Friday, June 27, 2008

The Chumash Indians’s new dictionary ensures its language will never die

There are not many experts in Samala, the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians’ nearly extinct native language. Actually, there is just one: Richard Applegate, Ph.D. So when the tribe needed someone to assist in creating a dictionary to revive it, there was only one person to ask.

At the dictionary’s unveiling party at the Chumash Indians’ Chumash Casino Reort in Santa Ynez, Calif., in April, Applegate, a non-Native, said in a speech, “My deepest desire is not to be the sole cultural bearer of this language.”

The 600-plus-page, 4,000-entry illustrated dictionary will hopefully keep that from being the reality for long. Read more about it here.

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