TWO LINGUISTS STAND AS LAST BASTION OF FADING CALIFORNIA LANGUAGE
27 July 2004

MotherJones reports this month that the 82-year-old linguist, William Shipley, is one of the last handful of speakers of Mountain Maidu, a language spoken by aboriginal Californians. He is passing his knowledge of the language to a young "protégé", who is actually of Maidu descent and seeks to return the language to use among his people. The language is a complex language beyond the reach of many Indo-European language-speakers, and has the distinction of being "polysynthetic" or "agglutinating", replacing long sentences with single words appended by a long chain of suffixes.

LANGUAGES ENDANGERED WORLDWIDE As many as half of all known languages may die out during the next century, along with vital language-specific concepts, philosophies and solutions. [Full Story]

Maym Benner Gallagher, half-Dutch and then a youngish 62, taught Shipley the language 50 years ago. Maym Gallagher had spoken Maidu with her mother throughout her life, and during a couple of summers, she forged a close friendship with the linguist in which they deliberately and conversationally deepened his understanding of the Maidu language and culture.

Shipley has devoted many years of his life to the study and propagation of knowledge about Maidu. According to Dashka Slater's report, "He developed a system for writing the language and has published a grammar, a dictionary, and a lyrical translation of Maidu myths and stories. He is now one of the last living speakers of the language, and he sometimes worries that there is no one left among the tribe who can teach it with Gallagher's level of particularity and care."

Now, it is Gallagher's grandson, Kenny Holbrook, who is assisting William Shipley in documenting his knowledge of the language and preparing a campaign to re-introduce the language to a population that is largely forgotten by those around it, and whose roots may vanish with the language if it can't be saved. [For more: MotherJones]