Baakwinôgwzian! Dôni gedôwlôwzin? N'lewizi Chris ta nia ojihila Tilton NH basojiwi Wiwninebesaki. N'gizagakimezi N'alnôbaodwa.
Welcome to Alnôbaodwada. Come in, Sit a bit, enjoy. Let me explain a little about what this site is about and why it's here.
This site is ment to help preserve the Abenaki lauguage which is now teetering on the brink of extiction. It's loss is not immentent, but it is listed as one of the most endangered launguages on the planet. We can, with some hard work change this and bring it back to the Abenaki people. Eile Joubert has a saying on his website that I believe to some it up best "Within our language lies the secrets of our culture" I cannot agree more strongly. I've been working with the language now since about 1998, and the more I learn about it, the more I learn about our ancestors.
I want to make one thing very clear right up front, that is that I'm not teaching the Abenaki language here. I simply am not qualified to teach the language. I only put together this site because it needs to be done, I am only a assembler of the resources availible.
There are many people working towards the goal of saving the language, however, many of us are spread out across New England, and some even farther. Simple geography makes it difficult for many people to attend the few language classes or even getting together once every couple weeks to practice. This is where this site, the Internet and the E-group come into play, it allows us to get together more often or whenever we have the time to work with and use the language whenever possible.
This place has come about mainly because of two people who, will not be named here, have though their negitive attitude refused me access to resources in thier possession. The first one prefered to let the book sit on a shelf and collect dust instead of letting me even look at it because I wasn't a member of "Their" band. The second made it quite clear they thought that the idea of sharing the information in thier possession was out of the question, they used several lame excuses, which didn't hold up under they light of day. In my opinion in both instances, they were using these resources to pump up thier own ego and were playing the "I got the info and you don't, Ha Ha Ha" game. It took me a few years but I eventually got the information from other sources.
There are many resources that can help people learn the Abenaki language, if you can find them. Some of the first books date back to the 1600's. However most of these books are out of print and difficult to find, and the information can be difficult to use. Not to mention that most of the writers used their own phonetic system when writing leaving us with several spellings of the same word, like Gici, Kchi, Kitsi All of which are the same word meaning big/great. I've visited several libraries from the Maine State Library, to Rauner Special Collections Library at Dartmouth Collage, as well as visiting Odanak, in a effort to collect resources. Not everyone has the time or money to make these trips and spend hours searching for that one book hidden away on a shelf in the back, so in a effort to mke thse resources more availbe to everyone, reguardless of Band Status, I've put what I can together on this site. Amoungst the resources I havee collected, I now have almost 60 hours of recordings, mainly from the Gordon Day collection. These recordings are from his research for the Abenaki-English Dictonaries, and as I can find the time and the manner, this data will also be added to the site so everyone can use it.
One final note. This is a non-Band, Non-Political site, The language is for all Abenaki. Please help me keep it this way by checking all Band related politics at the door.
Wli dogawôgan ta oliwni,
Chris
