The Shoshoni Language: From Oral Tradition to the Digital Age

The Shoshoni
Language:
From Oral Tradtion to the Digital Age
Leigh Lecture
April 2, 2014
Marianna Di Paolo
Department of Anthropology, University of Utah
& National Museum of Natural History (Smithsonian)

Introduction
Focus on
 The Wick R. Miller Collection Shoshoni Language Project
 The Shoshoni language
 a widely spoken, indigenous language of the Great Basin
 the northernmost Uto-Aztecan language

Introduction: structure of the
lecture
 Language endangerment in general
 Overview of the Uto-Aztecan languages
 Geographic distribution, language family, and linguistic vitality
 Focus on the goals, history, and accomplishments of the
Wick R. Miller Collection Shoshoni Language Project

Language endangerment:
a world-wide and local crisis
―Humanity today is facing a massive extinction: languages are
disappearing at an unprecedented pace. And when that happens,
a unique vision of the world is lost. With every language that dies we
lose an enormous cultural heritage; the understanding of how
humans relate to the world around us; scientific, medical and
botanical knowledge; and most importantly, we lose the expression
of communities‘ humor, love and life. In short, we lose the testimony
of centuries of life.
―Languages are entities that are alive and in constant flux, and their
extinction is not new; however, the pace at which languages are
disappearing today has no precedent and is alarming. Over 40
percent of the world‘s approximate 7,000 languages are at risk of
disappearing. But today we have tools and technology at our
fingertips that could become a game changer.‖
(From the Endangered Languages Project
websitehttp://www.endangeredlanguages.com/about/ Accessed March 26,
2014)

Language endangerment:
a world-wide and local crisis
 At the time of contact, in North America there
were ~300 indigenous languages
 In 1997, 175 remained
 Today, only 20 are widely spoken by children
 In the next 5 years, 70 could cease to be spoken!!!!!
 In 1990, there was only an estimated 2,284
speakers of Shoshoni
 Almost all of them were over 50 years of age
 For Shoshoni to continue as a community language,
it is important for young people to learn it and use it.

Contextualizing Shoshoni:
Uto-Aztecan Languages
 Geographic distribution of UA languages
 The UA language family
 The linguistic vitality of a selection of UA languages

Uto-Aztecan Languages:
Geographic distribution at time of European contact
From Merrill, et al. (2009)

Geographic distribution
Present-day
locations of
Uto-Aztecan
languages
in the U.S.
and northern
Mexico
(Wikipedia)

Geographic distribution
Present-day
locations of
Uto-Aztecan
languages
in Mexico and
Mesoamerica
(Wikipedia)

Geographic distribution Numic subfamily
Western Numic:
Mono, Northern
Paiute/Bannoc
k
Central Numic:
Panamint,
Shoshoni/Gosiu
te,
(Comanche)
Southern
Numic:
Kawaiisu,
Chemehuevi/S
outhern
Paiute/Ute
(Map from Crum
& Dayley 1997)

the language family
What is a language family?
―Languages are always changing.‖
 Over time dialects of a language can change so much as to become
separate languages
 English and Dutch used to be dialects of the same language. Now
 ―English is a Germanic language.‖
 ―Dutch is a Germanic language.‖
 Italian and Spanish used to be dialects of the same language. Now
 ―Italian is a Romance (Italic) language.‖
 ―Spanish is a Romance (Italic) language.‖
 Hindi and Farsi (aka Persian) used to be dialects of the same
language. Now
 ―Hindi is an Indo-Aryan language.‖
 ―Farsi is an Indo-Aryan language.‖

the language family
What is a language family?
 A language family is all of the languages or dialects that can
be proven to have descended from one common language
(the root of the family tree; the mother language)
 The language that the Germanic, Italic, and Indo-Aryan
languages descended from is called Proto-Indo-European (PIE)
 They, and all languages in the language family, are called ―Indo-
European languages‖
 PIE is dated to about 5,500 years ago
 by about which time there is evidence that it began to break up
into separate languages as PIE-speaking people began to migrate
from the homeland

the language family
 The language that Shoshoni, Ute, Hopi, Tarahumara, and
Classical Nahuatl (the language of the Aztecs) descended
from is called Proto-Uto-Aztecan
 They, and all languages in the language family, are called ―Uto-
Aztecan languages‖
 Recent work on dating PUA
 Campbell (1997) (well-known for conservative dating)—5,000
BP (‗before present‘)
 Merrill, et al. 2009: (argues that it was spoken in the west
central Great Basin)—8,900 BP
 Brown (2010): (the most conservative estimate)—4,000 BP

the language family
 Establishing the Uto-Aztecan (UA) language family
 Undeniable evidence for the UA language family was first
published about 100 years ago:
Sapir, Edward. 1913, 1919. Southern Paiute and Nahuatl: a
study in Uto-Aztecan, parts. 1 and 2. Journal de la Société des
Américanistes de Paris 10:379-425 and 11: 443-88, and 1915 in
American Anthropologist 17:98-120, 306-328.
Reprinted 1990 in The collected works of Edward Sapir 5:
American Indian Languages, William Bright, ed., 351-444. Berlin:
Mouton de Gruyter.

language family tree

language family tree—Southern Uto-Aztecan

language family tree—Core Nahua

language family tree—Northern Uto-Aztecan

language family tree--Numic

the language family
Linguistic evidence for language families
 Based on very careful linguistic analysis showing
that there are systematic similarities and systematic
differences between sets of languages
 Although the UA language family is thousands of
years old, the languages are still remarkably similar
 Some UA cognates are still found in all
branches/subfamilies of UA
 Cognates are words that have a common origin
 At one time, before the dialects became separate
languages, the cognate words were the same word
 Cognate sets are used to establish the genetic
relationship between languages

Uto-Aztecan Cognate Sets:
establishing the language family
HORN, ANTLER *awaC/*a‘awaC
Shoshoni aan; oonon
Tarahumara awá
Huichol ‘aawaa
Classical Nahuatl kwaa-kwaw(i)-tl ‘head-tree’;
a’wa-tl ‘thorn’

HOUSE, HOME *kanni (NUA); *kaLi (SUA); *ki
Shoshoni kahni
Tarahumara garí
Huichol kíi
Classical Nahuatl kal-li

HOUSE, HOME *kanni (NUA); *kaLi (SUA); *ki
Shoshoni
Poho kahni
(lit., ‘sagebrush
house’)
Please visit this poho kahni
the next time
you are at Red Butte Garden

 HOUSE, HOME
*kanni (NUA); *kaLi (SUA); *ki
Shoshoni
Soonkahni
‘Salt Lake City’
(lit., ‘many houses’)

ROCK, STONE * tïN-(pV)
Shoshoni tïmpin
Tarahumara ŕeté; ŕeepó
Huichol teetée
Classical Nahuatl te-tl

ROCK, STONE * tïN-(pV)
Shoshoni tïmpin
White Mesa Ute tïpwi-či
Southern Paiute tïmpiN-
Mt. Timpanogos

HAND, ARM *man > *ma
Shoshoni ma”; mo’o
Tarahumara ma; seká
Huichol maamá
Classical Nahuatl maa(i)-tl

HAND, ARM *man > *ma
Shoshoni ma”; mo’o
Mo'niwaini
‘Red Butte Canyon’
“The name refers to an occurence after a
battle, the hands of certain captives having
been cut off and hung up at the mouth of
this canyon seemingly as a warning against
trespass.”
(Chamberlain 1913)

linguistic vitality
How likely is it that a language will survive the
mass extinction of the world‘s languages?
 Language Endangerment Scale (in handout)
 Table of Uto-Aztecan Speaker Data (in
handout)
 An assessment of the linguistic vitality of a selection of
Uto-Aztecan languages
 Compilation of data from ~1995-2008
Scale and data from www.EndangeredLanguages.com

the linguistic vitality of UA languages
 Numbers may vary
 because of data collection on language knowledge and use is not
straightforward
 because of the passing of speakers over time
 Numbers may also vary depending on how dialects are grouped or
not grouped together into languages
 The same language can have different names (Gosiute/Shoshoni)
 Speakers & linguists may disagree about whether two varieties are the
same language or different languages (Shoshoni & Comanche)
 The vitality status of a language may change with more information:
 Pipil was thought to be ―Dormant‖ until Lyle Campbell reported on a
small group of speakers of the language in the 1980‘s in El Salvador
 Pipil‘s current status is ―Severely Endangered‖
 The fluent, native speaker base is small but
 ~3,000 children are learning Pipil as a second language

What causes languages to
become endangered?
So many UA languages are endangered!
 Is that because of some grammatical problem with UA
languages or some other linguistic problem?
 Language endangerment is not caused by the language
per se (the structure/grammar/sound system/vocabulary
of the language)
 All human languages are useful, complex systems
 All are capable of being used for a range of
communicative activities by their speakers
 English is not a better language grammatically than
Yaqui or Shoshoni!

What causes languages to
become endangered?
 Language endangerment is caused by the
economic, political, social, and historical conditions
that speakers of the subordinate languages have
found themselves in
 Such extra-linguistic forces lead to institutional
policies that pressure speakers to stop passing their
language on to their children,
 rupturing “intergenerational mother-tongue
transmission”
 The transmission of a parent‘s mother-tongue to
his/her children

the linguistic vitality of UA languages
Uto-Aztecan language in the U.S. are endangered
because of factors external to the languages such
as
 the economic dominance of English
 the economic subordination of American Indians
 Federal laws/policies
 Esp., U.S. educational policies
 esp., Boarding Schools

the linguistic vitality of Shoshoni
 Shoshoni
 a language with older fluent speakers numbering in the
thousands but with very few younger speakers.
 fluent native speakers are almost all well over 50 now
 very few, young fluent native speakers
 Many reasons that Shoshoni is not being used very much
 boarding schools
 economic hardships associated with Shoshoni; economic
success with English
 But many reasons to keep Shoshoni alive
 native identity and culture associated with Shoshoni
 a number of Shoshone and Goshute activists are
committed to revitalizing their language

Wick R. Miller Collection
Shoshoni Language Project
The mission of the WRMC Shoshoni Language Project
has included:
 documenting the Shoshoni language,
 developing materials to assist the Shoshoni communities
in local revitalization projects,
 training Shoshoni language techers,
 disseminating materials,
 encouraging Shoshoni people of all ages, esp. young
people, to use their language.

Shoshoni Language Project: the
preservation and dissemination of legacy materials
 The Project was at first primarily concerned with preserving
the oral tradition of the Shoshoni language speakers
captured in the reel-to-reel tapes of the Wick R. Miller
Collection.
 Recordings made by Prof. Miller throughout the Great
Basin in the late 1960’s to early 1970’s
 Professor of Anthropology, University of Utah
 One of the founders of the U‘s Linguistics Program
 Old audio tapes can be very fragile
 Eventually they lose quality, disintegrate, and can no longer be
played
 Fortunately, the Miller recordings were still in very good condition

Shoshoni Language Project:
the preservation and dissemination of legacy
materials
 Prof. Miller had worked with speakers of Shoshoni to
publish 14 of the narratives from the recordings
 Miller, Wick R. 1972. Newe Natekwinappeh: Shoshoni
Stories and Dictionary. University of Utah Anthropological
Papers, 94. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.
 The Shoshoni texts are written in the Miller Orthography,
which Prof. Miller with native speaker and linguist, Beverly
Crum, developed

Original mission of the Shoshoni Language
Project: the preservation and
dissemination of legacy materials
2004-07. Preserving and Enhancing Accessibility of
Gosiute/Shoshoni Material in the Wick R. Miller
Collection, NSF #0418351 (awarded to Mauricio Mixco
(PI) & Marianna Di Paolo (co-PI))
 For the preservation, dissemination, and enhanced
accessibility of the Wick R. Miller recordings & materials

The Shoshoni Language Project: the
preservation and dissemination of legacy
materials—early accomplishments
 Digitized recordings and made analog copies
 About 480 Shoshoni narratives and some songs
 Traditional stories
 Ethnographic narratives of traditional practices
 Oral histories
 Some songs
 The digital recordings facilitated the transcription, translation, and
glossing of the recorded materials.
 Completed most of the transcriptions & translations in collaboration
Beverly and Earl Crum, Drusilla Gould, Imogene Steele, Boyd
Graham, Bryan Hudson, Helen Timbimboo, Leland Pubigee, Rupert
Steele, etc.

The Shoshoni Language Project: the
preservation and dissemination of legacy
materials—early accomplishments
 Produced a searchable Shoshoni-English/English-Shoshoni
multi-dialect electronic dictionary (―the Big Dictionary‖)
 30,000-word entry compilation of dialect lexicons
(many provided by Beverly Crum)
 Recently made available on the Shoshoni Language
Project website
 Began dissemination of materials from the WRMC

language maintenance & revitalization mission
 We quickly learned that many people in the
tribal communities were already involved or
wanted to be involved in keeping their language
alive
 The preservation and dissemination of the old
recordings on CDs helped
 People began listening to their relatives voices again
 Usually an emotional experience
 Many words and phrases in the stories had not been
used for a long time
 Sometimes the transcribers had to seek out very
elderly people for help on the translations

 Our NSF-funded project was coming to an end
 More work clearly needed to be done
 Some of the communities asked us to assist with
language revitalization projects they had initiated
 Some of this work has been funded by ANA grants to
individual tribes
 In Spring of 2007, asked by Brian Mason, Barrick
Corporation, to submit a grant proposal to continue
work on the WRMC
 Since that time, Barrick funding has been crucial to
our ability to engage in Shoshoni language
revitalization outreach efforts

Further development of the Shoshoni
Language Project: documentation →
2007-present. The Wick R. Miller Collection:
Returning to the Communities. Barrick Gold of
North America Corporation, Inc. grants.
(Marianna Di Paolo (PI))
Early (documentation) accomplishments:
 Completed the first draft of the Shoshoni
transcriptions, glossing, & English translations of the
480 WRMC narratives
 Developed indices for the WRMC ethnographic
field note, notebooks, and recorded narratives
 Developed a searchable version of ethnographic
field notes

Shoshoni Language Project: documentation
→ language maintenance & revitalization mission
Making existing materials available again to
Shoshoni communities often means using
technology, e.g.,
 ―Returning‖ traditional narratives recorded
~45+ yrs ago to family members today
 WRMC recordings on digital media
 How to Read and Write Shoshoni. Crum &
Miller, with revisions by Bryan Hudson
 originally published in 1992; reissued in
2011

Shoshoni Language Project: documentation
→ language maintenance & revitalization mission
Using technology to develop and disseminate
new materials, e.g.
 4,000-entry Shoshoni Talking Dictionary
 Project begun in collaboration with Boyd Graham,
Education Director, Ely Shoshone Tribe
 Originally funded by ANA grant to the tribe
 Now funded by Barrick grant
 Built in LexiquePro, freeware from SIL
 Multi-speaker, pan-dialect
 Distributed on DVD (May 2014 update)
 Available on SLP website in late 2014

documentation → language
maintenance & revitalization mission
WRMC Transcription/Translation update:
 The narratives—traditional stories, oral histories,
traditional practices
 Vary in length
 some only a few minutes long, some over an hour
long
 Now working on proofreading and completing
final translations (Mixco, Di Paolo, & Elwood
Mose)
 To be published in a series of books with
accompanying CDs of the original recordings

WRMC Transcription/Translation Publication Project:
Plan for 2014-2015
 Possible titles (or themes) for the first four volumes:
1. How the World Came to Be The Way It Is
2. Coyote and Others Fail to Heed Advice or are Too Proud
3. Shoshone Oral History
4. Shoshone Traditional Activities (Ethnography)

How the World Came to Be The Way It Is (31 narratives)
 Cottontail Shoots the Sun (11 narratives)
 Sun and Cottontail WRMC_009_01 Maude Moon 6/12/1967
 Tapu ma‘ai Tapai WRMC_041_01 Albert McGill
 Sun and Cottontail WRMCT_043.03 Albert Stanton Jr.
 Ittsape' Tapu ma'ai WRMCT_064.01 Johnny Dick
 Cottontail WRMC_074_03 Martha Hooper
 Cottontail WRMC_083_04 Tom Premo
 Cottontail Shoots the Sun WRMC_084_01 Tom Premo
 Cottontail Rabbit and Sun WRMCT_088.01 Dave Charley
 Sun and Cottontail Kill the Sun WRMC_089.02 Maude Cortez
 Cottontail kills the Sun WRMC_114_01 Sadie & Lillian Ariwite
 Cottontail WRMC_118_03 Dan Brady
 Origin of the Indians
 Coyote brings duck eggs up from the south WRMC_002_02 Maude
Moon
 (and 4 more)

How the World Came to Be The Way It Is (cont.)
 Coyote Steals Fire (1 narrative)
 Theft of Fire WRMC_074_06 Martha Hooper
 How the Number of Months and the Seasons Came to Be (5
narratives)
 Seasons WRMC_014_02 Maude Moon
 Months WRMC_054_02 Wilson Jack
 Number of Months WRMC_076_07 Earl Dean Harney
 Number of Months WRMC_078_05 Lucy Jones
 Coyote, skunk and the birds and the origin of the seasons
WRMC_072_02 Tom Wesaw
 How Pine Nuts Came to Grow Where They Grow Now (14 narratives)
 Theft of the pinenut WRMC_093_08 Judy Sam
 (and 13 more)

The Shoshoni Language Project:
language maintenance & revitalization
mission??
Is it possible to turn the loss of the Shoshoni language around?
 While it may not be possible to rebuild most endangered
language speech communities, the Shoshoni community
may be one of the exceptions:
 There are physically-active fluent speakers in most Shoshone and
Goshute tribal communities,
 Many reservation children still hear the Shoshoni language in
some traditional domains at least occasionally and some hear it
in the home
 Most of the tribes have been engaged in language revitalization
activities.

Shoshoni Language Maintenance &
Revitalization: involve people of all ages
 Most of the fluent native speakers of Shoshoni are now
grandparents and great-grandparents
 They are the repository of the language
 Most of the middle-aged adults did not have the
opportunity to become fully fluent speakers, but may be
passive “speakers”
 Mostly because of earlier Boarding School experiences
 But whether or not they speak Shoshoni, their support of the
language is very important
 The upcoming set of parents (teens) could help turn
things around
 if they become L2 speakers of the language
 and facilitate their children becoming native speakers

Language Maintenance &
Revitalization: guiding principles
In working with Shoshoni-speaking communities to encourage
the use and the learning of the Shoshoni language, the
Shoshoni Language Project focuses on two principles:
 language revitalization is rebuilding a speech community,
and
 it is necessary to engage people of all ages in the process—
fluent elders as well as teenagers because young people
are ―the next generation of parents‖.
 Rebuilding a speech community requires many players,
but crucially rests on collaboration between fluent
native-speaking elders & L2 teenagers and young adults

Shoshoni Language Maintenance &
Revitalization: involve people of all ages
 Both elders & young people are likely
language activists
 the know-how + the drive

Language revitalization as
rebuilding a speech community
WHY is rebuilding a speech community
important for revitalizing a language?
 Intergenerational mother-tongue transmission,
the process that creates fully fluent native
speakers, would be very difficult to re-establish
without community support outside the home
when a language as dominant, and all-
powerful as English is an easy alternative for
young adults (parents) and children.

 In order to want to use a language, people have
to have
 a reason to use it and
 people to use it with.
 If there is no speech community, then there is
probably
 no one to talk to outside the home
 Easy to stop using it.

 If young people do not use the language outside the
home with other young people,
 it won‘t help them bond with peer group (the language
won‘t be ―cool‖)
 they may be less likely to keep using Shoshoni later in life,
as older family members pass away
 they may be less likely to find a spouse that speaks or
supports the language
 so it may be less likely that their children will acquire it
 Intergenerational transmission may once again get
interrupted.

The WRMC Shoshoni Language Project has
developed a number of language revitalization
activities and materials in collaboration with
Shoshone and Goshute people in Nevada, Utah,
and Idaho that have resulted in increasing the
frequency of social interaction in the language,
a defining characteristic of a speech community
(Gumperz 1972), by providing something for
people of all ages and levels of interest in their
ancestral language.

Language revitalization as rebuilding a
speech community: funding
 Long-term funding from Barrick has been crucial
for this work.
 Language revitalization takes a long time.
 Most Shoshoni communities have few resources.
 Most Federal agencies do not provide long-term
funding for language revitalization and there are
few grants available.

Rebuilding a speech
community: teaching Shoshoni
 Many speakers have been working hard to teach Shoshoni language
courses in the communities, schools, and higher education:
 Owyhee, NV
 High School
 Community classes
 Ely, NV
 White Pine Co. High School
 Duckwater Elementary School
 Ibapah Elementary School
 Chief Taghee Elementary Academy (Ft. Hall, ID)
 Elko Head Start & community classes
 Idaho State University
 University of Utah (Bryan Hudson, Shoshoni (ANTH) courses during SYLAP)
 Great Basin College
 Etc.

Rebuilding a speech community:
teaching/using Shoshoni
 Community courses are often taught
 to help Shoshoni speakers maintain their language,
 to help passive speakers become active speakers,
and
 to help develop L2 learners
 Course-based language revitalization projects
are important because they jump start the
process of rebuilding the speech community.
 Some communities are also holding events for
speakers to meet to listen to traditional stories
(e.g., from the WRMC) and talk about them.

supporting the use/teaching of Shoshoni
Develop and disseminate Shoshoni Language Curricula, Lesson
Plans, and Materials
 White Pine Co. High School credit course
 Collaborated with Ely Shoshoni Tribe (Boyd Graham)
 ANA grant
 University of Utah Shoshoni courses (Bryan Hudson)
 Shoshone/Goshute Youth Language Apprenticeship Program
 K-6 Goshute Language Program
 Collaborated with Confederated Tribe of the Goshutes, Ibapah
Elementary School, the Tooele School District, and the Utah State Office
of Education (Ruby Ridesatthedoor)
 Pre-K/Head Start Shoshoni Language Program

 Claymation films
 In Shoshoni with English subtitles
 First film in collaboration with Ely Shoshone Tribe—
ANA grant
 Classroom posters
 Shoshoni teacher talk
 Oyo'on Tapaiwani Taikwappeh
 Encouraging the use of Shoshoni in classroom
management
 Animals, colors, etc.
 Counting in Newe

Classroom posters:
counting in Shoshoni
with handgame sticks

Shoshoni language teacher workshops
 First Teacher Workshop offered in 2008
 Funded by ANA grant to the Ely Shoshone Tribe
 Others funded by Barrick grant
 Goals
 Share materials and ideas
 Learn that ―you‘re not alone in your efforts‖
 Others are trying, too
 Hear others use Shoshoni in public spaces
 Reconnect with other speakers
 Especially important for elderly or isolated speakers

 Shoshoni Language Teacher Workshop
Wendover 2009

Teacher Workshops in 2013
 Teaching Students their Ancestral Language for
Communication
 CELCNA Teacher Workshop
 March 8-9, 2013
 University of Utah
 Salt Lake City, UT
 Breaking Through Barriers in
Teaching & Learning Shoshoni
 October 5, 2013
 Battle Mountain, NV

Teacher Workshops in 2014
Foundations for Learning: Increasing Shoshoni Language Use in
Early-Childhood Learners
 Rolled out Shoshoni Language Pre-K/Head Start Program
 Elko, Nevada
 March 7-8, 2014
 About 180 participants!!
 From Ft. Hall, ID to Fallon, NV
 Duckwater Workshop, TBA

Foundations for Learning: Increasing Shoshoni Language Use in
Early-Childhood Learners
 2014 Teacher Workshop

developing a community of young
adult L2 learners--SYLAP
The Shoshoni Language Project is best known for the
Shoshone/Goshute Youth Language Apprenticeship Program
(SYLAP)
 Proposed by Ph.D. student, Katherine Matsumoto-Gray, in a term
paper
 Modeled after a STEM summer experience for minority students that
KMG participated in while in high school, offered at the University of
Wyoming
 Offered for first time in Summer 2009
 Up to 10 first-year participants each summer
 Sophomores to graduating seniors
 48 young people have participated thus far
 All of the costs of SYLAP are covered by the Barrick grant

developing committed young adult
L2 learners—SYLAP
 Introduces Shoshone and Goshute high school
students to a university setting to encourage them
to pursue a college degree and to get them
involved in the revitalization of the Shoshoni
language
 SYLAP has three components:
 Learning the Shoshoni language in a college course
 Participating in a paid apprenticeship in documenting
the Shoshoni language and developing language
teaching materials for their home communities
 Encouraging Shoshone and Goshute youth to pursue a
college education:
 Instilling life-skills and self esteem through group
activities, Shoshone cultural activities, and college
preparation workshops

SYLAP outcomes
 The apprenticeship empowers young people to
make a difference in their own lives and for their
communities by connecting and assisting with
their home communities‘ language revitalization
programs
 All of the young people who have been SYLAP
participants are still in high school or have
graduated from high school and most go on to
college

SYLAP outcomes
Fluent native speaker “elders” are an integral part of SYLAP
 Elders assist Bryan Hudson as teachers in the Shoshoni courses
 Drusilla Gould, Delphina Gould, Boyd Graham, Ruby
Ridesatthedoor, Norm Cavanaugh, Laurie Gibson, Naomi
Mason, Arloa Kelly, Elwood Mose, Rosie Jones, Bernice Lalo,
etc.
 The native speaking elders develop a collaborative
relatioship with the teenage L2 learners
 Elders assist the SYLAPers in the materials development
projects
 The elders create a ―safe‖ (non-threatening) environment for
the young people—no criticism for language learning ―errors‖
 The young people work with the elders in a respectful
manner and hang out with them in the evening

developing committed young adult
L2 learners—SYLAP
 SYLAPers began to ―return‖ in 2010
 Mission expansion: We now also support the young people
who have taken part in SYLAP as they move on to college
and/or begin to work in their home communities in
language or cultural maintenance and revitalization
 We currently have five SYLAP participants working for
the Project, all of whom are pursuing college degrees:
 Sam Broncho, Trent Griffith, Justin Martin, Eric Komperud,
and Devin Gardner.
 Please see out website for the Five Years of SYLAP video
 http://shoshoniproject.utah.edu/

SYLAP: Children‘s Books Project
 Each year, SYLAP students work in groups to create
children‘s books, assisted by elders.
 Starting in 2009, the books focused on traditional
stories for students learning the language.
 Since 2011, the goal of the books also includes
teaching Shoshoni to early learners.
Published books:

 Books in progress:
SYLAP: Children‘s Books Project
 Audio books & video books
 We are currently working to record and create an
audio companion to each book.
 Each book will also be made into a video.
 Kutise Itsappeh is a completed video book that is
available online.

The Shoshoni Talking Dictionary
& SYLAP
 The Shoshoni Talking Dictionary was started in
2009 in collaboration with the Ely Shoshone Tribe,
which received an ANA grant to create a 3,000-
word dictionary.
 The Talking Dictionary is now a SYLAP project
 SYLAPers learn to record elders reading words for the
dictionary by using professional recording
equipment
 SYLAPers also learn how to edit the sound files and
enter them into the dictionary database
The Talking Dictionary is under revision. The update will be available
in May 2014.

The Shoshoni Talking
Dictionary & SYLAP

The Shoshoni Talking
Dictionary & SYLAP
Talking Dictionary demo
aikwa ~ aiku ~ aiko ‗tongue‘
BG ~ RR ~ DG

SYLAP—videogame project
Returning SYLAPers develop a videogame, with assistance from
the Entertainment Arts & Engineering program at the U: Enee!
 Cora
 Artwork
http://www.theeneegame.com/game-artwork/
 Trent
 Language (the game is only in Shoshoni)
 Sound engineering
 Devin
 Programmer (continues to work to de-bug and develop the game)
 Zeph
 Producer, mentor

SYLAP residential experience--
forming a speech community
Statement by Sam Broncho on the Resident Assistants’ influence on
using the Shoshoni language.
 As an RA I was able to work with the students outside of the
classroom. I was able to help them utilize the language in real
situations.
 There were numerous occasions where we would be sitting in the
kitchen or the living room and they ask me to hand them
something. But instead of simply handing it over, I tell them [in
Shoshone] to say it in Shoshone before I give it to them. The
students were timid at first, but as they got used to the environment
and other students they began to open up and use the language
more and more.
 We like to [provide] an extremely safe environment for the students
to use Shoshone, without criticism and without judgment.

Sam Broncho: Why learning Shoshone in the SYLAP setting
works so well:
 SYLAP allows students who are in the same age range and
who are at the same level of comprehension to work and
learn together. Other classrooms allow a wide range of
people to take their courses, but SYLAP is focused on juniors
and seniors in high school. This allows them to realize that
they are not the only students who are trying to learn their
language.
 This is important because they aren‘t intimidated by fluent
speakers and the fluent speakers we do work with
understand the criticisms that are usually given in their
home towns.

Shoshoni-only “hours”
 Evening activities shared by SYLAPers and elders that
only allow the use of Shoshoni
 No English!

Post SYLAP
 Sense of comraderie has already been established
 SYLAPers continue to use the language with each
other outside of the program
 They all have learned to read & write using the same
standardized spelling system
 Use technology to stay in touch with their new BFFs in
communities across the Great Basin
 FaceBook/Twitter/Social Media
 Texting

SYLAP & social media
 The SYLAPers bond into a peer-group speech
community centered around their experience
with the Shoshoni language
 Social networking keeps them connected after they
return home
 Shoshone FaceBook, texting, etc.
 In SYLAP, they learn to read and write Shoshoni,
facilitating social media
 The Shoshoni language instructor, Bryan Hudson, has
encouraged this online bonding experiece
 Some native speaker elders participate in the social
media sites

Post-SYLAP--forming a speech
community

Rebuilding a speech
community
 Some of the people that Wick recorded ~45 yrs ago were
monolingual or nearly monolingual in Shoshoni
 Few if any children today are learning the language as a first
language
 Kathy Adams-Blackeye (Duckwater) said that only 30% of her
community now speak the language. It was 100% not too long
ago (probably in her childhood).
 It took several generations to go from a point where almost all
children were learning the language as a first language at
home, to the place where the communities find themselves in
now
 It will probably also take a good many years and concerted effort
by the Newe people to rebuild their speech community,
 It is possible to turn it around and keep the language going
 But it will take people of all generations to want to do it and to
work together to do it

 Finally, viewing revitalization as re-structuring a
speech community (i.e., recreating its
infrastructure) suggests that it may take at least a
generation of revitalization work involving all age
groups to produce sustainable results.
 Fishman (2003): ―Do not give up; but do not get
your priorities wrong, because you do not get
many chances in this game. And above all
remember that living languages are not primarily
in institutions, but above them, beyond them, all
around them.‖ (p. 198)

Website
 Please visit our website for more information and
materials
http://shoshoniproject.utah.edu/

Acknowledgements
For their part in the shaping of these ideas, but none of the blame for my
misunderstandings, I acknowledge:
 The wonderful Shoshone and Goshute people who have been so open and
welcoming over the last decade and who have taught me more than I ever
expected to learn, especially Beverly Crum, Drusilla Gould, Boyd Graham, Laurie
Gibson, Ruby Ridesatthedoor, Elwood Mose, Norm Cavanaugh, and so many
others!
 My linguist collaborators; Mauricio Mixco, Wick Miller, Beverly Crum, and Jeanne
Lachowski.
 The students and others who have worked on the Wick R. Miller Collection project
over the years, and who have inadvertently or with intent helped me think out
these issues, especially Jen Mitchell, Katherine Matsumoto-Gray, Julia James, and
Derron Borders.
 For contributing to this presentation: Derron Borders, Sarah Arnoff, Jen Mitchell,
Bryan Hudson, Sam Broncho, Devin Gardner, and Katherine Matsumoto-Gray
 My ―new‖ colleagues in the Department of Anthropology.
 The Barrick Gold Corporation, who has so generously funded the WRMC Shoshoni
Language Project, and especially Brian Mason, Tim Buchanan, Bill Upton, and Kristi
Begay.
 Wick Miller for ―pushing back the frontiers of science‖ day after day.

References
 Brown, Cecil H. 2010. "Lack of support for Proto-Uto-Aztecan at 8900 BP." PNAS 107(11).
 Campbell, Lyle. 1997. American Indian Languages: a Historical and Comparative
Assessment. New York: Oxford University Press.
 Merrill, William L., Jonathon B. Mabry, Gayle J. Fritz, Karen R. Adams, John R. Roney, and A.
C. McWilliams. 2009. "The diffusion of maize into the southwestern United States and its
impact." PNAS 106(50):21019–21026.
 _____, et al. 2010. "Reply to Hill and Brown; maize and Uto-Aztecan cultural history." PNAS
107(11).
 Sapir, Edward. 1913, 1919. Southern Paiute and Nahuatl: a study in Uto-Aztecan, parts. 1 and 2.
Journal de la Société des Américanistes de Paris 10:379-425 and 11: 443-88, and 1915 in American
Anthropologist 17:98-120, 306-328. Reprinted 1990 in The collected works of Edward Sapir 5:
American Indian Languages, William Bright, ed., 351-444. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
 Stubbs, Brian. 2011. A Uto-Aztecan Comparative Vocabulary. Preliminary edition.
Blanding, UT: Rocky Mountain Books and Productions.
 http://multitree.org/trees/23630 (Tree is based on Campbell 1997 and many other
studies.)

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