Indigenous Languages

“En la primaria me obligaron a memorizar los nombres de los ríos y capitales de Europa y me obligaron a olvidar los nombres de los ríos y nombres de mi pueblo. Algo así pasa con nuestras lenguas. Que si ya no hablas ninguna lengua más que el español u otra de los blancos; no es porque hayas entrado en la categoría de mestizo, sino porque a tus abuelos los obligaron a olvidar su lengua y su historia y lo nombraron mestizo.” – VTN, Nahua linguist, teacher, writer

“With the loss of the languages, all kinds of wonderful things that the speakers did with their languages have also vanished, for example, some of the greatest works of oral literature ever produced — the multilingual performances with different characters speaking different languages that was found in the Pacific Northwest.” (Greg Anderson, director of Living Tongues)

The United Nations declared 2019 the International Year of Indigenous Languages, highlighting their importance and vitality as well as their increasing endangerment. However, we shouldn’t just celebrate the importance and beauty of Indigenous languages in one year. Instead, let’s do it every single year, week, and day.

There are approximately 6,500 to 7,000 languages spoken throughout the world today. However, in 2016, the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues determined that 40 percent of those languages were losing more speakers than they were gaining. This decreasing population of fluent native speakers of Indigenous languages results directly from several historical (and current) assimilation and education policies that deny rights to different minority linguistic communities. No public policies exist to help develop learning and use of native languages among Indigenous populations.

Yet, in spite of the genocidal consequences of settler colonialism in North America, many Indigenous peoples have preserved their languages. Within Latin-America, many variants of the Nahuatl language are still in use today, especially in regions from Nicaragua to Central Mexico. A total of 11 Indigenous language families, with 68 Indigenous language variants, are still spoken throughout these regions.) The Nahuatl language is part of the Uto-Aztecan language family and consists of many regional variants; it is related to the Hopi, O’odham (Pima-Papago), and Tongva, as well as many other Indigenous languages.

Although I have been learning Nahuatl since 2003/2004, I still consider myself a life-long learner and my learning will never be complete. Since 2017 I have had a close friend and family helping me with getting better at my speaking pronunciation but as anyone who is on their re-learning journey knows, it takes time. And I always try to remember what my friend once wrote:

“Cuando un pueblo, una comunidad, pierde el sentido de la palabra, su poesía muere lentamente, junto con las palabras que nombraban su mundo: Papalotl (mariposa), Siwatl (mujer), Tlakatl (hombre), noyolo (mi corazón). En la actualidad, las lenguas originarias están en grave peligro de desaparecer. La preservación y difusión de cada una no sólo depende de la apertura de espacios educativos para los hablantes de las comunidades indígenas, sino también de propiciar la reflexión entre la gente del país que no habla estas lenguas, así como entre los mismos hablantes nativos a través de distintos registros, entre ellos, la poesía……Dejar morir una lengua es desprenderse del lenguaje del corazón.”

English translation: “When a people, a community, loses the meaning of the word, their poetry slowly dies, along with the words that named their world: Papalotl (butterfly), Siwatl (woman), Tlakatl (man), noyolo (my heart). At present, the original languages ​​are in serious danger of disappearing. The preservation and dissemination of each one not only depends on the opening of educational spaces for the speakers of Indigenous communities, but also on fostering reflection among the country’s people who do not speak these languages, as well as among native speakers themselves through of different registers, among them, poetry …… To let a language die is to get rid of the language of the heart.”

Ma motonal mochipa milini! (Que tu energía siempre brille. May your energy always shine.) 

Below are a few resources that I will be adding to.

Image credit: Proyecto 68 Voces

Resources

• The Language Warrior’s Manifesto: How to Keep Our Languages Alive No Matter the Odds, Anton Treuer
• Teaching Writing to Children in Indigenous Languages: Instructional Practices from Global Contexts, Ari Sherris and Joy Kreeft Peyton (editors)
• Lingüística y colonialismo: Breve tratado de glotofagia (Spanish Edition), by Calvet Louis-Jean, 2006

Articles

• Online Learning Boom Opens New Avenues To Spread Indigenous Languages, February 13, 2021
• Keeping Indigenous elders safe from COVID-19 a critical part of preserving culture, The San Diego Union Tribune, January 2021
• Exploitation of Native Lands Has Put Indigenous Languages in Danger of Extinction, NOW THIS NEWS

Audio/Videos

• Proyecto 68 Voces. 68 corazones es una serie animada de cuentos indígenas mexicanos narrados en su lengua originaria, creados bajo la premisa “Nadie puede amar lo que no conoce” 68 Voices / 68 Hearts is an animated series narrated in the 68 Mexican Indigenous languages, created under the premise that “No one can love what they don’t know”
• Listen to Indigenous Languages and Peoples in the Midwest, The Newberry Library, October 12, 2019