Surviving Sounds of Haida

[@Melodyktn]

Rest in peace Erma, so sad to learn that another of our great ladies passed away Feb 2, 2011 at 98. I also miss my Mother in Law Harriet, who is also in this video and has passed on. It's hard to see the elders leaving us.

[@Melodyktn]

Thank you so much to the producers of this video. It's so wonderful to see and hear my mother-in-law's voice again. I watch this from time to time. Miss you Harriet.

[@WZZUcruu]

Nani was the most wonderful woman in this World. I will miss her dearly and feel blessed that she was in my life.

[@jarblewarble]

Some words in Haida are surprisingly similar to Mongolian, but this may be a coincidence. The word for language is "Kil" in Haida, which is the same as "khel" in Mongolian and "kieli" in Finnish. "You" in English is "dang" in Haida, which is "ta" in Mongolian. "Me" in English is "di" in Haidi and "bi" in Mongolian.

[@LunarDelta]

I first heard this in the language example module in Encarta Encyclopedia and always found it incredibly interesting. What a shame it's dying out. :(

[@KryssLaBryn]

Thanks so much for sharing this video! I'm so glad to hear that they're trying to document and pass on these languages while there's still time; that we tried to wipe out their culture is a stain on our souls that will last for a very long time. One note on the subtitles at 4:18 (if you have any control over them): It's "oolican" grease (aka "candlefish," a small very fatty fish from the Skeena River area, where I grew up), not "hooligan". ;-)

[@Melodyktn]

I enjoyed watching this again. I really miss Harriet, and I've always loved Erma's singing. Lee Kadinger at the college told me in April that they were getting ready to print a Haida dictionary. I'd think it would be done by now possibly. So glad that they are doing that.

[@indigenous31617]

My intelligent neice recently found out we are of Haida descent on my dad's side. She found dna matches with our cousins. We are trying to figure who was adopted out. It looks like my dad. What a great heritage. The dear ladies in the video are so sweet. May the Lord continue to bless Haidi Gwiii and its peoples. The Haida rendition of How Great Thou Art is beautiful. PTL!!!

[@dot23X]

This is unique and so touching - I hope the language can survive for future generations to learn its songs and stories

[@crystalsuch]

Háw'aa for posting this. It's hard to learn when I am far from home. More please!!

[@uphamtimothy]

"Sanu dang giidang" -- "Greetings" in Northern Haida. "San uu dang giidang." -- "Greetings" in Southern Haida.

[@Aritul]

What a gem of a video! Thank you for sharing it.

[@fsa369]

There can be no a doubt that Haida language must be the most difficult language to learn... It's really fascinating the sounds that they can do! Only natives may pronouce those words!

[@sazji]

Anyone can learn if they start young. Kids are programmed to learn language. It gets harder as we get older, especially after the age of 14. Of course some people hold onto that ability longer and it can be kept alive longer with practice.

[@Melodyktn]

Nice to see this on here and see so many familiar faces

[@MichaelBrueckner]

Native American languages seem to be very consonant-based with very little vowel usage. An even stranger example of this is the Nuxalk language, which builds sentences like this: K'khlhlhthscwslhkhwthlhlhts (IPA: [kʼxɬɬtʰsxʷsɬχʷtʰɬɬt͡s]), which means 'You had seen that I had gone through a duct'. The "missing vowels" are compensated by complex ways of using the mouth organ as a pipe, passing air alongside the tounge, for example. My hope is that Americans (Canadians, US-Americans including Central and Southern ones) can revive the cultural values of endangered languages.

[@tizianodematteis7071]

+Michael Brueckner I have been interested in them for the last years and I can say that is not true for all of them. For what concerns some, you are ertainly right, but some others use a much smaller consonat-vowel ratio, like the Arapaho language, for example.

[@isabellafelipedeoliveiraca6698]

Native North American languages, you mean. Here in South America we have native languages that are almost only vowels, like the Tupian languages. (ok, not only, but with a good vowel-consonant ratio that sometimes tends more to having more vowels)

[@yadielnieves2894]

Yeah, Arawak Language speaker and we love our vowels. Historians noted that are language is the sweetest having little with consonant clusters and rich in vowels. Obviously, others have more vowels but point proven.

[@sazji]

Michael Brueckner Many do have some complex consonant clusters; there are also vowels that aren’t written because they are “reduced” vowels. But the voice is working so technically there is a vowel there.

[@gayvideos3808]

It's only languages from the pacific northwest that have lots of consonant clusters, not "native american languages" in general

[@sazji]

This generation was the object of a genocide. Those teachers put negative emotions into their heads about their own language. I wish parents had fought back against this but were probably dealing with enough difficulty themselves and didn’t really know how to, and the ones whose kids were taken to boarding schools likely would have faced legal issues if they’d refused anyway. These people deserve any assistance they can get in rebuilding their culture and language.

[@KryssLaBryn]

@neomp5 The canoes are certainly up to it, and it's possible to travel over staying near the coast all the way along, as the Norse did, which means you don't have to bring along so many supplies. Makes the logistics simpler. That would be totally cool if it turned out to be true! :-)

[@BJAT-sl5xo]

What a beautiful language is about to disappear...

[@TheMysteriisfrog]

2088 BJAT if we do nothing, we can record their language, with today digital age...before they disappear

[@BJAT-sl5xo]

That's right.. I love languages and i will like to learn this language, it sounds so beautiful...

[@liaskil]

Actually it's being revitalized.

[@cindywagner4623]

So beautiful to see our matriarchs again. Such prideful knowledgeable women.

[@neomp5]

only after coming across the land bridge from siberia, descending from central asia and eventually back to africa like everyone else.

[@KryssLaBryn]

@richardsonl91 That's fabulous to hear! :D

[@louiss1625]

Let us heed the words of these people, charged with the remnants of a time of balance, before our earth was killed

[@FifthCoast]

The remark that Erma made at the end of the beginning interaction sounded exactly like "оканчиваться" in Russian...?

[@nathanpiazza9644]

"Their intentions were good"

[@dalkay]

Very interesting

[@KasaanHaida]

Yes, she is.

[@dinnae]

I remember first hearing this language on Encarta Encyclopedia '95. It's a shame most native American languages are on the verge of extinction.

[@baganscissors7224]

powerful

[@neomp5]

i was just reading an article theorising that haida sailers (rowwers?) may have travelled to hawaii, and then southeast asia, and been the origin of polynesian culture, which reached to new zealand and even reached south america. might be a connection with the ainu in japan as well. there was even a suggestion that they might have reached norway from southeast asia. it's possible that the haida circumnavigated the world before any other group.

[@Buscurtains]

Haida sounds VERY difficult to speak. Isnt "hansem goo" a part of number 9?? or sumtin...

[@TheErrio]

@joeyates11 On which website do you go for haida lessons?

[@iscaylis]

I want to know what the grammar is like (order of verbs/adjectives/nouns, prepositions), is it similar to sign language, or is there a complex system that is similar to English or other languages?

[@tizianodematteis7071]

+iscaylis Actually Native-American languages tend to be very very complex, sometimes more than the European ones.

[@BrennenKing-d5w]

Tiziano de matteis Haida makes a sentence in to one word with lots of inflection and agglutination

[@tizianodematteis7071]

125 125 It is very common throughout the Americas!

[@LeaD2000]

There are no adjectives in Haida. When in english you use an adjective, in Haida you’d translate it by saying a verb. Like, istead of saying “he is good”, you’d say “he goods”. It’s a verb.

[@KasaanHaida]

@gorkiisnear Editing System = Final Cut Pro

[@neomp5]

@KryssLaBryn here's the page: users.on. net/~mkfenn/ page3.htm

[@HAIDARAVEN]

me too

[@BrennenKing-d5w]

HAIDARAVEN hello how has your life been

[@kitsilanoband]

In '77 the title Tgaa Kuum X'nangs, Nux Skidegate, across from the Eagles of Naikoon, God's wife from 1965, to Kitsilano. Mayan predict the end of time for 2012, signalling the higher prophecy of Matthew 24, the shortening of the time by God's promised return.. Haida are first on Earth, in right of inheritance of the Female Entitlement, the Dene are second, and the Kitksan are the Kgekatl, the third Title in the Male. See KZbin video; God is a rolling stone

[@raven3886]

Those who speak if this or any indigenous language as dead or dying do a grave disservice to those who are working hard to not only conserve and protect these languages and cultures but to revitalize them. Please don't speak like the anthropologists of old who went out to 'document dying cultures' before they disappeared but instead appreciate the resilience of humans and their cultures to survive in the worst of adversity.

[@neomp5]

1: if you actually read darwin's book, he doesn't talk about human ancestry at all 2: have you heard of the human genome project? they've mapped human DNA and traced it geographically. 3: even if you wanted to go by the biblical account, you'd still be stuck with all human beings spreading out from the area near africa, the only difference being that they'd be the decendants of noah and only a couple thousand years ago.

[@alejandroto3094]

Why don't the Haida people speak their language?

[@Salvus967]

is there no documentaries on haida history??????????? how come noone is trying to preserve there tribal history in the form of documantaries????? noone will remember ur people if you do not write down there history and make it available.

[@Fnidner]

That would be totally arbitrary, since Icelandic is a germanic language. Maybe someone who was fluent in icelandic would find it funny you think so (:

[@Fufski]

Sounds a bit like icelandic language...maybe this is because they ancestor has something to do?

[@ygg69]

I knew it, Darwin's bogus ideology ... never mind

[@ggman69]

Some sounds are like German

[@ygg69]

... so they descend from apes, cause Darwin says it, is that your point ?

[@haidacudemos]

My name is Haida.