Native-American Indian Language Preservation

Item Details

wrappers

Two unique works on Native-American linguistics: 1) TEWA Reading Book, Randall Spears (Espanola, NM), published in a limited issue of 300 copies by the Summer Institute of Linguistics (Santa Ana, CA), 1968. Near Fine; 2) Bibliography of the Iroquoian Languages by James Constantine Pilling (Washington, D. C.: Government Printing Office, 1888).

1) is an introductory guide, designed for young children, to reading & writing Tewa, one of five of the vanishing Tanoan languages spoken by the Native American Pueblo people of New Mexico who inhabit the pueblos of San Juan, Santa Clara, San Ildefonso, Nambe, Pojaque, & Tesque, New Mexico. Initially identified by Spanish settlers in the early 1600s, the population on the pueblos & Hopi reservation in NM has stayed between 2000-4000 persons, but the number of Tewa speakers has fallen to barely 1000. This booklet was part of an educational effort in the 1970s to preserve the Tewa language & heritage, a task picked up in the 21^st century by a team at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, who created TewaTalk, an app & website designed to attract younger users. 

It is a small 8vo in 38 pages, 2-staple binding, yellow wrappers with black design & lettering to front & back covers. Condition is Near Fine: small price in pen & former owner’s stamp to front cover, date stamp inside front cover, heavily tanned pages that are completely unmarked. Light soil to exterior surface.

Initially accompanied by a workbook (not present here), the booklet covers vowel & consonant sounds, along with guides to high & low tones, diacritical marks, syllabic combinations, & regional differences in pronunciation. Illustrated throughout with line drawings.

2) Third in a series of bibliographies on native North American languages published by the new (?) Smithsonian Institution’s Bureau of Ethnology. The Preface reports on the debate concerning whether the Cherokee language could be considered part of the Iroquoian one; it was decided affirmatively, & its literature has been incorporated here.  Arranged alphabetically, it contains 949 titular entries, 795 relating to printed books & articles 7 154 to manuscripts. 208 pp. 2-staple binding. Condition is Fair: spine covering (word) nearly completely gone, with heavy chipping, creasing, loss to extremities. Back cover & last few pages detached, with edges grown ragged. The interior is very clean, with pages showing mild tanning, but still supple & completely unmarked.