Our catch phrase is on its way.

Dear Fellow Earthlings,

In Chapter 3 of “Reversing Language Shift”, Joshua A. Fishman explains that when we try to save a language and restore its societal functions, “Minimally, what can be hoped for is an opportunity for trusted informants, drawn from various social and geographic segments of the speech community, to get together in order to compare their judicious impressions.”

The Seneca community does not have that option. Due to the extremely small number of native speakers still with us, it is rather for “G” and I to intervene clinically -- and immediately!

At our disposal on the clinical end are the Gaënö’. Their capacity to generate nativelike Seneca production in Gaënö’ learners is a given. What we have to do now is GET THE PROGRAM GOING! To that end, I will be making a trip to Seneca country in February.

Secondly, we have to intervene with the Seneca language equivalent of my highly successful “Summit English for Beginners”, a book I published in 1992 by Summit Enterprises, Inc. in Yokohama, Japan. This text is guaranteed to make semi-native speakers of Seneca out of the sweet children who attend “G”’s school just outside of Salamanca, New York. Intervention using “Seneca Language for Beginners” (SLB) must also begin forthwith!

The fate of Seneca lies in the balance. Unless intevention by Gaënö’ for adults and SLB for children is initiated, then I cannot guarantee that saving Seneca will be possible...

Steve Walker,Earthsaver and Jingles Creator

© 2013 Steve Walker, The Jingles-The Japan Foundation for English Pronunciation, Summit Enterprises.