Entry for February 26, 2007 Mourning Language Loss !!

Whether you believe that God infused language into mankind in the Garden of Eden and later diversified it in the Tower of Babel or , like the Montagnais creation tale , where Wolverine ( Kwekwatshew or Carcajou ) invented different tongues on purpose to foment havoc and conflict among both humans and other animals...... is not discussed in this blog. However , I personally believe that mankind has forged its own languages to satisfy its own innate cravings and necessities to communicate and interact socially.............and spiritually.

What we do know .... for a fact .... is that from the beginnings of historical records until today language has always been and still is systematic , multiple and complex. Most authors associate the figure 3600 with the number of languages still in existence and spoken in the world nowadays. History is a solemn witness to those lost and gone forever ......... many hundreds of them having already given up the ghost among us here in North America...... and many in the throes of death even as we write these lines.. both on this continent and elsewheres around the planet.

Back in 1970 when I was a young buck in the academic world I published my first wee work.....a grammar of the Montagnais language ( launching pic above with university dignitaries and my Montagnais assistant , Marie-Jeanne Basile ) . I wrote the preface in three languages .... Montagnais , French and English ..... the following quotation being drawn from the latter version. Needless to say I still feel as strongly passionate about agonizing languages today as I did 35 years ago..... maybe even moreso now after so much firsthand involvement in the fate of minority languages during my career.

" Kill a man and you kill a person. Snuff out a language and you wipe out a people. This is the difference between murder and genocide, a favourite pastime with all great powers ever since the first caveman discovered he was stronger than his neighbour.

Governments are great providers. They grant fabulous amounts of money to universities and museums every year for the purchase of pottery collections and other artifacts unearthed throughout the world. With the aid of these relics from the past the professor explains to his students the artistic and practical trends of a more or less remote period in the history of man and the personal characteristics of the author. One Greek pot alone may cost $20, 000.00. Moreover, governments are ready to spend thousands to preserve a species of animal or bird from extinction. However, these same governing and financial powers turn a deaf ear whenever it is a question of preserving and propagating man's greatest creation, his language, and more especially, Amerindian languages.

This short grammar has several aims. Because of the ever increasing number of students enrolling at Laval University and elsewheres for courses in Montagnais, I thought it high time to publish my class notes. Secondly, this short work is an attempt to demonstrate on paper the harmonious workings of the Montagnais intellect as revealed through a study of the language. Thirdly, this little grammar is being published mainly in the hope that the Montagnais themselves will use it to initiate their children in the workings of their mother tongue."

I'll close up shop this evening with a wee word about another of my great loves.......Irish Gaelic ........ the first official language of Ireland , and yet a minority language....... a tongue as tough as nails which outlived two and a half centuries of oppression under the "Stranger"and likewise the ravages of An Gorta Mor or Great Famine in 1847-48 and the ensuing immigration of over a million of its starving speakers across the Salty Pond into the American melting pot .....the following poem is an ode to and a plea for its survival ...... author unknown !!

An Ghaeilge
Is mise an Ghaeilge
Is mise do theanga
Is mise do chultúr
D'Úsáid na Filí mé
D'Úsáid na huaisle
D'Úsáid na daoine mé
is d'Úsáid na lenaí
Go bródúil a bhí siad
Agus mise faoi réim.

Ach tháinig an strainséir
Chuir sé faoi chois mé
Is rud ní ba mheasa
Nior mhaith le mo chlann mé
Anois táim lag
Anois táim tréith
Ach fós táim libh
Is beidh mé go beo.
Tóg suas mo cheann
Cuir áthas ar mo chroí
Labhraígí mé
Ó labhraígí mé!

The Irish Language
I am Irish
I am your language
I am your culture
The poets used me
The nobles used me
The people used me
and the children used me
Proud they were
And I flourished

But the stranger came
He suppressed me
Something worse than that was
my own people rejected me
Now I am weak
Now I am feeble
But still I am with you
and I will be forever.
Raise up my head
Put joy in my heart
Speak me
Oh speak me!

Thank you for your patience !!