Mohawk language kept alive
Some Kahnawake folks are working to keep the Mohawk language (Kanien’kéha) alive even though only about 10% of the community speak it fluently.
I’ve been doing some genealogical research for a friend, and have found from time to time records of baptisms and marriages in the 19th and early 20th centuries in which the person has a Mohawk name, in addition to the Europeanized name they were also given. I’ve noticed that in Montreal, Mohawks often went right to the source, and had baptisms done at the cathedral.
EmilyG 10:01 on 2020-07-05 Permalink
I would think that some Kahnawake folks are working to keep their language alive BECAUSE only about 10% of the community speak it fluently.
From the article:
“Without our language, we’re not really unique, we’re not our own people,” said Karihwanó:ron Immersion School principal Joely Van Dommelen. “We need our language. It’s part of our culture, so we need to get that back.”
Kate 11:17 on 2020-07-05 Permalink
Agreed. Ten percent is a tiny population to recover from and it takes a lot of determination.
steph 07:08 on 2020-07-06 Permalink
“Without our language, we’re not really unique, we’re not our own people,” Do french-canadians understand this sentiment?
jeather 11:27 on 2020-07-06 Permalink
Other languages have been brought back from the brink with community involvement, it’s entirely feasible to imagine that it could have a much higher fluent population if everyone is in on teaching it to children. I hope they’re successful.
Kate 11:52 on 2020-07-06 Permalink
jeather, which ones? Hebrew becoming a spoken language in Israel is probably the biggest success in this area, it seems to me.
Saw a piece on the weekend about Gaelic at risk in Scotland, but all the Celtic languages are barely hanging on around the margins of the British Isles and northern France.
North American indigenous languages have been at risk for generations. It’s so difficult for all these languages when English is perceived as the language of work and the future.
Mark Côté 12:02 on 2020-07-06 Permalink
There have been some revival of Niçard/Niçois but yeah still not very popular.
Also CBC now has a podcast in Cree.
MarcG 12:02 on 2020-07-06 Permalink
Here’s a Scottish Gaelic meetup group in Montreal for anyone interested in learning it with other beginners: https://www.facebook.com/groups/140267550474969/about
Alison Cummins 13:48 on 2020-07-06 Permalink
Radio used to be a way to help keep a langage alive. I remember Peter Gzowski interviewing the first cree-language radio baseball sportscaster. He had to invent a lot of vocabulary. What’s a baseball bat in Cree? (Definitely not a “stick” because a man handling his “stick” has a not-suitable-for-radio meaning.)
What would be the equivalent today? YouTube? Video games translated into indigenous languages? Indigenous-language subtitles on dominant-language television and movies?
Or is radio still a thing? I don’t even know.
GC 17:21 on 2020-07-06 Permalink
Thanks, Mark. I think that slipped by me, but it’s interesting to even just hear what the language sounds like.
david1823 03:08 on 2020-07-07 Permalink
You can keep a language alive by just actually trying to keep a language alive.
This place used to offer classes in English and may still (website may not be super up to date but something tells me that most of your instructors will probably still speak English): http://www.nativemontreal.com/fr/programmes-services/cours-de-langues-virtuels-adultes.html
Very tough to get in, or was back a few years ago, because the slots went so quickly. Online now, which is not so great for the language learning process, but could accommodate more people?