3 Language Revitalization Movements

[@lingking5882]

When I was in high school, we had a substitute teacher who was native Hawaiian, and she talked about how hard it was for her to learn to speak english, since there were so many sound she didn't have in her native language! Her accent was so interesting, cool lady.

[@CheLanguages]

Really?! A native Hawaiian speaker, not many of those exist, that's awesome. Maybe she also spoke Hawaiian Pidgin, which might be why she had an interesting accent...

[@Rabid_Nationalist]

Manchu AND Ainu in one video? Fucking awesome! Love the content you're doing

[@CheLanguages]

I'm glad you enjoyed the video, thank you for your kind comment!

[@thedemongodvlogs7671]

What I always find hilarious, is how the Latin and the Manchu scripts both descend from the same ancestor (paleo-hebrew/phonecian).

[@CheLanguages]

Most scripts do! I made an entire video on it long ago, though the video is currently private. Basically, most scripts are either Egyptian or Chinese derived (remember that Phoenician is derived from Egyptian hieroglyphs)

[@CheLanguages]

What language is your favorite? Be sure to check out the Manchu/Sibe website in the description!

[@QuandaleDingleGoofyAhh123]

Sibe/Manchu is probably my favorite here

[@grzegorzbrzeczyszczykiewicz991]

Ainu always, I hope it is successful

[@CheLanguages]

@@grzegorzbrzeczyszczykiewicz991 so do I

[@CheLanguages]

@@QuandaleDingleGoofyAhh123 I think it's my favorite too

[@Rabid_Nationalist]

Definitely Ainu.

[@AvrahamYairStern]

Ooo I'm already looking forward to this one!

[@CheLanguages]

I hope you enjoy it!

[@grzegorzbrzeczyszczykiewicz991]

Me too

[@grzegorzbrzeczyszczykiewicz991]

Ainu is heavily underrated, great video!

[@CheLanguages]

It is indeed, thank you for your comment!

[@Rabid_Nationalist]

Yeah. It really is. All dialects are tho Hokkaido Ainu is most known

[@kave1445]

Thank you for talking about Manchu. I’ve been learning this language for a year and it’s very rewarding. So sorry if I ramble about it for a while :D Despite its small user-base there is wealth of literature written in Manchu and as a historian it has provided me with tons of under used source material as well. The script is also simply beautiful. Btw, you might know this already but the similarity to Arabic is far from incidental, as it’s ultimately derived from the Aramaic script, which was a semitic abjad. Also, it’s great that you pointed to Sibe based resources as well. Unfortunately, much of Manchu language teaching today doesn’t utilize Sibe all that much and there seem to be more resources teaching the literary language. It should be noted that Manchu, while it was still the official language of the Qing, had a heavy case of diglossia, i.e. the spoken dialects were essentially different languages from the written from, sort of like Arabic or how Classical Chinese relates to the modern Sinitic languages. Unfortunately, much instruction geared towards academics and heritage speaker mostly teaches literary Manchu without the colloquial varieties, which is sort of understable since there just much more resources for that, especially if you don’t speak Mandarin. Sibe speakers also tend to not identify as Manchu for a set of understandable historical and political reasons, so they also view their language as a different thing even through written Sibe and Manchu are essentially identical and even the spoken varieties are very close, despite some divergence over the last few hundred years.

[@CheLanguages]

Yes, I should have mentioned the Diglossia! Literary Manchu contains lots from Peking Mandarin, being spoken where the head of the Qing government was (and modern government still is if you recognize communist China). Also I mentioned in the comments of my community post where the script comes from, I forgot to add it in the video itself. It comes from Mongolian, which comes from Uyghur, which comes from Sogdian, which comes from Iranic scripts, which comes from Aramaic, which comes from Phoenician, which comes from Proto-Siniatic and in turn from Egyptian Hieroglyphs, where most of today's modern scripts find their ultimate origin. It's interesting that you've been learning Manchu, maybe Kodner's resources might help you, unless they are too basic for you now (considering where a year of study may have gotten you). I hope your studies go well and maybe you could be vital in the revitalization someday!

[@kave1445]

@@CheLanguages Thanks for your kind words, I hope be able contribute something to the Manchu revitalization effort some day. One correction through, the Peking dialect of Manchu and the the literary language are 2 seperate things. As you said, Manchu as it was spoken in Peking was heavily influenced by spoken Mandarin. The written language was much more conservative, which I guess is almost a language universal. Written Manchu had a relatively small amount of direct Chinese loans, e.g. "Taifin" for peace or "Sy" for Buddhist temple. However, there was a strong sense of language purism, often directly enforced by the emperos, that led to most concepts from Chinese being expressed through calques made up from Tungusic words or older Mongolian loans in writting. Anyway, you seem to know much about the history of semetic scripts than I do. It's always fascinating to me that the alphabet/abjad essentially just got invented once and spread all the from Europe to Manchuria and Southeast Asia from just one source. As for Kodner's site, it's pretty useful, especially the audio records. Since I live in Europe, I don't really have access to Manchu/SIbe native speakers.

[@CheLanguages]

@@kave1445 Kodner's site is the only Manchu/Sibe resource with audio recordings included! I said the Peking dialect if Mandarin, not the spoken Manchu dialect there. But yes, I know that the spoken and written languages were very different. I didn't know that they coined their own terms using Tungusic roots though, that's really surprising for China (at least back then). Thank you for your interesting comment!!!

[@מ.מ-ה9ד]

Japan is way more nationalistic than it seem from a first glance. We all know how horrific it has been during the early 20th century, but it many ways, Japan is still a direct successor of that empire. Unlike Germany, Japan did not went under similar process like the denazification because of cold war interests. To this day, Japan does not recognize the many ethnic genocides it did. That is also why, despite being close economic and political allies, Japan and South Korea does not get along very well.

[@CheLanguages]

This is true, though there are many things I like about Japan, I do think it's honestly disgusting that they were never held accountable for their numerous crimes. The same can be said for other countries, like Turkiye and the United States

[@מ.מ-ה9ד]

@@CheLanguages At least in the US there is awareness

[@CheLanguages]

@@מ.מ-ה9ד at least that, but there should be more

[@lordmeow]

Adding on to this, Japan has actually threatened withdrawing economic cooperation with the Philippines a few years back because of a comfort women's memorial. It said that it does not recognize the horrors the memorial was honoring as it's fault. Its really messed up

[@TheKalihiMan]

One of the most humbling experiences is learning the Hawaiian language for years as a university student only for a Pūnana Leo kid half your age to run linguistic circles around you. As a side note, I think most people in Hawaiʻi have the ability to learn Hawaiian even without a formal education because our local creole language (most people refer to it as Pidgin) derives much of its grammar directly from the Hawaiian language. Sadly, there are still people today who view learning it as a waste of time or deride those who attended immersion school as poorly educated.

[@CheLanguages]

I heard about Hawaiian pidgin before too. I hope Hawaiian makes a comeback, it really adds to the culture, and it certainly is making it's way back well now

[@TheKalihiMan]

@@CheLanguages One of the things we pride ourselves on is diversity, and ironically enough Hawaiʻi is also a hotbed for another endangered language (Okinawan). Because the mass immigration to Hawaiʻi following US occupation began when Japanese rule in the Ryukyu Islands was relatively recent, Japanese and Okinawan migrants maintained a distinct identity that has persisted into the modern day.

[@CheLanguages]

@@TheKalihiMan really? I had no clue Okinawan was also spoken in Hawai'i?! That's awesome, I might have to mention that at some point

[@TheKalihiMan]

@@CheLanguages It’s mainly spoken by the older generation who are sadly disappearing, but the Okinawan language and identity is definitely stronger in Hawaiʻi than in other places. It’s also a general trend among all languages in Hawaiʻi that the older generations didn’t pass it to their children due to the US occupation government implementing an English-only education policy. Of course this has been reversed in recent years but the linguistic and cultural damage has already been done.

[@CheLanguages]

@@TheKalihiMan sadly that is the case in many places. I hope to see some sort of Okinawan revitalization too, otherwise it will go the same way as Ainu...

[@gazoontight]

Great video. Keep them coming!

[@CheLanguages]

Thank you as always!!!

[@lastsecondshot5779]

Another very interesting video! It's very encouraging to see how revitalization efforts can be successful. I would love to hear your perspective on the the Irish language and the state of its revitalization movement if you haven't touched on that before

[@CheLanguages]

I have talked about Irish (see my DNA test results video) but not talked about it's revitalization. Simply put, I think they're doing a terrible job. In 100 years, the goal to bring back Irish has not gone very well. It's ironic that Ireland still speaks the language of their historic occupier they hate so much. It would be akin to Israelis speaking Arabic and not being able to successfully bring back Hebrew with only a small portion of their population speaking it as a second language. Ireland really need to get serious with their Irish revitalization!!

[@benjaminklass5118]

@@CheLanguages I'd say an even better comparison would be Israelis speaking German, which Theodor Herzl proposed. Israel's detractors would have a field day with that.

[@CheLanguages]

@@benjaminklass5118 did he plan German or Yiddish? Yiddish would make more sense, but I know Hertzl himself wrote in German (Der Judenstaat for example). I have heard this fact before but didn't quite believe it, and yes, anti-Semites would love to criticize Israel on that one if it happened!

[@CheLanguages]

@@benjaminklass5118 I said Arabic because for centuries, the Land of Israel has been occupied by them, though they now try to claim the victim status ironically. Alas, I would rather stay away from politics at this time, just language!

[@benjaminklass5118]

@@CheLanguages understood

[@dalubwikaan161]

I like the story (a bit). I hope they continue the process

[@CheLanguages]

For which language?

[@dalubwikaan161]

@@CheLanguages Hawai'ian

[@CheLanguages]

@@dalubwikaan161 yeah, it's a nice language

[@dalubwikaan161]

@@CheLanguages It is close to my native tongue(Tagalog) and I get it really fast. It is my faves

[@Artur_M.]

I had no idea that Manchu was so endangered. But my favorite out of these languages is the Ainu, not only because I like Golden Kamuy. BTW, have you heard about Bronisław Piłsudski?

[@CheLanguages]

Ah cool, I like Ainu too. I nie, co to jest Bronisław Piłsudski?

[@Artur_M.]

@Che Languages An ethnographer who studied the Ainu language and culture, as he lived on Sakhalin in the years 1891-1903, including actually recording spoken Ainu and songs on wax cylinders. He also had kids with an Ainu woman named Chushamma, and they have 8 known currently living descendants in Japan. Bronisław found himself first in Siberia and later on Sakhalin due to being involved in an anti-Tsarist conspiracy (as you do), the same one that got the older brother of Lenin executed. Bronisław himself had a famous younger brother - Józef Piłsudski, whom historian Joshua D. Zimmerman calls in the title of his newest biography; "Founding Father of Modern Poland". Small word, eh?

[@CheLanguages]

@@Artur_M. How interesting. Even more interesting considering that is now the one of the two Ainu languages to go extinct

[@typhoon2minerva]

How about the celtic language revival from manx to scotish gaelic and kornish also breton

[@CheLanguages]

I've already talked about them in another video

[@CheLanguages]

That video being "3 Revived Languages"

[@stephentaylor2119]

Ainu is a beautiful melodious language.

[@CheLanguages]

It certainly is!

[@oyoo3323]

Ðe gap between ðe number of Manchu speakers versus ðe actual number of Manchus has always struck me as just mind-boggling. Of ðe original "five races" (in reference to ðe Chinese concept from ðe early Republic days; Han, Tibetan, Uyghur, Manchu and Mongol) Machu has had by far ðe shortest straw drawn since ðe PRC came to power.

[@CheLanguages]

I've heard about the "Five Races" policy in the Republic of China, it's ironic considering modern communist China who have almost the exact opposite policy. I really hope Tibet and Inner Mongolia will be free someday soon before their culture and language is also wiped out

[@oyoo3323]

@@CheLanguages wið Inner Mongolia, it's actually more for ðe sake of Outer Mongolia ðan Inner Mongolia ðat ðey should reunify. I'm not sure if you're aware of it, but Mongolia is now one of ðe poorest countries of all, and ðe capital is one of ðe most polluted cities on Earþ (ðough due to coal, not oðer fossil fuels). Ðis is less to do wið poor management, and more wið just how poor ðe land itself is, ðey hardly have any good resources, good farmland, have experienced devastating winters, and to boot it all, ðey aren't just landlocked, but landlocked between ðeir two worst enemies, boþ of which have huge influence over ðem as a result. And as it happens, Inner Mongolia, ðe part China kept, is ðe part of Mongolia rich wið resources which Mongolia needs, and will keep struggling to survive wiðout (unless ðeir neighbours suddenly become very friendly (in a non manipulative way)).

[@CheLanguages]

@@oyoo3323 that's really interesting and I didn't know about that. I did know that Ulaanbataar or however it is spelt is considered THE MOST polluted city on Earth, but I didn't know how poor they were. Hopefully they'll regain Inner Mongolia

[@oyoo3323]

@@CheLanguages only in winter ðough. Ulaanbaatar (or Ulan Bator (both correct)) still heavily relies on coal for keeping warmth in winter, so much so, ðat its air in winter causes children (especially babies) to struggle to survives due to poisoning, resulting in one of ðe highest child mortality rates in East Asia. By ðe time or summer ðough, it is much more livable since ðe need for coal largely disappears.

[@CheLanguages]

@@oyoo3323 really?! I didn't know that, that's awful

[@thomasruhm1677]

Imagine they could teach these languages to a language model.

[@CheLanguages]

What do you mean exactly?

[@thomasruhm1677]

@@CheLanguages These are programs which produce texts if you ask them to. You can type in a question, and it will send you a few sentences. So far it works for some widespread languages. I tried it for English, German, and Italian. And it worked well.

[@ShadowTiger88]

Drops Languages actually has Ainu, so you can learn some words in the language.

[@CheLanguages]

I'm not familiar with Drops Languages, what is it?

[@justakathings]

@@CheLanguages it’s an app! only vocabulary is taught on it but I think it’s a good start to learn some common everyday words

[@Account_abandoned-q7m]

Hawaiian is one of my favorite languages, a great language with amazing history and unfortunaly recieving the same fate as alot of Celtic languages. But extremely happy it's being revitalized!

[@CheLanguages]

It's a really fun language, I enjoyed learning some on Duolingo a couple of years ago

[@Account_abandoned-q7m]

@@CheLanguages I focused more on Navajo and Gaelic Scottish than Hawaiian, but I did some lessons in Hawaiian and it sounded amazing

[@CheLanguages]

@@Account_abandoned-q7m ooo I've never checked out Navajo on Duolingo, what do you think?

[@Account_abandoned-q7m]

@@CheLanguages it's quite the interessing language, with a pronouciation a bit hard but it's duable

[@CheLanguages]

@@Account_abandoned-q7m hmm, would you recommend it or is it better to just stick with other languages?

[@alyaly2355]

When will you talk about the langues d’oïl? If you want more information on them, ask me.

[@CheLanguages]

Forgotten Romance Languages Part 5....

[@CheLanguages]

What information do you have on the langues d'oïl?

[@alyaly2355]

@@CheLanguages what kind of information do you need?

[@alyaly2355]

@@CheLanguages Basically, most of France is divided into 3 language groups: The Langues d’oïl, which includes French, The langues d’oc which are the Occitan languages and finally the Arpitan languages. Of course there are other languages in mainland France that aren’t a part of these languages groups like Catalan, Basque, Lorain Franconian and Breton. The langues d’oïl are very closely related and very mutually intelligible. They form a dialect continuum. The most prominent members are: French, Picard, the Norman languages, Walloon, Angevin, Sarthois, Gallo, Poitevin, Saintongeais and Bourguignon. Of course there are others like Berrichon, Tourangeau, Orléanais, Bourbonnais, Brionnais-Charolais, Mayennais, etc. Here is a song in Tourangeau kzbin.info/www/bejne/lXeVnIlvfsd-oaM Fun Fact: Jersey, Guernsey and Sark all have their own langues d’oïl. Jersey having Jérriais, Guernsey having Guernésiais and Sark having Sarkese. There are efforts to promote the use of these languages and they are taught in schools.

[@CheLanguages]

@@alyaly2355 well when I make my part 5 video, I'd like to talk about Jérrais and Guernésiais and maybe Norman French

[@theidioticbgilson1466]

really? of all the pictures of manchuria you used a map of japanese manchukuo? lol sorry

[@CheLanguages]

LOL, it was the only map I could find of "Manchuria" and not the modern provinces that replaced it or maps taken from Paradox Games. I know it seems a bit counter to the point, but the maps I found weren't all too good, plus it fit with the historical narrative I gave afterwards

[@TaeKinzel]

Personally, I am a huge support of the cherokee revitalization

[@CheLanguages]

That's cool, do you speak it at all?

[@TaeKinzel]

@@CheLanguages No, but i try to learn There are very little resources to learn however I know a friend who speaks cherokee

[@CheLanguages]

@@TaeKinzel That's a start! Keep at it, I hope it goes well! Also it has a cool script

[@Fritz999]

My wife is of Manchu descent and from Jilin province in China. What language does she speak? Only Mandarin.

[@CheLanguages]

Maybe in a few years she will also learn Manchu if everything goes well

[@Fritz999]

So the Manchu language has almost completely vanished. I never encountered it in my travels.

[@Fritz999]

I forgot to mention: Jilin is the historical home of the Manchu people. What I hear a lot in Jilin City, is Korean.

[@ngumzakwanza8495]

KIKONGO?

[@CheLanguages]

I'll look into it

[@aaronblygh4719]

Doesn't the Chinese government run programmes to help teach people Manchurian? There's university courses on the language, and even government ran websites that teach the language.

[@CheLanguages]

Not any proper education, but some small courses to basically use as propaganda and say they are still protecting it. It's like when they changed the law in Inner Mongolia so that the Mongolian language can only be written in traditional Mongolian script, it was a political stunt to make it look like they're doing something good when actually the opposite is happening to these languages sadly

[@jonaw.2153]

Wait, Manchu is being revitalized? Moreover, it was in need of revitalization?!

[@lingking5882]

China gonna china... Edit: and it also sounds like Japan gonna Japan!

[@CheLanguages]

Japan has Japan'd quite a bit in history, and China (Western Taiwan) will continue to China as long as no one sticks up to them!

[@CheLanguages]

It is indeed, hopefully it will actually go well this time

[@jonaw.2153]

@@CheLanguages I now want to see Manchuria happen before I die

[@CheLanguages]

@@jonaw.2153 Are you referring to an independent Manchuria?

[@borisbukalov9407]

4:25 You took a position on a territorial dispute over Southern Kuril Islands marking them as Japanese. Mr. Putin may beg to differ. They have been under Soviet/Russian control since 1945.

[@CheLanguages]

I know they have a dispute over islands, but isn't this the recognized border? Sorry if I got it wrong. As for Putin, he can go and stick his border disputes where the sun doesn't shine (and I'm not talking about Russian Siberia)

[@borisbukalov9407]

@@CheLanguages I agree with you regarding Putin, but the internationally recognized borders still include Southern Kuril Islands in Russia. Japan has a claim for some of them.

[@CheLanguages]

@@borisbukalov9407 I'll have to look more on it, border disputes interest me

[@borisbukalov9407]

@@CheLanguages Take a look at this: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuril_Islands_dispute

[@CheLanguages]

@@borisbukalov9407 Thank you, most interesting. I always love learning about what countries believe what land is theirs, even only tiny border disputes, and what claim they make for it being theirs too. It's just fascinating to me!

[@mollof7893]

I know about every language here

[@CheLanguages]

That's cool

[@CheLanguages]

And which do you like the most?

[@ThiccPhoenix]

🦅🦅🦅🦅🦅

[@CheLanguages]

נשר

[@ThiccPhoenix]

@@CheLanguages Sí 🦅🦅🦅

[@CheLanguages]

@@ThiccPhoenix what is your obsession with Eagles may I ask, does it have something to do with your culture?

[@ThiccPhoenix]

@@CheLanguages Bald eagles are my favorite animal 🦅 and they’re the national bird of my favorite country 🇺🇸. (Which is where I want to live one day)

[@CheLanguages]

@@ThiccPhoenix where do you live right now?

[@Coteoki]

Ainu deserves better

[@CheLanguages]

It certainly does!

[@princekrazie]

Dear Che, please don't use the occupied Manchukuo flag because it is fascist.

[@CheLanguages]

When I made this video, I didn't realize it was the occupational flag. I just searched up "Manchu flag". Sorry

[@silverstar8868]

Common China L

[@CheLanguages]

Chad

[@calumpatrick319]

Do you know if their is much of a Yaghan revival movement?

[@CheLanguages]

I do not, let me look into it

[@CheLanguages]

From what I've just read, since the death of the last native speaker in February of this year (2022), nothing has really happened yet to bring it back sadly

[@calumpatrick319]

@@CheLanguages Oh right that is unfortunate, thanks for researching though.

[@CheLanguages]

@@calumpatrick319 no problem! Like any language, I hope that it once again returns