LANGUAGE IN THE USA

Native American Languages

Native American languages, the language spoken by the indigenous peoples of the
Americas are also referred to as “(North) American Indian languages” and “Amerindian
languages.” Originally, there may have been about 500 different languages, not dialects
of one language, spoken by the indigenous American Indian tribes throughout North and
Central America.
(Handout – “Where North American and Meso-American Indian languages are spoken”)

By 1980, however, fewer than half remained: 206. fewer than 50 have more than 1000
speakers, only a handful have more than 10000. In the mid-1970s the total number of
speakers of all Native American languages combined was around 300,000. today fewer
than 20 languages have any hope of survival in the next decades. In Alaska, of 23
original languages, only 1 is expected to survive another generation.

Currently, where ancestral fluency is gone, efforts are being made using archival records
and personal recollection to reconstruct and repair the situation. Fluency in the ancestral
language is important in establishing a person’s place within the tribe or community.

As we have already seen, American English borrowed from these languages words for
Indian-specific cultural items (teepee, wampum, kachina), foodstuffs (succotash, maize),
flora and fauna (raccoon), place names and geographical terms (Tallahassee,
Mississippi).
(Handout – kachina)
(Handout – Cree syllabary)
(Handout – The Song of Hiawatha)

While the American Indian languages have been classified into over 50 families, such
classification is controversial. Approximately 30 American Indian languages are
classified as language isolates.
(Handout – North American Indian Languages)

The American Indian languages are very diverse. They differ in the way in which thye
classify nouns, for example: in some languages, the animals are classified with regard to
their relationship to the ground, such that birds that are close to the ground are classified
with slower ground mammals, whereas birds that fly are classified with swift ground
mammals. Men’s and women’s speech may use different morphological markers. Age
may be conveyed through speech. Secular and sacred speech may be different. In terms
of language use, it appears that American Indian speech communities tended to be
multilingual.

As English became more and more a part of their everyday lives, American Indians
realized the importance of maintaining ancestral languages, because 1) the languages are

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part of the cultural heritage; and 2) because the languages are the expression of cultural
traditions they cannot be separated from them. For members of many American Indian
communities, the power of the Indian languages to give highly cultural-specific reference
is paramount.

Why were so many languages lost?

It is important to remember that no Indian tribe has intentionally allowed the ancestral
language fluency to disappear. Full-scale destruction of many Indian tribes, either
through deliberate genocide or by removal to reservations and then to mainstream society
devastated peoples and, so, their languages. Moreover, the Bureau of Indian Affairs
(BIA) exerted strong and continuous pressures against the used of Indian languages. The
BIA and other federal and state agencies have had long-standing assimilation policies,
especially language policies of federally controlled Indian schools in which the exclusive
use of English was mandatory. Students were punished for using languages other than
English. Older students were sent away to boarding schools, forcing separation from
family and community, These boarding schools housed students from many different
language background, further isolating students from their ancestral languages and
making English, de facto, the common medium. These policies had a massive impact on
language use: parents stopped using ancestral languages within the home to protect their
children from the humiliation that they had suffered.

After World War II, policies to move American Indians fro reservations to urban settings
further weakened ancestral language maintenance. Often only single families or
individuals moved, isolating them from the ancestral speech community. Government
funded childcare programs (like Head Start), intended to prepare preschool children for
academic success, were taught by outsiders who did not know the ancestral language.
Furthermore, they meant that young children were no longer cared for by grandparents
who would have passed along the language.

Navajo

The Navajo Nation has the largest land base of any Native American tribe in the U.S.,
spanning three western states: Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. According to the 1990
Census, the total Navajo population was 219,198, with 148.983 Navajos living within the
boundaries of the Navajo Nation. Population density among the Navajos is extremely
small: only 6 persons per square mile. The socioeconomic conditions of the Navajo are
depressed: 49% of income comes from wages and salaries, 23% from general assistance
and 14% from social security. In many Navajo communities, unemployment is as high as
85%. More than half the Navajo population lives below the national poverty level; many
in the community are elderly. Traditional subsistence occupations (sheep herding,
farming, livestock raising) no longer support Navajo families. Jobs held by most people
are wage earning.

Navajo language has high status relative to English in traditional religious practices.
Prayers and songs—and the powers they invoke—must be called forth in Navajo. Non-

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Navajo speaking patients and participants are told by Navajo-speaking relatives what to
do. The Navajo-speaking relative may even ‘stand in’ for the non-Navajo-speaking
patient. At Native American Church prayer meetings, songs and prayers are in Navajo,
but functional talk tends to take place in English, depending on the language proficiency
of the participants. More older people than younger people tend to participate in
traditional religious activities.

Navajo children’s attendance at school is now nearly universal. However, according to

recent statistics, 24% of the Navajo population has graduated from high school; only 2%
have earned a bachelor’s degree.

High school and College Graduation Rates in the U.S. by Group

H.S. Bachelor’s degree

Non-Hispanic whites 88.4% 28.1%
Blacks 78.5% 16.5%
Asian & Pacific Islanders 85.7% 43.9%
Hispanics 57.0% 10.6%

A study conducted in the 1960s revealed a strong positive correlation between the
existence of paved roads and proficiency in English among the Navajo. The Navajo
Nation is no longer isolated from the rest of the world. While helpful and representative
of progress in many respects, it also means less and less Navajo language use, especially
among Navajo youth.

Fishman’s Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale (GIDS)

The following scale, developed by Fishman, is used to define the health of an endangered
language. The further the current stage from Stage 1, the more disruption and threat to a
language being passed from one generation to the next. Fishman posits Stage 6 as the
crucial stage for reversing language shift towards death.

Stage 8 – Reassembling the languages and/or acquiring them on an individual basis

during adulthood.
Stage 7 – Maintenance of a vibrant and natural adult X-ish speaking society.
Stage 6 – Creating the intergenerationally continuous X-ish speaking community in
providing and stressing the link to family life, residential concentration and neighborhood
institutions.
Stage 5 – Literacy via community schools that do not aim at meeting compulsory
education requirements.
Stage 4 (a) – Schools that are under X-ish control and that can be attended in lieu of
compulsory education.
Stage 4 (b) – Schools for X-ish students under Y-ish control.

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Stages 3, 2, and 1 – Language X used in the work sphere, mass media, higher education
and the government.

Within this framework, Navajo falls short of arriving at Stage 8. With regard to Stage 7,
Navajo continues to be used with neighbors and in local community activities, especially
traditional Navajo religious ceremonies. However, English is predominant even in tribal
committee meetings, council meetings and judiciary proceedings.
With regard to Stage 6, linkages between adults and youths I home, family and
community contexts through oral Navajo are increasingly diminishing:

1969 95% of Navajo 6 yr. olds spoke Navajo

73% spoke Navajo as well as or better than English
1992 50% of 3-4 yr. olds were monolingual speakers of English
1993 <33% of 5 yr. olds were fluent in Navajo
13% had no knowledge (not even passive) of Navajo

With regard to formal education (Stage 5), four approaches to Navajo in the public
schools are possible: 1) no Navajo, exclusive use of English; 2) Navajo as a means to
learn English; 3) Navajo as a supplement to the curriculum; 4) Navajo as integral to the
curriculum. Because all public schools attempt to meet compulsory education
requirements, there is little time and few resources for the maintenance of Navajo. With
regard to Stage 4: Fewer than 10% of schools are under local (Navajo) control; only a
handful have Navajo as integral programs. Only 10% of all kindergarten-grade 12
Navajo students receive instruction in or about Navajo language and culture.

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INCLUDED REFERENCES

Leap, William. (1981, 1998). “American Indian Languages.” In Ferguson, Charles &
Shirley Brice Heath. (Eds.) Language in the USA. Cambridge: Cambridge U. P. 116-114.

Lee, T. & D. McLaughlin. (2001). “Reversing Navajo Language Shift, Revisited.” In

Fishman, Joshua. Can threatened languages be saved? Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
23-43.

Map. “Where North American and Meso-American Indian Languages are spoken”

“Red Thunder Cloud, 76, Dies, and the Catawba Tongue with Him.” The New York
Times. Obituaries. Sunday, January 14, 1996.