Our catch phrase is on its way.
Dear Fellow Earthlings,
Today’s blog is in many ways similar to the blogs I wrote on June 29th (Installment 34) and December 13th of 2013 (Installment 147). On June 29th I told of a successful attempt to save a cat who had a broken bone sticking out of his leg; on December 13th I mentioned how I had inadvertently broken the spirit of what had once been a confident young bantam rooster. The subject of today’s blog is the Seneca people and their struggle to save their language.
Similar to the cat named “Lucky”(See Installment 134.), the Seneca people have broken something. Whereas Lucky had broken a bone in his leg, the Seneca people have broken their language’s “intergenerational link” (See installments 191 and 192.). This means that there is (as Fishman would put it) “a great degree of disruption to the “intergenerational continuity and maintenance prospects” of Seneca. In Lucky’s case, he trusted me and I trusted a wonderful veterinarian. In the case of the Seneca, I have “G”s trust, but many of the other Seneca people do not trust me. And who can blame them? So many broken treaties, so many tricks played on them.
As for the broken spirit of the formerly confident rooster named “Different”, I never was able to bring him back – and his spiritual death will forever haunt me…But regarding the Seneca nation, I see hope in their eyes, even in their distrust. However, Seneca can be revived as a vernacular of the Seneca people only if it gets back into their bodies.
Reciting ancient prayers is surely good for the soul – but when the meanings of those prayers cannot be physically “felt” by the listeners, then it cannot be said that they are coming from a living language. The Jingles (in the form of “gaënö’ “) DO offer the hope of reinstalling a Seneca allophonome into the bodies of those Seneca who wish it to happen. How I hope that “G” and her small group of Seneca language teachers can provide the Seneca people with both the hope of preserving their language as well as with the means to do it.
I feel that if large numbers of Seneca people can gain the ability to "feel" the “gaënö’ “, that feeling will cause them to feel a greater sense of community. In Jingles terminology, this sense of commonality is important in the maintenance of the "community allophonome", in which speakers and listeners of the community "feel" how other members of the community are using thier bodies to communicate. A sense of physical connection with other members of their language community can foster the rebirth of the Seneca language as a vernacular. If this happens, the Seneca people will have become bilingual speakers of English and Seneca!
Steve Walker, Earthsaver and Jingles Creator
© 2013 Steve Walker, The Jingles-The Japan Foundation for English Pronunciation, Summit Enterprises.