Broken English and broken Lakota
There was a lot of brouhaha about a new Lakota dictionary so I decided to take a look at it. I borrowed the dictionary as I did not want to buy it without reviewing it first.
I have developed a three tier system on the usage of Lakota language. The first level is the grandparent, parent to child level. This is what I call the utilitarian level. The child expresses its needs and the parent or grandparent will take care of it. All of the non-Lakota people who learned English as their first language and are learning Lakota language are at this level. These are the anthros, linguist, historians and sociologists. These are the so called Indian experts.
The next level is conversational level where local events and issues are discussed. The third level is the abstract level and this level is reached after many years on the second level. Only people who speak Lakota language as their first language reach this level. Don't confuse this with the local schools where they have developed their own learning levels.
History is written by the victors. The majority of Lakota history has been written by a myriad of people who have what I call, Euro Christian attitudes. They tend to see Lakota history and culture through their own prism of Christian values. This is okay if they are writing about their own cultures as they have an insight on how and why events are created by their own people. When they write about Lakota history, culture and now Lakota language, it is flawed.
 | | Francis White Bird COMBAT MEDIC, VIETNAM HARVARD UNIVERSITY GRADUATE |
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When Euro Christians write about Lakota people, they use terms like, Teton, Sioux, savages, and many other derogatory terms to describe us. The non-native people now have wandered into a new area, our Lakota language.
They produced a dictionary which I assume took many years to produce. It is a free country and certainly there are an abundance of salesmen running around all the time. It is despicable how a consortium can use a lot of innocent people to list as their consultants on the creation of a façade to legitimize their work. I talked to one person who is listed on the project and supposedly have been used to be part of this project. The person told me some white guy asked him about a word and that was the extent of this expertise. There are also a lot of people on that list who are not fluent speakers.
All of us speak English and certainly everyone speaks at the level of their education. Some of the people talk at the high school level and other speak at the college level. Lakota language is the same way. Some people use Lakota language all the time and have a firm grasp of the nuances of the language. Others understand it but for some reason do not speak it. Others do not have a clue about the language.
The English language is concise and materialistic. When I read the sentences in the new dictionary our Lakota language is being bastardized in supporting English words NOT Lakota concepts.
The words are sometimes used differently than the meaning. Only a fluent Lakota speaker would be able to recognize this pattern.
I am disappointed that the Lakota language departments in the Lakota college and community colleges have not taken the time and review this dictionary. Shame on some of you for supporting this effort to change the Lakota language by a bunch of strangers.
Also, the college presidents should have someone review this work. I am not recommending this work to any school.
I do have to praise Sinte Gleska's Lakota language department for taking a stand against this attempt to change our Lakota language. The tribal councils have a responsibility to protect our Lakota culture and the Lakota language is the root of our culture.
If a bunch of white guys destroy our language, they single handedly destroyed our culture with the tribal councils doing diddly squat.
Tribal councils do something!! Oops!! I may have to use broken English to describe broken Lakota!!!
Only in America. A bunch of non Indians selling the Lakota language back to us. Are we stupid or what??
Hechetu yelo!!
Francis Whitebird
Vietnam Veterans and Harvard graduate
St. Francis, S.D.
| Posted By Wilhelm Meya (11/20/2008 12:48 PM EDT): | |
There have been some issues raised recently about the New Lakota Dictionary and this letter hopes to provide some explanation and clarity as to the purpose and development of the dictionary.
The New Lakota Dictionary contains 20,000 word entries and over 40,000 example sentences, collocations and usage notes. Over 6,000 of the word entries have never been recorded in any previous Lakota dictionary. The dictionary clarifies many inaccuracies present in older dictionaries.
All the words in the New Lakota Dictionary originate from 300 native speaking contributors. For the sake of reliability, each word entry was checked by more than two fluent speakers. The English definitions of Lakota words come directly from the native contributors. Similarly, the English translations of the Lakota example sentences were also provided by native speakers. The electronic database used to build the dictionary contains detailed records of the sources of each word and sentence. In addition, it identifies each native speaker who provided or confirmed any particular word, sentence, definition or translation. In most cases, the database refers to the relevant textual or audio source, as most of the consultant sessions were audio-recorded.
The example sentences in the Dictionary are particularly valuable, because not only do they show the word usages but they also provide a very rich insight into the Lakota way of life, Lakota thought and Lakota culture, both traditional and modern. Again, all of these sentences originate from highly respected fluent speakers. It is true that some native contributors were involved more intensely with the dictionary making than others. Some devoted much more time and effort and worked on thousands of words or provided hours of recordings, while others recorded only a short story or were consulted on a dozen or so words. This was in most cases influenced by circumstances or by the speakers' ability to spend time working on the dictionary. We felt strongly, however, that even those who provided a small number of words had made a positive contribution to the dictionary and to the language, and deserved to be given credit. These people should also be recognized and remembered by their grandchildren and great-grandchildren when they learn the language using the dictionary in the future.
The involvement of non-Lakota people in the development of the Dictionary, was largely technical and relegated to the realm of computer programming, the organizing of the complex electronic lexical database, in recording and editing data, and in maintaining and exporting the database into a printable format. These were by no means small and unimportant tasks, but they had no impact on interpreting the language. The language content and its interpretation came from native speakers.
No dictionary is ever perfect - largely because the amount of editing and huge number of things to consider in making it. Therefore, this dictionary too, is likely to contain typos and inaccuracies. We are looking forward to constructive criticism and to reviews that will help improve the dictionary by correcting errors and filling gaps. Unlike older Lakota dictionaries, this one is a work in progress and we hope to continue improving it. All those who were involved in the making of this dictionary worked hard and with determination to do something positive for the language.
We are happy to say that there have been a large number of positive reactions from Lakota language educators, students and tribal members from across the region. Many fluent speakers have expressed their wish to be involved in improving and extending the dictionary in the future. Anyone who is willing to contribute something positive to the survival of the Lakota language is welcome to participate.
Lakota Language Consortium, Board of directors, Ben Black Bear, Johnson Holy Rock, Kevin Locke, Wil Meya, David Rood, Wilson Two Lance, Jan Ullrich |
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