Our catch phrase is on its way.
Dear Fellow Earthlings,
Following up on yesterday’s discussion of Fishman’s book (in which I addressed the feasibility of trying to revive the Seneca language), today I talk about Chapter 3 of the
book “Reversing Language Shift” (which, by the way, consists of 14 chapters
altogether) . Chapter 3, is entitled “ ‘Where’ and ‘Why’ Does Language Shift Occur
and How Can It Be Reversed? “.
Fishman describes language shift in the context of a struggle for survival, pitting adjacent language regions against one another, with stronger languages ultimately crowding out weaker ones. One surefire method of bringing a weaker language to its knees, he notes, is policies of dislocation in which speakers of stronger languages force speakers of weaker ones to physicallly move to distant locations. Seneca speakers suffered this indignity in the late 1700s and early 1800s when they along with another Iroquois tribe the Cayuga were forced to be together by the exigencies of the United States War of Independence from England – with a great number of Cayugas eventually ending up some 2,000 kilometers to the west in what is now the state of Oklahoma and coming to be called “Senecas” even though they were basically Cayugas. At present there is no Seneca spoken in Oklahoma. These “Oklahoma Seneca” people are primarily Cayugas, and some of them do, it seems, still speak Cayuga to some extent.
Just as speakers of African languages forcefully brought to the Americas to serve as slaves lost their language through dislocation, Seneca speakers have now lost the Seneca language for similar reasons. Furthermore, missionaries, in their zeal to “convert the heathen”, have attempted to make mincemeat of the religious beliefs of the Seneca. When we look at the reestablishment of the Hebrew language as the vernacular for the people of Israel, it is plain to see that having an existing writing system to help preserve old texts --- and with them traditional, culturally rich beliefs – proves to be of great utility in attempts to restore a beleaguered language to a state of good health.
The final, mortal blow to the Seneca language may very well have been the building of the Kinzua dam, completed back in 1965 (See installments 140, 158, 165.). The Senecas had asked President John F. Kennedy to halt construction of the dam in 1961, but he refused to do so. The Seneca people displaced when the reservoir behind the dam formed were dealt a serious blow. Houses, burial sites, and entire villages disappeared beneath the rising waters behind the dam. The Seneca speaking people of that area suffered such a shock that most of the adult speakers of Seneca saw no further utility in teaching their children the Seneca language. They opted for English, which -- at that time, at least – was the sole lingua franca of the United States. Isn’t it ironic how, in trying to become just “normal Americans”, the Senecas contributed to the serious malady that now afflicts the Seneca language!
The Seneca language has its back against the wall. It is my contention that by employing
“ gaënö’ “ we can forestall the extinction of Seneca, creating some “extra time” to work further on saving it. The “ gaënö’ “ can serve to reawaken in the Seneca people a physical sense of the Seneca language. It is hoped that this “feel” for the phonology of the Seneca language will lead to increased robustness for it! “Getting physical” is one way to get familiar with something. And believe me, “The Jingles” (AND the gaënö’) ARE PHYSICAL!
Steve Walker, Earthsaver and Jingles Creator
© 2013 Steve Walker, The Jingles-The Japan Foundation for English Pronunciation, Summit Enterprises.