Living Our Language_ Ojibwe Tales & Oral Histories - Anton Treuer [5]
From Oral Tradition to Written Text:
Recording, Transcribing, and Translating
Oral tradition is meant to be handed down through the spoken word. Maintaining strong oral traditions is a top priority for the survival of Ojibwe language and culture. This book is not intended to substitute written stories for oral tradition or spoken language. Rather, it is a tool that language students and teachers can use to augment their spoken instruction and recorded tapes. Textualizing the language is a necessary step to developing an Ojibwe language literature, allowing us both to preserve the language and to teach it. Furthermore, in producing books like this one, the contributing elders can reach Ojibwe people in urban areas and other communities they would not otherwise be able to reach. The written text before you is meant to assist in the preservation of spoken Ojibwe and the oral tradition. It never could nor should replace any part of the vocalized word or its usage.
Over the past several years, I have visited numerous Ojibwe elders from Minnesota and Wisconsin as a part of my efforts to learn more about Ojibwe language and culture, as well as for the simple joys of visiting. Eventually, I recorded some of those elders on cassette. Usually, we would sit at their kitchen tables, or sometimes in their living rooms. I only recorded elders when they were both willing to participate and comfortable with the idea. Sometimes I recorded stories at language camps or other events, but for the most part recordings took place in the speakers’ homes.
After recording the stories, I brought the tapes to my home near Cass Lake, Minnesota, and went to work transcribing them. Some of the transcriptions were completed while I was traveling or working in Milwaukee. It sometimes took me weeks to transcribe a story. When transcriptions were ready, I translated the stories. When there were words I didn’t know or parts of the original recording I didn’t fully understand, I noted the places for my next visit. When transcription and translation for a story or set of stories were complete, I would then visit the elder again and clarify any questions I had in transcription or translation. I then read stories back to the speakers for proofing. Although there were often minor changes, the written versions correspond very closely to those recorded on the cassette tapes.
Many of the stories collected here were published in the Oshkaabewis Native Journal with the original cassette. The Oshkaabewis Native Journal (ONJ) is the only academic journal of the Ojibwe language. It includes numerous stories and articles about linguistics and language acquisition. Many of the stories published in ONJ were also proofread by Earl Otchingwanigan.
I decided to present these stories in the double vowel orthography for a number of reasons. The double vowel system was developed in the early 1950s by C.E. Fiero and, over the past thirty years especially, has come to be the most frequently used system for writing Ojibwe in the United States. It is important to maintain orthographic consistency throughout the primary and secondary school systems, as having to learn different writing systems every time a student transfers can be frustrating and intimidating, not to mention stifling to the learning process.
The double vowel system is the most widely used orthography, but certainly not the only one. Some speakers use “folk phonetics,” meaning that they write romanized spellings of Ojibwe words based on “how they sound,” with very little consistency or thought given to the nature of the writing system.