Module 13: Revitalizing Languages

A:ñi cem s-ma:c g Oʼodham Ñeok ban nt o ñ-mai.

“I know a little Tohono ‘O’odham, but I’ll learn (to speak it fluently).”

               I came to the University of Arizona specifically to study linguistics so I could specialize in Native American languages and aid in their revitalization efforts. Since my first semester here, I’ve been able to pursue learning the Tohono ‘O’odham language and help with research on the Hiaki language, and I am very grateful for these opportunities. However, through talking with people involved in the field and through taking classes like this one, I’ve learned a valuable lesson about doing Native language revitalization work: There’s a line between language revitalization and abusing the rights and wishes of a particular language community, and it must not be crossed.

For example, as part of my work on the Hiaki language, I often ask our native-Hiaki speaking consultants about particular words to see if there is anything more to a word such as certain expressions it may be used in or cultural knowledge attached to it. Quite often there is indeed more to a Hiaki word than what’s recorded in the dictionary, but whether our consultants want to share that with us is a different story. Sometimes certain linguistic or cultural knowledge is too significant to a language community to be shared with outsiders, even if it’s for the sake of revitalization. Obviously our Hiaki consultants understand that we have no malicious intent, and that part of why we do what we do is for the purposes of learning everything we can about the language and developing teaching materials and resources for it. Nonetheless there are just some things they won’t tell us, and we have no choice but to respect that.

Ultimately, a language community has the last word when it comes to language revitalization. It’s up to the community of speakers or people who identify with a certain language to decide whether it will live or die. We can’t just go full blown J.P. Harrington on people and make them tell us everything there is to know about their language. In fact, we can’t make people do anything at all. All we can do is offer our services should they want them and be grateful that they’re welcoming to people like us who want to pursue learning and studying their languages.

Special thanks to Andrea Ramon, Ofelia Zepeda, and John Havier for teaching me all the Tohono ‘O’odham I know and to Maria & Santos Leyva for sitting through our Hiaki elicitation sessions every Friday morning.