The first modern dictionary of a Native American language with only 200 speakers will be published this month.

The Ichishkíin Sinwit Yakama/Yakima Sahaptin Dictionary was compiled by 88-year-old linguist Virginia Beavert, a native speaker of the Sahaptin language of the Northwestern Plateau.

The work, published by University of Washington Press, documents the Yakama dialect of the language, spoken in parts of Washington, Oregon and Idaho.

Beavert grew up in a Sahaptin-speaking village in Oregon, but later lost the language through lack of use while working in New Mexico, away from her family.

Speaking to the Yakima Herald, Beavert recalled phoning home and speaking to her mother, who was "so excited it was me. She was talking Indian to me. She was talking so fast. And I couldn't understand a word of it."

On returning to her village, her ability to speak the language returned immediately, however.

Beavert has been writing about the Sahapti language since the 1970s, and has taught the subject at Heritage University, in Seattle, and the University of Oregon, in Eugene.

"I'm getting rather tired, you know," Beavert told the Herald. "But I have these students that keep telling me, ‘We haven't learned enough.’"

The new work expands on a short dictionary Beavert wrote in 1975. It has been compiled and edited with the help of University of Washington linguist Sharon Hargus, and also contains essays by Plateau expert Bruce Rigsby, of the University of Queensland.

Hargus described the publication as "a tremendous asset to lay people, to members of the tribe."

28 February 2010