The selection of an additional language often comes down to ones with recognizable vocabulary and — just like English — a large number of speakers and widespread influence. French, Spanish, and Italian, for instance. That, however, leaves out Estonian, and most languages of the world for that matter. Languages that diverge significantly from English’s Indo-European roots and that can be challenging to grasp.
As a Finno-Ugric language, Estonian stands apart with its unique word origins, vowel sound subtleties, and the declension of nouns and adjectives. Although there is a growing collection of online, printed, and in-person educational resources, it’s still less accessible. This frustration is shared by many younger generations of Canadians with Estonian heritage, who are seeking out a better understanding of their roots. And so, as time and finances allow, young Estonians will go study or work in Estonia, to learn through immersion.
When practice and expert guidance are needed to learn all about life in another language, this makes a connection to one’s roots much more difficult to grow.
Having said that, imagine the challenge faced by young Indigenous peoples in Canada wanting to learn their ancestral languages, in the very places those languages come from. Canada’s policies of forced assimilation suppressed the cultural identities, traditions, and languages of Indigenous peoples for several generations. In the case of the residential school system, this went on for more than 160 years. The result of this was shown by Statistics Canada in 2021, when “approximately 237,420 Indigenous people in Canada reported they could speak an Indigenous language [of which there are over 70 in Canada] well enough to conduct a conversation… down by 10,750, or 4.3%, from 2016.” Those 237,420 people make up less than one percent of Canada’s population. Of this one percent, there are just over 86,000 Cree speakers in Canada, Cree being one of the most widely spoken Indigenous languages in Canada. For those learning other languages, there are less people to learn from and speak with. The Endangered Languages Project counted less than 10 native speakers of Potawatomi overall in 2015, for example. When practice and expert guidance are needed to learn all about life in another language, this makes a connection to one’s roots much more difficult to grow.
A great deal of work is being put into turning this situation around. For a language like Potawatomi, there are resources like colouring and writing exercise books created by the Pokagon Band Language Program in southwest Michigan and Northern Indiana. Videos and in-person classes have been provided by the Citizen Potawatomi Nation Cultural Heritage Center in Oklahoma.
With regard to Canada, in 2014, the Samson Cree Nation launched the Maskwacis Cree app. The University of Waterloo started offering a course to learn Mohawk (an Iroquoian language) in 2017. The University of Guelph offered their first Indigenous language course, for Ojibwe (an Algonquian language), in 2019. The faculty of Boodweh Centre for Indigenous Knowledges & Languages at Trent University organize engaging hands-on courses, continuing what began in 1969 as the first Canadian university “to establish an academic department dedicated to the study of Indigenous peoples and Indigenous knowledge.”
On a federal level, the Government of Canada has responded to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission by acknowledging that Aboriginal rights include Aboriginal language rights. They have enacted the 2019 Indigenous Languages Act, and appointed an Aboriginal Languages Commissioner.
And so, the thought arises, what if those not of Indigenous background were to learn something of local languages, to better understand and respect the place we live and the people who are from here?
Previous Eesti Elu contributor Thomas Law, in an article for The Varsity, makes a case for why all people, Indigenous or not, should “be permeated with a richer knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of the history and contemporary experience of First Nations in and around Toronto,” and that “simply providing more language courses does not seem to be the most efficient way to achieve that goal.” That being said, Law says the priority for language lessons “should surely be to empower Indigenous students to learn their inherited language and ensure an enriched and evolving culture.”
“Canada was for a time a multilingual nation that included Europeans learning and speaking Indigenous languages as well as their own languages.”
(Professor Onowa McIvor)
On the other hand, in a 2017 Canadian Geographic article, University of Victoria linguist Professor Onowa McIvor says, “If you call yourself Canadian, then Indigenous languages are part of your heritage, even if you aren’t Indigenous yourself.” The article continues to describe how “Canada was for a time a multilingual nation that included Europeans learning and speaking Indigenous languages as well as their own languages.”
For Estonians in Canada, perhaps the best action to start with is to learn about the distinctions between these cultures, how First Nations are organized, where they are located, the languages spoken, and the broader families those languages belong to. Canadian Geographic has produced an excellent map along these lines. That could then lead to a study of basic phrases and pronunciation in a local Indigenous language. On that note, think about how many place names you would learn about, like Spadina Avenue in Toronto, which comes from the Anishinaabemowin word ishpadina (“highland” or “ridge” as the Spadina Museum explains). All of this strengthens our communities and builds respect for the land we all call home.
The present and historical situation of Estonia and the Estonian language is different, but our cultural experience opens us up with empathy to the idea of how important languages and cultural identity are.
