Can Online Classes During Pandemic Aid an Endangered Language?
At Seven Days by Amanda Gokee
Published Oct. 11, 2020
The pandemic has steered a lot of learning online, and language classes have been no exception. But learning an indigenous language with few native speakers left — such as Abenaki, spoken by Vermont’s original inhabitants — presents a unique challenge, and precarity is its own brand of pressure.
Language teachers hope that lessons learned during the pandemic will set them up for future success.
In the 1990s, when Jesse Bruchac was beginning to learn Abenaki, there were nearly 100 speakers within the Odanak community, an Abenaki reserve in Quebec. “Other than a very short list,” said Bruchac, “every single one of those people has passed away.”
Many indigenous languages across the continent have been eroded by efforts to assimilate indigenous people into mainstream society. That meant speaking the dominant language, English. Pressure came from outside the community and also from within, as Abenaki parents saw more opportunities for their children if they learned English.