Any Native-American language speakers here?

[Guest member25959]

Does anyone here speak any Native American languages, first or second language? They are the rarest languages these days :o I would be suprised if I got any responses to this question.

[osito]

Back in the fall of 2007 we had a member here who inquired whether anyone else spoke Chinook:

http://www.asexuality.org/en/index.php?showtopic=25717

Mayan languages are Native American, just not North American. I speak, and have taught, Yucatec Maya and have studied other Mayan languages.

But if you are inquiring about North American indigenous lanuages, I agree that it will be very interesting to see who responds. How about yourself?

[Pentachromacy]

Unangan.

[Jillianimal]

I'm not :( I kinda tried to learn some sioux/lakota language, at least some of it. Didn't get far though. Don't even remember some of the words -.-

[Hees]

I'm currently learning nawatl (aztec), but like they wrote it around the time of the spanish conquest. Next year I'm going to study maya hieroglyphs, but I guess none of this really counts as speaking 'native american'... :)

[Guest FrozenCherry]

No, just couple of single words like wakalapi :lol: Take a :cake: with it.. Some more? :cake: :cake: :P

*flies away looking for Peter Pan who with to play*

[allieg]

I took two years of Navajo in college. Unfortunately, I've gotten rather rusty of late but I'd like to get back into the habit of practicing. It's just hard to find people to practice with.

[bristrek]

I don't speak any, and I'm a Brit (well, living and born here) but I'm curious about that too. And it is a shame they're so rare, it's sad when any language starts to dwindle and stops being taught and learnt by its people and those who are interested in languages.

Over here we do have a few languages native to the British Isles besides English, and I don't just mean Welsh. But they're so rarely spoken, some have died out. Cornish is right on that line between dead/living - though that's the least of the problems facing the Cornish. And it's sad, some people take the view that if a language dies out it dies out and that's that but.... language is language.

Language is a way to express yourself, describe the world and put dreams into something more solid ponderings. What language you speak, the languages you know, that you can and do think in no doubt contribute into how you see the world too. They're a part of a culture that acts as a line between the now and all the centuries and millenia before when it was spoken and evolved. When any one dwindles down it is a sad, sad thing.

So I hope there's more than a few speaker of Native American (North/Central/South Americas) on here and out there in the real world I hope more people learn them.

But hey, Welsh was slowly dying out but it has turned the corner and is growing again over here - so it isn't impossible for a group/language to do it. Hope your languages can too.

So here's a question people - in those Native American languages you know, and I might do a post on this on its own - how do you say 'Hello. Would you like some cake?'

Sadly I only speak English and a few words of German. And, er, sorry for just jumping in like this.

[allieg]

So here's a question people - in those Native American languages you know, and I might do a post on this on its own - how do you say 'Hello. Would you like some cake?'

Sadly I only speak English and a few words of German. And, er, sorry for just jumping in like this.

I don't know about "would you like some cake, but in Navajo you would usually say "Yá'át'ééh" for "hello" :)