Using Qʷi·qʷi·diččaq ‘Makah’ in our community: A dialogue approach for adult learners
Date
2020-06-22
Authors
Pascua, Maria Hita·ʔa·ʔoƛ
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Abstract
The Makah Tribe in Neah Bay, Washington, began the Makah Language Program (MLP)
in 1978 as Qʷi·qʷi·diččaq 'speaking Makah' (or the 'Makah language'), which is an
endangered language. Most of the MLP efforts focus on school age students although
there are adult materials available and periodic adult classes offered. The goal of this
project was to provide additional support for adult learners by creating Qʷi·qʷi·diččaq
dialogues that occur in common places in the community, involve typical activities, and
include Makah cultural views and traditional teachings. The Makah concept hi·dasubač
or 'traditional preparation,' a Makah perspective of learning and practicing in order to
accomplish an objective, was used as the methodology for this project; hi·dasubač
involves mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual aspects of preparation, and advice on
its application is included at the beginning of each of the 10 dialogues. Besides focusing
on local context and activities, including cultural information, the dialogues were
designed to sustain back and forth conversation and provide ways to extend the
dialogue through word replacement. It is hoped that the dialogue template and design
principles created in this project can be helpful in other contexts of Indigenous
Language Revitalization, especially those which need additional support for adult
language learners.
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Keywords
language revitalization, Makah language, cultural views, traditional teachings, hi·dasubač