Editing Oneida language (section)

===Assessment of the "health" of the Oneida language===
Oneida speakers were originally settled in New York State.<ref name=":1">Johnsen, John; Hlebowicz, Bartosz; Schuler, Harry (April 24, 2012). [http://www.ecmi.de/fileadmin/downloads/publications/JEMIE/2012/JHS.pdf "Land and Language: The Struggle for National, Territorial, and Linguistic Integrity of the Oneida People"] (PDF). ''Journal no Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe''. '''11''': 117–141.</ref> They have since been factionalized, and are now found in three different communities in New York State, Wisconsin, and Ontario, Canada. The division began with the influence of a number of missionaries in the late 18th century to the early 19th century who convinced many Oneida to either accept Christianity or maintain their more traditional Oneida beliefs. [[Eleazer Williams]], a Mohawk Indian, further convinced many Oneida to convert to Christianity and leave New York State to settle in an area near Green Bay, Wisconsin. As part of the larger conquest, the communities were further divided by the [[American Revolution]] when the governor of [[New York (state)|New York]] gave returning American soldiers parcels of Oneida land and they were told to relocate.<ref name="Our History {{!}} Oneida"/> Oneida took the side of the United States and the rest of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy (also sometimes referred to as the Iroquois Confederacy) took the side of the English.<ref name=":1" /><ref>Watson, K. (2016). Oneida Indian Nation: A Personal History. ''Juniata Voices'', ''16''115–128.</ref> Further division was created within the Wisconsin Oneida community, in which Oneida speaking children were taken away from their families and brought to boarding schools where they were only allowed to speak English. All of these factors have led to the decrease in speakers.

The [[UNESCO]] Major Evaluative Factors of Language Vitality consists of a detailed set of nine factors to access the vitality of a language.<ref name="Course Readings">{{Cite web|title=Course Readings|url=https://ares.lib.uwo.ca/ares/ares.dll?Action=10&Type=10&Value=76046|access-date=2020-12-08|website=ares.lib.uwo.ca}}</ref> According to Factor 1: Intergenerational Transmission, Oneida is graded as a 1 or a degree of critically endangered.<ref name="Course Readings"/> Oneida is used by very few speakers and most users are among the great-grandparent generation. Oneida is primarily spoken by the elders or leaders in the community, but the majority of speakers use it as a secondary language. Factor 2: Absolute Number of Speakers would consider Oneida critically endangered because of the low number of speakers in the population makes it vulnerable.<ref name="Course Readings"/> The 2016 Canadian Census lists 55 mother tongue Oneida speakers in Ontario,<ref>{{Cite web|last=Government of Canada|first=Statistics Canada|date=2017-02-08|title=Census Profile, 2016 Census – Southwold, Township [Census subdivision], Ontario and Ontario [Province]|url=https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/dp-pd/prof/details/page.cfm?Lang=E&Geo1=CSD&Code1=3534024&Geo2=PR&Code2=35&SearchText=Southwold&SearchType=Begins&SearchPR=01&B1=All&GeoLevel=PR&GeoCode=3534024&TABID=1&type=0|access-date=2020-12-08|website=www12.statcan.gc.ca}}</ref> making it at risk. Oneida would be graded as a 1 or a degree of highly limited domains on Factor 4: Trends in Existing Language Domains scale.<ref name="Course Readings"/> Under this categorization, Oneida is used only in very restricted domains and for few functions. Oneida is spoken in the community for formal purposes surrounding topics related to their culture.

While numbers of native speakers are limited, the viability of the Oneida nations and their efforts of cultural and linguistic preservation are at their highest level in 150 years. All three Oneida nations, New York, Wisconsin, and Thames (Ontario), have relatively well-developed websites (www.oneidaindiannation.com; www.oneidanation.org; www.oneida.on.ca/index.htm) publicizing the current events of the tribes and their governmental actions. The presence of these sites is known to the public: the ''[[Central New York Business Journal]]'' reported that the site of the Oneida Nation of New York is the oldest nationally.<ref>Gregory, Traci. "Oneida Nation Unveils New Web Home," ''[[Central New York Business Journal]]'' 19 Sep 2008: 16.</ref> These sites use a limited amount of Oneida language, almost exclusively in a context of explicit cultural preservation. The [[Oneida Nation of the Thames]] utilize their website to provide the public with information about their people, culture, community, and plans for the future.<ref name="oneida.on.ca"/> The site links to the Oneida Language and Cultural Centre website which provides additional information about the Oneida culture with links to videos, clothing, cultural symbols, prayers, clans, recipes, songs, stories, and history.<ref name="Oneida Language & Cultural Centre"/> In addition, information about Oneida language learning resources include lessons, classroom resources, learning resources, games, language proficiency tests, podcasts, written and spoken dictionaries, and videos to learn the language through their website.<ref name="Oneida Language & Cultural Centre"/>

Efforts to increase the number of bilingual Oneida speakers, however, have been extensive. Oneida language study has been formally sanctioned by the ''New York Oneida Nation'' for the past fifteen years and, through a collaboration with [[Berlitz Corporation|Berlitz]] to promote intensive language study, has been progressing rapidly since 2004.<ref name="language">[http://www.oneidaindiannation.com/culture/language/26874924.html "Language Dreams Take Form"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100103164928/http://www.oneidaindiannation.com/culture/language/26874924.html |date=2010-01-03 }}. Aug 12, 2008.</ref> The Berlitz representative acting as liaison to the Oneida Nation identified the task as a particularly difficult one:

<blockquote>Berlitz divides languages into two sections of difficulty, A and B ... I'm going to make up a C list for Oneida. It is a very hard language. It will take a student more hours to learn because of the vocabulary. Word lengths are so long. Learning English can be compared to a train with one car following another and another; in Oneida it's a circle.<ref name="language"/></blockquote>

Some language revitalization and preservation efforts have been made. Beginning in 1936 and led by Morris Swadesh, the Folklore Project, started at the University of Wisconsin, was an important program for the preservation and expansion of the Oneida language.<ref name=":0" /> It was later led by Floyd Lounsbury and formally started in January 1939. It lasted for nineteen months. Twenty-four Oneidas were placed in a two-week training session, in which they were told to write their language. Those considered the best writers would then complete the project. These writers were to meet every weekday and were to get paid 50 cents an hour as compensation for their time spent doing the study. By the end of the project, the participants, which was reduced to eight throughout the project, were able to write in their language. They collected stories, which were then also brought to the university staff, and were then transcribed.

The new revenues from casinos are helping the Oneida undertake language preservation. Extant literary works are recent: Elm & Antone's ''Creation Story'' was published in 2000, and Wonderley's collection of stories in 2004. Although the time of the Oneida language as a primary language is almost certainly ending if it has not already ended, signs point to its continued use in a cultural context.

Primary products of documentation can be found at the [[Smithsonian Institution]],<ref>{{Cite web|title=Search|url=https://www.si.edu/search/collection-images|access-date=2020-12-08|website=Smithsonian Institution|language=en}}</ref> the [[American Philosophical Society]],<ref>{{Cite web|title=APS Search Results|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/collections/search?keyword=oneida&title=&creator=&identifier=&subject=&year=&year-max=&smode=advanced&smode=advanced|access-date=2020-12-08|website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref> [[Syracuse University Library]],<ref>{{Cite web|title=Summon 2.0|url=https://syracuse.summon.serialssolutions.com/search?q=oneida#!/search?ho=t&fvf=ContentType,Archival%20Material,f&l=en&q=oneida|access-date=2020-12-08|website=syracuse.summon.serialssolutions.com}}</ref> and [[The Oneida Language Audio Collection]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Oneida Nation {{!}} Archives|url=https://oneida-nsn.gov/our-ways/language/archives/|access-date=2020-12-08|language=en}}</ref> The archives include documents relating to vocabulary, grammar, prayers, handwritten letters, photographs, census copies, exhibitions, books, manuscripts, pamphlets, analytics, maps, correspondences, documents, and audio files. Additionally, secondary products of documentation consist of dictionaries, grammar information, and texts. The dictionaries consist of complete entries of all Oneida lexicon, while grammar books describe sounds, words and sentence structure, and meanings.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Oneida Language {{!}} dictionary and grammar {{!}} citation scan|url=https://www.uwgb.edu/dictionary/dictionaryScan.aspx|access-date=2020-12-08|website=www.uwgb.edu}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Oneida Language {{!}} dictionary and grammar {{!}} dictionary|url=https://www.uwgb.edu/dictionary/|access-date=2020-12-08|website=www.uwgb.edu}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Oneida Nation {{!}} Structure of Language|url=https://oneida-nsn.gov/our-ways/language/explore/|access-date=2020-12-08|language=en}}</ref> Among the texts, stories, hymns, prayers, videos, songs, language learning resources, and websites<ref>{{Cite web|title=' Oneida language—Texts' Search Results for Toronto Public Library|url=https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/search.jsp;jsessionid=ICvqBxSbBsD1C2Zo4PGk7PF2.tplapp-p-2b?Ntt=Oneida+language--Texts&Ntk=Subject_Search_Interface|access-date=2020-12-08|website=Toronto Public Library|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Learn Our Language {{!}} Oneida|url=https://oneidalanguage.ca/learn-our-language/|access-date=2020-12-08|website=oneidalanguage.ca}}</ref> are present.