Our catch phrase is on its way.
Dear Fellow Earthlings,
My comments in this blog deal with many of the concepts described by Joshua A. Fishman in Chapter 2 (”Why Try to Reverse Language Shift and Is It Really Possible to Do So?”) of his work “Reversing Language Shift” (See installments 163, 165, 170.). Fishman notes that undertakings to save beleaguered languages cannot afford to proceed in “the live and learn” fashion – because individual and collective dynamics are not the same -- with the latter being “only as good as their individual parts” -- and must work in concert (with synergy) rather than at “cross purposes”.
Fishman goes on to explain that “an ethnocultural goal such as reversing language shift can be undertaken only after careful consideration of the goals, prospects, and circumstances of the prospective undertaking. A disparity of goals among those hoping to get a beleaguered language back up on its feet can create problems very quickly—as can diversity of levels of commitment. Fishman explains that goals must be announced from the outset – as should any misgivings concerning those goals so as to minimize the likelihood of future rupture and difficulties that are “literally built into societal reform efforts – and attempts to reverse language shift must be understood to constitute just such an effort.”
This must be done from the very outset if we are to avoid the otherwise “inescapable: the established social order often requires no reason, no conscious rationale or justification – while its reversal or modification is usually beset with just such requirements.”
Is it too late to revive the Seneca language? I think not! Although there are so few native speakers left that Seneca is too weak in “social influence or power” efforts at reviving it to be completely successful, “There is no language for which nothing at all can be done.”, as Fishman says on page 12 of the “Multilingual Matters Ltd.” edition of “Reversing Language Shift” (published in 1991).
It is my contention, in keeping with the notion that pinpointing families, clubs, neighborhoods as sources for regenerating spoken Seneca – and in conjunction with “ gaënö’ “ (Seneca language Jingles) training, we can revitalize spoken Seneca. If this can be done, then the Seneca people will feel empowered to take over “local control” of their language.
At present quite a few roadsigns in the Salamanca region of western New York state carry bilingual messages (English and Seneca). In order to forestall the addition of Spanish messages to the signs around Salamanca (which is a word of Spanish origin), we must fortify Seneca’s role in that community!
Bad enough that Spanish has supplanted indigenous American languages from Tierra del Fuego to the Texas border with Mexico. Now it is creeping all over the United States, a non-native species insidiously supplanting not only English but the few vestigal remnants of Amerindian languages that still remain as well!
The Seneca people should change the name “Salamanca” (of Spanish origin) to a Seneca name! One European language (English) in their area is enough! Just because hundreds of other Amerindian nations have lost their allophonomes to Spanish does not mean that Seneca must play second fiddle to Spanish – or to English, for that matter!
Steve Walker, Earthsaver and Jingles Creator
© 2013 Steve Walker, The Jingles-The Japan Foundation for English Pronunciation, Summit Enterprises.