools from the 1800s to the 1950s and only learned English.
“Unfortunately, language is survived from being transmitted from one generation to the next,” he said, adding the few adults who do know a tribal language were probably raised by their grandparents.
He said at one time there were 25 American Indian languages, but now there are only six that still have speakers younger than 70 years old.
Myra Shawaway, director of the culture and heritage department for the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, said there has been a serious decline of American Indian languages in recent years.
“The language was taken away from the people, and promotion of the English language has turned our language into a dying language,” she said.
Shawaway said all languages have suffered, including the Navajo language, which is more widely used than most American Indian languages.
Janne Underriner, coordinator of NILI, said the reason the Navajo language is in better condition today is because Navajo tribe began its preservation efforts earlier, in the 1970s.
“There were more speakers of the language at the time, so there was a greater influence,” she said.
Last year the American Indian languages NILI taught were Nez Perce, Shaptin, Klamath and Wasco, Delancey said. Other languages taught in the past included Chinook, Spokane and Tolowa.
“We’re trying to give them a crash course in all the languages because learning them is a pretty daunting process,” Delancey said.
He said the participants primarily consist of those who do not know the languages at all, or do know them but not well enough to teach to future generations.
“We’re trying to prepare them to be the next teachers,” Delancey said. “Imagine learning a language well enough so you can teach it to others. It’s a big assignment for everybody.”
Shawaway said the language situation can be improved. The tribe sponsors its own language program and works with the Jefferson County school district to teach children at the kindergarten level.
“I have great hope that they will speak their languages by graduation,” she said.
Underriner said everyone should be concerned with saving languages because they preserve the sense of community within groups of people.
“What’s captured in these languages is the way people lived,” she said. “And we lose world community without them.”
She also said there needs to be more funding in general to preserve languages.
“It’s a labor of love to help preserve and revitalize these languages,” she said. “We need more benefactors that are willing to take the situation seriously.”
University strives to preserve American Indian languages
Daily Emerald
January 11, 2001
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