Dual Language Booklet for Native Alaskans Published for First Time

Partnering with a local Alaskan native community, the U.S. Forest Service has for the first time published a dual language booklet in English and a native Alaskan language, Yup’ik, to help educate the greater community in Southwestern Alaska on invasive species.

Titled “Protecting Southwestern Alaska from Invasive Species – A Guide in the English and Yup’ik languages,” the Forest Service’s Alaska Region and the Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies aim to explain invasive species concerns unique to Southwestern Alaska, which is home to a large community of the indigenous Yup’ik people. The title of the booklet translated into Yup’ik is, “Kellutellra Alaskam Ungalaqlirnera Eniaritulinun Itrallerkaaneng – Maaryartekaq Kassat Yup’iit-llu Qaneryaraigtun.”

Protecting Southwestern Alaska from invasive species has proven challenging, not only due to its vast and varied range of landscapes, but also due to difficulties in communication with native Alaskans. About 120 communities, including over 25,000 Yup’ik people, are scattered across this region, and its residents largely use their native languages as their primary means of communication and also continue to follow traditional cultures that are married to the natural environment.

As native Alaskan community members follow subsistence lifestyles and thus depend on natural resources, they are more susceptible to the impacts of the introduction of invasive species. The partnership between the Forest Service and the Center for Alaska Coastal Studies to publish the booklet seeks to increase education and awareness among local residents to ultimately prevent invasive species from being introduced to local Southwestern Alaskan ecosystems.

Report accessed from here

Multiple meanings and why we have them

Why did language evolve? While the answer might seem obvious -- as a way for individuals to exchange information -- linguists and other students of communication have debated this question for years. Many prominent linguists, including MIT’s Noam Chomsky, have argued that language is, in fact, poorly designed for communication. Such a use, they say, is merely a byproduct of a system that probably evolved for other reasons -- perhaps for structuring our own private thoughts. As evidence, these linguists point to the existence of ambiguity: In a system optimized for conveying information between a speaker and a listener, they argue, each word would have just one meaning, eliminating any chance of confusion or misunderstanding. Now, a group of MIT cognitive scientists has turned this idea on its head. In a new theory, they claim that ambiguity actually makes language more efficient, by allowing for the reuse of short, efficient sounds that listeners can easily disambiguate with the help of context.

To read the rest of this interesting take on why our words may have multiple meanings, click here

Tom and Jerry now in Tibetan Language

American cartoon series Tom and Jerry is among 1,500 hours of English and Chinese TV programmes translated into Tibetan language and on show daily through a local cable channel in Tibetan capital Lhasa, a top official said. Tenzin, a six-year-old first-grade student in Lhasa believes the US-born cat and mouse can actually speak Tibetan. "It makes me laugh to see the cat make a fool of itself every time," said Tenzin. All urban residents living in Tibet's cities have access to at least three wireless TV channels and 30 cable TV channels, while about 70 percent of the rural population can receive satellite TV and radio signals, Xinhua reported.

To read the whole article, click here

Census finds fewer than a half-million Native American language speakers; majority Navajo

More people speak Navajo at home than any other Native American language, a seemingly promising 169,000 people at a time when some tribes have lost their native tongue or are struggling to retain the words of their ancestors. Evangeline Parsons Yazzie, a Navajo professor at Northern Arizona University, said the figure recently released by the U.S. Census Bureau is no surprise, but can be misleading. The country’s population of Navajos is well over 300,000. For every one who speaks the language, one doesn’t — and those are likely younger Navajos, Yazzie said.The loss of Native languages is rooted in a history that includes the federal government’s attempt to eradicate Native American culture by sending children to boarding schools and punishing them for speaking their language. “That’s one thing all Indian nations suffer from,” Yazzie said. “Youth are ashamed of that because it caused a lot of harm. They internalized it. ... Now we’re trying to turn that around and say, ‘The languages are beautiful.’”

Click here to read the full article

Indigenous dictionary released on Straddie

A short article detailing the release of an Indigenous dictionary:

"North Stradbroke Island has its own indigenous dictionary, called the Minjerribah Moorgumpin Elders-in-Council Jandai Language Dictionary. The 126-page hard cover book, compiled by The Minjerribah Moorgumpin Elders-in-Council and the Straddie Sand Mining Community Fund, was launched in Dunwich last month. It is published by GEON Group and costs $50 which includes an interactive CD, giving the correct pronunciation to words. Island elder Aunty Margaret Iselin and members of the Minjerribah Moorgumpin Elders-in-Council spent five years on the important task of saving Jandai, the language of the local Quandamooka people. "It might have taken five years to complete, but we now have a timeless record for future generations of our native Jandai language here on Stradbroke Island," she said.

"I was five years old when the two grannies at the Myora Mission decided to teach us the language. The first word they taught was 'myora' which means mission. But after we started learning the language, the authorities came and told us that we weren't allowed to speak it anymore. Now we have the dictionary, the local schools can teach Jandai."

Aunty Margaret worked with family and friends and indigenous residents to write down as many words they could remember in the language. Entries are in alphabetical order and give an English translated meaning. Aunty Margaret said the dictionary came after she found local schools were teaching indigenous languages from other parts of Australia. Mining giant Sibelco developed the Straddie Sand Mining Community Fund to provide financial support for community initiatives on the island.

Order a dictionary on 3409 9723."

Aboriginal elders reject ‘another decade of discrimination’

The Ramingining elders have called for an end to the intervention, the reinstatement of bilingual education, the involvement of elders in curriculum development, and Yolngu teachers. Elders from the remote Northern Territory Aboriginal community of Ramingining, East Arnhem, released, on November 28, a statement, saying that they “...don’t want another decade of discrimination here in Ramingining,” said Mathew Dhulumburrk, a 67-year-old Gupapuyngu man. “The government is extending and strengthening laws designed to assimilate Aboriginal people. We will not sit back and watch these attacks on our lives, our future, our culture, and our law.

Click here to read the full article

New home movies resurrect endangered Native American language

University of Minnesota Duluth education professor Mary Hermes says saving an endangered language goes beyond just enriching the people who speak it. "I think people have got to get beyond thinking it's just for the Ojibwe people, that we want to save their Ojibwe language. There's 10,000 years of human evolution and knowledge in that language," she says. With support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Hermes is combining the skills of native speakers with video technology to help others, young and old, learn the language in the most natural way. She's doing it by videotaping short movies of everyday situations, from going to a rummage sale to planting a garden to helping out a sick relative. "Because Ojibwe isn't spoken on a regular basis, there's not a store or a rummage sale or a resort, but part of what we're doing is trying to re-envision what that would be like," explains Hermes.

Thanks to Living Languages where I first read this :)

The rest of this article + (very interesting) video can be accessed here