The world of linguistics

The Brazilian church's commitment to help indigenous peoples revitalize their languages is an exciting new way of doing mission

By Fr. Ron MacDonell, S.F.M.
June 2007

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The hot glare of the mid-afternoon Amazon sun beat down on us as Francisco, the school director, guided our 10 metre, 40 horsepower motored canoe to the riverbank. After setting out early that morning we had arrived at the Kokama indigenous community of Sapotal on the Alto Solimoes River, which is the start of the Mighty Amazon.

As the canoe banked, we stumbled ashore, stretching our legs: Raimunda, a Brazilian lay missionary belonging to CIMI (the Brazilian Bishops' Indigenist Missionary Council); Silvia, an Austrian lay missionary; Ignacio, a Kokama teacher from Peru; the school director Francisco; his two elderly aunts, Dona Maria and Dona Angela; and a few other members of the Sapotal community who were returning from the city. The villagers made their way to their homes. We, the visitors went to the schoolhouse, a long building with a veranda and four large classrooms. The rooms were in disrepair: fallen doors, beat-up wooden desks, and gaping holes in the floors. Mosquitoes abounded, even in daylight. We set up our hammocks with mosquito netting and made our way to the main classroom.

The Kokama people no longer speak their language and Francisco and other village leaders had invited us to give a weeklong course in the revitalization of the Kokama language. In the late afternoon, the ringing of a piece of iron that served as a bell summoned the people. Soon about 35 children, youth and adults crowded into the classroom with notebooks and pens, ready to write. During the introductions, several people expressed their hope for the course. Those most concerned were the Kokama teachers. They desired to learn their language in order to teach it in their schools. They hoped that the children would develop a stronger sense of their Kokama identity by learning their language.

"We are native people, but we no longer speak our language, Kokama," one teacher said. "We want to learn our language and have our children learn it, along with our other customs."

"The Tikuna people across the river, they speak their language, but we speak only Portuguese. When we go to regional assemblies of native peoples, almost all the other peoples speak their languages. But we don't! We feel ashamed!"

The weeklong course we implemented included several components. Ignacio gave instruction in words and expressions, and their correct pronunciation. Dona Maria and Dona Angela helped with pronunciation and told stories about Kokama traditions. My part was to explain grammatical points. I had read through a Kokama grammar book, and obtained a Kokama-Spanish dictionary for reference. My professional linguistic training enabled me to have a quick overview of the main grammatical features of the language, and so I was able to explain basic points. For example, Kokama is unusual among languages in that men's speech and women's speech differ. For the word "here," men say ikiaka, and women say aranga. To say "I am going" men say utsu, but women say tsutsu.

This gender-differentiated way of speaking intrigued the Kokama people greatly, and we had a lot of fun practicing simple dialogues in Kokama. Much laughter was generated when someone made a mistake, for example when a man said a woman's word, or a woman said a man's word. But people persevered, and by the end of the week, many could carry out simple conversations. All finished the course intent on pursuing the teaching and learning of their language.

Doomed to disappear

The situation of the Kokama people is not uncommon. There are 180 native peoples in Brazil, with a total population of about 750,000. Most of the native groups have fewer than 400 members. The languages of such groups are doomed to disappear. Linguists estimate that there are approximately 5,000 languages spoken in the world, and in this century, 90 percent of our languages will die. By the year 2100, only 500 languages will be spoken in the world. This is an immense cultural and human loss.

It is to offset such language death that programs of language revitalization have been implemented in many parts of the world. The Brazilian Church has taken on this mission to help native peoples recuperate and revitalize their languages. As part of this mission, I did postgraduate studies in linguistics in order to obtain professional skills.

Definitions of a linguist

There are two definitions of a linguist. One definition refers to a person who speaks more than one language. Thus, any bilingual person is a linguist. In fact, 70 percent of the world's population speaks two or more languages.

The other definition of "linguist" refers to someone who does academic training and research in the science of linguistics. As a linguist missioner, I work in both the theoretical and applied aspects of linguistics. I have been invited to give courses in linguistic analysis to native language teachers mainly in the Diocese of Roraima, northern Brazil, where I share life with the Makuxi and the Wapichana peoples and carry out pastoral work. Many of the native teachers apply their knowledge in the production of school materials. I have also been invited to give courses in basic linguistics to other missioners. In February 2006, 21 other missioners who work with seven different language groups in the Amazon area participated in a weeklong course on language-learning methodologies.

In the area of applied linguistics, I was involved in two interesting projects in recent years. One was the creation of radio programs in Makuxi and Wapichana for Roraima Diocese FM radio station. Working with teachers from the Indigenous Teachers' Organization of Roraima, we developed 15-minute lessons, "Let's Learn Makuxi" and "Let's Learn Wapichana", intended for native people who want to learn their own language. The programs air daily, and the very fact that native languages are on the radio gives them official recognition and lends them prestige. The Makuxi program first aired in November 2004 and the Wapichana program in July 2005. Funding for developing these programs comes in large part from you, our Scarboro Missions benefactors. With your donations, we are able to cover food and transportation costs for our meetings, and buy computer material to do our recording, as well as making a small contribution for studio time at the radio. Our own labour is given free because of our belief in the indigenous cause.

Another important project was the publication of the third edition of the Makuxi-Portuguese dictionary. Native language teachers and church catechists worked together for two years to revise the 1996 edition, as all 1,500 copies of this edition had been distributed. The dictionary also includes a brief grammar of the Makuxi language and 15 lessons. We obtained a small projects grant of $16,000 from the Canadian government through the Canadian Embassy in Brasilia to publish 3,300 copies of the third edition. The dictionary will be used by native teachers to promote literacy in the schools, and is one way that the Church and the school are collaborating in the revitalization of native languages. We are grateful for donations we receive from you.

Much work yet needs to be done to develop materials in the revitalization of native languages. In Roraima Diocese, the Makuxi people number 15,000 and the Wapichana people 6,000. The languages of these peoples have a good chance of survival if native speakers and those of us who are their allies work at creating educational materials such as dictionaries, schoolbooks and radio programs. We need also to build speakers' self-esteem about using their languages, so that native young people will not only speak the national language, Portuguese, but will also have pride in knowing the language of their ancestors.

As a mission priest, I have discovered an exciting new means of doing mission through the linguistics work of helping native peoples revitalize their languages and providing other missioners with tools for language learning. Two biblical images come to mind. The first image is of the Tower of Babel from the book of Genesis. Humans were scattered across the face of the earth with many different languages, incomprehensible to one another, and nations were alienated. The second image comes from the New Testament, from the Acts of the Apostles. On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit gave people the "gift of tongues." Even though they spoke different languages, they understood one another. This was God's gift to the new church: unity through diversity, speaking different languages but having the spirit to work at understanding one another.

Today our Church seeks the same dream. We wish to preserve and value each and every language of the earth, and defend those languages whose speakers are not numerous, such as the Kokama, the Makuxi and the Wapichana of Brazil. We hope to keep as many languages alive as possible, as each cultural expression is a unique and mysterious manifestation of God's creation. With the help of the Holy Spirit, we believe that the language of love will always make unity through diversity possible and enable us to build a peaceful world.

Fr. Ron MacDonell serves as linguistic assessor for the Indigenous Education Nucleus in Roraima, Northern Brazil, helping native peoples revitalize their languages.

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