Nuu-wee-ya’, “our language,” or “our words,” is a term that describes the many dialects of southwest Oregon Dene. Nuu-da’ Mv-ne’ is a digital archive which aims to assemble all publicly available primary Nuu-wee-ya’ language sources, including Chetco, Upper Coquille, Tututni, Chasta Costa, Galice, Applegate, Tolowa and others, into one location in order to facilitate further research and support ongoing language revitalization efforts. Nuu-da’ Mv-ne’ means “our language’s house.” It is intended to serve as a place for language materials to live safely, and as an easy point of access for community members involved in language revitalization. This digital archive is being updated continually; please be aware that we are doing our best to update material on an ongoing basis, and that mistakes are inevitable in this work. We welcome input about how to improve the archive (See the “Contact” tab to drop us a line!).
Nuu-da’ Mv-ne’ is the pilot project in the expansion of the Myaamia Center’s Miami-Illinois Digital Archive (MIDA) software. MIDA is a powerful digital archiving tool that brings together primary language resources for the Myaamia language. The Myaamia Center, Miami Tribe of Oklahoma, University of Miami Ohio, and the Smithsonian Institute’s Recovering Voices program have worked together to create an expansion of MIDA, recognizing the potential for this software to benefit other communities’ language revitalization efforts. Since 2016, a research team from the University of Oregon Northwest Indian Languages Institute (NILI) has been working in partnership with the Myaamia Center to expand MIDA into a new software platform, called Indigenous Languages Digital Archive (ILDA). ILDA is designed to host discreet archives for numerous indigenous languages; Nuu-da’ Mv-ne’ is the first archive hosted on ILDA.
Nuu-da’ Mv-ne’ archive features written and audio materials from many dialects of southern Oregon Dene, with the goal of hosting all publicly available materials in a single location. On this archive, you will find both transcription of original linguistic notes, as well as transliteration into a keyboard-friendly orthography developed by Loren Bommelyn for Tolowa Dee-ni’, which is also utilized by the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians in their language revitalization efforts.
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Number BCS-1562859. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. This site is managed by the Nuu-da' Mv-ne' 501(c)3 nonprofit organization.