Learning a New Language

[1_optimistic]

I am from Clarksville, VA but I currently live in the DC Metro area and would like to learn different languages among VA and NC American Indian Nations. Is there someone out there who would like to help me?

I am aware that Spanish and French are two languages taught in most schools but I want to learn native languages they were spoken before the Europeans came to this country.

Erica:)

[Tom]

Hello , well Iam asuming that you'd like to learn a Va/ Nc native language, from what I understand there are three main language families, Algonquin, Souian and Iroquoian, dialects existed of many and but few have survived.
If you are of the eastern Blackfoot , the perhaps Tutelo would be what you are looking for.
I recently was sent an email re. spanish, it states that, It has often been said that just a few words are repeated over and over in any language" ... In fact as little as 1000 words make up 70% of all written and spoke spanish".
While I was in Louisiana one of the tribal groups I was visiting said that thier language program was going great" the linguists have been reintroducing 1000 words and that is enough to revive our language.
The same may be true with Tutelo. !

[techteach]

1_optimistic:

I posted this link elsewhere, but I am not sure if anyone checked it out, because no one commented on what they found.


http://2020ok.com/4838.htm

This link has a link to a publication on the Tutelo language as recorded by Horatio Hale, including vocabulary and pronunciation. Search for the Hale name when you get there and you will see the link to "The Tutelo Tribe and Language."

Enjoy.

Techteach

[Linda]

Actually, that was a very productive link. I submitted some of the book segments I've digitized and hope they'll list them.

Erica, here's something I posted awhile back for a source on Tutelo language


You can order "A grammar and dictionary of Tutelo by Oliverio, Giulia R. M. at this url

http://wwwlib.umi.com/dxweb/gateway

Hit the button for "Individual" then say you're paying by credit card. You'll get a search window, type in the title of the author's last name and the title will come up and you can order it. It's $38 for an unbound copy. I have it, and it is the most definitive collection of Tutelo words and grammar. I don't understand linguistic terminology, however, so it's not like a home study course, "Spanish in 14 days," or anything like that. But, it does include everything in the Hale book, and adds other words recorded by others.

What I have invested in is the Oglala college course in Lakota. It IS a readily accessible home study course, and learning a living Siouan language first would make the fragments of Tutelo more intelligible. We know that Tutelo and Winnebago warriors were able to communicate with each other in their respective languages ca. 1805 in Tecumseh's war camp. So, I imagine it would be possible to find out if Winnebago is intelligible to Lakota. If so, then we can infer that the languages are similar enough for the one to be instructive of the other. From my experience with it, it is.

[1_optimistic]

Thanks for all of your help. I do not have the money right now but will look into this at a later time.

Erica

[Spirit]

I purchased the book and it is wonderful to have a piece of my family history in my hands. I wish though I could hear the words being said before I ruin the pronunciation myself. But I recommend the book its a great starter!

[1_optimistic]

Are there any cassette tapes or cd's where I can hear the words spoken? That would help alot :-)

[michaeldunn]

Virginia and North Carolina Algonquian languages died out centuries ago. Lately there has been an effort to reconstruct Virginia Algonquian for the movie "the New World": a couple of articles on the subject here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/07/science/07lang.html?ex=1299387600&en=b0067b06d1404d15&ei=5090

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/01/0120_060120_new_world.html


Another story comes to mind: in one of Helen Rountree's books on the Powhatans, she tells how back in the 1970s, after the Voting Rights Act (which of course applied to VA due to the years of segregation), one county was told it had to print ballots in Rappahannock, since the countyhad 5% Rappahannock Indians in the population. The problem,of course,is that no one has spoken Rappahannock in a couple of hundred years.

Michael Dunn