Post by Okwes on Mar 7, 2008 13:35:42 GMT -5
Technology helps tribe pass on native speech Published Wednesday, March
05, 2008 www.cjonline.com/stories/030508/loc_253864388.shtml
<http://www.cjonline.com/stories/030508/loc_253864388.shtml>
POTAWATOMI RESERVATION — Cecelia "Meeks" Jackson is helping
revitalize an almost lost language.
Jackson, 85, is one of six people nationwide who fluently speak the
Potawatomi language, Sydney Van Zile, director of the Prairie Band
Potawatomi Language Center, said Tuesday.
[http://images.morris.com/images/cjonline/mdControlled/cms/2008/03/05/25\
3864438.jpg]
<http://www.cjonline.com/slideshows/030508/253864388/slide1.shtml>
Anthony S. Bush / The Capital-Journal
Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation elder Cecelia "Meeks" Jackson works with
Laverne Haag on recording translations from English to Potawatomi for
the Phraselator on Tuesday. The Phraselator is a one-way communication
translator being used by the Prairie Band Pottawatomi Nation to record
and teach its language, which is spoken fluently by only six people.
PRAIRIE BAND POTAWATOMI NATION
The Potawatomi are very protective of their language. However, they did
share three greetings:
Bosho: Hello
Bosho Nikan: Hello, friend
Nitte na kin: How are you?
Source: Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation
Thanks to advanced technology, Jackson is sharing her knowledge with
other members of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation through the
Phraselator Language Companion, a one-way translator.
"We are in a highly critical state now," Van Zile said of the language.
"Life happens. There are things that replace it."
The Phraselator Language Companion was invented by the U.S. military to
communicate with Iraqis in the war on terror, said Don Thornton,
president of Thornton Media Inc., based in Banning, Calif.
After Thornton read about the technology, he contacted the defense
contractor, Voxtec, for the right to use the technology for native
language revitalization. He was denied, but continued on his quest.
Three years ago, he received approval, and today the company works with
more than 75 tribes and tribal organizations in the United States and
Canada.
The Phraselator is a handheld tool that allows a user to instantly
translate spoken English words and phrases into any native language,
Thornton said.
Thornton and his wife, Kara, are visiting the Potawatomi Reservation to
teach the language department how to use the Phraselator. On Monday, the
couple taught Van Zile and others on her team how to operate the
software, and Tuesday was spent recording. Laverne Haag, audio and video
technician with the tribal language center, spoke an English word or
phrase and Jackson would repeat the word in Potawatomi.
Jackson grew up speaking Potawatomi and had to learn English in school.
She has passed her knowledge of the language to her daughter.
"Today begins the recording for 100 years," Thornton said Tuesday
morning as the process began in the basement of the Elder Center, 15372
K Road.
Many American and Canadian Indian languages were lost from the 1930s to
the 1970s when generations of Indians were sent to U.S. and Canadian
government boarding schools where they weren't allowed to speak their
native languages, the Thornton Media Web site states.
The Potawatomi language stopped evolving in the 1940s, Van Zile said,
and as times have changed, fewer people have learned to speak it. As
technology advances, new words have to be added to the language.
Although the Potawatomi are protective of their language because they
say some people try to exploit it, Van Zile said the tribe is working
with children in the head start program to teach them the language.
The Phraselators cost $3,300 each. The tribe has three and may add more
in the future, Van Zile said.
"I'd like to see it in every home that would use it," Van Zile said.
"We're doing our part to make sure it stays. Our goal is to reach our
families and their children."
05, 2008 www.cjonline.com/stories/030508/loc_253864388.shtml
<http://www.cjonline.com/stories/030508/loc_253864388.shtml>
POTAWATOMI RESERVATION — Cecelia "Meeks" Jackson is helping
revitalize an almost lost language.
Jackson, 85, is one of six people nationwide who fluently speak the
Potawatomi language, Sydney Van Zile, director of the Prairie Band
Potawatomi Language Center, said Tuesday.
[http://images.morris.com/images/cjonline/mdControlled/cms/2008/03/05/25\
3864438.jpg]
<http://www.cjonline.com/slideshows/030508/253864388/slide1.shtml>
Anthony S. Bush / The Capital-Journal
Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation elder Cecelia "Meeks" Jackson works with
Laverne Haag on recording translations from English to Potawatomi for
the Phraselator on Tuesday. The Phraselator is a one-way communication
translator being used by the Prairie Band Pottawatomi Nation to record
and teach its language, which is spoken fluently by only six people.
PRAIRIE BAND POTAWATOMI NATION
The Potawatomi are very protective of their language. However, they did
share three greetings:
Bosho: Hello
Bosho Nikan: Hello, friend
Nitte na kin: How are you?
Source: Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation
Thanks to advanced technology, Jackson is sharing her knowledge with
other members of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation through the
Phraselator Language Companion, a one-way translator.
"We are in a highly critical state now," Van Zile said of the language.
"Life happens. There are things that replace it."
The Phraselator Language Companion was invented by the U.S. military to
communicate with Iraqis in the war on terror, said Don Thornton,
president of Thornton Media Inc., based in Banning, Calif.
After Thornton read about the technology, he contacted the defense
contractor, Voxtec, for the right to use the technology for native
language revitalization. He was denied, but continued on his quest.
Three years ago, he received approval, and today the company works with
more than 75 tribes and tribal organizations in the United States and
Canada.
The Phraselator is a handheld tool that allows a user to instantly
translate spoken English words and phrases into any native language,
Thornton said.
Thornton and his wife, Kara, are visiting the Potawatomi Reservation to
teach the language department how to use the Phraselator. On Monday, the
couple taught Van Zile and others on her team how to operate the
software, and Tuesday was spent recording. Laverne Haag, audio and video
technician with the tribal language center, spoke an English word or
phrase and Jackson would repeat the word in Potawatomi.
Jackson grew up speaking Potawatomi and had to learn English in school.
She has passed her knowledge of the language to her daughter.
"Today begins the recording for 100 years," Thornton said Tuesday
morning as the process began in the basement of the Elder Center, 15372
K Road.
Many American and Canadian Indian languages were lost from the 1930s to
the 1970s when generations of Indians were sent to U.S. and Canadian
government boarding schools where they weren't allowed to speak their
native languages, the Thornton Media Web site states.
The Potawatomi language stopped evolving in the 1940s, Van Zile said,
and as times have changed, fewer people have learned to speak it. As
technology advances, new words have to be added to the language.
Although the Potawatomi are protective of their language because they
say some people try to exploit it, Van Zile said the tribe is working
with children in the head start program to teach them the language.
The Phraselators cost $3,300 each. The tribe has three and may add more
in the future, Van Zile said.
"I'd like to see it in every home that would use it," Van Zile said.
"We're doing our part to make sure it stays. Our goal is to reach our
families and their children."