I became a journalist because I didn’t see positive representations of Indigenous people in media while I was growing up. Email her at kanhehsiio.deer@cbc.ca or follow her on Twitter @Kanhehsiio. Mohawk is a polysynthetic language, meaning that words are composed of many small parts to create meaning. Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Copyright - TVO is a registered charity #85985 0232 RR0001 - Copyright © 2020 The Ontario Educational Communications Authority (TVO), OPINION: I’ve started to learn my own language — but my experience may not reflect what Canadians want from narratives of Indigenous resilience, From left to right, Susan and Wellington Green (the author’s great-great-grandparents); Nellie Doreen (great-grandmother) and Cindy Lisk (mother); Nelson Green (Great-Uncle Teck). Audience Relations, CBC P.O. Samantha Craggs is a CBC News reporter based in Hamilton, Ont. A language program that includes written exercises you can print is preferable, as it reinforces the online audio learning. And it's a language those who speak it want to see grow. English Mohawk. Comprehensive Mohawk-English Dictionary. We have a very rudimentary knowledge of it and it's difficult to help our children who are learning the language in school. I never imagined when I was growing up or when I started learning my language that I would work somewhere that would publish my writing in Mohawk. Onkwawenna Kentyohkwa (Our Language Society) is a community-based organization that teaches Kanyen’keha (the “Mohawk” language) to adults on the Six Nations Grand River Territory near Brantford, Ontario. There are eight dialects of the Mohawk language across Quebec, Ontario and New York state. If we can build the dictionary to about 10,000 words this program will expand to a next phase and development will start on … The word "Mohawk" is an exonym. She has a particular interest in politics and social justice stories, and tweets live from Hamilton city hall. My great-aunt recalls that my great-great-grandparents, Susan and Wellington Green, spoke Mohawk fluently. Mohawk is a very complicated language and for you to become a fluent speaker you first must have a base vocabulary. The next problem in learning Mohawk is you will have two types of speaking styles, baby talk and adult talk. I learned quickly, and at a young age, that people were willing to say all kinds of uncensored and derogatory things about Indigenous people in front of me because of my disguised identity. Onkwawenna Kentyohkwa (Our Language Society) is a community-based organization that teaches Kanyen’keha (the “Mohawk” language) to adults on the Six Nations Grand River Territory near Brantford, Ontario. Thinking of your experience with tvo.org, how likely are you to recommend tvo.org to a friend or colleague? Both apps are available through iTunes or Google Play. Last year, it released one for the Cayuga language, which has fewer than 100 speakers left. A Mohawk immersion school in Kanesatake, Que., has launched an app to help students and parents with their language learning. When I talk about my own language journey, I worry that everyone will want to hear a particular narrative: my family wasn’t allowed to practise their culture or learn their language, but, now, look, I’m learning my language, and that makes up for everything my family lost. She said that being Indian was something the family avoided mentioning and hoped would go unnoticed. Six Nations Polytechnic has created a Mohawk language app called “Speak Mohawk.” A grave accent with a colon (à:) indicates a long falling tone 4. If we're able to build up our vocabulary, we'll be able to help our kids a bit more.". Given the history of native-language usage in my family, TVO.org’s translation project is very important to me. We respect the dialect differences and how each community talks about different things, but being the oldest community with the oldest language, we surely want to keep it.". TVO.org speaks with Carley Gallant-Jenkins, of the Woodland Cultural Centre, about Orange Shirt Day — and making sure that voices that were taken away are now being heard. That's grown by 3.1 per cent since 2006. Many others are trying to learn to speak Mohawk in school or in university. I still travel home some weekends for language class, but it is increasingly hard to keep up — and I haven’t met anyone else in Ottawa who speaks Mohawk. A Six Nations school is doing its part to keep Indigenous languages alive in the most modern of ways — with an app. The Mohawks were extremely wealthy traders, as other nations in their confederacy needed their flint for tool-making. The materials designed were used in other Mohawk-speaking Communities interested in learning or teaching the Mohawk language. "That's a pretty good response considering there aren't that many people interested in our languages other than our own people," Deer said. Below are two examples of these styles . "I thought it would be a good way to preserve our language and have it available, not just for our students, but parents and community," said Deborah Rennie, the special needs co-ordinator at Rotiwennakéhte Ionterihwaienstáhkhwa. The company has worked with more than 200 nations across the United States and Canada to develop language apps, including Speak Mohawk and Speak Cayuga released by Six Nations Polytechnic in Ontario. In order to become one, I’d have to move to a community with more speakers, commit years to full-time language learning, and then continue to surround myself with speakers — and, as I’ve already explained, that can be tricky. Deer and the SNP team have worked on the Mohawk app, developed by Thornton Media Inc., since May. Of those, 66.6 per cent were in Ontario and 28.9 per cent were in Quebec. I know that is a privilege, but it also comes with a weight. Because of the Covid-19 lockdown, our office and classrooms are closed and our immersion program is now being taught online. Having some knowledge of linguistics can make learning a second language easier in some ways. APTN has dubbed multiple programs, including By the Rapids, an animated show, created by Joseph Tekaroniake Lazare, from Kahnawake, about a Mohawk family. "It's a hope that it will be a link between school and home," said Rennie. Census data shows only 40 people in Ontario speak Cayuga, but about 700 people have downloaded the app. Some Mohawk people have learned to speak Mohawk by growing up among fluent speakers. Kanehsatà:ke Mohawk is a mobile phone app with a vocabulary of 500 Kanien'kéha words across 39 different categories like animals, numbers and greetings. The inspiration for the new app came from Speak Mohawk, with the goal to have Kanesatake's dialect of the language preserved. They opted to live in a small community called Deseronto, just 10 kilometres east of Tyendinaga. She said the dialect was important to preserve. When I stumble over sounds, especially in the longer words, I can’t turn to people around me and ask, “Hey, am I saying this right?” My family doesn’t speak our language, and I live three hours away from my community of Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory. né:’e. The first time that happened for me, I was walking down the street, and I saw a dog, and, in my head, I said è:rhar instead of “dog.” It was so simple, but I remember smiling to myself. This comes a year after it released a similar app for Cayuga, which only 40 people in Ontario speak. It is a priority for CBC to create a website that is accessible to all Canadians including people with visual, hearing, motor and cognitive challenges. An acute accent (á) indicates a short high tone 3. My great-grandmother, who was registered as a member of the community, lost her Indian status when she married him, because the Canadian government saw an unregistered Indian as a white person.