Karen, I know a little about the situation in Canada. In the far north, including northern Quebec and Labrador, the languages of the Inuit and Inuvialuit are still strong and widely spoken in the communities, and will probably remain so. The Government of Nunavut Territory requires that a large part of its business has to be conducted in Inuktitut. Among the northern Athapaskans (Dene), native languages remain the language of daily household use, but not daily business use or in dealings with government. Even their use in the household and community has retreated considerably. When I was last in Whitehorse a couple of years ago, I spent some time at the Yukon Native Languages Centre, which is associated with Yukon College. There were heroic efforts going on to preserve and promote the languages, but one could only wonder how successful they would be. One of the First Nations (they used to be called "bands"), Champagne-Aishishik, had recently sent someone down to the southern US to see what the Navaho (a related language) were doing, but of course there are many thousands of Navaho and only about one thousand Champagne-Aishihik (Southern Tutchone) speakers (or really potential speakers, because many of the younger people no longer know the language).
Elsewhere in Canada, whether the language remains a thing of daily use depends very much on the isolation of First Nation groups from outside influences, the number of speakers, and the resources at their disposal. The Cree of northern Quebec have their own school board and use the Cree language in at least the earlier grades. The use of Ojibway and Cree remains strong in northern Ontario and the northern parts of the prairie provinces, in some cases because of cultural strength, in other cases because of isolation. I believe that language use also remains strong in northern and coastal British Columbia. Where the languages have the least hope of survival is where Native groups live close to large urban centres. The influences promoting language loss and cultural change are just too strong. What needs to be understood about Canada is that, during the past few decades, there has been a substantial growth of the Native population of Canada and a strengthening of Native interests and powers via processes such as the settlement of claims and the recognition of rights. Whether this has resulted in a strengthening of Native culture overall is difficult to say. There's an item on my website that discusses this at http://members.eisa.com/~ec086636/native_claims.htm . I don't believe that there is any kind of national effort in Canada to preserve endangered Native languages, but there is a substantial effort on the part of Native groups themselves and by academia (e.g. the Yukon Native Languages Centre). Regards, Ed Ed Weick 577 Melbourne Ave. Ottawa, ON, K2A 1W7 Canada Phone (613) 728 4630 Fax (613) 728 9382 > Isn't there a national linguistic program attempting to transcribe the most > endangered Native languages? More of an organized effort, to transcribe the > vocabulary and grammar systems before it is lost forever? > Here in Oregon I know that the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde have moved > to certify their native linguists so that they can receive public school > support and credit for teaching kids at school - one of the benefits of that > casino money. > The Tribes have also been smart to create scholarships for their high school > graduates, encouraging anthropology, geology, and linguist majors. > > Karen > East of Portland, West of Mt Hood > Outgoing Mail Scanned by NAV 2002 > > >
