The Grammar of Animacy
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The Grammar of Animacy 1. What kind of languages does Kimmerer talk about in this essay?
Mainly Kimmerer talks about the native language Potawatomi, which was used by Indians in America long before they were assimilated by the colonial masters to English. She also mentions other forms of languages such as scientific language, which she honors as a second tongue to her. However, she notes that this language that is being spoken by scientists, even though may be precise, it is profound with grammar errors. Third, she mentions about English, which she mainly uses to write the essay, but points that as a language, it is primarily composed of nouns than verbs (70% nouns and 30% verbs). This, she notes, contradicts the native languages such as Potawatomi that are mainly composed of verbs. Finally, she talks about the Spanish language that just like the English one, thrived out of the assimilation process and is what most indigenous communities resorted to apart from their extinct native languages. 2. How many fluent speakers are there of Potawatomi? And what does the great-grandmother say will be lost when the language is lost?
For the Potawatomi language class that was organized by Kimmerer and others of the indigenous group, only nine (9) fluent speakers of the language were found to be presently alive, globally. In her words, Kimmerer notes that the language, Potawatomi, millennia in the making was contained in the voices of the nine teachers who sat around the circle in the class that was formed to address the small group of students of the language that had gathered.
The great-grandmother, who was also part of the nine teachers of the Potawatomi noted that with the loss of the language will be the loss of the words, the culture of the people, the thoughts, and the ways by which the native