Star Wars Episode 4 To Be Dubbed In Navajo 155
New submitter Unixnoteunuchs writes "Coming to a theater in Window Rock in the Navajo Nation on July 4, 2013, Star Wars Episode 4 dubbed in the Navajo language. This is the first time a major motion picture has ever been dubbed in a native American language. This effort will help the Navajo nation preserve its cultural heritage in its language, a complex and beautiful Athabaskan tongue heavily reliant on adjectives and compound words. Listen to this article and how 'computer' and 'droid' would translate."
Re:Preserve Cultural Heritage (Score:5, Informative)
How does dubbing a movie that has nothing to do with Navajo culture help preserve Navajo culture? Not trying to troll, I am asking honestly. It seems a bit insulting, the insinuation being that the whole of their culture is distilled down to their native language.
Not trolling at all-- that's a good question. My thought is that limiting the use of Navajo to the ceremonial marginalizes it to be used only in ritual form. By finding "everyday uses" for it, such as in movies, people form a much more functional use for the language.
Re:Preserve Cultural Heritage (Score:4, Informative)
By finding "everyday uses" for it, such as in movies, people form a much more functional use for the language.
". . . may the horse be with you . . . use the horse, Luke, use the horse . . ."
Despite the popularity of picturing Indians with horses, there were no horses on the American continents until they were brought here by the Europeans.
Re:Preserve Cultural Heritage (Score:2, Informative)
Despite the popularity of the horseless pre-Columbian era, it is a fact that the ancestors to horses evolved on the American continents:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution_of_the_horse