Third Annual Powwow

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księżycowy
Third Annual Powwow

Postby księżycowy » 2013-10-13, 13:01

It's that time again! :)

If you are relatively new and have no idea what the powwow is, or what it entails I refer you to the last two threads on it:
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=35105
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=38844

This year will be a little different. We're opening up the language selections to all indiginous languages of the Americas. I also would not be opposed to opening it up further, but we'll see what interested parties say.

It will be that typical TAC like challenge. I would like to do something similar to the last two years where you can either take a story/song/dialogue and translate it, or write an original composition in your language of choice. Neither of those have to be too long, I'd like to see something longer then just 3 or 4 sentences, but it doesn't have to be longer then a good paragraph. I think this could give a good goal to strive for while studying, and hopefully motivate participants!

The Powwow starts on November 1st and goes to January 31.

Who wants to give it a go?

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hrhenry
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Re: Third Annual Powwow

Postby hrhenry » 2013-10-13, 14:12

księżycowy wrote:... I would like to do something similar to the last two years where you can either take a story/song/dialogue and translate it, or write an original composition in your language of choice. Neither of those have to be too long, I'd like to see something longer then just 3 or 4 sentences, but it doesn't have to be longer then a good paragraph. I think this could give a good goal to strive for while studying, and hopefully motivate participants!

I like the idea of writing something. I would definitely participate in that for Ojibwe.

I wonder, though - since there are so few (if any) speakers of many of these languages on the forum, how would we go about getting corrections (as anything i write would surely need some correcting)?

R.
==
See my language-learning progress at http://languagehopper.blogspot.com (focusing on Turkçe).
Other language blogs:
Ojibwemowin: http://indoojibwem.blogspot.com
Piemontèis: http://elmepiemonteis.blogspot.com

księżycowy

Re: Third Annual Powwow

Postby księżycowy » 2013-10-13, 14:23

Excellent question. We'll have to just do the best we can correcting ourselves. It's also hard given the fact that we're not all doing the same language. But in the tradition of the people that speak these languages, it's better to try then to be too scared you're doing it wrong. Most of these tribes don't have a lot of native speakers (though I think Ojibwe is pretty safe), and their speakers are trying to keep the language alive, mistakes and all. :wink:

That's also why I wanted to have the option to pick a piece of native material.



Sign-ups:
księży - still deciding :P
hrhenry - Ojibwe

Ciarán12

Re: Third Annual Powwow

Postby Ciarán12 » 2013-10-13, 14:39

I've seen this here before, but never considered it. Now I'm interested (I think it would be cool to start on a new language that I have zero familiarity with), but I have no idea what to choose. I'll look around at the resources available and see what I might be interested in going for. If anyone has any suggestions for languages that have relatively good learning materials available I'm all ears.

księżycowy

Re: Third Annual Powwow

Postby księżycowy » 2013-10-13, 14:55

I highly recommend looking around my resources threads in the NAIL and CSAIL forums for those of you that don't know what language you'd want to study. And as always, I'm here to help too. It can be hard to choose with all those languages and resources.

Let me know if you need anything Ciarán! :wink:

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hrhenry
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Re: Third Annual Powwow

Postby hrhenry » 2013-10-13, 14:58

Ciarán12 wrote:... I'll look around at the resources available and see what I might be interested in going for. If anyone has any suggestions for languages that have relatively good learning materials available I'm all ears.

I usually hate even recommending uz-translations because of all the (sometimes defunct) hoops you have to go through just to see if something's worthwhile or not, but it's a good place to start searching to see what's available for different languages, commercially or otherwise.

R.
==
See my language-learning progress at http://languagehopper.blogspot.com (focusing on Turkçe).
Other language blogs:
Ojibwemowin: http://indoojibwem.blogspot.com
Piemontèis: http://elmepiemonteis.blogspot.com

księżycowy

Re: Third Annual Powwow

Postby księżycowy » 2013-10-13, 15:04

That certainly is another possible place to get stuff. Though the times I've check on their indiginous resources, there are few textbooks or pedagogical grammars there. Not that I check very often. :whistle:

Are there any particular languages or families you're gravitated towards, Ciarán?
I can also list off some languages that have either good online resources or books if you want.

Ciarán12

Re: Third Annual Powwow

Postby Ciarán12 » 2013-10-13, 15:23

księżycowy wrote:Are there any particular languages or families you're gravitated towards, Ciarán?
I can also list off some languages that have either good online resources or books if you want.


I have very rarely thought about taking on an indigeous American language before, but now that I'm looking into it a bit the choice is mind-boggling! :shock: Basically, I want a challenge I can handle - medium to easy phonology, a decent number of resources (or at least a few good resources), and something which isn't famed for it's impossibly complex grammar. Also, are there any analytic languages you know of? I get a bit scared off when I see an entire sentence compounded into a single word :para:.

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hrhenry
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Re: Third Annual Powwow

Postby hrhenry » 2013-10-13, 15:34

Ciarán12 wrote:... Basically, I want a challenge I can handle - medium to easy phonology, a decent number of resources (or at least a few good resources), and something which isn't famed for it's impossibly complex grammar. Also, are there any analytic languages you know of? I get a bit scared off when I see an entire sentence compounded into a single word :para:.

Any of the Algonquian languages (Ojibwe is one of them, BTW) would have incredibly easy phonology for an English speaker. But there are also some really interesting western NA languages, too, although I've not really studied any of them deeply and don't know of many resources.

As to the agglutination/polysynthetic nature of a lot of these ("an entire sentence compounded into a single word"), I wouldn't be afraid. Most times, the grammar is actually much more regular than what you would find in, say, a romance or germanic language. They *are* very different though, which is what makes them so fun and interesting. :-)

EDIT: For a quick look at the staggering diversity just in North American, have a look at this map: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Langs_N.Amer.png

R.
==
Last edited by hrhenry on 2013-10-13, 15:50, edited 1 time in total.
See my language-learning progress at http://languagehopper.blogspot.com (focusing on Turkçe).
Other language blogs:
Ojibwemowin: http://indoojibwem.blogspot.com
Piemontèis: http://elmepiemonteis.blogspot.com

Bijlee

Re: Third Annual Powwow

Postby Bijlee » 2013-10-13, 15:36

I am excited now; this is such a great excuse to delve into one of my lusts.
I don't know if I want to do Creek again or try something new. There are too many options this year. :hmm:

księżycowy

Re: Third Annual Powwow

Postby księżycowy » 2013-10-13, 15:46

I would concer. It'd say that the easiest languages to pronounce and that have an "easy" grammar (for an English speaker) these are your top choices:
Lakota/Dakota
Ojibwe
Cree
Arapaho
Blackfoot
Shoshone
Nahuatl
Quechua
Aymara

Actually some of the Salish languages aren't too bad pronunciation wise either. I'm thinking mostly of Lushootseed, Shuswap and Halkomelem. I'd classify them as "medium" in pronunciation and mostly "easy" in grammar.

If you want easier pronunciation but a bit more challenge in grammar you go with the Iroquoian languages or Muscogean languages.

Most of these languages have really good resources too by the way.
For starters though, I'd look at the first group me and hrhenry suggested.

księżycowy

Re: Third Annual Powwow

Postby księżycowy » 2013-10-13, 15:50

Sign-ups:
księży - ?
hrhenry - Ojibwe
Ciarán ?
Bijlee - ?

księżycowy

Re: Third Annual Powwow

Postby księżycowy » 2013-10-13, 15:56

Bijlee wrote:I am excited now; this is such a great excuse to delve into one of my lusts.
I don't know if I want to do Creek again or try something new.

Glad to hear you're excited! :D

There are too many options this year. :hmm:

I know. I'm having trouble deciding myself. :P
I'd really like to go back to one I've already worked on, but I'm not sure.

I was thinking of Iñupiaq, Lakota or Cree. But just today I found out that the University of Texas is coming out with a new course (with DVD!) for Quechua!


Too many choices indeed. :lol:

Halfdan
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Re: Third Annual Powwow

Postby Halfdan » 2013-10-13, 16:46

I'd like to take part as well. I'll get back to you when I decide on a language. :)

księżycowy

Re: Third Annual Powwow

Postby księżycowy » 2013-10-13, 16:52

Welcome aboard!

Sign-ups:
księży - ?
hrhenry - Ojibwe
Ciarán ?
Bijlee - ?
Halfdan - ?

Патрислав Андреевич

Re: Third Annual Powwow

Postby Патрислав Андреевич » 2013-10-13, 17:26

Hey there, count me in! My language of choice would be tzotzil, if that's okay*. I've wanted to learn it for quite a time already and never had enough motivation to start. I'll try, however. Unfortunately, I will be quite busy during that time, so I'm not sure about the results of it, but hey! It'll be fun, and this is important! :D Exciting to start learning a language totally from scratch without any prior knowledge, we'll see how it goes. ;)

* Depends on the amount of people who know the language on this forum. I can also do Yucatec Maya or any other Mayan language if there are people who could correct me. :ohwell:
Last edited by Патрислав Андреевич on 2013-10-13, 17:44, edited 1 time in total.

Halfdan
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Re: Third Annual Powwow

Postby Halfdan » 2013-10-13, 17:31

Okay, I'll be doing Inuktitut.

księżycowy

Re: Third Annual Powwow

Postby księżycowy » 2013-10-13, 17:54

Great! Welcome aboard xivrox! And that's a great choice Halfdan.

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księży - ?
hrhenry - Ojibwe
Ciarán ?
Bijlee - ?
Halfdan - Inuktitut
xivrox - Mayan

Ciarán12

Re: Third Annual Powwow

Postby Ciarán12 » 2013-10-13, 18:46

I think I'm going to go with Aymara. It's got a good number of speakers, a good amount of learning material for it (even if most is in Spanish), the phonology doesn't look too crazy, and it's grammar looks interesting. Do we have any Aymara speakers/learners on the forum?

księżycowy

Re: Third Annual Powwow

Postby księżycowy » 2013-10-13, 18:58

I was learning some Aymara a few months (or maybe it was closer to a year) ago.
My main reason for stopping was the lack of an dictionary in English for Aymara. Though I am warming up to Spanish . . . .


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