The_Linguists_movie.doc

Jennifer Bishop October 29, 2009 Anthro Lecture Notes ?The Linguists? movie More than 7,000 languages in the world Small languages disappearing at rate of 1 every 2 weeks Endangered languages mean that unique worldviews could be lost Languages are actively suppressed/discouraged Children often decide to stop using ancestral languages Language gone when they grow up Siberia Originally exploited for money/resources, but then settlers came Native Siberian languages are being wiped out by Russian Gregory Anderson: expert in verbs, David Kessler: expert in sound/words Both have worked in Siberia for 6 years, looking for new language to document Went to Tumsk Laboratory of Siberian Languages Chulym: one of least documented languages in Siberia, ?endangered? 30-year period in which nothing was documented about it Mayor of a Chulym village says the people just constantly get drunk Both men want to take census of Chulym villages and figure out what Chulym speakers know Most speakers elderly and deaf People often deny knowledge of Chulym but are actually able to speak it Siberian children sent to boarding schools and forbidden by teacher to speak their native language Arizona ? Chemehuevi language If you were caught speaking a native language in boarding school you were punished Tribal Boarding School in India Kids from 60 indigenous minority groups attend this school to get good education Educated in English while exposed to Hindu religion ? hard for tribal religions to survive Need permission from state gov. to go into tribal lands ? not easy to get access Greg/David go to Sora-speaking territory with a school English/music teacher and an Indian scholar In India you are born into a particular caste (social group) Many tribes outside of caste system ? below it Tribal areas restricted to outsiders ? seen as uneducated and low-class Tribal area violence incidents, killings common Sora language has 300,000 speakers out of India?s billion people Sora must learn/use other languages to communicate People drink palm wine and dance/play music for the linguist visitors Gift-giving is a highly regulated behavior (hard to give right gift as an outsider) ? linguists give gift of $2,000 to tribe leader for ppl to share Leader was a Braman: high-caste Indian Marriage ceremony in a Sora village ? David and Greg joined in the dancing Women dance by locking arms around waist and flow side-to-side ?it was like being in a mosh pit? but ?it felt great? Interview with Sora Speaker (man, 50 years old) Elicitation: comprehensive description of the language using interviews Exchange English/native words for body parts, colors, numbers Number system uses 20 and 12 as basis for digit construction Bolivia ? Kallawaya language Kallawaya famous for healing practices/medicinal uses of plants 10,000 plants used Kallawaya has under 100 speakers ? though small, it still exists despite Spanish influence Bolivia one of most linguistically-diverse areas in the world Have to go over mountain pass on windy road to get to Kallawaya Barren landscape with just llamas/sheep and some wildlife Lake Titicaca ? camped outside there Met boy whose father was a Kallawayan healer Interviewed father and went through elicitation process Man didn?t actually speak Kallawayan ? spoke mostly Cechua (largest indigenous language in the Andes) Max Chura was first Kallawayan they met Gave him money since they knew he was a speaker Performed ritual for them: read patterns on cocoa leaves Max says they should be more patient because they want things too fast (according to the cocoa leaves) Went to radio station in Bolivia, were interviewed by radio host