Shayne Crawford
Overall, 52 percent of all the world’s languages are spoken by fewer than 10,000 people each (Coulmas 2005: 150 as cited in Van Herk, 2012). One of those languages happens to be Abenaki. Abenaki used to have several regional dialects. It is a branch of the Eastern Algonquin language group along with Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Malecite and Micmac who all speak distinct dialects of Eastern Algonquin (Wiseman, 2001, p.79). The Abenakis covered a vast amount of territory back in the day.
Wôbanakik covered a significant portion of what would become America during the years of the Moose (approximately 10 000 – 6500 Winters Ago) (Wiseman, 2001, p.26). Wôbanakik’s territory was significantly reduced by 1500 AD due to many circumstances relating to colonial invasion (Wiseman, 2001, p.70)
The Abenakis language family has experienced serious rates of attrition since colonial contact. So much so that the last fluent speaker of Abenakis, Madeline Tower Shay, died in 1993 (Eberhard et al. 2007). In order to expand the Abenakis language into more domains, Philippe Charland, a teacher of Abenakis in Odanak and Wôlinak, decided to launch the first French-Abenakis dictionary. In collaboration with the tribal council in Odanak, he launched the first 5000-word dictionary with the goal of modernizing the way Abenakis is learned (Drouin, 2018). Creating a resource on an aboriginal language does not come easily. Charland explains that Abenakis, like most aboriginal languages, is an oral language and not a written one, so the dictionary project comes with its linguistic challenges. Charland also notes that:
« Il faut parfois se référer à cinq ou six outils pour retrouver comment écrire un mot ou encore comment accorder un verbe. »Philippe Charland (as cited in Drouin, 2018)
He explains that he sometimes has to refer to five or six tools to explain one word or to find one verb agreement. Charland furthered this project and made it his mission to make this language accessible to people of Abenakis heritage, so he began to teach the language at Collège Kiuna, in Odanak, Quebec. Kiuna College is an accredited school offering classes in languages, culture, social sciences, literature and media technology to both aboriginal and non-aboriginal students.
My take on Charland’s work: first of all, for all extensive purposes, the Abenakis language is dead. It has no more fluent speakers and no one is learning it as an L1. On the surface, it seems pointless to study that language. However, there is an abundance of culture linked to Abenakis language that could potentially be lost if the language is not documented. The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis stipulates that every language encompasses a worldview shaped by the collective experiences of its speakers (Van Herk, 2012, p.166). So, not only is the language lost if there are no more speakers, but all of the knowledge embedded (herbal medicines, hunting techniques, potting techniques etc…) in the language is lost as well.
References
Drouin, R. (August 2, 2018). Un premier dictionnaire pour donner une seconde vie à l’abénaquis. Radio Canada. N.p. Retrieved from: https://ici.radio-canada.ca/espaces-autochtones/1116115/abenakis-abenaquis-dictionnaire-enseignant-langue-charland
Eberhard, D., Simons, G, and Charles D. Fennig (2019) Ethnologue: Languages of the World. Twenty-second edition. Dallas, Texas: SIL International. Online version: http://www.ethnologue.com.
Van Herk, G. (2012). What is sociolinguistics? Chichester, West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.
Wiseman, F. (2001). The Voice of the Dawn. Lebanon, New Hampshire: University Press of New England.
