Language Jam July 2019 - Indigenous languages

I am participating in the Indigenous Language Jam. I was given Cherokee or Tsalagi to learn. I am kind of sour to myself because I didn't choose out "foreign" letters... but - it's just to learn.

So... what should I learn...
the 65 first words and phrases to learn

Today, Friday, I am supposed to learn all the letters, the numbers and all the sentences on Omniglot.

Tomorrow I'll learn 1000 words. I'll name things around me. Hmm...
On Sunday I'll learn another 1000 words.

Wikipedia Cherokee

Cracking the code to speak Cherokee

Cherokee words

Cherokee Dictionary

Cherokee course

Cherokee language lessons on YouTube

 Cherokee

Cherokee language

Saturday 27th of July

I found a Cherokee language course on Mango Languages!

So... I didn't learn the alphabet, the numbers nor the sentences... *blush*
Well... I have excuses. A lot of excuses. But none of them is really interesting. I didn't need to go anywhere or do anything else, I just procrastinated and avoided studying.

Anyway, this is my first language jam, and I AM learning things :-)
I am learning things outside language, as well, and what I learn makes me so angry. :-( I feel powerless and angry and I hate certain people.

But, I am also falling in love with the people and the language and want to know more. I don't think this stops here.

Your grandmother's Cherokee

Cherokee syllabary 

Cherokee syllabary practice printout

Let's Talk Cherokee; YouTube playlist 1-3 Cherokee

Let's Talk Cherokee

 Cherokee Reader Book One

ᏑᎵ ᎠᏓ ᎠᎵ ᎩᏟ
suli ada ali gitli
buzzard - wood - sweat - dog

ᏑᏓᎵ ᎢᎾᏓ ᎠᏑᎶ ᎶᎶ
sudali inada asulo lolo
six - snake - pants - locust

ᏌᎶᎵ ᏌᏌ ᎠᎵ ᏌᎵ
saloli sasa ali sali
squirrel - goose - sweat - persimmon

cherokee foods; they ate a lot of corn, squash and beans, wild onions, eggs, fish, deer, turkey. And, of course, persimmons. When the Europeans introduced pigs, that became very popular very quickly. There's a lot of things baked of cornmeal. A lot of stews and such.

Sunday, 28/7

I got into an argument with someone and no language studies were made. Basically. I did in my 200 points of Duolingo, and I continued with my Cherokee letters or syllables, but that's it.

I am not happy with my language jam. :-(
But I am happy with Cherokee. Definitely continuing with my studies there.

week 6: Syriac / Aramaic

I live in Sweden's "Little Assyria" or what you might call it. It is because of this I find it hard to motivate me to study this language...you see, my experience of the people speaking this language has not been very positive. In fact, it has been very negative. It is hard to remember that you can't judge a whole people by what some of its members do, not even a person by some of his opinions... might be that these people would be nice if I knew them, but by what I have experienced, I don't want to...

Nevertheless...

I tried to find the numbers in Syriac... If I have decided to study this language, if not for any other reason, then to understand what the people around me are saying, I need to start somewhere, and alphabet and numbers is what I have decided to start with... It was really hard to find any information about Syriac... I found this. "Welcome to the Assyrian Aramaic language website". The first two levels are about reading the language. Then there's some grammar. And more grammar. Lesson 120 gives you some dialogue... good.

Ashur: May your morning be blessed
Sargon: Blessed and blessed
Ashur:     May God strengthen you
Sargon:  May God protect you
Ashur: Peace to you
Sargon: 'Welcome' In tranquility and in peace
Ashur: I rejoiced a lot by seeing you. How are you?
Sargon: Thank to the Lord, I am healthy and well. Please come and eat with us.
Ashur:  Thanks a lot for your intimacy. I ate before coming to your visit. If you please, give me only a cup of cold water or a cup of juice if possible
Sargon: Enjoy it my friend. Should I fill another cup for you?
Ashur:  No, one cup is enough for me. Thank you, and remain in peace 'farewell'
Sargon: Go in peace and greet your parents

Huh? Do they really speak like that? Really?

After a heavy dose of more grammar comes some reading exercises. Fairytales, legends, proverbs, Bible passages...

The numbers are taught with examples like "one goat, two cows, three sparrows... " I don't know about you, but goats and cows are few in our urban area... Is this even a living language?

In the "Syriac dictionary in four languages", there is no computer, television, trousers, skirt, shirt, coffee, tea, cow, fox, jump, football/soccer... (that's really, really, really important here where I live)

The thing is that a language won't survive unless you speak it and use it and let it live, evolve, change, and adapt to the surroundings. You can't teach Syriac as a viable language by quoting the Bible and talking about goats and olives. There are not that many of either in Sweden today...  just as little as you can teach Sámi as a viable language by speaking about Sameting and reindeers. (There is some 100.000 Syriac speakers in Sweden... more than Sámi speakers... in the world.)

"World's many languages are dying out - can we stop it?"

Native speaker = the carrier of language. The people who learned the language as second language are not carriers of language.

Here's a discussion in a language learners' forum about "most overrated language".
English, definitely. Any language with more than 100 million speakers. (all users included, native and not - which then includes both German, French and Malay)
Most underrated - any language with less than million speakers. All endangered, dying and dead languages.

Makes me think that perhaps I shouldn't be focusing on European languages so much... at least not the thriving ones. There are 108 endangered or extinct languages in Europe... enough material for two years :-D I might be doing this long time.

But then there is the reason I study languages... they don't write fantasy books for kids in Gothic. There are very few blogs in Lombardian, and not much information about things I'm interested in in Illyrian... Sure, I could learn Cuman to chat about weather in the internet, but... I don't chat. I don't do smalltalk. I don't even know what to write in Lang8!

On the other hand... what would I gain if I decided to live a year like Meshcheras and bring their language to the modern day following the Icelanding and Ivrit example? What would be written in that language? What inventions and discoveries died with it? We'll never know... at least not as long as they haven't invented time travel.

So - I will give Syriac a change and try to get over my fear and prejudices... after all, what do I know? Nothing.

P.S. To find more information, you might want to look also at Assyrian and Suryoyo. There's quite a lot at YouTube.