If you have ever attempted to learn another language, you have probably been puzzled by the idioms, colloquialisms, or metaphors in that language or its regional dialects. In the case of Wôpanâak, an agglutinative language, decoding the inherent meanings of words is a fascinating endeavor.
On July 25, Jessie Little Doe Baird (Wampanoag), shared her experience with Wôpanâak language reclamation. After 150 years of the language lying dormant as a result of colonial occupation and historical community fragmentation, Baird has worked to make language instruction sustainable and accessible in order to revive it as a living language for Wampanoag people. Using primary documents written in Wôpanâak, Baird has analyzed the grammar and produced a Wôpanâak dictionary. Additionally, she... read more