{"id":210,"date":"2018-09-23T18:01:39","date_gmt":"2018-09-24T01:01:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/linguamonium.com\/?p=210"},"modified":"2021-04-25T20:10:28","modified_gmt":"2021-04-25T20:10:28","slug":"an-upstream-battle-revitalizing-umonhon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/linguamonium.com\/?p=210","title":{"rendered":"An upstream battle: Revitalizing Um\u00f3nhon"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I could spill a lot of ink (well, use a lot of pixels) writing about endangered languages, and the reasons why language revitalization, or at least preservation, is crucial. But I\u2019ll spare you today, dear readers. I will say in summary that linguistic diversity is both culturally\/anthropologically important, and significant to the study of human cognition. It\u2019s culturally important because speakers of a particular language have stored within it their traditions, history, social norms, and scientific knowledge (e.g. medicine, botany); when their tongue dies, many key aspects of their cultural identity and world knowledge disappear. It\u2019s important for studying the human cognitive capacity, because the more languages we can examine, the better informed are our conclusions on cross-linguistic universals and differences \u2013 conclusions which, in turn, help us understand how the mind works.<\/p>\n<p>Today, instead of a lengthy psycho-socio-historical dissertation, I want to give a short\u00a0 example of one currently endangered language and the revitalization efforts around it. This language is Um\u00f3nhon, of the Omaha Tribe in Macy, Nebraska.<\/p>\n<p>Here is a 2015 article in the <em>Omaha World-Herald<\/em>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.omaha.com\/living\/omaha-tribe-members-trying-to-revitalize-an-endangered-language\/article_32633da3-9ce6-5755-bcc2-a8b006ad79ea.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Omaha Tribe members trying to revitalize an &#8216;endangered language&#8217;<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Highlights from the article:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Omaha Tribe has more than 7,000 members.<\/li>\n<li>Only twelve fluent speakers of Um\u00f3nhon are left (and none of them are under age 70)<strong>.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Um\u00f3nhon means \u201cupstream people\u201d or \u201cagainst the current\u201d (this particular tribe traveled north up the Missouri River). <em>Um\u00f3nhon<\/em> morphed into <em>Omaha<\/em>, the name given to them by white settlers.<\/li>\n<li>People of the tribe spoke Um\u00f3nhon widely until the mid-20<sup>th<\/sup> century, when boarding schools began forcing students to speak only English.<\/li>\n<li>Recent educational efforts have been difficult. The language barely has a written form; there are no textbooks; funding to develop materials and programs is scarce; and interest and retention among young students is low.<\/li>\n<li>While the tribe waits for further funding or help from other tribes, some parents are taking the initiative to teach their children Um\u00f3nhon.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Since 2015, efforts have ramped up. Last year, the community held a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.omaha.com\/news\/nebraska\/omaha-tribe-sees-cause-for-hope-in-effort-to-preserve\/article_347949df-b16e-55e4-bef7-1923c37f51af.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">language bootcamp<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>And now there\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.omaha.com\/living\/the-omaha-tribe-s-language-is-fading-a-new-documentary\/article_5ec57795-54b0-5c34-acb7-7a0f8bd687db.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a new documentary<\/a> out about the tribe\u2019s language and culture. No info on the film\u2019s release yet, but you can watch the trailer: <a href=\"https:\/\/theomahaspeaking.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u201cThe Omaha Speaking\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The Omaha may never go back to speaking Um\u00f3nhon as extensively as they once did. Still, these achievements make my language gland tingle with hope.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I could spill a lot of ink (well, use a lot of pixels) writing about endangered languages, and the reasons why language revitalization, or at least preservation, is crucial. But I\u2019ll spare you today, dear readers. I will say in summary that linguistic diversity is both culturally\/anthropologically important, and significant to the study of human&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":211,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[16],"tags":[73,126,136,143,149],"class_list":["post-210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-languages","tag-endangered-languages","tag-native-american-languages","tag-omaha-tribe","tag-preservation","tag-revitalization"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>An upstream battle: Revitalizing Um\u00f3nhon - Linguamonium<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/linguamonium.com\/?p=210\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"An upstream battle: Revitalizing Um\u00f3nhon - Linguamonium\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I could spill a lot of ink (well, use a lot of pixels) writing about endangered languages, and the reasons why language revitalization, or at least preservation, is crucial. 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