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When Spanish missionaries arrived in what is now called Florida, there were 100,000-200,000 Timucua people in the region. Just two centuries later, there were fewer than 100. Soon, with all the people who spoke it dead, the Timucua language died out, too, preserved only in a few Spanish-Timucua religious texts.
In the 21st century, linguistic anthropologist Aaron Broadwell and historian Alejandra Dubcovsky have been decoding and translating these texts to understand the Timucua language and the people who were writing it down.
Content note: in the episode there is mention of slavery, genocide, and mistreatment of the indigenous people of what is now called United States of America.
Also, if you have trouble hearing anything in this episode - or any of the other ones - remember there are transcripts of every episode at theallusionist.org/transcripts. And if you hear snoring during this episode, it’s an interviewee’s dog, it is not me.
EXTRA MATERIALS:
Learn Timucua history, grammar and vocabulary at Hebuano.org and see some of the pages from the texts.
There’s much more vocabulary here too, for your perusal.
Aaron and Alejandra talk more about their work in this interview with the Smithsonian.
“The French account of Timucua food is somewhat incomplete, as the French did not recognize some of the different foods that the Timucua grew and gathered.”
More about the disasters that obliterated the Timucua population.
Otherlusionists: the pair of Key episodes are about languages’ survival/revival after their speakers’ extinction. The Survival series includes episodes about First Nations languages in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand being depleted or destroyed by colonisers. A Brief History of Brazilian Portuguese explains how the Portuguese language infiltrated Brazil.
Support the show at theallusionist.org/donate and as well as keeping this independent podcast going, you also get behind-the-scenes glimpses about every episode, fortnightly livestreams, watchalongs - including the current season of Great British Bake Off - and the delightful company of the Allusioverse Discord community.
YOUR RANDOMLY SELECTED WORD FROM THE DICTIONARY:
nival, adjective: of or relating to regions of perpetual snow.
Origin 17th century: from Latin nivalis, from nix, niv- ‘snow’.
CREDITS:
Aaron Broadwell is a professor of linguistics and anthropology at the University of Florida. His Timucua grammar book will be released in 2024.
Alejandra Dubcovsky is a professor of history at the University of California, Riverside. Her latest book is Talking Back: Native Women and the Making of the Early South.
This episode was produced by me, Helen Zaltzman, on the unceded ancestral and traditional territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. The original Allusionist music is by Martin Austwick. Download his songs at palebirdmusic.com and listen to his podcasts Song By Song and Neutrino Watch.
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