Native American languages

[Daniel Koster]

Who speaks/writes/studies what Native American languages here?

(by Native Aamerican I mean all of the Americas - from Canada to the Horn...and by "here" I mean in this forum)

I picked up two Mayan dialects in Guatemala - K'ekchi' and Pokomchi.

I've wanted to learn Cherokee (wife's father is part-Cherokee, part-Okie ) I've also wanted to study Navajo - have a couple of friends who speak it. Also, one Hopi friend - he was an excellent hiker.

 

[Walosi]

Some pretty good starters for Cherokee here:

http://www.powersource.com/cocinc/language/default.htm

Dineh can be....IS... a real bear to learn. Very precise pronunciation, and a slight off-tonal or wrong hesitation can jump you into a different time zone.

 

[Bill Martino]

I do well to speak English. But I admire folks who can master some of these very difficult languages.

 

[Yvsa]

I speak Cherokee like a usdi usdii or baby little, ie little baby.
Just never have taken the time to go to the free classes, but maybe will one of these days.
Cherokee is also a difficult language as well due to the number of subjects having slightly different words.
The Cherokee equivilent of good bye is said about 3 different ways whether it's one person, two or three and four or more if I'm not mistaken.
I do know there's two words for it. Since ndns don't say good bye it translates into something like, "we will meet again." or "we will see each other again."

 

[Ferrous Wheel]

Interesting Yvsa...Spanish is like that. If I say "Hasta luego" it meant "until we meet again." If I say Hasta Manana" it means "until tomorrow". Many Spanish speakers in Mesoamerica say "Hasta hasta" as a general goodbye. Also, Aloha in Hawaii is the same as hello, so they say "hello" for both Hi and Bye.

An Icelandic or old norse one is "Farheil" or "Varheil" which is "Travel well" or "Fare forth well."

Sorry, ndn languages (other than a bit of comparative linguistics with Aleut and Inuit, and some Lakota words) are not in my skill set. I'm better at Old English, Middle English, old Norse (Which is Modern )Icelandic, Old High German, Modern German, and the Romance Language Group (Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, some French).

Keith