大象传媒

Of the 574 federally recognized Native American tribes, only 139 of them still have speakers of their native language, and by 2050. Languages carry tribal knowledge, culture, humor, conversation styles, spirituality, and traditions. When language speakers decrease dramatically and parts of the language is lost, it must be 鈥渞efashioned鈥� into the new language using different words, sounds, and grammatical structures鈥攊f the transfer is even possible at all.

鈥淟inguists鈥� work in communities when language shift is occurring shows that for the most part such refashioning, even when social identity is maintained, involves abrupt loss of tradition,鈥� writes. 鈥淢ore often, the cultural forms of the colonial power take over, transmitted often by television.鈥�

In response to the threat of language loss, some Indigenous tribes are turning towards accessible technology to save and revitalize their languages.

Language revitalization is grounded in education and accessibility; if language resources aren鈥檛 available and there are no designated ways to practice that language, how will it continue to be used?

Some tribes, such as the and , have held language courses for several years, but many tribes face barriers to developing language programs of their own. There may not be any remaining elders who speak the language well enough to teach it鈥攖he Cherokee and Navajo Nations are the two largest Native American tribes who have retained the most speakers of their languages.

Then even if there is an elder available to teach, they may lack resources to set up structured, systemic language classes. Then, there is the added challenge of accessibility鈥攊f the classes take place at a high school on the reservation, how will tribe members living off the reservation access the information?

That鈥檚 where technological solutions can help.

The computers in our pockets

When Keegan Livermore, a member of the Yakama Nation, learned that there were 鈥攁 language in the Sahaptin family spoken by the Yakama, the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation, and the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation鈥攈e felt a responsibility to learn the language himself.

While attending a technology panel during a linguistic education workshop, Livermore鈥檚 group discussed how language tools could be made more accessible to young people.

鈥淲e鈥檝e already had computer keyboards,鈥� Livermore said. 鈥淚f we鈥檙e thinking about how to get teenagers and college students to use it, why not make a phone keyboard?鈥�

Livermore, who at the time was studying linguistics and learning the Ichishk铆in language at Heritage University on the Yamaka Reservation, describes the process of creating an as a four-day fever dream, working on his graduate studies during the day and coding the keyboard at night.

Written Ichishk铆in has a 39-character alphabet, many of which are modified English characters. But, the intention was to have a keyboard strictly built for Ichishk铆in, not a keyboard based in English. For example, the alphabet has the characters 岣�, w, and 岣祑. While Livermore could have created a modified English keyboard that just had 岣� and w, he chose to create a key for 岣祑, honoring the actual alphabet of the language.

Livermore and seven other Ichishk铆in speakers then tested the keyboard in text messages and social media posts, modifying the placement of characters until the keyboard seemed optimized for Ichishk铆in.

鈥淚 was really pushing myself to use it as often as I could,鈥� Livermore said, which helped him build his confidence speaking the language. 鈥淚t gives me a tether for the language.鈥�

Livermore, who is now working on adapting the keyboard to iOS, envisions using phone keyboards as a way to assign homework in his own future language curriculum. An easy assignment could be a student texting him a couple sentences in Ichishk铆in about what they did over the weekend or requiring a few texts a week between class 鈥減en pals,鈥� Livermore said. Those types of assignments inject the language in students鈥� everyday modern life鈥攁 key part of language revitalization.

Because Ichishk铆in speakers must have a grasp of vocabulary to read and type the language, Livermore鈥檚 keyboard isn鈥檛 an early education tool, but rather an accessible way to integrate practice into a learner鈥檚 daily life.

鈥淚t enables you to use what you already know,鈥� Livermore said.

Filling in the gaps

Along with keyboards and texting, help comes from teachers such as Tami Hohn, a southern Lushootseed lecturer at the University of Washington and member of the Puyallup Tribe.

Lushootseed is a Salishan language spoken by Indigenous people in the Puget Sound region of Washington state. Hohn has taught the language both to children and adults, groups that require different educational approaches, she said.

For children, Hohn developed a curriculum that uses a grammatical approach by breaking down sentences into individual words and syllable sounds. With adults, Hohn teaches an intellectual understanding of the language, one that is informed by history, culture, and meaning. An intellectual understanding of the language allows speakers to create their own thoughts through the language, not just string together vocabulary words.

For all language learners, Hohn said, language apps鈥攕uch as phrase-to-picture matching games鈥攃an be a great way to practice the language in small moments, like waiting for an appointment or at the bus stop.

Lushootseed also has computer and mobile keyboards based on Unicode, a worldwide standard for digitally representing different written languages and assigning characters to specific keystrokes. But Unicode doesn鈥檛 always transfer across digital platforms such as email or various web browsers, making Lushootseed characters show up as odd boxes and nonsensical punctuation.

鈥淭he support that we really need from [technology] companies is the fonts,鈥� Hohn said. 鈥淲e shouldn鈥檛 have to type in Unicode, we should be able to type anywhere.鈥�

Lack of font support is one way Native languages are being forced into the past. Hohn believes tribes shouldn鈥檛 have to find a workaround to type in their language.

Preservation through audio

According to Hohn, Lushootseed no longer has first-language speakers鈥攑eople who grew up speaking fluently鈥攕o linguists only had access to the language through preserved writings and audio recordings. Recording and archiving audio files of elders or fluent speakers is another preservation tool that can provide a foundation to language revitalization.

FirstVoices is a suite of web-based tools designed to help Indigenous people archive language information for teaching and preservation. The service, launched in 2003, provides tribes with a page where audio clips of words, phrases, stories, songs, and more can be uploaded and organized. The initiative, run by the First Peoples鈥� Cultural Council in British Columbia, also provides grants for communities working on language revitalization to compensate them for the time it takes to archive the audio.

Daniel Yona, FirstVoices鈥� development manager, stressed that the service enables tribes to approach language documentation and revitalization as each community sees best fit by providing as many tools as possible for each tribe to customize their archive. For example, each tribe鈥檚 archive has an administrator who can determine which recordings are private and which are public. Public recordings can be played by anyone, but to listen to private recordings, a tribal member must create an account and be approved by the tribe鈥檚 administrator to access the audio. This keeps recordings of prayers or sacred songs strictly within the tribal community.

FirstVoices now hosts 31 of the 34 indigenous languages in B.C., as well as some Native American languages from the United States. Yona says that it鈥檚 not a goal to have all of the languages archived on FirstVoices, because the initiative is only one part of the multifaceted effort of language revitalization.

鈥淛ust because they鈥檙e not on FirstVoices doesn鈥檛 mean they don鈥檛 have dictionaries and they鈥檙e not doing work in their own communities,鈥� Yona said. 鈥淭echnology is one piece of this bigger picture of language revitalization.鈥�

The threat of a long process

With the threat of language extinction looming, native language activists such as Hohn and Livermore feel a sense of urgency in everything they do. At the same time, language revitalization is a generational process.

鈥淚 will never see in my lifetime the state of language that I aspire to,鈥� Livermore said. The Ichishk铆in learners Livermore will teach will become better teachers than he is, and their students will pass on the skills to their descendents. Livermore foresees a language revival among future generations, but that doesn鈥檛 stop the pressure of needing to do as much as he can right now.

鈥淚 feel that sense of urgency all the time,鈥� Hohn said, but being patient in the face of a constant threat of language extinction is essential to successful revitalization. A limited number of Lushootseed teachers deeply understand the language. If teachers who do not understand the language in a cultural and historical way are pushed to teach as many people as they can in the name of revitalization, the language will still be reduced to grammar and vocabulary. That childlike understanding of Lushootseed, or any other native language, will be detrimental to the integrity and significance of the language, Hohn said.

鈥淵ou have to have language with meaning or what鈥檚 the point?鈥� Hohn said.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misstated the of federally recognized tribes in the U.S. The number has been corrected, and 大象传媒 regrets this error.