Bible translation and medicine man talk: Missionaries, indexicality,  and the “language expert” on the San Carlos Apache  Reservation

Samuels, David

doi:10.1017/s0047404506060246

Cited by 44 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…However, the setting failed to transmit the cultural values associated the elders' minds with being Apache; thus, the students were learning how to speak but not how to act in accordance with time-honored traditions, and the elders were disappointed. This study compares well with Samuels' (2006) study, also of an Apache community, which reveals that a deeply revered Christian elder was held in esteem as a language expert not because of his traditional knowledge of songs, stories, or ceremonial language use but because he was able to translate in the form advocated by SIL (Summer Institute of Linguistics), an international Christian-based program for language documentation. What was completely lost in using him as a language expert, however, was the preservation of vernacular Apache, the way it had been spoken by ceremonial practitioners who had been respected community leaders before the introduction of Christianity.…”

Section: Indigenous Language Endangerment Monacan Language Obsolescencesupporting

confidence: 78%

The Language Ghost: Linguistic Heritage and Collective Identity Among the Monacan Indians of Central Virginia.

Wood¹

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This study investigates indigenous language ideologies that have emerged in the Monacan Indian Nation, a tribe of about 2500 people located near the Blue Ridge Mountains in central Virginia. It also presents, from a tribal member's perspective, the history and ethnography of the people, whose ancestral language was Siouan. That language was closely related to Tutelo, a language documented by Horatio Hale that is no longer spoken. The study involved interviews and observation at public Monacansponsored cultural events and in private settings to investigate whether cultural particularities apply to the language ideologies that were discovered. Of the three positions identified as separate language ideologies, one could be said to fit within Western frameworks of assumptions, one is culturally specific, and the third falls somewhere in between. The study uses a table presented in Susan Gal's (1979) model of language shift in Oberwart, Austria, to demonstrate the existence of the "language ghost" through categories of interlocutors that disappeared when the speakers shifted from their ancestral language to English. In cases of indigenous language reclamation projects around the world, the community's level of commitment and participation have emerged as the single most important factor necessary to achieve the project's goals, regardless of the group's population or level of fluency. The study questions whether, at this point, a Monacan language reclamation project would be likely to succeed, given the points of disjuncture (Meek 2010) evident in competing language ideologies within the community.

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Section: Indigenous Language Endangerment Monacan Language Obsolescencesupporting

confidence: 78%

The Language Ghost: Linguistic Heritage and Collective Identity Among the Monacan Indians of Central Virginia.

Wood¹

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“…Webster (2009, 106Á107) discusses something of the complexity of writing Navajo by various Christian denominations. For a related case, concerning the language ideologies of various Christian denominations among Western Apaches, see David Samuels (2006). 12.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Who reads Navajo poetry and what are they reading? Exploring the semiotic functions of contemporary written Navajo

Webster

2012

Social Semiotics

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This paper analyzes contemporary written Navajo in public signs, newspapers, and poetry. While the number of public space displays of written Navajo has increased in recent years, this has not met with an increase in either Navajo literacy or in the number of Navajo speakers. This paper argues that much written Navajo is read not for semantico-referential content, but either as icons and indexes of Navajo spaces and identity or as icons and indexes of fidelity to an orthographic norm. Contemporary written Navajo poetry is not normally read as poetry but as a success or failure to align with the orthographic norm. This mirrors nothing so much as how many Navajos were taught English literacy in the boarding schools.

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“…Below The hymnal and the attendant tape with the hymns on it were purchased by me at the Gallup Flea Market (Gallup, NM), in March of 2001, from a Navajo man who had a stand with a number of Navajo/English Christian hymnals and tapes for sale. David Samuels (2006) has noted for certain Christian denominations among the Western Apache (a related Southern Athabaskan language), a reluctance to "translate" some of the names of Biblical figures (including Jesus) into Apache. That seems to be the case here as well.…”

Section: Linguistic Diversity and Bilingual Navajomentioning

confidence: 99%

“Plaza ‘góó and before he can respond…”

Webster¹

2022

PRAG

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This article suggests that much of the use of the Navajo language in contemporary Navajo written poetry, especially English dominant poetry, serves as an icon of proper Navajo usage. It is a purist view of the Navajo language. Navajo poetry is implicated, even if tacitly, in a discourse of linguistic purism that is tied to an oppositional linguistic ideology that sees Navajo and English as discrete and distinct “objects.” Navajo poetry erases the contemporary sociolinguistic diversity - including bilingual Navajo - on the Navajo Nation. And in so doing, it closes off parts of Navajo sociolinguistic realities and in its stead creates an imagined Navajo language community.

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Bible translation and medicine man talk: Missionaries, indexicality, and the “language expert” on the San Carlos Apache Reservation

Cited by 44 publications

References 14 publications

The Language Ghost: Linguistic Heritage and Collective Identity Among the Monacan Indians of Central Virginia.

The Language Ghost: Linguistic Heritage and Collective Identity Among the Monacan Indians of Central Virginia.

Who reads Navajo poetry and what are they reading? Exploring the semiotic functions of contemporary written Navajo

“Plaza ‘góó and before he can respond…”

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