Who Speaks Wukchumni? | Op-Docs | The New York Times
Вставка
- Опубліковано 19 сер 2014
- This short documentary profiles the last fluent speaker of Wukchumni, a Native American language, and her creation of a comprehensive dictionary.
Produced by: Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee
Read the story here: nyti.ms/1vdK77t
Subscribe to the Times Video newsletter for free and get a handpicked selection of the best videos from The New York Times every week: bit.ly/timesvideonewsletter
Subscribe on UA-cam: bit.ly/U8Ys7n
Watch more videos at: nytimes.com/video
---------------------------------------------------------------
Want more from The New York Times?
Twitter: / nytvideo
Facebook: / nytimes
Google+: plus.google.com/+nytimes/
Whether it's reporting on conflicts abroad and political divisions at home, or covering the latest style trends and scientific developments, New York Times video journalists provide a revealing and unforgettable view of the world. It's all the news that's fit to watch. On UA-cam.
Who Speaks Wukchumni? | Op-Docs | The New York Times
/ thenewyorktimes
I have no words to express my feelings. Just tears.
I just found out Marie Che’ihmyat’ Wilcox passed away today. She was 87 years old. Rest in peace, beloved Elder. The Wukchumni language is saved. 💜🪶💐
It was 87 years and she never found the Home Deoot for the sink faucet
Rip
Rip Marie, thank you for preserving your language. I’m native and when I see her she reminds me of my grandma. She saved a huge part of her culture. Sho-na-bish sha(thank you in my language) the world lost someone special.
This is very inspiring, I work for a Native American tribe and work very closely with linguists who are trying to save the tribe's endangered language. Though the funding and manpower available to them is much better it's amazing to see the work that one person can do when they are dedicated.
I am moved by your spirit Marie. Thank you
Australians can learn from this. Our Aboriginal community's language is also dying. We could probably work on a dictionary for their language too and maybe we could stop it from being forgotten.
The Mexican Mayan culture or language is dying as well the youth do not know how to speak it.
There are over 200 aboriginal languages, and many Mayan languages
Never give up! Teachers are heroes!
where can you support this woman and her family with writing the dictionary? Have they already published it online? If so, I would love to do anything to help and support them with their life's mission. Many blessings.
Mari is still writing her dictionary. Find Jennifer Malone of Woodlake California, her daughter if you want to help. She is on Facebook.
I hope they can successfully save their language! It's so tragic that so many Native American and Aboriginal Australian languages have been lost...
Mayan language is getting lost as well.
@@danzbutrfly there are many Mayan languages
Marie, Pa,ashi is back! The Tulare Lake is back! The wolves are back in the hills! This is the year! Thank you for all your hard work!
I have so much respect for this.. just all of it, her dedication, the language, the connection in the family to keep it going.. this is this familys legacy
..I also was moved to tears.
Beautifully filmed and produced... A very compassionately told story.
This is A great gift to the world and its a wonderful legacy to leave behind and I truly respect it and I thank you for everything you done for the trib
Rest In Peace Marie. Thank you for all you've done. May you find eternal peace in the arms of the ancestors. Thank you.
This morning I read the obit of Marie Wilcox in the Dallas Morning News and I knew I had to clip it! You see, I love people, and I have a fascination with interesting obits and have been collecting them for years and this obit was a keeper! There was no photo with the obit, but when I read that there was a documentary by the New York Times about her making a dictionary of the Wukchumni words back in 2014, I went in search of it. This documentary is so very special and should be a part of our history classses in school. I only wish I could have known this woman in life! Oh... the stories she must have had to share! May she rest in peace!
So sad, Ms. Marie passed recently. Her work has lit a flame for the revival of her tribe’s language. May she Rest In Peace.
RIP and thank you for preserving your language and cultural history for future generations.
RIP Maria.
keep fighting the good fight old lady
Rest in peace Marie. Such a beautiful soul ❤
*Nothing but respect.*
This was beautiful. I would love to learn this language, it sounds amazing.
my is name is jj i know this grate laity long time ago 1970s the family was all living them days thay was the best friends mom was alive then we had a lot fun dansing making muick i can spek a little wukchumni mom tought me but she tought me her langauge yolumni im old now i will never forGIT it i miss them all i fill thankfull i had a little part an honor knowing thim it is with me till i die it was the real stuff!! we had the best times i can still hear leo liza bob ted val an im going to see them soon in the happy hunting land we ll make the dust fiy ENCHEECH
Wow...that is very nice...I hope this language does not die or gets lost.
thank you so much * i have rarely been moved like this ... bless your heart and soul . Grace of spirit..god.. you name IT thank you so much
I loved this, thank you
what a great video to see this morning to start my day how do you get this dictionary. so great to see her grandson speaking with his grandma
Amazing job!
Wow this video touched mi. 8)
Beautiful.
native americans deserve better than this.
Yes they do 1000%
Thank you.
Rest In Peace Marie Wilcox.
I'm surprised cuz I've never heard a person speaking Wukchumni apart from my family meaning my dad ,granpan and me
Is so good to know, so important for history. I teach California Native plants and ethnobotany, the traditions need to be passed down. I hope she's well, I admire all her hard work, all of the family.
she's amazing. sad it can get so bad so fast. they need an IPA version but they've got a good recording so no worries:)
I want to learn this language
This women is clearly American history and important to 💯💯☝🏾 beautiful language
always support preservation of endangered langauges, it's very important.
stop the ending was so sad omg
The sad thing is that even if you make recordings and comprehensive dictionaries, you can never truly have the pronunciation and the cultural significance of a native person speaking their cultural language.
This is why last sparklers speakers should also speak the language to their kids or maybe teach it in schools in immersion classes, because that's how language was transmitted for generations in the first place
@@gamermapper there is a deeper under to being a native speaker, a different way that the native brain processes the language and the nuances of it. I'm fluent in Spanish but native Spanish speakers have corrected me many times because "that's not how I would say that" or "that's correct, but doesn't sound quite right to me"
Why do people have to be so negative? As long as there's a will there is a way. The language will not be completely die. Thanks to US history & Manifest Destiny............this is where many indigenous languages are throughout North America.
That's tradition!
Just imagine, the grandpa cut off the womb of this woman, the grandson made this report on the new york times youtube channel.
2021?
I'd like to see local school children regardless of color learn at least some pleasantries in the local native languages. Please, thank you, your welcome. Ect.
They remind me of Disney Characters.. But i cant remember their names
It is little 68ooo views
What an amazing language! I hope the language is still taught in tribal community’s to this day.
Aaniin
It's a lovely sounding language, but I don't believe this is the full language in that it lacks the additonal components of a language outside of a lexicon, which is different from a dictionary. Listening to the story of the Coyote and the lizard, you can tell she's using a literal translation, where words from the lexicon are being used in place of english words. It's good that she created a lexicon, but I'm afraid that if she's the last speaker or one of few, the language is already dead.
I also think that some of the words are constructed from english, one that I caught was the world "mine", in Wukchumni it sounds like "meem", the m sound at the start of the word for makes me think this, but also how it's pronounced to me relates to the word me, where mine relates to me.
I found your comment really interesting. Do you think her grammar is not the one the original Wukchumni used? Cause doesn't a language consist of two things: a lexicon and gammar? You're saying she has the lexicon but not the correct grammar, how do you know though?
Paul S You're right, a language consist of a lexicon(vocabulary), grammar(syntax and so forth). I can't say if she uses the original Wukchumni grammar, I just wanted to point out that the syntax s similar to English..
Take the sentence "I have a brown dog"
In Spanish: "Tengo un perro marrón"
Literally translated in English to
I have a dog brown
In Irish: "Tá mé madra donn"
I have dog brown
In Basque: "Txakur marroi bat daukat"
Dog brown I have.
Each of these languages have their own sets of rules. You don't expect a non related language to have a similar syntax. When she was reading the story, she followed an English syntax, but used Wukchumni words.
tty23 I understand, thanks for replying. Really interesting, and it's too bad that the authentic language is lost. One more question, sorry, is it possible, even remotely, that the Wukchumni syntax has a very similar syntax?
Paul S it's possible, I'm not very knowledgeable in linguistics to say that, it's more of a passing interest. You could read through the comments on here: languagehat.com/who-speaks-wukchumni/ One of them suggest that elements of the language had previously been recorded. One thing I was looking for, while responding to your last comment was an example of another Yokuts language, as it would relate closer to Wukchumni than any other language but couldn't find any details of significance about them.
Is there any particular reason why she chose not to speak to her children in this language? In situations like this, the speakers themselves are partially to blame for not passing the language on when they could have easily done so if they wished.
Usually not passing it on to children is due to social stigma, boarding schools beating children for speaking their language, parents not teaching it to their children for fear they would be persecuted, and being made ashamed to speak their language. But in this specific case I don't think Marie Wilcox went through that
@@gayvideos3808 In day to day life in North America I have never heard of anyone experiencing social stigma for speaking a separate language at home. This is a very common occurrence among immigrant families where the parents are less proficient in English than their native language. Children naturally end up learning English with native fluency once they start school (myself being an example of this).
@@Ahmed-ob6ec I mean in the past, in the era of institutionalized cultural genocide
@@gayvideos3808 It does not seem like she experienced any oppression as a result of speaking her language. She voluntarily chose to speak to her children and grandchildren in English and as a result of this neglect she is now this language's last native speaker.
@@Ahmed-ob6ec Did you not hear her talk about how she was a field worker? Are you not aware of what that means?
People are not incentivized to speak a language with so few speakers. They are not incentivized economically. Not incentivized by popular culture. Not incentivized by the day to day interactions with other members of society.
They have to fight against the grain to maintain this language.
This is not a person who was living a comfortable middle class life in the 1950s with hours of free time every day that they can spend making sure their language survives.
This person was a field worker. Working in the exact same time and place as Cesar Chavez. This person was likely working under near slave like conditions with very few workers rights, and probably no liesure hours where she could have instilled that language into her child.
The child needed to know English in order to survive. Not this native language.
To place blame on the weakest members of the community, after more than a century of oppression, because they prioritized their own survival over the survival of their culture seems very unfair.
This is a shame.
stfu
it sounds like French
*indian language * why do they call themselves something a european explorer named them by mistake?
yanaanuk
It wasnt by mistake