IN THEIR OWN WORDS
Three speakers of endangered languages shared words or phrases in their mother tongue with the Endangered Languages Alliance of Toronto
Paolo Frasca, Santanofrese, Italy
Phrase: Frunda di papapicastru, curteju catanzarricastru. Nta nu pignateju novu, pocu pipi capi.
Meaning: A Santanofrese tonguetwister — leafy branch of a tree; knife that comes from nearby town Catanzaro; not a lot of pepper fits in a terracotta pot.
Paolo Frasca, 24, speaks Santanofrese, named after the town in the South of Italy he grew up in, Santanofria, and a variety of the Calabrese language. Frasca moved to Canada with his family when he was 13. He estimates about 2,000 people speak it outside of the town of 3,000 , but says the fluency among people his age is decreasing at a rate of 30 per cent, according to his research at the University of Toronto’s department of Italian studies.
Abdullah Sherif, Harari, Ethiopia
Phrase: Assaalmu alaykum. Sume Abdullah inta. Geysinan Asinakh.
Meaning: “Hi, my name is Abdullah, and I speak Harari.”
Abdullah Sherif came to Canada when he was 7 and continues to speak his mother tongue, Harari, an endangered ethnic language in Ethiopia. He believes a little more than 2,000 people speak the language in Toronto and about 25,000 still speak it in Ethiopia. Most also speak the country’s regional Amharic language.
Maya Chacaby, Anishinaabemowin, Ojibwe First Nation Phrase: Gidibentamowinaanan
Meaning: This is the closest thing to the word “ownership,” which does not exist as a concept for Ojibwe people — “it means inheritance, it also is the foundation of our concept of self-governance.”
Maya Chacaby, 39, grew up in Red Rock Indian Band, an Ojibwe First Nation in Northwestern Ontario. She took on learning her mother’s native tongue after being homeless for 10 years in and around Toronto.
She says learning it gave her a sense of identity. She now teaches it in a case study at York University’s Glendon campus. There were 24,025 Anishinaabemowin speakers in 2006, according to census figures, and 19,275 in 2009.