Hopi Dictionary: Hopìikwa Lavàytutuveni
Encyclopedia
Hopi Dictionary : Hopìikwa Lavàytutuveni: A Hopi Dictionary of the Third Mesa Dialect with an English-Hopi Finder List and a Sketch of Hopi Grammar was published by the Dictionary Project at the Bureau of Applied Anthropology, University of Arizona
. Some of the Hopi
community tried to prevent it from being published because they did not want non-Hopis to have access to the Hopi language
, which they held to be the specific cultural heritage of the Hopi community. After a period of discussions and legal proceedings the dictionary was published in 1998.
in 1985, as only wordlists, texts and smaller grammar sketches had been published by linguists. Hopi was then not a literary language and speaker numbers were in decline. The dictionary was envisioned both as a scholarly reference work and as a tool to revitalizing the Hopi language. Kenneth C. Hill, a linguist specialising in Uto-Aztecan languages
, was made the director of the project and was in charge of procuring funding for it and making basic preparations. The project achieved funding from 1986. Editors included the Hopi native speaker and teacher Emory Sekaquaptewa
, Ekkehart Malotki, Hopi specialist and professor at Northern Arizona University
, librarian and Hopi student Mary E. Black, and the native speakers and language consultants Michael and Lorena Lomatuway'ma.
The editors tried to ensure that the dictionary entries did not infringe on the Hopis' sense of religious propriety: for example, they did not give detailed translations of the meanings of the names of different Kachina
s. They also carefully considered the format in which the linguistic data should be represented, in order to best facilitate its use among both native speakers and scholars. To assure community support and involvement, Sekaquaptewa set up a board of Hopi elders who volunteered to take part in the dictionary compilation process in order to help the survival of the Hopi language. While the copyright was retained for the University of Arizona, it was arranged so that all royalties from the book were to go to the Hopi Foundation, a charitable foundation devoted to improve Hopi education. A preliminary presentation of the Project in 1991 also received a favourable response from parts of the Hopi community. The compilation of the dictionary took 10 years and in May 1996 Hill sent a camera-ready copy to the University of Arizona Press
.
and Navajo
. Some Hopi parents wanted Hopi lessons to be offered to ethnic Hopi, but local legislation forbids ethnic restrictions for any classes, so Navajo- and English-speaking students would have been able to study Hopi, something that was not acceptable to some Hopi parents.
In the mid-1990s the implementation by the Hopi tribal organization of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act
caused further tension and discussion about Hopi communal ownership of their language. The Hopi tribe requested that all collections of data pertaining to Hopi cultural heritage be closed to the public, and free access to individuals be given only under written authorization of the Hopi tribal council.
In 1997 Hill received a letter from Leigh J. Kuwanwisiwma, Director of the Hopi Tribe's Cultural Preservation Office expressing concerns that the dictionary project had not sought joint copyrights with the Hopi tribe, that the linguistic consultants who had contributed to the project had not given sufficiently informed consent to the free accessibility of information provided for non-Hopis, and finally that royalties should also be given to the CPO and the Hopi Health Department. He also found the list price of $85 excessive. He requested that the printing of the dictionary be held off until the issues had been addressed. While the dictionary had already been printed it was not yet cut and bound and the press suspended production.
A meeting held between representatives of the Hopi community and the University of Arizona Press (UAP) raised the major concerns of some Hopis that the data in the dictionary would make the Hopi language accessible to non-Hopis. They felt that this constituted selling the Hopi language and thereby handing their cultural heritage out for grabs. They felt that the price was inaccessible for most Hopis, and that the copyright should be handed over to the Hopi Tribe so that they would be able to restrict access to the data.
Stephen F. Cox, director of UAP, replied to Kuwanwisiwma explaining that copyright legislation pertains to distinct written expressions, and does not exist to protect languages. He stated that there was no way in which access to the book could be restricted to Hopis, but that, other than Hopi Tribe members, only linguistic scholars would be expected to buy the dictionary. He committed to giving 23 copies of the book to the Hopi Tribe and to sell any further copies to the Hopi tribe at a 40% discount. He also agreed to divide royalties between the Hopi Foundation and the Hopi tribal government itself.
The CPO responded by sending out a public memorandum on October 16, 1997, stating that the CPO cultural advisory team opposed the dictionary's publication. Later on February 23, 1998, Tribe Chairman Wayne Taylor, Jr., proposed to Cox that copyrights be transferred to the Hopi Tribe and that the Hopi Tribe buy all the copies of the dictionary. After deliberation the University Press agreed to turn over copyrights and all remaining, unsold copies of the dictionary on January 1, 2008. The tribe would receive 500 copies at half price (although this would cause a loss of nearly $10,000 to the press). This proposal was accepted by the Hopi tribal government.
The book was published on May 14, 1998. Within a few days of the publication several Hopi individuals, including a bookseller, bought copies of the book.
wrote that the dictionary: "takes its place as one of the most sophisticated and comprehensive dictionaries ever prepared for an American Indian language; indeed, it is among the best dictionaries available for any language of the world, and a model for future lexicographers of “neglected” languages."
University of Arizona
The University of Arizona is a land-grant and space-grant public institution of higher education and research located in Tucson, Arizona, United States. The University of Arizona was the first university in the state of Arizona, founded in 1885...
. Some of the Hopi
Hopi
The Hopi are a federally recognized tribe of indigenous Native American people, who primarily live on the Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona. The Hopi area according to the 2000 census has a population of 6,946 people. Their Hopi language is one of the 30 of the Uto-Aztecan language...
community tried to prevent it from being published because they did not want non-Hopis to have access to the Hopi language
Hopi language
Hopi is a Uto-Aztecan language spoken by the Hopi people of northeastern Arizona, USA, although today some Hopi are monolingual English speakers.The use of the language has gradually declined over the course of the 20th century...
, which they held to be the specific cultural heritage of the Hopi community. After a period of discussions and legal proceedings the dictionary was published in 1998.
The dictionary
The dictionary has an introduction with bibliography, a guide to dictionary entries, a list of abbreviations, the 797-page Hopi-English section, a 161-page English-Hopi finder list and a 30-page grammatical sketch of the Hopi language including an explanation of the orthography used. The dictionary has 29,394 entries of which 23,994 are main entries and the rest cross-references.Compilation
No comprehensive dictionary of the Hopi language had been published when the Hopi Dictionary Project was instigated at the University of ArizonaUniversity of Arizona
The University of Arizona is a land-grant and space-grant public institution of higher education and research located in Tucson, Arizona, United States. The University of Arizona was the first university in the state of Arizona, founded in 1885...
in 1985, as only wordlists, texts and smaller grammar sketches had been published by linguists. Hopi was then not a literary language and speaker numbers were in decline. The dictionary was envisioned both as a scholarly reference work and as a tool to revitalizing the Hopi language. Kenneth C. Hill, a linguist specialising in Uto-Aztecan languages
Uto-Aztecan languages
Uto-Aztecan or Uto-Aztekan is a Native American language family consisting of over 30 languages. Uto-Aztecan languages are found from the Great Basin of the Western United States , through western, central and southern Mexico Uto-Aztecan or Uto-Aztekan is a Native American language family...
, was made the director of the project and was in charge of procuring funding for it and making basic preparations. The project achieved funding from 1986. Editors included the Hopi native speaker and teacher Emory Sekaquaptewa
Emory Sekaquaptewa
Emory Sekaquaptewa was a Hopi leader and scholar, best known for his role in compiling the first dictionary of the Hopi language....
, Ekkehart Malotki, Hopi specialist and professor at Northern Arizona University
Northern Arizona University
Northern Arizona University is a public university located in Flagstaff, Arizona, United States. It is accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, and has 39 satellite campuses in the state of Arizona. The university offers both undergraduate and graduate degrees.As of...
, librarian and Hopi student Mary E. Black, and the native speakers and language consultants Michael and Lorena Lomatuway'ma.
The editors tried to ensure that the dictionary entries did not infringe on the Hopis' sense of religious propriety: for example, they did not give detailed translations of the meanings of the names of different Kachina
Kachina
A kachina is a spirit being in western Pueblo cosmology and religious practices. The western Pueblo, Native American cultures located in the southwestern United States, include Hopi, Zuni, Tewa Village , Acoma Pueblo, and Laguna Pueblo. The kachina cult has spread to more eastern Pueblos, e.g....
s. They also carefully considered the format in which the linguistic data should be represented, in order to best facilitate its use among both native speakers and scholars. To assure community support and involvement, Sekaquaptewa set up a board of Hopi elders who volunteered to take part in the dictionary compilation process in order to help the survival of the Hopi language. While the copyright was retained for the University of Arizona, it was arranged so that all royalties from the book were to go to the Hopi Foundation, a charitable foundation devoted to improve Hopi education. A preliminary presentation of the Project in 1991 also received a favourable response from parts of the Hopi community. The compilation of the dictionary took 10 years and in May 1996 Hill sent a camera-ready copy to the University of Arizona Press
University of Arizona Press
The University of Arizona Press, a publishing house founded in 1959 as a department of the University of Arizona, is a nonprofit publisher of scholarly and regional books...
.
Publication controversies
In the early 1990s the beginnings of a controversy were brewing. In Arizona, high schools students must learn a foreign language but the only languages offered at that time were SpanishSpanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
and Navajo
Navajo language
Navajo or Navaho is an Athabaskan language spoken in the southwestern United States. It is geographically and linguistically one of the Southern Athabaskan languages .Navajo has more speakers than any other Native American language north of the...
. Some Hopi parents wanted Hopi lessons to be offered to ethnic Hopi, but local legislation forbids ethnic restrictions for any classes, so Navajo- and English-speaking students would have been able to study Hopi, something that was not acceptable to some Hopi parents.
In the mid-1990s the implementation by the Hopi tribal organization of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act
Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act
The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act , Pub. L. 101-601, 25 U.S.C. 3001 et seq., 104 Stat. 3048, is a United States federal law passed on 16 November 1990 requiring federal agencies and institutions that receive federal funding to return Native American "cultural items" to...
caused further tension and discussion about Hopi communal ownership of their language. The Hopi tribe requested that all collections of data pertaining to Hopi cultural heritage be closed to the public, and free access to individuals be given only under written authorization of the Hopi tribal council.
In 1997 Hill received a letter from Leigh J. Kuwanwisiwma, Director of the Hopi Tribe's Cultural Preservation Office expressing concerns that the dictionary project had not sought joint copyrights with the Hopi tribe, that the linguistic consultants who had contributed to the project had not given sufficiently informed consent to the free accessibility of information provided for non-Hopis, and finally that royalties should also be given to the CPO and the Hopi Health Department. He also found the list price of $85 excessive. He requested that the printing of the dictionary be held off until the issues had been addressed. While the dictionary had already been printed it was not yet cut and bound and the press suspended production.
A meeting held between representatives of the Hopi community and the University of Arizona Press (UAP) raised the major concerns of some Hopis that the data in the dictionary would make the Hopi language accessible to non-Hopis. They felt that this constituted selling the Hopi language and thereby handing their cultural heritage out for grabs. They felt that the price was inaccessible for most Hopis, and that the copyright should be handed over to the Hopi Tribe so that they would be able to restrict access to the data.
Stephen F. Cox, director of UAP, replied to Kuwanwisiwma explaining that copyright legislation pertains to distinct written expressions, and does not exist to protect languages. He stated that there was no way in which access to the book could be restricted to Hopis, but that, other than Hopi Tribe members, only linguistic scholars would be expected to buy the dictionary. He committed to giving 23 copies of the book to the Hopi Tribe and to sell any further copies to the Hopi tribe at a 40% discount. He also agreed to divide royalties between the Hopi Foundation and the Hopi tribal government itself.
The CPO responded by sending out a public memorandum on October 16, 1997, stating that the CPO cultural advisory team opposed the dictionary's publication. Later on February 23, 1998, Tribe Chairman Wayne Taylor, Jr., proposed to Cox that copyrights be transferred to the Hopi Tribe and that the Hopi Tribe buy all the copies of the dictionary. After deliberation the University Press agreed to turn over copyrights and all remaining, unsold copies of the dictionary on January 1, 2008. The tribe would receive 500 copies at half price (although this would cause a loss of nearly $10,000 to the press). This proposal was accepted by the Hopi tribal government.
The book was published on May 14, 1998. Within a few days of the publication several Hopi individuals, including a bookseller, bought copies of the book.
Aftermath and influence
After publication the conflict between the CPO and the dictionary project was laid aside and Hill reports that the Dictionary seems to have become valued by the Hopi community. It was also favourably reviewed by several scholars in the field. Anthropological linguist William BrightWilliam Bright
William Bright was an American linguist who specialized in Native American and South Asian languages and descriptive linguistics....
wrote that the dictionary: "takes its place as one of the most sophisticated and comprehensive dictionaries ever prepared for an American Indian language; indeed, it is among the best dictionaries available for any language of the world, and a model for future lexicographers of “neglected” languages."