Excerpt from my final paper “Relationships with Indigenous Languages: How to Maintain Cultural and Self-Identity in an “English-Washed” World?” An excerpt from that is:
“Learning the Grammar of Animacy by Kimmerer explains the tremendous struggle that an Indigenous person like herself has to deal with in efforts to preserve her ancestral language. Kimmerer feels a sense of responsibility in keeping the Potawatomi language alive, and through her desire to simply learn the language, she encounters a whole new understanding of why she felt so disconnected from her ancestor’s way of life. The power of context, cultural values, and beliefs that are expressed through language can be missed if the language in and of itself is not understood. The futile struggle of knowing that she has no one to practice speaking to in her everyday life could become too discouraging. However, her Potawatomi language teacher reassures her and “thanks us every time a word is spoken—thanks us for breathing life into the language, even if we only speak a single word”(Kimmerer, 53). Kimmerer’s intentions were good, hoping to do her part to learn the language of Potawatomi, which was virtually wiped out due to settler colonialism and leaves only nine people in the world today who speak it fluently. Nevertheless, an essential point is revealed, which can be picked up within the previous quote, is that the language is alive. She realized the disconnect between herself and learning the language because she was so in tune with the way English is conceptualized that she was missing the cultural and more profound meaning behind this Indigenous language. The “…grammar of animacy”, as she described, is her way of reconnecting on a much deeper level with her language. Furthermore, she expresses that it “… could lead us to whole new ways of living in the world, other species a sovereign people, a world with a democracy of species, not a tyranny of one”(Kimmerer, 57-8). Through one experience, we see just how isolated and disconnected an individual could feel from something that so many of us take for granted, language.”
