A snootful of Nootka ... pithiest language gets first dictionary
Martin Wainwright Tuesday May 31, 2005 The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/story/0,11711,1495759,00.html The world's pithiest language, which combines a lavish vocabulary with a terseness that would have made the Spartans jealous, has been cracked for the first time by a British university project. A debut dictionary of all known words in Nootka, the 5,000-year-old tongue of North American tribes in an island outpost of the Rockies, has been published by a team in Newcastle upon Tyne. Years of interviews with some 300 surviving speakers of the language, almost all now aged over 60, have led to 537 pages of unique and remarkably versatile terms. Entire sentences of meaning can be crammed into very short words. "There are only three basic vowels but 40 consonants and a very complex sound structure when they are spoken," said John Stonham, of Newcastle University, who started collecting Nootka words 20 years ago. His dictionary also draws on the fieldwork of the linguist and anthropologist Edward Sapir, who investigated the tribes' homeland on Vancouver Island between 1910 and 1924. Also known as Nuuchahnulth, which means "along the mountains" - a reference to the speakers' homeland - Nootka's telescoping of words is unparalleled in other languages. The range of alternatives means that a sentence as long as "to wipe the tears from one's eyes with the back of one's hand" is rendered simply "fib". The 150,000 words in the dictionary are divided into 15 subgroups, each a separate variant of the language and most with their own grammar and pronunciation. Apart from academic interest, the drive to collect them has been encouraged by concern that Nootka could be lost for ever without a written record. "I hope the dictionary will help efforts to preserve the language and hence the culture of these societies, as language is intricately bound up with tradition," said Dr Stonham. "There is also a very strong desire by many of the younger people to speak their native tongue. "Noam Chomsky said you can learn about all languages by studying just one. This work will contribute to a better understanding of the structure of English and many of the world's languages, not just those of the Native Americans." Glossary Nuuniiqa: To speak to someone you happen to meet Deehiy: Staying at home observing tribal taboos, so as not to spoil a hunter's luck Kampuucis: High rubber boots (derived in part from English 'gumboot' of 18th-century colonial settlers) Faafaaqsapa: Someone who has mastered Nootka
