Six Nations propagandize launches app that teaches people to pronounce Mohawk

A Six Nations propagandize is doing a partial to keep Indigenous languages alive in a many complicated of ways — with an app. 

‘Our languages all have a beauty to them in their sound and cadence, and a tune they lift with them.’
– Tom Deer, Mohawk and Cayuga denunciation instructor

Six Nations Polytechnic (SNP) launched an app this week called Speak Mohawk, that teaches difference and phrases for a denunciation oral by about 2,350 people within Canada’s borders. This comes a year after it released a identical app for Cayuga, that only 40 people in Ontario speak.

The Mohawk app teaches people difference like kanenna’kè:ne (fall), teioterihwakhashiónkwas (sharing), wakhskaré:wake (I am a member of a Bear clan) and Onón:takon (Hamilton).

Words are divided into categories such as greetings, feelings, clans, places and seasons. The app will review a phrase, and users can pronounce it behind and exam their knowledge.

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It’s complicated means to learn a denunciation that dates behind thousands of years. And it’s a denunciation those who pronounce it wish to see grow.

The Speak Mohawk app provides opposite difference and phrases, along with pronunciations. (Speak Mohawk)

“These languages are who we are,” said Tom Deer, who teaches Mohawk and Cayuga during a post-secondary school. “It’s a temperament of this land.”

“For years, a languages have been relegated and marginalized …  This is one approach for a languages to take their place in a world.”

Listen to some of a phrases a app teaches:

So far, it seems to be working. Census information shows usually 40 people in Ontario pronounce Cayuga, though about 700 people have downloaded a app.

“That’s a flattering good response deliberation there aren’t that many people meddlesome in a languages other than a possess people,” Deer said.

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Overall, 2016 Statistics Canada data shows 260,550 Indigenous people speak a First Nations denunciation good adequate to control a conversation. That’s grown by 3.1 per cent given 2006. Most of those speakers learned a Indigenous denunciation after English or French, that suggests immature people are holding a beginning to learn.

As for Mohawk, it fares a small improved than Cayuga, mostly since of Mohawk territories in Ontario and Quebec. Statistics Canada information shows there were 2,350 Mohawk speakers in 2016. Of those, 66.6 per cent were in Ontario and 28.9 per cent were in Quebec.

Mohawk is a musical and singular language, Deer said. For example, it has a dualistic pronoun that refers to dual people. 

The app includes difference for several places in North America. (Speak Mohawk)

“Our languages all have a beauty to them in their sound and cadence,” Deer said, “and a tune they lift with them.”

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Deer and a SNP group have worked on a Mohawk app, grown by Thornton Media Inc., since May. It took hours of translating, recording and programming. 

But Sara General, SNP growth officer, pronounced it takes Mohawk to a new audience. 

“So many people wish to be means to learn a languages though might not have time to get to a class,” she said. “This offers them a approach to learn some simple phrases and foundational language on their possess time.”

Both apps are accessible by iTunes or Google Play. 

Article source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/mohawk-language-app-1.4407431?cmp=rss