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Hello all!
Can anyone recommend some information to me for learning our language? (What’s left of it) I have started studying the Tsalagi language is this language similar to Saponi language?
Isn’t Tsalagi Cherokee? That would be Iroquoian. Ours is Siouan. There are 300 words of it written down, as well as a grammar by Horatio Hale. http://www.evolpub.com/ALR/ALRbooks.html look for Vol. 23, Tutelo. (Tutelo is the only language in the group of tribes we come from, that was recorded at all.) You can order it through Amazon or Barnes & Noble. There’s also a recent dissertation on the language by Giulia Oliverio, but it’s very intense linguistic-eze, Hale may be more accessible in the end. There’s a nice history in the first chapter.
I’ve started studying Lakota on the theory that studying the closest living language first I’d be able to make more sense of the sketchy information available on Tutelo. We worked on a few chapters, then it stalled out. If you might be interested in that, maybe we could get it going again. Let me know if you are.
Linda you are heaven sent! I would love to get with you and learn, I am ordering the book today. I will let you know when I have it.
I’ve studdied a lot of Lakota. I do see faint simalarities in some words like. The Black Hills are the Paha Sapa, Sapa being black and our Saponi…..I’m thinking I saw somewhere here that the (Sap) is the word for black. It’s O.k. You can tell me if I’m all wet!! I can take it!! I can’t wait to get my copy of Horatio Hales, The Tutelo Language. I want to get started right away. Tom & I have discussed that on the Tutelo Emersion forum. I try to study all the cultures. They are all so very interesting. Well, anyway, Love & Light, Lynella.
How cool! I gotta’ get that Hale book. I’ve just read every thing I can find anywhere is all, and Esther knew some Lakota so she was fun bouncing some off of once in a while. I wish I had an actual course under my belt. There’s nothin’ like that in Colorado.
Love & Light, Lynella.
Hi,
I came across this old posting and noticed that you live in Richmond, VA.
Would you happen to know a Dolly Ann Smith (Died in August 1972 in a car accident in Richmond—from what I am told)? She was my grandmother.
Maybe you know of her people…..she had a daughter named Dorothy but she no longer lives in Richmond.
I look forward to your reply.
Erica:)
Yep — Linda’s right. Tsalagi is as diffrent from the Siouan languages as Coptic is to Albanian.:)
vance
The closest languages to Tutelo, as I understand it, are Ofo and Biloxi, but any of the languages in the Siouan family, e.g. Lakota, Hidatsa, Osage, etc., are all fairly close. I would say that Tutelo and Lakota have a relationship similar to English and German.
On the other hand, Tutelo and Tsalagi (Cherokee) are not close at all, although I am sure many Tutelo-Saponi traders in the past spoke Tsalagi as a second language.
I’d like to learn Lakota, too, and whatever small bit of Tutelo that is left. How does one study a language in isolation from the peoples that speak it, though? I know or rather remember a great deal of French from school because I have a good ear for music and mimicry. I don’t think it would be hard to learn a language but the practice of it and keeping it alive seems to be a difficult thing. Can this be solved by teaching it to our children and/or other family members?
Where can I learn/study Lakota?
I bought a set of tapes and books from the Oglala College Lakota language course. If searching on those terms don’t bring it up, let me know. It’s well done and easy to learn from.
Thank you, Linda. I’d like to look into that. I have a question about pronunciation, though–is there a pronunciation guide for the terms we use now? For example, is Saponi pronounced “sah-po-nee”? Is the pronunciation just phonetic?
Yes, it’s sa-PO-nee (long o sound). It’s hard to know how words were originally pronounced. One of the things that I liked about doing some of those Lakota lessons was that it gave me insight into how the Tutelo words likely are supposed to sound. For example, the word for thank you, “pila huc,” I’d heard people pronounce as “pill a hook,” but when you you hear the Lakota “pilamayayelo,” you know the Tutelo is supposed to be said, “pi LA hook,” with the accent on the second syllance. It makes all the difference in the world, the latter being so much more melodious.
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