Trip of the Tongue (37 page)

54  only 10 percent of Navajo pupils: Lee and McLaughlin, “Reversing Navajo Language Shift, Revisited,” 34–35.

54  “the language associated with access”: House,
Language Shift Among the Navajos
, 28.

Chapter Three: Washington

55  with twenty-nine federally recognized: “Indian Entities Recognized,” 60810–4.

59  In a 1921 issue: Meany, “Origin of Washington Geographic Names,” 217–18.

59  On December 18, 1955: “Indians Named Puyallup.”

61  decidedly mundane translation of
Puyallup
: Puyallup Tribal News Language Page, January 2008, www.puyallup-tribe.com/assets/puyallup-tribe/learning/langpg/january.2008.pdf.

62  their language program suggests otherwise: Puyallup Tribal News Language Page, February 2008, www.puyallup-tribe.com/assets/puyallup-tribe/learning/langpg/january.2008.pdf.

62  I looked up
Puyallup
: Hess and Hilbert,
Lushootseed Dictionary
, s.v. “puy.”

62  
alap
, which has the rough meaning: Ibid., s.v. “alap.”

63  In a 1990 letter: Goddard, “Time to Retire an Indian Place-Name Hoax.”

64  There is not, by the way, a single language: Holton, “Inuit or Eskimo”; Qitsualik, “Are Eskimo and Inuit the Same People?”

64  “supposed literal translations”: Goddard, “Time to Retire an Indian Place-Name Hoax.”

64  “English knifemen and Nipmuck Indians”: Belluck, “What's the Name of That Lake?”

65  But then, in 2003: Meyer, “The Story Behind Twilight.”

67  
la bouche
became
la push
: Powell and Jensen,
Quileute
, 15.

67  Quileute is one of only two Chimakuan languages: Mithun,
The Languages of Native North America
, 377.

67  Edward Sapir first observed this phenomenon: Ibid., 273–74. The article she is referring to is Edward Sapir's “Abnormal Types of Speech in Nootka,” which can be found in Sapir,
Selected Writings of Edward Sapir in Language, Culture, and Personality
, ed. David G. Mandelbaum (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1949).

67  For instance, if you were talking to someone: Frachtenberg, “Abnormal Types of Speech in Quileute,” 298.

67  By the mid-1970s, the population of native Quileute-speakers: This and the 1977 and 1900 population estimates are from Powell and Jensen,
Quileute
, 58.

70  “For this reason you Quileute”: Andrade and Frachtenberg,
Quileute Texts
, 85, quoted in Powell and Jensen,
Quileute
, 17.

71  “Dear Fans”: Facebook page of the Quileute Nation of La Push, Washington, www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=187322547390&id=197450675626.

74  Ruth E. Claplanhoo: Barber, “Basket Weaver's Legacy Is Woven into Fabric of the Makah.”

74  “A glottal stop is produced simultaneously”: Jacobsen,
First Lessons in Makah
, 2.

75  in Makah there exists a series of suffixes: This and additional details and examples of Makah evidentials from Jacobsen, “The Heterogeneity of Evidentials in Makah,” quoted in Mithun,
The Languages of Native North America
, 185–86.

76  When parsed out, it becomes: From the exhibit notes at the Makah Cultural and Research Center in Neah Bay (visited July 2008).

77  The Makah called the outsiders: Erikson,
Voices of a Thousand People
, 24.

77  “They were asked”: Ibid., 9–10.

78  he wrote, for instance: Swan,
The Indians of Cape Flattery
, 1.

79  “We had to go through”: Erikson,
Voices of a Thousand People
, 52, from a 1995 interview with Helma Ward.

79  “I have taken the buildings at Bahada Point”: C. A. Huntington to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, September 5, 1874, in
Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to the Secretary of the Interior for the Year
1874, 333.

79  “When he was caught [speaking Makah]”: Erikson,
Voices of a Thousand People
, 78.

80  archaeologists uncovered more than 55,000 artifacts: Renker, “The Makah Tribe.”

80  The Makah employed an exhibit designer: Erikson,
Voices of a Thousand People
, 173.

81  In 1978, the tribe received a grant: “U.S. Helps Small Tribe to Save Its Language.”

82  Between 2000 and 2007: U.S. Department of Health and Human Servies, “ANA Grant Awards.”

82  Jessie Little Doe Baird: MacArthur Foundation, “Jessie Little Doe Baird.”

83  Michael Krauss estimated: Krauss, “The Condition of Native North American Languages,” 10.

84  the life expectancy for men on the Crow reservation: From interview with Professor Tim McCleary, July 2008.

84  on par with countries such as: World Bank,
World Development Indicators
, 119–20.

84n    teenage Navajo girls are significantly more likely: Russell, “Environmental Racism,” quoted in Wenz, “Just Garbage,” 66.

84  The suicide rate: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,
Trends in Indian Health
, Table 4.22, 77.

85  “
Not
learning a language”: This quotation was taken from an exhibit at the Makah Cultural and Research Center (visited July 2008).

85  “which flattered us”: Cook,
The Voyages of Captain Cook
, 2:260.

Chapter Four: Louisiana

87  at the time of the American Revolution: Bailey, “American English: Its Origins and History,” 11.

88  “a considerable oversimplification”: Crystal,
The Stories of English
, 425.

88  an estimated 100,000 speakers: Mithun,
The Languages of Native North America
, 587–88.

90  In 1718, Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville: Stewart,
Names on the Land
, 135.

91  The Good Friday fire of 1788: Reeves, “French Quarter Fire and Flood.”

91  “By the end of Reconstruction”: Brasseaux,
French, Creole, Cajun, Houma
, 100.

91  Because residents of the area couldn't afford : Hirsch and Logsdon,
Creole New Orleans
, 119.

92  At Galatoire's: Claverie, “Trout Meuniere Amandine.”

92  
beignet
can be traced back:
New Oxford American Dictionary
, 2nd ed., s.v. “beignet.”

94  
Lagniappe
derives from the Spanish
la ñapa
:
Oxford English Dictionary
, 2nd ed., s.v. “lagniappe.”

94  “We picked up one excellent word”: Twain,
Life on the Mississippi
, 316.

94n    The Spanish, in turn, comes from the Quechua: This is a widely accepted etymology. See, for instance,
Collins English Dictionary
, 10th ed., or
Random House Dictionary
, 2011.

95  Its etymology is fairly straightforward:
Oxford English Dictionary
, 2nd ed., s.v. “Creole.”

96  The SIL Ethnologue currently lists eighty-two creoles: Lewis, ed.,
Ethnologue
.

96  With nearly 8 million speakers: Ibid., s.v. “Haitian.”

97  The words and structure of the language: Holm,
An Introduction to Pidgins and Creoles
, 5–6.

97  According to the most recent scholarship: This and other details and quotations in this paragraph from Brasseaux,
French, Cajun, Creole, Houma
, 89.

97  “the earliest published reference”: Domínguez, “Social Classification in Creole Louisiana,” 591.

97  “There are four types of inhabitants”: Bossu,
Travels in the Interior of North America
, 22.

98  according to Domínguez: Domínguez, “Social Classification in Creole Louisiana,” 593.

99  Historian Gary Mills: Mills,
The Forgotten People
, xii–xiv.

99  “paper bag test”: Brasseaux,
French, Cajun, Creole, Houma
, 111.

100    in Louisiana the term
Creole
is used most commonly: Dubois and Melançon, “Creole Is, Creole Ain't.”

100    This definition persisted: Domínguez,
White by Definition
, 45–46.

106    Laura met a man from St. Louis: Gore,
Memories of the Old Plantation Home
, 152.

106    moved with Gore to what is now St. Louis's Central West End: Ibid., 156.

106    Her memoir, published as
Memories of the Old Plantation
: Ibid., 1.

106    Of Laura's three first cousins: Ibid., 152.

107    a “perfect command”: Ibid., 24.

107    Nicolas de la Salle: Hall,
Africans in Colonial Louisiana
, 57.

107    by 1800: Ibid., 279.

108    When the plantation commenced production: Laura Plantation, “5 Centuries of Habitation.”

108    Elisabeth came up with a cheaper solution: Gore,
Memories of the Old Plantation Home
, 137.

108    by the time of the Civil War: Laura Plantation, “5 Centuries of Habitation.”

109n  In her memoir Laura recounts: Gore,
Memories of the Old Plantation Home
, 78.

110    “In jou in chien acheté”: Fortier,
Louisiana Folk-tales
, 32.

110    
One day a dog
: This translation is my own, but it differs only minimally from Fortier's, found on page 33 of
Louisiana Folk-tales
.

110n  A literal modern Standard French translation: This translation is also my own, with assistance from Nadia Garrick.

111    Fortier himself acknowledges this tendency: Fortier,
Louisiana Folk-tales
, x.

112    “It is curious to see”: Ibid.

113    Indeed, after a little digging: Hall,
Africans in Colonial Louisiana
, 188.

113    As colonial records show: Brasseaux,
French, Cajun, Creole, Houma
, 12.

113    Afterward, economic and political realities: Ingersoll, “The Slave Trade and the Ethnic Diversity of Louisiana's Slave Community,” 141.

113  As documented: Hall,
Africans in Colonial Louisiana
, particularly Table 2, 60.

115  During the years of Spanish rule: Brasseaux, Fontenot, and Oubre,
Creoles of Color in the Bayou Country
, 4.

115  It was this latter route in particular: Ibid., 4.

115  Born in 1742 to the household of Louis Jucherau de St. Denis: This and other basic details of Coincoin's life are from Mills,
The Forgotten People
, 23–49.

116  Eventually she and her children: Mills, “Forgotten People of America.”

117  When I read that the name
Coincoin
: Mills,
The Forgotten People
, 3, from Mills's May 12, 1973, correspondence with Dr. Jan Vansina.

117  “The vocabulary of Louisiana Creole”: Hall,
Africans in Colonial Louisiana
, 188.

117  “so far no scholar has demonstrated”: Valdman and Klingler, “The Structure of Louisiana Creole,” 140.

119  There are legions of petty differences : Grammatical differences from Lane, “Notes on Louisiana-French,” 323–33; lexical differences from LaFleur, “Faux Amis Cadiens.”

119  The origin of the word
Acadia
: Griffiths,
From Migrant to Acadian
, 467.

119  The linguist Ingrid Neumann-Holzschuh has described this: Neumann,
Le créole de Breaux Bridge
, as summarized in Valdman and Klingler, “The Structure of Louisiana Creole,” 123.

120  By the 1840s: Estaville, “The Louisiana French Language,” 109–10.

121  A notice published in
L'Abeille
: Laura Plantation, “Slave Registry.”

121  She writes in her memoir: Gore,
Memories of the Old Plantation Home
, 33.

121  Though Louisiana had been forced: Linton, “Language Politics and Policy in the United States,” 12–13.

121  the language of “general exercises”: Louisiana Constitution of 1868, article 109.

121  illegal to pass legislation requiring the publication: Ibid., article 138.

121  the 1901 discovery of oil: Brasseaux,
French, Cajun, Creole, Houma
, 76.

122  In a 1999 article: Natsis, “Legislation and Language,” 326.

122  a student was forced to kneel on grains of corn: Yardley, “Minding Our Tongues,” from Yardley's interview with Elmo Authement.

122  This latter student: Andersson and Boyer,
Bilingual Schooling in the United States
, 2:173–74.

122  often referred to derisively: Valdman and Klingler, “The Structure of Louisiana Creole,” 110–11.

123  According to the American Community Survey: U.S. Census Bureau, 2005 American Community Survey, generated by the MLA Language Map Data Center, www.mla.org/map_data.

123  The best and most recent guess: Neumann,
Le créole de Breaux Bridge
, 20.

123  In 1969, for instance: Council for the Development of French in Louisiana, “Louisiana's French History.”

123  And in 1984: Lafayette, “États-Unis,” 41. This measure applied, specifically, to grades 4–8.

123  Leblanc's grand plan: Nadeau and Barlow,
The Story of French
, 226.

Chapter Five: South Carolina

126  “Buh Wolf and Buh Rabbit”: Jones,
Gullah Folktales
, 29.

127  “Michael Row the Boat Ashore”: Allen, Ware, and Garrison,
Slave Songs of the United States
, 23–24.

128  The
Charleston News and Courier
noted: Fordham,
True Stories of Black South Carolina
, 102.