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Speak like a native

painted wolf

painted wolf

Grey Muzzle
Most of the languages of the first nations are in trouble. Few people speak many of the 500+ languages. However many are trying to revive traditional languages and prevent thier exinction.
The most spoken native language is Dine or Navajo with 150,000 speakers,
Cherokee is spoken by 22,000 people out of a population of more than 350,000 and is the most published native language due to the early invention of the Cherokee sylabary.
Here are some begining resources for learning more about speaking the origional "american" language. ;)

a good starting point with many links to individual languages and lessons.
http://www.native-languages.org/languages.htm

Native language is all around us especally in place names. Most states in the USA are based on First Nations names. All but 16 state names in fact.
check out: http://freespace.virgin.net/john.cletheroe/usa_can/nat_am/names.htm
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/aihmnames1.html
http://www.rootsweb.com/~rigenweb/IndianPlaceNames.html

IMHO there should be resources for children to learn native languages in public schools and in college. If we are going to require children learn a 'forign language' shouldn't we offer lerning 'native languages'?

wa:do
 
Scuba Pete

Scuba Pete

Le plongeur avec attitude...
Me Like um! :D

Thanks for posting these... my wife is 1/4 Ani-Yun-wiya and didn't even know it! I plan on trying to learn a bit of this and help my wife learn it a bit too!
 
kreeden

kreeden

Virus of the Mind
We were lucky in western Canada . Over the pass 15 or 20 years , I have watched friends work to preserve their languages before they were lost .

My godson's grandmother , a wonderful woman , could only speak a few words of English .. or perhaps would only speak a few words . :) She understood quite a few . She ran away from the residential school as a child , and refused to return .
 
t3gah

t3gah

Well-Known Member
Yamada Language Center: Cherokee Fonts
(http://babel.uoregon.edu/yamada/fonts/cherokee.html)


[FAQ] [Font Index] [Cherokee Language Guide] [Guide index] [Yamada home page]


Cherokee is available in TrueType as well as PostScript Types 1 & 3 for Macs, and is also available for PC's.

  • Download Cherokee (81 k) For Macintosh
    mac.gif
  • Download Cherokee (83 k) For Windows
    win.gif
[size=+1]More Fonts ... [/size]
[size=+1]Problems Downloading or Installing Fonts ... [/size]
  • Can't download fonts? - Don't panic. Here's what to do!
    • Keep trying! If you get a strange error message or are prompted for a password it means our server is probably busy. Click the link several times before giving up, and try back again later if that doesn't work.
    • Request fonts via Email -- fonts will be sent to you automatically as an email attachment.
  • Installing Fonts
 
t3gah

t3gah

Well-Known Member
Linguist believe that there are certain universal root sounds that can be traced through many, many languages. After I wrote both the number 14 and the beginning of 15, I went to my bookshelf, grabbed this book, opened to this page. This is what it said:

The y in the English word "you" is pronounced eee. This sound is the gate of awareness that bonds or connects (as in a grid) the physical world and the spiritual world of ideas. So symbolically, when I say "you" I am saying that, at that moment, you are the doorway for me to evolve to my place of higher spiritual awareness. This is one of the Mysteries of life I (Joseph Rael, Tewa Indian) have found. I need you to reflect back to me my identity as it emerges from potential into manifestation.

Also, when two people are in a relationship to each other, these two sets of vibrations begin to hit against each other, and in that interaction both are changed and lifted.

Take uu-ee. This sound combination in English means, we. In French it means. oui or yes. In Tewa it means to climb and to give. The uu-ee vibration moves us to a higher vibration, and at the same time it affirms (says yes to) our relationship, recognizing that, as many people come together, we are all lifted.

In Tewa -many people- and -going up- are synonymous. We came together because that allowed us to evolve higher as a group than we could as individuals. The sound for "the people" means "vibration" and represents the skin of Grandmother Earth. Because we live on her skin, we are automatically destined to evolve to higher forms, because the sound for "skin" or "vibration" is synonymous with "liftingness". So we are being lifted just because we are the skin of the earth which is made up of ideas that are being cultivated into new designs by Mother Nature.

(From "Sound and Vibration" by Joseph Rael)
 
t3gah

t3gah

Well-Known Member
"Our Words Our Hearts"
David M. Wolfe, Cherokee

"Our words our hearts" -"Ogin woniha , Ogin utahnto'"

At the time of thanksgiving
Didan iyuwakdi aleh nowatekwa

in the moon of the harvest
Didan sinuhto duninuhdi a

we thank mother earth and, corn woman
ogin ali.helicheha etsi elohi aleh, selu agehya

we all loved our lives-our happiness
ogin adageyhdi - ogin ani.aliheliga

at the time of friendships renewed-in- the moon of the winds
Didan iyuwakdi Ani.adohuno-didan - sinuhto anuyi

we all make new friends' and
ogingohluhska ache'i aniunali' aleh

the raven spoke
anikahlonah uwonis

the ancient law
ehiya i anidikanowaduh

words of -grandmother-sun
awonis -Ulisi aninuhtas

the original people
AniYunwiya'

considered
adantehi.loha

in the house of-our towns
gahlchotiha Anikatuha

we understood grandmother suns heart
ogigoh.kahis-Ulisi aninuhtais utahnto

our words our hearts
ogin uwonis ogin utahnto i

understood no fear
gohkahis tla askahai aleh

and we love playing the stick ball game
ogin adageyhdi danehldiha AniStutsi

it is sweet to breathe the wind, sweet grasses and, forest
uganasdahia dakawoleh hias unole, uganasda ganuhlui, aleh inage i

it is sweet to listen to the sounds of peace
hias uganasda atudasdihai unohyuhkahi nuwhtohiyada

Grandmother and Grandfather say
Ulisi aleh Ududu nikahweha

our breath lives-a little time and,
ogin kawoleh eha i -udsdi iyuwakdi aleh

now we
nagwu ogin

leave this living thing behind us-
kahiya-a usotuh-ias

all is ashes.
ogi, kosdu
​
Phonetic key to original eastern Cherokee language:

The six vowels are as follows;

Cherokee English
a ama (water) Father
e sehdi (walnut) yet
e Sohnela (Nine) as in long A sound
i siyo (hello) see
o ogana (groundhog) hello
u utana (big) you
uh uhtali (a pond) nut --(and nasalized as in the French unh)

Wado-aya Higinali Wahya.
 
t3gah

t3gah

Well-Known Member
Dakota Phrases

Kowa kipe sni - I fear not
Nunwe - So be it.
Waste - Good, well

Wayuksapi wi - October, Corn harvest moon
Waniyetu wi - November, Winter Moon
Tahecapsun wi - December, Moon when deer sheds its horns


Objibwa Prayer

Mish e mon dau kwuh - I am the Great Spirit of the Day
Mis e mon dau kwuah - The overshadowing power.
Ne maun was sa hah kee - I illuminate the earth
Ne maun was sa hah kee - I illuminate the heaven
Way, ho, ho, ho, ho
In ah wau how mon e do - Look thou at the Spirit
In ah wau how mon e do - It is he that is spoken of who
I au au jim ind - stays in our lives
Gee zhik oong a bid - Who abides in the sky.
 
kiwimac

kiwimac

Brother Napalm of God's Love
Let me tell you about the Native language of New Zealand. Its name is the same as the People who speak it, Maori.

According to Wikipedia: "...The Maori language belongs to the Austronesian family of languages. It is most closely related to the Marquesan language of the Marquesas Islands..."

Further:

"...
Maori was probably brought to New Zealand by Polynesians from the Marquesas Islands who sailed over in canoes.

In the last 200 years the Maori language has had a very tumultuous history, going from the position of predominant language of New Zealand until into the 1860s, when it became a minority language in the shadow of the English brought by white settlers, missionaries, gold-seekers and traders. In the late 19th century, the English school system was introduced for all New Zealanders, and from the 1880s the use of Maori in school was forbidden (see Native Schools). Increasing numbers of Maori people learned English because it was required at school and because of the prestige and opportunity associated with the language. Until WWII, however, most Maori still spoke Maori as a native language. Worship was in Maori, it was the language of the home, political meetings were conducted in Maori, and some newspapers and some literature was published in Maori. As late as the 1930s, some Maori parliamentarians were disadvantaged because the Parliament's proceedings were by then carried on in English. In this period, the number of speakers of Maori began to decline rapidly until by the 1980s less than 20% of Maori spoke the language well enough to be considered native speakers. Even for many of those people, Maori was no longer the language of the home.

By the 1980s, Maori leaders began to recognize the dangers of the loss of their language and began to initiate Maori-language recovery programs such as the Kōhanga Reo movement, which immersed infants in Maori from infancy to school age. This was followed by the founding of the Kura Kaupapa, a primary school program in Maori..."


I'll post some examples of Maori later.


Kiwimac
 
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