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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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英语的故事（七）
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在这个南加州的山谷里，三个当地的部族，Hupa、Kuruk、Yuruk，正在努力保存各自的语言，以抵抗英语来势汹汹的扩张。这些部族的语言，在过去的千百年中描述了它们特有的生活方式，现在却在英语统治的世界里，努力谋求一席之地。
现在能流利地说这种语言的人们都七八十岁了，有些已经九十多岁了。但有一段时间是这种语言的空白，在本世纪上半叶，联邦政府曾经大力消除印地安文化。对印地安文化的灭绝是周密安排的，政府强迫父母送子女去“印地安寄宿学校”读书。那里的管理严厉得近于粗暴，孩子们被迫从根本上与他们的文化、传统和语言相脱离。
我就是他们当中的一员。记得有一群孩子正在玩玻璃弹球，一位女士走出房间，当时我记得是一个少数民族的男孩，他正在说自己部族的语言，那位女士问道：“你是在说你自己的语言吗？”他说：“是的。”接着笑了笑。那位女士随即说：“下一次我再听见你说这种语言，我就把肥皂涂在你的嘴上。”所有人都吓坏了，我们再也没有使用自己语言的机会。
尽管寄宿学校制度早已取消，但部族语言却遭到了毁灭性打击。禁绝一门语言就是剥离一个民族的根本，所以我认为那次打击是致命的。如果我们不认识到这一点，还不着手把部族语言发展为第一语言，这一切将继续下去。我们的思维过程与众不同，我们没有表示告别的词汇，我们只是说“我会再看见你的”。我们用特有的方式辨别方向，没有严格意义上的东西南北。我们的方向以河流为参照，溯源而上或朝河边走，还有横跨河流，上山以及下山。与东方相近的方向是Enikia Etuch，顺流而上和朝山上走。
这个地方在我们的语言中被称Tark Lamithlene，我们在这里搅拌并烹煮橡子。那时我们有“橡子庆典”，庆祝第一批收获的橡子。这里就是举行庆典的地方。小孩子和女人们住在Hojahonta，Hojatique是工作场所，男人和稍大一些的男孩住这里。我的祖母本来能流利地说我们的部族语言，她后来去了Chimauwa寄宿学校，那段经历非常可怕。孩子们被迫牢记不要使用自己的语言，所以祖母没有把它教给父亲。现在老人们来到课堂，我从他们那里学会了自己的语言。
你可以保存一种语言，制作纪录片，发行录象带和磁带，制作文字记录，但所有这些只能有助于未来的语言研究。交流意味着此时此刻的使用，使这种语言与人们息息相关，让人们每天使用它。我们正在努力使自己的语言恢复活力，促使人们在家里流利地使用它。孩子们很小就开始学习自己的语言。我们坚持这样的做法已有12年到15年之久。政府曾用教育来毁灭部族语言，可现在当年的那个机构又在鼓励使用这种语言，这真是绝妙的讽刺。
我们想要孩子们知道，只有当你知道了你是谁，你从哪里来，了解你的先人，你才可能在任何领域都获得成功，因为你有深厚的民族根基。如果你将自己与你的祖先和你的故土，与生活在这里的族人相割离，你将在外面的社会里举步维艰，难以获得成功，因为那是不同的世界。
这门语言你学了多久，爱里克？我是今年刚开始学的。你觉得困难吗？是，因为你也知道，它的发音和英语不同，你必须学会新的发音以及相关的一切知识。但其实它并不是特别困难。我喜欢学习这门语言，因为这是我们自己的语言，是我的文化根基。这是我们本民族的语言。它曾一度被禁止使用，但我们正努力恢复它的地位。我们正为此奋斗，越来越多的人开始学习它。你的家人使用这种语言吗？我正在试着教他们说。他们只学了一点，但仍然在坚持学习。你和朋友们用它聊天吗？有时用它聊天，有时候，我们一边走，一边蹦几个单词。我已经学了十年了。你认为你将来能流利使用它吗？我时而进步，时而倒退。有时我相信一定能流利使用，有时就不这样想。这门语言真的很难，你不光是要记忆词汇，还必须学会整个不同的语法体系。在Hupa语中我们组织语言的方式与英语截然不同。
我的班上有将近500名学生，有些积极性很高，有一些抱着无所谓的态度。每周只有半小时的课时，要学习一门语言这是不够的。一周只有一次课，我希望每天都有课，人们主要在学校使用这门语言。
你自己必须说得非常流利，但你的学生却达不到流利程度。他们很多单词的发音是错误的，与我们所演示的不同。只是去模仿流利的语言地道的发音，这非常困难，但我们只是模仿者，我们只能如此。
只要我们还生活在这里，山谷还在这里，我们的文化仍然存在，我们就仍会保存并传授这门语言，这是我们的责任。只要我在，这门语言就会继续存在，我还能做更多的事情，我已经做了很多。我希望它能更大程度地融入家庭，人们重新在家里使用自己的语言
如果在这片保留地上，在双语体系中，部族语言能和英语平分秋色，那就太好了。但那还需要一段时间，还需要很多的努力，但那是我的目标。只要孩子们学习这门语言，我们一定能达到这个目标。
我对未来充满希望，但同时也非常担忧。因为如果这个目标不能在五年内得到实现，我们就很可能失去自己的语言。它将只存在于字典当中，我知道我们能只靠单词就让一门语言得以延续，但这并非真正的活力，如果没有人用它进行交流的话。
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