How native americans used to speak
Hi,
I'd like to know how native americans used to speak english in the 19th century (before they could actually speak it as nowadays). Correct if me if I'm wrong but on tv for example they are often portrayed saying things like "Indian likes this" or "Me likes this", "White Man makes war" and so on........I mean, I'm not interested in how they really spoke but more in how they are portrayed speaking. For example is it "White man make war" or "White man make*s* war" ? or did they refer to americans as "white man" at all ?
If you know of any good links that can answer my question, please don't hesitate to say.
Thank you
It's not like the ability to speak English was some recent development among Native Americans. It's safe to assume that there were fluent speakers of English among Native Americans within a few decades of the arrival of English-speaking colonists.
I have started to summarise some of the points made by the link, which I am pleased to see various people have looked up. I do realise the site is not 100%, and is someways rather amateurish.
The first step to understanding anti-USA hatred is to step outside of USA media, and see the USA's actions abroad and their effects.
Success & Jealousy
As the world's richest nation, jealousy does give rise to hatred.
Power
As a public world-police force, people are prone to resent it in the same way they resent any authoritarian figure or large institution.
As a symbol of Western power and aggression.
Uncaring Society: The lack of a National Health Service in the USA is a shock to those who automatically assumed that such widespread aid was a part of basic Human rights.
Scapegoat
Some governments and cultures come to unfairly use the USA as a rallying point for their own patriotism.
The US government is pursuing a foreign policy that many people consider immoral. We have supported, trained and armed dictators, illegitimate governments and racist and brutal regimes. We have largely ignored the pain and suffering this has caused.”
Naive: America does not know that it is hated
History of war
Every military conflict and strike causes innocent people to resent the attackers.
I could therefore list every conflict that America has been involved in, supplied weapons to one side, both, or more, made a profit from or secured oil from. But such a list would basically involve listing nearly every conflict across the world.
The US giant has rewritten the global financial and trading system in its own interest; ripped up a string of treaties it finds inconvenient; sent troops to every corner of the globe; bombed Afghanistan, Sudan, Yugoslavia and Iraq without troubling the United Nations; maintained a string of murderous embargos against recalcitrant regimes; and recklessly thrown its weight behind Israel's 34-year illegal military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza as the Palestinian intifada rages.
America, as a self-identified military big brother, has been harassing much of the developing world for multiple decades. Strongly anti-communist sentiments have seen a departure from democracy in American foreign politics and an embrace of political fascism...
Every army blunders. The more powerful a country, the more these cause hatred of it in the world and the easier they are forgotten by the more affluent! The more a country engages in war, the more long-term resentment is going to be created.
America shows a disrespect for Global consensus on all fronts, frequently ignoring the UN and international agreements.
The Arms Trade
There have been no wars between major powers since 1945, but there has been an estimated 138 wars resulting in 23 million deaths.
The five permanent members of the security council provide 86% of the arms exported to developing countries. In 1992, the United States alone accounted for 46 percent.”
The USA's biggest customer is Israel.
The USA in particular tends to arm opposition parties and rebels in countries where it disagrees with the government, and has as such armed and directly trained groups such as the Taliban, not always caring that many supported groups have atrocious human rights records.
President Bush has repeatedly stated that he will not adopt such protocols if they harm American economy.
America, widely known as the world's greatest polluter.
The US contains 4% of the world's population but produces about 25% of all carbon dioxide.
Short term strategies & long term suffering
Heavy handed commercial aggression
Patriotism & Self Righteousness
There appears to be something about the very language employed by Americans that causes resentment and rejection.
For example, the recent attacks on America were hailed as attacks on freedom and democracy. Although not democratic, the sequence of targets, the American symbol of power and commercial trade, the Pentagon, head of the military and the Foreign Policy offices, do not show an attack on Democracy but a very specific attack on America.
To hear American's claim that any such attack on America is an attack on freedom itself is to claim that America is synonymous with freedom,
Sorry my mistake. I left my post under the wrong Topic heading. It should have been under: Why People Hate America
Incidentally: Is this a statement or a question? I know that it is a rhetorical question.
Hi, I think I was not clear enough about what I'd like. I can speak for Portuguese for example, there's a special way that native americans speak on movies and so on. I'm writing an essay and I wanted to simulate this effect. At least on movies I had seen (in portuguese or german), they're always portrayed speaking things like "white man make war" etc etc what I'd like to know is how this actually is in English. How one portrays their speaking on the movies and so ? What's the main characteristic, using "me" instead of "I" ?
Thanks
>>Hi, I think I was not clear enough about what I'd like. I can speak for Portuguese for example, there's a special way that native americans speak on movies and so on. I'm writing an essay and I wanted to simulate this effect. At least on movies I had seen (in portuguese or german), they're always portrayed speaking things like "white man make war" etc etc what I'd like to know is how this actually is in English. How one portrays their speaking on the movies and so ? What's the main characteristic, using "me" instead of "I" ?
Thanks <<
I don't understand- do you want to know how they actually spoke, or just what was on the television?
I don't want to know how they actually spoke, because I think how they really used to speak depends on many factors like from what tribe they came from.
I'm more interested to know how they are perceived to speak. I mean, the stereotypical way they are portrayed speaking on tv......In movies translated, say, in Portuguese for example , they're often portrayed conjugating verbs wrong and using "me" instead of "I", things like "me wants to go there" or the like. What I want to know, if it is really like this,i.e. making these mistakes, that they are portrayed speaking.
Yes, on television, Native Americans speaking English are portrayed as having bad grammar, especially with pronouns like I and me.
<<I'm more interested to know how they are perceived to speak. I mean, the stereotypical way they are portrayed speaking on tv......In movies translated, say, in Portuguese for example , they're often portrayed conjugating verbs wrong and using "me" instead of "I", things like "me wants to go there" or the like. What I want to know, if it is really like this,i.e. making these mistakes, that they are portrayed speaking. >>>
That's how any foreigner is perceived to speak. It's just that you need to implant some grammatical errors, so since English is lacking in morphology pretty much all you can do is change 'want' to 'wants' and 'I' to 'me'. Other foreigners are portrayed in the same way.
"In movies translated, say, in Portuguese for example , they're often portrayed conjugating verbs wrong and using "me" instead of "I" "
So, if I understand you correctly, there are movies in Portuguese (or, at least, dubbed into Portuguese) in which NA characters say things that you translate into English as things such as "me wants", and you want to know whether they actually say things like "me wants" in movies that are in English?
"me wants to go there" wouldn't surprise me, but I don't think that's standard "savage English". Always using objective pronouns definitely is a stereotypical example of "simple" grammar, in fact there are people who use the subjective in cases where the objective case is called for, simply because there is such a stigma attached to the objective case that whenever they're in doubt, they use the subjective case. However, if someone is being portrayed as having poor grammar, they would probably not conjugate their verbs at all, rather than conjugating them incorrectly. So if I were trying to come up with the "stereotypical" NA statement, I would probably have "me want go".
BTW, you were rather careless with your punctuation. While ignoring capitalization rules is sometimes accepted, there's a big difference between native American and Native American, and it's important to distinguish between the two.
hmmm when you say it like that I have my reservations...
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