Language Trainers Blog

The first Inuit Bible is to be published in Canada. It has taken 34 years for a team of Inuk Anglican ministers to translate the text into Inuktitut.

A statement from the Canadian Bible Society, which launched the project in association with the Anglican church, says:

“For the first time in Canada, the entire translation was done by mother tongue speakers of the language rather than by missionaries.”

A lot of words could not be translated at all, as there is no Inuktitut equivalent. Words such as “camel” and “pomegranate” remain in English. Where the Bible refers to different species of tree, the generic term for “tree” was used in Inuktitut. Reverend Canon Jonas Allooloo, one of the translators, explains,

“It’s just like you have one word for snow but we have many words for snow.”

He added that the most difficult words were “peace” and “grace.” These concepts have no Inuit equivalent terms. Instead, translators had to convey the meaning using more liberal translation.

Whilst the New Testament, which was completed by the Inuk translators first, was published in 1992; the complete edition will be launched officially in a ceremony next month at the igloo shaped St. Jude’s Anglican Cathedral in the capital of Nunavut, Iqaluit.

Maori TV are to re-launch a dedicated 100% te reo Maori channel, which is called Te Reo. From Monday 16 April, the channel’s weekday broadcast hours will be begin at 4.30pm, rather than 7pm, as it is at the moment. Te Reo’s weekend broadcast schedule will run from 7.00pm to 11.00pm.

The channel will primarily contain programming for children.

Korero Mai was the main language teaching programme to be aired on Maori TV, but the channel will be launching a new live daily Maori language show.

Te Reo is available only on digital and can be accessed via Freeview Satellite channel 24 and SKY channel 59.

Low levels of vitamin D in pregnant women have been found to be linked to difficulty in language development in children, say Australian scientists at the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research in Perth.

Researchers tested vitamin D concentrations of more than 700 pregnant Caucasian women, and conducted follow-ups until each child was 17. The most significant language impairment was seen in children aged between 5 and 10 years. Language development impairment which continued into primary school years affected 6 per cent of Australian children.

Lead author of the study, Associate Professor Andrew Whitehouse, said “the developing baby is completely reliant on the mother for its vitamin D levels and what we have shown is that this might have an impact on the child’s brain development.”

The main source of vitamin D is direct sunlight.

The new research was published in Pediatrics journal.

New Zealand’s Maori Language Week will be celebrating its’ 25th anniversary this year with the theme of Arohatia te Reo (cherish the language.) The celebration will be held from 23-29th July.

The Maori Language Commission’s Chief Executive, Glenis Philip-Barbara, said “whether you’re a priest, a business executive, a Mum, a student or a fire-fighter, or anything else for that matter – you’ll be able to identify with this theme and find a way to express your love for the language.”

The theme of 2011 was hospitality, which was apt as the country hosted the Rugby World Cup.

School principal Patrick Tangaere recently wrote a cheque as payment to a McDonalds in Gisborne, New Zealand. What’s special about that, I hear you cry. Well, the cheque was written in te reo Maori, and was queried by restaurant manager Leah Hepi.

Mr Tangaere’s argument was that Maori is an official language of New Zealand, and as such, cheques written in Maori should be accepted as legal tender.

Ms Hepi’s response was that she had never come across a cheque written in Maori before, so had it authenticated by the bank over the phone.

Read the whole story here.

Whilst I can see both sides of the story here, it does raise a few issues. (Aside from the school principal taking pupils to eat at McDonalds on a school trip)

As Maori is a national language, and whilst cheques are still legal tender, all retailers must be made aware that they may come across tender in Maori as well as English. However, as cheques are no longer a regular form of payment, could the issue have been avoided altogether?

Deputy Opposition Leader Julie Bishop has proposed a new plan to ensure Australian school children will be bilingual. She told Sky News that “it should be an Asian language. I wouldn’t necessarily say it has to be Mandarin. Japanese, Indonesian – there are a number of Asian languages that would be important.”

Bishop believes that the proposal would help increase career opportunities for future generations, and help Australia engage with the region.

She suggests the plan to be put into place before the next federal election.

This years’ Maori Language Awards ceremony was held on Friday night at the Energy and Events Centre in Rotorua.

27 finalists were shortlisted to compete for awards in 12 categories, including education, government and broadcasting. Each finalist had to incorporate the theme of manaakitanga (hospitality) into their respective entries.

Reo advocate Dr. Te Huirangi Waikerepuru was awarded the Supreme Award, Taku Toa Takimano; the award to recognise an individual’s contribution to the language. Dr. Waikerepuru is renowned for his campaign to ensure the survival of te reo Maori.

Other winners included the Department of Corrections, for helping contribute to the regeneration of the language in the prison system.

It’s a widely-spread notion that children are much better than adults at picking up new languages, because their brains are easier to rewire, and they don’t have to learn consciously. This is only partially true. Adults are actually much better at learning and retaining language-related information than children, as a recent study has shown. 8-year-olds, 12-year-olds, and adults were shown a new rule in a made up language, although this rule was never stated explicitly. Adults were shown to have the best retention rate of this information following the original exposure.

If you think about it, children take years and years to master a language and be able to speak it at an adult level. Older children and adults can become conversational in a foreign language within a year, if they try hard enough. The difference is that kids don’t have to think about it so much. If an adult were put into the same situation as a child learning its first language (totally immersed, with multiple repetitions of new words, and no other major tasks to complete), they would develop new language skills much faster than children.

What’s the take-home message? You’re never too old! And sometimes, older is better!

It’s Maori Language Week in New Zealand and the New Zealand Herald is running daily quizzes to see how good your te reo Maori (Maori language) skills are.

Try your hand at the greetings quiz, or the food and drink quiz. I did better at the food and drink, but those tend to be the things I learn first in new languages!

Keep an eye on the Herald site to get more quizzes throughout the week.

The theme for this year’s Maori Language Week is Manaakitanga, which is a concept that includes both making others feel welcome, and showing respect for those who are welcoming us. You can find out more about Manaakitanga on the Korero Maori site, and as part of the 100 Maori words every New Zealander should know.