Huron Language
Posted by Bill Molesworth
Jamie Hunter advised us that this is museum month and as he has a burning desire to celebrate it he had invited John Stekkley to speak at the museum and to Rotary on The Words of the Huron.
John said he'd been teaching at Humber College for 30 years, concentrating on Aboriginal Languages. He's been studying the Huron Culture through 'linguistic archeology'. He said his parents were terminaly overjoyed when they found out he was pursuing a career in a dead language, but he hopes to see it survive. In his third year of study he learned some Ojibway and found that language is close to the soul of the people who speak it. There is more written in Huron than in any other aboriginal language - there are manuscripts from the 17th and 18th Centuries and some wonderful dictionaries - probably the best produced up to that time. These are amazing sources for study.
John feels language is the best teacher and that, even though as he grows older he wonders about the choices he's made, he feels confident that his have generally been good ones. He's found the study fulfilling.
He cited some misunderstandings of how names are arrived at, saying that respect for a heritage comes from knowing something about it. Niagara, for instance, does not mean the falls, it means 'nape of a neck' or the land that is cut off by the river. Toronto is widely understood to mean 'meeting place' but in fact it is 'poles that cross water'.
Clan and family was of ultimate importance to the Huron and it shows up in the language. It is how they defined themselves. In 1638 a group living east of Niagara, the Wenrow, found themselves in dangerous propinquity to the Iroquois and 600 refugees, mostly women and children, moved to this area. John found a reference in one of his records mentioning that 'when they were small, the clan made them grandchildren'. Other references to the Turtle clan convinced him that Huron from here went down there, a dangerous trip, and guided these people back here because they were all part of the same clan, one of the first instances of Midland area family values on record.
Aboriginal cultures show great respect for elders, which is also reflected in the language. In Indo-European languages, the noun is pre-eminent but in Huron it's the verb and for kinship terms and even for animal names, the language expresses a relationship, as in 'she is mother to you' or 'he is father to us'. Putting the listener first is an act of respect.
John is trying to bring the language back through his students and through work with some aboriginals. He feels his work can help a little with giving some first nation people some of their identity.
John feels language is the best teacher and that, even though as he grows older he wonders about the choices he's made, he feels confident that his have generally been good ones. He's found the study fulfilling.
He cited some misunderstandings of how names are arrived at, saying that respect for a heritage comes from knowing something about it. Niagara, for instance, does not mean the falls, it means 'nape of a neck' or the land that is cut off by the river. Toronto is widely understood to mean 'meeting place' but in fact it is 'poles that cross water'.
Clan and family was of ultimate importance to the Huron and it shows up in the language. It is how they defined themselves. In 1638 a group living east of Niagara, the Wenrow, found themselves in dangerous propinquity to the Iroquois and 600 refugees, mostly women and children, moved to this area. John found a reference in one of his records mentioning that 'when they were small, the clan made them grandchildren'. Other references to the Turtle clan convinced him that Huron from here went down there, a dangerous trip, and guided these people back here because they were all part of the same clan, one of the first instances of Midland area family values on record.
Aboriginal cultures show great respect for elders, which is also reflected in the language. In Indo-European languages, the noun is pre-eminent but in Huron it's the verb and for kinship terms and even for animal names, the language expresses a relationship, as in 'she is mother to you' or 'he is father to us'. Putting the listener first is an act of respect.
John is trying to bring the language back through his students and through work with some aboriginals. He feels his work can help a little with giving some first nation people some of their identity.