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Marketing and University Communication UW-Green Bay, CL 815 2420 Nicolet Drive Green Bay, WI 54311-7001 (920) 465-2626 E-mail: hildebrs@uwgb.edu Last update: 10/1/07 |
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In
the News Archive - Year:
November 28, 2003 School Zone: Abbott's helping to preserve Oneida speech UWGB professor has taught the language for about 30 years By Cynthia Hodnett But Clifford Abbott's resume also includes 30 years of teaching the
Oneida language to students on campus and Oneida people off campus.
"The work that I do with the Oneidas gives me an opportunity to spend
(time in) a different world outside of academics," he said. "It's very
refreshing."
Spoken for hundreds of years, the Oneida language was nearly silenced
during the relocation of Indian tribes across the country during the 1800s
and early 1900s.
Many children were taken from reservations and placed in government
boarding schools, causing many to abandon their native tongue. Now, many
tribal members are learning the language.
Abbott, 56, said he first became interested in the Oneida language while
attending graduate school. It was there that he met a researcher who studied
the history of the language.
Some words have several different meanings, he said. Those who are fluent
in the language say the language also has more than 50 pronouns.
"The language is amazingly complex," Abbott said. "I would have sworn
that when I first studied it in graduate school that people actually studied
it at one time."
In the 1970s, Abbott worked with other tribal members with a program
developed to train Oneida teachers for jobs in local school districts
and tribal schools. His work continued into the 1990s with a group of
Oneida speakers to develop a 700- plus page Oneida language dictionary.
Abbott is currently involved in a number of projects with the tribe
including teaching a linguistics class and helping tribal members design
a program to certify Oneida language teachers.
Amelia Cornelius, a member of the Oneida Gaming Commission and former
director of the tribe's Bilingual/Bicultural Program, recalls Abbott's
work in translating stories form Oneida elders from their native tongue
into English and from English into Oneida. Many of those stories are contained
in pamphlets used in tribal schools, she said.
"His work is invaluable to us," Cornelius said. "He was a very easy
person, a very understanding person who was diligent in his work."
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