Latest news with #languagePreservation
Yahoo
11 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
Late Michif language keeper honoured with new stamp
A woman from St. Louis, Sask., credited with sharing her knowledge of her Métis culture and Michif language with generations of students and community members over her life, is being featured on a new stamp. According to Canada Post, Sophie McDougall translated books and other materials into Michif for 20 years while serving as an elder with the Prince Albert Métis Women's Association. Michif is categorized as critically endangered by UNESCO. McDougall, who died in 2023 at the age of 94, also worked with organizations in Prince Albert to document and teach the regional dialect of Michif French. She appeared in the YouTube series Métis Women Stories in her late 80s — and later contributed to the creation of the Learn Michif French app. In 2023, McDougall received the Order of Gabriel Dumont Gold Medal in recognition of her lifetime of service to the Métis of Canada. "She was our storybook," said Angela Rancourt, a Métis educator and friend of McDougall's, in an interview with Canada Post Magazine. "She was a database of all our stories." Recalling the period before the development of the app, Rancourt said they needed to find a way for families to be connected to the language. "It was Sophie who said, 'Get it on the phone, get it on their phones!'" Rancourt said. Another friend of McDougall's, Métis researcher and educator Cindy Gaudet, said McDougall was "our kinship archives." "Everyone would go to Sophie if they needed to know something," Gaudet told Canada Post Magazine. "'Are these people related, how are we related, when did the church get moved, what was going on at that time, when was that event?'" According to Canada Post, McDougall was a descendant of the original settlers of the St. Louis area, approximately 105 kilometres northeast of Saskatoon. Canada Post said the stamp features an illustration of McDougall based on a photo provided by her family. Photos of the St. Louis Parish, and the original St. Louis highway and railway bridge in her hometown, appear in the background. On a commemorative envelope that is also available, the postmark features an illustration of an old schoolhouse bell, in recognition of McDougall's years as a teacher — and the postmark location is St. Louis. Canada Post said its Indigenous Leaders series, launched in 2022, highlights the contributions of Inuit, Métis and First Nations leaders who dedicated their lives to preserving their culture and improving the quality of life of Indigenous peoples in Canada. It said this stamp is one of three Indigenous Leaders stamps that will be issued in time for this year's National Indigenous Peoples Day, which is this Saturday. The set is the fourth in Canada Post's multi-year Indigenous Leaders series. Last Friday, the stamp honouring Julia Haogak Ogina was celebrated in Ulukhaktok, N.W.T. On Thursday, the stamp recognizing Bruce Starlight was celebrated in Tsuut'ina Nation, Alta. Bronwyn Graves, Canada Post's director of stamp services, said it was the Métis National Council that suggested McDougall be honoured. "If you take a look at all of the honourees in this year's stamp series, there's a real focus on language preservation," Graves said. Graves said Canada Post recognizes how important it is to Indigenous communities to preserve their language as a means of preserving their stories and their traditional teachings. Canada Post hears from Canadians all the time who say they research someone featured on commemorative stamps if they aren't familiar with them, she said. Graves said that when the Donald Sutherland stamp came out in 2023, most people knew who he was, but there were a few who didn't, adding that perhaps younger generations learned about the late actor through that stamp. "Likewise, maybe people who are from very different communities, or who don't know their Indigenous history quite as well, may learn a little bit of something through these stamps about not just Sophie's life and contributions, but also the Métis community as a whole," Graves said. The new stamps and collectibles will be available at and select postal outlets across Canada, starting on Friday.
The Guardian
08-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘The language is part of my life': Gwenno shares songs in Cornish to inspire new generation
The Mercury prize-nominated Cornish/Welsh singer Gwenno Saunders has said that Cornish should be more widely taught to children in the far south-west of Britain to protect the language and preserve local culture. Gwenno spoke after visiting a school in the fishing village of Mevagissey on the south coast of Cornwall before a performance at the nearby Lost Gardens of Heligan. Year 5 pupils at Mevagissey community primary school joined her in singing. She covered an eclectic range of subjects, from the importance and vitality of Kernewek (Cornish) to rebellions of the 15th and 16th centuries – and cheese. Gwenno, whose parents are a Cornish poet and Welsh language activist, sings in Cornish, Welsh and English. She said: 'The children in Mevagissey weren't that familiar with the language because they don't have access to it. I think it would be really useful for it to be on the curriculum. It's really nourishing for children to learn about local heritage and history in a language that is from the place where they live. 'It's so easy in a very globalised world to feel like everything's the same and there's only one way of doing things. Having local strains of history and language and accents gives you a sense of place and sense of community and creativity.' Gwenno was nominated for the Mercury prize in 2022 for her acclaimed third record, the Cornish-language Tresor. She is appearing at the Heligan Homecoming festival on Thursday 19 June as part of a lineup of artists, comedians and thinkers exploring the themes of home and belonging. She last performed a gig in Cornwall at the Minack theatre in 2023. Among the songs Gwenno performed for the children in Mevagissey was Den Heb Taves, meaning 'a tongueless man'. Gwenno said: 'It's about losing your language and how that contributes towards losing your grounding and your footing.' She also spoke to the children of the Cornish rebellion of 1497, partly a response to hardship caused by the raising of taxes by Henry VII to go to war, and the Prayer Book Rebellion of 1549. 'Children love those sorts of really deep, dark, big ideas,' Gwenno said. 'I think that when you go into school and you're having a conversation it's really important to try and push it emotionally and intellectually. 'Often people think: 'Oh well, we've lost our language because it wasn't important or it was irrelevant' and actually, so often it's systematic and it's structural why a language dies or almost dies.' She said she wanted to convey to the children that Cornish was an integral part of her life. 'The language is something that's part of my life and part of my home life and I think if a language comes from that I think it has a real chance to thrive.' Cornwall council believes there are about 500 advanced Cornish speakers and 2,000 with basic levels of Cornish. It has designed a free initiative called Go Cornish for Primary Schools to promote the language and culture. It says Cornish culture is 'thriving' with more people getting involved with programmes and events celebrating Cornish food, heritage, sports and music. Gwenno also sang a rousing song with the Mevagissey children about cheese called Eus Keus? (Is There Cheese?). 'I thought we should probably lighten it. The thing about any language or culture is that you've got to find the absurd in it and the humour. It's really cathartic to shout about cheese. It was fun to do. I'll be singing that till I'm 90 if I'm still here.' The Heligan Homecoming festival takes place on selected dates between 13 and 22 June 13. For details go to
NHK
30-05-2025
- General
- NHK
Young people breathe new life into Shanghai dialect
Fewer people are speaking Shanghai's dialect. Young language learners and a university's AI model are helping to preserve and carry on the region's unique tongue.
Washington Post
24-05-2025
- General
- Washington Post
Only 900 speakers of the Sanna language remain. Now Cyprus' Maronites are mounting a comeback
KORMAKITIS, Cyprus — Ash dangled precariously from Iosif Skordis' cigarette as he reminisced with fellow villagers in a language on the edge of extinction, one that partly traces its roots to the language Jesus Christ once spoke. The 97-year-old Skordis is one of only 900 people in the world who speak Cypriot Maronite Arabic, or Sanna. Today, his village of Kormakitis is the last bastion of a language once spoken by tens of thousands of people across dozens of villages.
Washington Post
12-05-2025
- Washington Post
After 250 years, we don't need an ‘official language'
Ross Perlin is a linguist, translator and author of 'Language City: The Fight to Preserve Endangered Mother Tongues in New York.' To hear what this land really sounds like, go to Hilo on the Big Island of Hawai'i and Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe reservation in northwest Wisconsin. Go to Mashpee on Cape Cod, Diné College in Arizona and Alaska's Kuskokwim River. Then go to cities such as New York, Los Angeles and Houston.
