Concept: What if there was a community that observed a prolonged period of silence, during which vocalization was forbidden, on a regular basis (say, one day a week) due to religious/cultural reasons? Such a community would undoubtedly develop a sign language if the tradition was maintained long enough. Deaf members of the community might be admired or accorded an honored status within the context of the day of silence because they would likely be viewed as having no temptation to break the silence. If religious services or ceremonies were conducted on the day of silence, a writing system for the sign language might be developed in order record the prayers and or other signed texts used throughout the day.
Regarding the relationship between the spoken and signed language, the sign language might simply be a signed mode of the spoken language, like Signed Exact English. It might be a different register or dialect of the spoken language, with a greater or lesser amount of grammatical and lexical differences. Or, it might be a completely unrelated language, as American Sign Language is to English. All of these possibilities are attested in various communities which have or historically had sign languages which were used in addition to or instead of the community’s spoken language in various contexts.
This has happened! In a lot of Australian Aboriginal languages and clans, sign languages have evolved as registers to replace dialogue in traditional avoidance relationships, for example a man is supposed to never speak directly to his mother in law, so he either communicates with her via a third person or they use sign languages. Usually the most proficient in these registers and languages are elderly women who’ve had to undergo a long mourning period, during which they aren’t allowed to speak to anyone but can communicate in sign. These women often become fluent and are able to communicate just as efficiently and clearly in sign amongst themselves as they would be able to work a spoken language.
The Oneida language in Oneida is Ukwehuwehnéha which translates to “the Native way” or “Native ways”
The Oneida language is spoken by Oneida people.
It is an north eastern Iroquoian dialect, and is very similar to the Mohawk language spoken by Mohawk peoples. (Some argue that they’re the same language just different dialects)
Oneida is an aboriginal nation and tribe, and is apart of an alliance with six other Iroquoian speaking nations called the Haudenosaunee Confederacy.
The Oneida language is critically endangered with around 200 native speakers of the language. Language revitalization efforts are in progress to save it.
If you have further questions about the Oneida language that wasn’t answered here, just send an ask and I’ll get back to you:) Nʌkiˀwah
thinking about how the burning of the library of alexandria is remembered as the most prominent historical symbol of the destruction of knowledge…but that’s nothing compared to the thousands of entire languages killed in America and Australia by the colonialists…
To put an extremely fine point on this excellent paragraph: language is knowledge in non-literate cultures. This is why language reclamation is always at the top of the list for where to spend our limited resources in Native America.
here’s ur reminder that axolotl is NOT pronounced like “ak-suh-laa-tl” (or lot-ul), it is in fact a nahuatl word (that most commonly translates to “water dog” actually, very cute!) and is pronounced “ah-SHOW-lowtch” !!!!
i think abt this every time i see a post abt axolotls coz i just know there r so many ppl mispronouncing it and the thought bothers me. if ppl, esp white ppl, reblogged this to spread the word to those who may not be aware, i’d be very grateful. thank u!!
I’m white/a settler, can I learn a Native American language?
Of course, people canlearn any language they can find resources for. So with this question, people are mostly looking for moral permission. Would it be harmful for me to learn one? Do I have the right to learn one?
The short answer: It depends. It depends on a lot of factors. Key things this post will focus on are:
Which one do you want to learn?
Why do you want to learn it?
How do you plan on learning it?
What are you going to do with it once you do get some fluency?
Some tribes feel very differently about outsiders learning it than others do. And individuals within tribes have an even wider opinion range.
There is no “one” correct answer, and I think if white people go about seeking to get a direct clear cut yes or no answer, that by itself is a sign that they are not very educated in Native American language activism and the needs of Natives.
To explore this topic, I organized a survey for Native people to share their thoughts. It involved questions about how they personally feel, how their tribe as a whole tends to feel, and how their opinion varies between white people vs other Indigenous people not from their own tribe. 53 respondents participated, and 3/53 choose to not disclose their tribe. Throughout the rest of this post, I use “Native” for short. Please see below the cut for all the results and exploration! Note: this is very long. But for all allies / people interested in learning these languages, it is well worth your time to read and learn from Natives.
February 21 is International Mother Language Day as declared by UNESCO in 1999. This special date is meant to promote awareness of multilingualism, as well as cultural and linguistic diversity.
Mother Language Day is also an important time to celebrate indigenous languages.
Duringour podcast on Crow warrior, craftsperson and two-spirit batée Osh-Tisch, we learnt about the existence of Plains Sign Language (also known as Plains Indian Sign Language, although the word ‘Indian’ is considered pejorative by many Indigenous American people). This is something we never knew about before, and that we found very exciting!
Before the European colonisation of North America, Plains Sign Language (PSL) was the lingua franca of many Indigenous peoples, stretching across the modern countries of Canada, the USA and Mexico. It was used for communication between the speakers of almost 40 different spoken languages, as well as within individual nations for story-telling, for communication across long distances, and by and with deaf people. This map (source) gives a good idea of just how extensive the use of PSL was, with the purple representing the full historic extent of PSL:
In 1930, US General Hugh L. Scott, who had studied and become fluent in PSL, called together Indigenous people from many different nations in the hope of filming and preserving the use of PSL through the creation of a dictionary. This video shows the opening of the resulting Indian Sign Language Council. You can see people from various nations introduce themselves and speak in PSL. Having researched the Crow people, we were excited to see Crow representative Deer Nose at around 4:13!
The USA’s treatment of Indigenous peoples - especially the policies of assimilation which saw Indigenous children removed from their families and forbidden from speaking their native languages - have caused PSL to become an endangered language. However, it has always continued to be spoken. Many Indigenous people are now working on reviving PSL and teaching it more widely across North America, something you can read more about here.
To bring this back to our usual topic of queer history, we first stumbled across PSL when we learnt that it has a sign for ‘two-spirit’. While many unique gender identities beyond the male/female binary are or have been recognised across various Indigenous nations, during late 19th and early 20th centuries (where we focussed our research) they shared this PSL word, made up of the signs for ‘man’ ‘woman’ and ‘half’. If anyone knows more about whether this sign is still in use, or what sign or signs are used to talk about two-spirit and other queer identities in PSL today, we would love to know more!
If you’re interested in learning more about PSL this site is a good starting place - it includes photos, videos, and diagrams of a selection of signs and a link to Professor Jeffrey Davis’ recent book Hand talk: Sign Language among American Indian Nations.
2022-2032 is the International Decade of Indigenous Languages.
From the UNESCO website:
The United Nations General Assembly (Resolution A/RES/74/135) proclaimed the period between 2022 and 2032 as the International Decade of Indigenous Languages (IDIL 2022-2032), to draw global attention on the critical situation of many indigenous languages and to mobilize stakeholders and resources for their preservation, revitalization and promotion.
The proclamation of an International Decade is a key outcome of the 2019 International Year of Indigenous Languages, for which the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) lead global efforts. The Organization will continue to serve as lead UN Agency for the implementation of the International Decade, in cooperation with the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) and other relevant UN Agencies.
The International Decade aims at ensuring indigenous peoples’ right to preserve, revitalize and promote their languages, and mainstreaming linguistic diversity and multilingualism aspects into the sustainable development efforts. It offers a unique opportunity to collaborate in the areas of policy development and stimulate a global dialogue in a true spirit of multi-stakeholder engagement, and to take necessary for the usage, preservation, revitalization and promotion of indigenous languages around the world.
hey lingblr/langblr! did you know Wikitongues is taking applications (due Jan 23rd) for a language revitalization cohort starting in April 2022? it’s a really cool opportunity from a nonprofit that’s been doing awesome language documentation work for the last couple years. if you’re interested or know someone who might be, here’s the link to apply:
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