Native American Nuuchahnulth language gets first dictionary

The Native American language has been in steady decline ever since English speakers colonised North Western America in the 19th Century. Picture / Reuters

The language known to the dwindling band of Native Americans who speak it as 'Nuuchahnulth' (pronounced Noo-cha-noolth) is like few others in its spectacular range of dialects and its capacity to convey complex ideas through simple words.

'Nuuchahnulth' itself means 'along the mountains', a reference to the inaccessible Vancouver Island mountain range on Canada's Western coast where it is spoken.

The language has been in steady decline ever since English speakers colonised North Western America in the 19th Century, reducing those able to speak it from 3500 in 1881 to around 300 today - and most of them aged over 60.

Salvation may now have arrived, however, with the first dictionary of the language to be created in its 5000-year existence, which has been completed by a Canadian-born linguist based at Newcastle University.

The 537-page book is being despatched to Vancouver Island to support the efforts of elders to revive Nuuchahnulth among younger members of the community's 10,000 population, who have drifted into the predominant use of English.

Vital to the preservation of Nuuchahnulth (which is better known as 'Nootka') has been the work of the anthropologist and linguist Edward Sapir who from 1910 to 1924 travelled through North America researching native languages.

He chronicled Nuuchahnulth at a time when it was spoken by young and old alike but after his death, in 1939, his work was waylaid. It reappeared only in the 1970s, since when it has remained in the archives of the American Philosophical Society.

It has proved as vital to Newcastle's Dr John Stonham, whose team of researchers used a computer programme to analyse Sapir's extraordinarily detailed notes, creating a database of approximately 150,000 words of the language.

Dr Stonham has been working at Nuuchahnulth for 20 years. Learning the language - which has three basic vowels, 40 consonants and a very complex sound structure when spoken - will not be easy for the young Vancouver Islanders.

Nuuchahnulth encompasses around 15 languages, each with distinct variations in vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation, which are acknowledged in the dictionary. Some differ to the same extent as Geordie and Cockney, though one of the southerly forms is entirely incomprehensible to the others.

The language is even more complex in its oral, story-telling forms. Speakers are known to employ a set of hisses or extra consonants depending on whether they are talking to or about children, fat or short people, lame people, hunchbacked men or anyone who has an eye defect.

The dictionary provides hope to those who have expressed concern about the death of many of the world's minority languages.

Scientists warn that up to 95per cent of the world's 6000 languages are heading for extinction, causing irreparable damage to human civilisation, because of encroachment on the territories of indigenous peoples, mass migration and the desire to learn the dominant languages of the world, notably English.

Of the 176 living languages spoken by the tribes of North America, 52 have become extinct since AD1600. Approximately 30 of the 235 languages spoken by the Aboriginal Australians have disappeared altogether.

The dictionary provides a fascinating insight into the essential vocabulary needs of those making a life on a remote coastline. Entries include the words for 'mosquitos', 'high rubber boots' and 'to be secluded in the house observing taboos, so as not to spoil a hunter's luck.' (The communities' superstitions are reflected in a tradition of wearing head-dresses and masks to represent supernatural wolves and serpents.)

Despite the islanders' evolution from communal houses to more modern, prefabricated homes built with the timber on which their small economy is largely based, communities remain tight-knit.

There is a "very strong desire by many of the younger people to speak their native tongue," said Dr Stonham.

He believes the dictionary, part of a project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, can preserve both the language and culture of the island's societies.

"Language is intricately bound up with tradition," he said.

"Noam Chomsky said you can learn about all languages by studying just one. This work will contribute to a better understanding of the structure of English and many of the world's languages, not just those of the Native Americans."

Nicholas Ostler, president of the Foundation for Endangered Languages, which is based in Britain but has international members, said: "A dictionary often provides the greatest single step in the progress of a language to fully literate status, a status that has been achieved by only a third of the world's languages to date."

Almost extinct:

Speakers of Mati Ke - an Aboriginal language, have decreased from 1000 to a handful. One claims his sister speaks it too, but not to him, since tribal taboos forbid them to communicate after puberty.

The Native American tongue of Yuchi - an isolated language that bears no relation to any other living tongue - is spoken by a handful of elders, usually while eating

The Leco - language of the Bolivian Andes is spoken by about 20 people

The Cambap - language of Cameroon in Central Africa is used by just 30 native speakers.

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