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Beyond Babel7
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In this valley in Northern California, three native American tribes, the Hupa, Kuruk and Yuruk, are trying to preserve their individual languages against the depredations of English. These native languages, which have described a way of life for centuries, are now struggling to find a place in a world dominated by English.
All of the fluent speakers today, they're all in their 70s, 80s and some are still alive in their 90s. There was a tremendous gap there that the language was not passed on because of the efforts of the federal system to basically eliminate the Indian culture in the early part of the century.
In a deliberate attempt to destroy native American culture, Government policy compelled parents to send their children to so called 'Indian Boarding Schools', where under often cruel and abusive regimes they were systematically stripped of their culture, traditions and language.
I was one of them that was in this crowd that was playing marbles when a lady came out and told us, told I think it was one of the Hostler boys. He was talking in language and then she came out and say, “Are you speaking your language?” He said, “yes” and he started to laugh. ‘Well’ she said “Next time I hear you talk that language I’ll rub soap in your mouth” and that scared everybody, so we had no chance.
Although the boarding school system has long ceased, the damage to native languages has been devastating.
You take away the language you take away the heart so I think that there is a clash, it’s a devastating clash and if we don’t recognize that and start working towards building our own languages as a first language it’s going to continue to be so.
Our thought process is different, like there’s no word for goodbye. We just say. ‘I’ll see you again’. Our sense of direction is also different, we don’t have a true East, West, North or South. Our directions are based on the river, up the river, down to the River, across the river, up hill, down hill. Like for East would be “Enakia Etuch”, up the river and up the hill.
The name of this place is Tark Lamithlene, the place where they stir up the acorns when they’re cooking them. We used to have acorn ceremony, first acorns, and that was one of the ceremonies that where held here. Hojahonta, that’s where like the little kids and women, they would sleep together in there. And then the Hojatique, the sweathouse, the men, older boys would sleep in there. My grandma, she was a fluent speaker, but she went to the Chimauwa Indian Boarding School, it’s kind of an horrendous story actually. They pretty much got it beat into them to not speak their language, so she didn’t pass it on to my father, so I’ve been picking it up from elders that come to our class.
You can preserve a language and you can document it, video tape, audio tape, write it down but all you’re doing is preserving it for some study at some future point whereas communication means using it now, making it relevant to people here so that they use it every day.
We have been trying to revitalize our language so that its’ fluent in the homes and we started at a very young age. This process has only been going on for about twelve to fifteen years.
The educational system of this country helped to squash languages and now here at least it’s the same institution that is helping to bring it back which is a wonderful irony.
What we try to teach our children and what we try to pass on is that when you know who you are, when you know where you come from and you can connect yourself with those people who’ve gone before you then you can do anything that you can succeed because you have a strong foundation. It’s when you don’t have that connection with your ancestors, when you don’t have that connection with the land or that connection with this community here, that’s when you have a difficult time going out into the dominant society and actually succeeding, because it’s very different.
-How long have you been learning the language Eric?
-I just started this year
-Is it difficult?
-It’s difficult because, you know, it’s pronounced different than English. You’ve got to learn new sounds and all that, but it’s not really that hard. I like learning it because it’s my language and it’s where I’m from.
-It’s our people’s language and it’s gone away, and we’re trying to get it back, fighting to get it back. More people are starting to learn it.
-And do your family speaks it?
-I try to teach them. They learn some quick, but still trying.
-And do you speak it with your friends now?
-Sometimes walking to the hall say a couple of words.
-I’ve been learning about ten years now.
-Do you think you’re going to attain fluency in the language?
-I kinda go back and forth, sometimes I think I will and sometimes I think I won’t, its really difficult, it’s a very difficult thing. Because it goes beyond just memorizing, you know, lists of words, you actually have to figure out a whole grammatical different structure. The way that we put things together in Hupa is nothing at all like English.
I’m teaching around 500 children. Some are very enthusiastic, others could take or leave it. It’s only a half-hour per week, per class, not enough time to learn a language.
We only teach it once, once a week. I would like to see it everyday. It’s in the school but you’ve got to be fluent to speak that language. You get people that speak in here that really is not fluent. So that a lot of words that they use they don’t pronounce them right, not the way we do.
It’s very difficult to imitate the fluency and the exact dialect of a native speaker so we’re imitating. We’re imitators, but that’s all we have.
As long as we’re here, as long as the valley is here, as long as our culture is alive, the language and teaching the language will be a part of what we do. It’s out responsibility.
If it’s up to me this language is going to go on. Like I said I could be doing more but I have done a lot and I want the language to be more of a home setting when it’s actually used in the home again. It would even be neat to have the tribe, have a bi-lingualism on the reservation, but that’s going to take a while, that’s going to take a lot of hard work but that’s my goal.
If they work on it, the kids work on it, I think they can make it I’m quite sure. We did, I don’t see why we’re no different.
I’m hopeful but concerned, deeply concerned. Because if it doesn’t happen within the next five years, we may very well lose our language with the exception of this our dictionary and I understand there are languages that can be revived by just the word but you know, how effective is that, without the speakers.
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英語的故事（七）
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在這個南加州的山谷裏，三個當地的部族，Hupa、Kuruk、Yuruk，正在努力保存各自的語言，以抵抗英語來勢洶洶的擴張。這些部族的語言，在過去的千百年中描述了它們特有的生活方式，現在卻在英語統治的世界裏，努力謀求一席之地。
現在能流利地説這種語言的人們都七八十歲了，有些已經九十多歲了。但有一段時間是這種語言的空白，在本世紀上半葉，聯邦政府曾經大力消除印地安文化。對印地安文化的滅絕是週密安排的，政府強迫父母送子女去“印地安寄宿學校”讀書。那裏的管理嚴厲得近於粗暴，孩子們被迫從根本上與他們的文化、傳統和語言相脫離。
我就是他們當中的一員。記得有一群孩子正在玩玻璃彈球，一位女士走出房間，當時我記得是一個少數民族的男孩，他正在説自己部族的語言，那位女士問道：“你是在説你自己的語言嗎？”他説：“是的。”接著笑了笑。那位女士隨即説：“下一次我再聽見你説這種語言，我就把肥皂涂在你的嘴上。”所有人都嚇壞了，我們再也沒有使用自己語言的機會。
儘管寄宿學校制度早已取消，但部族語言卻遭到了毀滅性打擊。禁絕一門語言就是剝離一個民族的根本，所以我認為那次打擊是致命的。如果我們不認識到這一點，還不著手把部族語言發展為第一語言，這一切將繼續下去。我們的思維過程與眾不同，我們沒有表示告別的詞彙，我們只是説“我會再看見你的”。我們用特有的方式辨別方向，沒有嚴格意義上的東西南北。我們的方向以河流為參照，溯源而上或朝河邊走，還有橫跨河流，上山以及下山。與東方相近的方向是Enikia Etuch，順流而上和朝山上走。
這個地方在我們的語言中被稱Tark Lamithlene，我們在這裡攪拌並烹煮橡子。那時我們有“橡子慶典”，慶祝第一批收穫的橡子。這裡就是舉行慶典的地方。小孩子和女人們住在Hojahonta，Hojatique是工作場所，男人和稍大一些的男孩住這裡。我的祖母本來能流利地説我們的部族語言，她後來去了Chimauwa寄宿學校，那段經歷非常可怕。孩子們被迫牢記不要使用自己的語言，所以祖母沒有把它教給父親。現在老人們來到課堂，我從他們那裏學會了自己的語言。
你可以保存一種語言，製作紀錄片，發行錄象帶和磁帶，製作文字記錄，但所有這些只能有助於未來的語言研究。交流意味著此時此刻的使用，使這種語言與人們息息相關，讓人們每天使用它。我們正在努力使自己的語言恢復活力，促使人們在家裏流利地使用它。孩子們很小就開始學習自己的語言。我們堅持這樣的做法已有12年到15年之久。政府曾用教育來毀滅部族語言，可現在當年的那個機構又在鼓勵使用這種語言，這真是絕妙的諷刺。
我們想要孩子們知道，只有當你知道了你是誰，你從哪來，了解你的先人，你才可能在任何領域都獲得成功，因為你有深厚的民族根基。如果你將自己與你的祖先和你的故土，與生活在這裡的族人相割離，你將在外面的社會裏舉步維艱，難以獲得成功，因為那是不同的世界。
這門語言你學了多久，愛裏克？我是今年剛開始學的。你覺得困難嗎？是，因為你也知道，它的發音和英語不同，你必須學會新的發音以及相關的一切知識。但其實它並不是特別困難。我喜歡學習這門語言，因為這是我們自己的語言，是我的文化根基。這是我們本民族的語言。它曾一度被禁止使用，但我們正努力恢復它的地位。我們正為此奮鬥，越來越多的人開始學習它。你的家人使用這種語言嗎？我正在試著教他們説。他們只學了一點，但仍然在堅持學習。你和朋友們用它聊天嗎？有時用它聊天，有時候，我們一邊走，一邊蹦幾個單詞。我已經學了十年了。你認為你將來能流利使用它嗎？我時而進步，時而倒退。有時我相信一定能流利使用，有時就不這樣想。這門語言真的很難，你不光是要記憶詞彙，還必須學會整個不同的語法體系。在Hupa語中我們組織語言的方式與英語截然不同。
我的班上有將近500名學生，有些積極性很高，有一些抱著無所謂的態度。每週只有半小時的課時，要學習一門語言這是不夠的。一週只有一次課，我希望每天都有課，人們主要在學校使用這門語言。
你自己必須説得非常流利，但你的學生卻達不到流利程度。他們很多單詞的發音是錯誤的，與我們所演示的不同。只是去模倣流利的語言地道的發音，這非常困難，但我們只是模倣者，我們只能如此。
只要我們還生活在這裡，山谷還在這裡，我們的文化仍然存在，我們就仍會保存並傳授這門語言，這是我們的責任。只要我在，這門語言就會繼續存在，我還能做更多的事情，我已經做了很多。我希望它能更大程度地融入家庭，人們重新在家裏使用自己的語言
如果在這片保留地上，在雙語體系中，部族語言能和英語平分秋色，那就太好了。但那還需要一段時間，還需要很多的努力，但那是我的目標。只要孩子們學習這門語言，我們一定能達到這個目標。
我對未來充滿希望，但同時也非常擔憂。因為如果這個目標不能在五年內得到實現，我們就很可能失去自己的語言。它將只存在於字典當中，我知道我們能只靠單詞就讓一門語言得以延續，但這並非真正的活力，如果沒有人用它進行交流的話。
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