For this project, I originally started having some trouble with where I was going to go with it. However, after putting some thought into it I think I want to focus on Native Americans and their influences on our language today. I have done some research on them before, but the focus was more on how they are portrayed in the media and what not. This project will be something I have no previous knowledge on and I am very eager to learn more about how they contributed to our language today.
For my project, I am going to try and use Prezi. I have never used this program before, but have always wanted to try it! So I decided that this project was a good one to experiment with something new! To make this presentation interactive, I am going to try and incorporate a video of some sort (at this point I am not sure what one I will use) of maybe their accents or dialect. I even think a short video on Native Americans and how they interacted and communicated with the settlers of Jamestown would be really interesting and intriguing for the audience.
At this point, I have not done a whole lot of research. However, I found a couple really good websites that have given me a great starting point.
"Linguistics 201: Native American Languages"
http://pandora.cii.wwu.edu/vajda/ling201/test3materials/Native_American%20Langs.htm
- this website talks about how Native Americans have named many cities, plants, rivers, mountains in the U.S. and how we have incorporated many of their words into our language as well.
"How Native American Culture Influenced the English Language"
http://www.pimsleurapproach.com/blog/language-history/how-native-american-culture-influenced-the-american-english-language
-this article goes a little deeper than the one before it. It discusses how Native Americans influenced some of our word formations and place names
*I think that both of these sources will be very beneficial to my end project.
Intro to my project:
English is a "melting pot" language. It has roots in Europe, but contains many different words from many different backgrounds and collectively features an abundance of different languages and cultures. One in particular is Native American roots. Since the first settlers of Jamestown immigrated to the United States, Native Americans had a huge influence on them and their language. As a result, Native American Languages played a huge role in splitting English into UK English and American English. There is a good chance that that may have been the beginning of different dialects in the United States. Native Americans have helped shape English as we know it today - from place names to word formations - they have helped make our language unique.
