6 July 17, 1997
Warm Springs, Oregon
SpilyayTymoo;
Sahaptin, Paiute lessons
SAHAPTIN LANGUAGE LESSON
Road Signs
'Shchtpain Timat
Wanaq'it
Nuwitkan txdnak
Waqacalkan txanak
Lvvai
Luwuwai
Keep right
Keep left
Slow
Slowly
Chau wauwaut chna No passing zone
Wushawuushxt Reduce speed
Phrase List:
Nuwitkan txaxanak ku k'staasyau.
Keep right and go north.
Waqacalkan txanak ku winak c'miyaasyau.
Keep left and go south.
Lwai winak awinshma pa kutkutsha.
Go slow men working.
Luwuwai winak miyanashma pawawaitsha.
Go slowly children are crossing.
Chau wauwaut chna anaku iwa timani mxsh
'shchtiwa.
No passing zone when yellow line is in
your lane.
Wushawuushxt iwa yaamashmanri w&waicht
naxsh taminawitpa.
Reduce speed Deer crossing 1 mile.
SLOWER
TRAFFIC
KEEP
RIGHT
Naplkwi
Tuesday Lesson
Ishchtpain Ti'mat
Nii'iix Wauwaut Chna
'shcht Iniixilama
Qatutit
Wapaat
Shapaskulitpama Waixtila
Papachu waixtitpama
Short Sahaotin Phrases:
Pass with care
Road construction
Stop
Turn off
School bus
Center lane
Nii'iix Wauwaut Chna, xlak waixtilama
pakwiyan.
Pass with care, busy area.
Waqiit winak pawa 'shcht Iniixilama
Be careful road construction.
Chaunam laakta qatutit lu'ca laqaixit'awas.
Don't forget to stop at the red light.
ROM x
(C const jction"x
HHEAO f
CENTER
LAME
ONLY
Wapaatanam kwna timani ititamatpa,
nputaaptit ku tuskaskiyaaptti ku napt.
Turn off at exit 272.
Washatash shapaskulitpama waixtilapa.
I'm going to ride the school bus.
Winak pachu 'shchtpa ku wapaak waqacalkan.
Turn into center lane and turn left.
ROAD SIGNS CROSSWORD PUZZLE
in Shahaptin
DOWN:
1. Stop
Across:
2. Turn off
3. Closed
4. Red Light
v.
Mtaalkvvi
Transportation
Waixtila
waixtila
stiich.pas
kaas
dtmupil
shapshatpama atmupil
vehicle
bus, (stage)
train
car, van, vehicle
truck
Paiute Langauge Lesson
The Alphabet
Friday I
HUKWA Wind
A5
.... ''r
-
ksks shapshatpama" atmupil pickup
5
Snwit waixtilaki (Sentences on vehicle):
Luc'a awa atmupil, Valerimi.
Valerie's car is red.
Suzie iwashana stifchpa, Putlnyau.
Suzie rode the bus to Portland.
Dallasmi awa lamt ksks shapshatpama waixtila.
Dallas has a small blue pickup.
Pinaplki
Ku anch'a tun tun waxtilapama
Other things for transportation
qatutik
walwaiknk
winak
nuwitkni winat
waqacalkni winat
'shcht
Snwit (Sentences):
red stop light
yellow light
green light
right lane
left lane
road (highway dirt
gravel)
1
or
Ok
DP
Anaku luc'a ilaqaaixita ku nam
qatutita.
When the traffic light turns
red you are to stop.
Pinapt 'shcht nuwitkan nam
awawauta ku nam wapaata nuwitkan, paxat
'shchtpa.
We will pass four roads on the right side
then turn off to the right on the fifth road.
Peters Pastureyau iwa highway ku lalxmi 'shcht.
The road surface to Peters Pasture is high
way and dirt.
( idbEMim3( ieecIem (Z :ssojov wmtQd :umoo
:pjOMSsoi3 suSjs pnoy sjaAsuy
T-rr:xrx-x:Txxr .rx-xsxzilX-ZXX1XZ.X.ZX:
Kids have nothing to do?
Our Computer Lab is Open
to the Public
8-5
Come see what language lessons we have on
the apple computer.
StaBtftzing fnatgenous Languages
Indigenous peoples have the right to revitalize, use, develop
and transmit to future generations their histories, fanguages,
oral traditions, philosophies, writing systems and literatures,
and to designate and retain their own names for communi
ties, places and persons.
Indigenous children have the right to all levels and forms of
education of the. State. M indigenous peoples also have the
right to establish and control their educational systems and
institutions providing education in their own languages, in a
manner appropriate to their cultural methods of teaching and
learning.
-United Nations Draft Declaration of the
Rights of Indigenous Peoples, 1 993
Unu hukwa wunu.
It's really wind blowing.
Sagwane huka wunu.
It's a little windy.
Yongona unu hukwa.
In the evening the wind blows hard.
KAADU cat
Osoo tookadu suda nawahadu.
The black cat is bad news.
Umu kaadu pesa tatabua.
Those cats are beautiful.
Nu ki tookaadu petsape.
I don't like black cats.
KAAZE car, automobile
U ha'a kaaze kayoo.
Do you have a car?
U ha'a kisoo kaaze tumu'u.
Haven't you bought a car yet?
Nu etze'e e kaaze wunapow.
I wrecked my car yesterday.
Stabalizing Indigenous Languages Preface
Richard E. Littlebear
Our Native American languages have been oral
since time immemorial. Some of them have been written
only in the last three centuries. We must remember this
oral tradition when we teach our languages.
We sometimes negate this oral tradition by blindly
following the only model for language teaching we know:
the way we were taught the English language with its
heavy emphasis on grammar. Teaching our languages as
if they had no oral tradition is one factor which contrib
utes to the failures of our Native American language
teaching programs so that we now have what amounts to
a tradition of failure. Probably because of this tradition of
failure, we latch onto anything that looks as though it will
preserve our languages. As a result, we now have a litany
of what we have viewed as the one item that will save our
languages. This one item is usually quickly replaced
by another.
For instance, some of us said, "Let's get our lan
guages into written form" and we did and still our Native
American languages kept on dying.
Then we said, "Let's make dictionaries for our languages"
and we did and still the languages kept on dying.
Then we said, "Let's get linguists trained in our own
languages"and we did, and still the languages kept on
dying.
Then we said, "Let's train our own people who speak our
languages to become linguists" and we did and still our
languages kept on dying.
Then we said, "Let's apply for a federal bilingual educa
tion grant" and we did and got a grant and still our
languages kept on dying.
Then we said, "Let's let the schools teach the languages"
and we did, and still the languages kept on dying.
Then we said, "Let's develop culturally-relevant materi
als" and we did and still our languages kept on dying.
Then we said, "Let's use language masters to teach our
languages" and we did, and still our languages kept on
dying.
Then we said, "Let's tape-record the elders speaking our '
languages and we did and still our languages kept on
dying.
Then we said, "Let's video-tape our elders speaking and ,
doing cultural activities" and we did and still our lan
guages kept on dying. '
Then we said, "Let's put our native language speakers on;
CDROM" and we did and still the languages kept on
dying.
Finally, someone will say, "Let's flash-freeze the
remaining speakers of our languages so when technology
catches up these speakers can be thawed-out and revived
and we will have ready-made Native American languages
speakers" and we will do that and these thawed-out
speakers will awake to a world in the distant future where
they are the only speakers of their languages because all
of the other speakers of their languages will be gone and
no one will understand them. In this litany, we have
viewed each item as the one that will save our languages
and they haven't.
Of course, resorting to cryogenics and flash-freezing
are desperate measures. The point is that despite the
advances in teaching methods and technology and our
increasing dependency on them, our languages are still
dying. Also part of their dying is caused by the steady
attrition of Native speakers. Our languages have few
means, like birth, for replenishing Native speakers, and
even birth is failing because we are not teaching our
newborn how to speak their native languages. (Continued
column two.)