Customer Reviews

Kanyen'Keha Tewatati: Let's Speak Mohawk

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For the beginnier this is a very easy to understand breakdown of the components of the Mohawk language that are necessary to learn the structure and mindset for speaking Mohawk. It freely allows the speaker to undersant the complexities of the language and to work at learning to speak immediately. This is a good resource for beginners as well as those who may need refreshing on how their language is structured and spoken.

GROWING UP ON A RESERVATION, I HAVE A BASIC UNDERSTANDING ON HOW THE LANGUAGE WORKS. I BOUGHT THIS BOOK FIGURING IT WOULD JUMP START WHAT I REMEMBER FROM SCHOOL. WHILE YOU CAN PICK UP ON ALOT, IT'S CRUCIAL TO KNOW HOW TO SOUND THE WORDS, AND THIS IS WHAT YOU MISS OUT ON WITH THE BOOK. DON'T GET ME WRONG...THE BOOK IS VERY HELPFUL, BUT IF YOU ARE GOING TO PURCHASE...DO THE WHOLE SHEBANG AND GET YOUR MONEY'S WORTH.

This is a pretty good grammar of the Mohawk language. It doesn't go into great detail, nor does it give many examples, but as a quick reference to Mohawk grammar, this book is pretty good. Although I would not recommend anyone use this book exclusively to learn Mohawk, it does make a good supplement to other texts. I would steer people interested in learning Mohawk to use 'Mohawk: A Teaching Grammar,' which is still available through the Kanien'kehá:ka Onkwawén:na Raotitióhkwa Language and Culture Center (search google for it).

Though I do recommend 'A Thousand Useful Words of Mohawk' by Maracle as a useful 'dictionary' for Mohawk.

As far as the spelling system used in the two texts by Maracle, for the modern spelling system, use the 'phoentic spelling.' The 'phonetic spelling' used in the two books represents the way the language is actually written in parts of Canada and also represents how it is pronounced in a better fashion.

This book was written as part of an audio teaching program, however, the audio portion is not included with the book at Amazon. You have to order the audio portion from the publisher.

Although the book is a good resource - similar to an language dictionary, you need the audio portion to learn the unique sounds/pronounciations of the Mohawk language.