Jesuit Missionaries Kept Huron Language Alive

Four hundred years ago, roughly 35,000 people living between Lake Simcoe and Georgian Bay spoke Huron. By the 20th century, however, the French language and diseases had silenced it.

Fortunately, (neat link) Jesuit missionaries kept copious lexicons of Huron words and phrases. And now members of the Huron-Wendat nation, with help from a $1-million grant and Laval University, are working on dictionaries and course materials with the goal of creating an entire school curriculum. "We know it will never be a first language," says Isabelle Picard, who's heading up the program. "We're aiming for Huron as a second language."

Why bother, then, if the language can never come back fully? "When you are a native without language, you are without culture," Ms. Picard says. "The way that Huron words are built, we can actually learn what our ancestors were thinking." Linda Elliott offers her students much the same explanation, but with an example. She tells them that the word celanen — the total body of knowledge passed down to young people — has no English equivalent. "Within language, there is a whole world view," Ms. Elliott says. "When we don't pass that on to our children, our young people get lost and society breaks down."

Link to the full article (here)