4/9/2023 0 Comments Mit linguistThe language reclamation process has been profoundly rewarding for her. “I have to remember that everyone knows nothing, and to keep in mind different learning styles, learning disabilities, literacy issues in English - some people don’t know a noun from a verb - and to make sure that everyone is always respected in the process.” Now in her third year of classes, both in Mashpee and on Martha’s Vineyard, Fermino has taught about 75 people, ages 14 to 78. Since she graduated, Fermino has devoted herself primarily to teaching members of her tribe. Each language has something beautiful to bring to the story of human language.” Professor Hale is thrilled, not only because “Jessie is the right person to do this and has done extremely well,” but because “the loss of a language is like the loss of the Louvre. How many MIT professors are fiddle players, speak dozens of languages and work to ensure that indigenous people work on behalf of their own people?” LIKE LOSS OF THE LOUVREĪfter completing her fellowship, Fermino continued at MIT with graduate studies in linguistics she received her MA in 2000. He knew I would have to apologize (and was making it easy for me),” says Fermino, adding that Hale “is one of the most incredible people I have ever met. I want to apologize for my smug behavior (at the tribal meeting). “When I walked into his office, he said, ‘Where have you been? I’ve been waiting for you. Her first lesson at MIT, she says, “was eating crow” – meeting with her tutor, Kenneth Hale. Serendipitously, an application to a one-year fellowship with MIT’s Community Fellows Program arrived at the Mashpee Tribal Council. I was terrible.”ĭespite that inauspicious beginning, Fermino and Hale were to meet again. I had enough knowledge to be sassy and dangerous whenever he used a non-Wampanoag sound. “Here was this white guy, with his wife sitting in the corner knitting. “One of the ground rules of tribal meetings is that no outsider can be present, unless everyone agrees,” says Fermino, adding that someone had forgotten to inform the Mashpee of Hale’s invitation. ![]() Kenneth Hale, an MIT professor of linguistics and philosophy who has been working on endangered languages for nearly 50 years, was invited to a tribal meeting involving the Mashpee and the Aquinnah. Tribal members began to explore primary documents, but quickly realized they needed the guidance of a linguist. The community’s interest in reviving Wampanoag was high. Not to acknowledge a part of you is breaking a spiritual law.” “Language is part of us and part of our genetic structure. “The task I was given by my ancestors was to see if the people wanted this language reclamation project,” she says. But proceeding as if by a calling, she conducted a language survey among the Mashpee, a Cape Cod tribe numbering about 1,200, and the Aquinnah, another Wampanoag tribe, to find out if her people were interested in reviving the language. Though she perused thousands of words, she was unable to locate the two in her dream. James Bible, distinguished by being the first complete bible printed in the Western hemisphere. Then a social worker and mother of five, Fermino searched for months through hundreds of documents from the 1600s written in Wampanoag - letters, deeds, and the St. ![]() Wondering if the words were Wampanoag, the language of her ancestors, she began an exploration that led her to a number of linguistic firsts, including launching the Wampanoag Dictionary Project, formulating a Wampanoag grammar, developing a Wampanoag language curriculum, teaching the language to tribal members, and being one of a handful of people in the past 150 years able to speak the native tongue. Two words, which she didn’t understand, stuck with her. ![]() ![]() Fermino, a 37-year-old Mashpee Indian living on Cape Cod, saw in her recurring dream a circle of faces, clearly Mashpee Indian in character, singing. Eight years ago, Jessie “Little Doe” Fermino had the same, unintelligible dream three nights in a row.
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