User:Alovallo96/sandbox

Throughout time, Abenaki language has been made to thought it was unimportant and with the fading of generations, the Abenaki language became more and more scarce. Abenaki language was as low as twelve native speakers as of 2015, but with recent focus and extra efforts in the Abenaki community, this number seems to be growing. Today, there are some passionate Abenaki, and non Abenaki people, like Jeanne Brink` of Vermont, who are trying to revitalize the Abenaki culture, which includes their language and their basket making traditions. Today, there are about 12,000 people of varying Abenaki heritage in the Canadian and New England regions, all varying in their connection to their language. In Maine, there are about 3,000 Penobscot Native Americans, and this is a large driving force of the language resurrection.

Among Brink and others, Jesse Bruchac is a loud voice in the Abenaki culture. Along with writing and publishing various Abenaki books, he created a movie and sound piece telling the Native American side of Thanksgiving while spoken in Abenaki. In this film, called Saints & Strangers, the three actors not only memorized the lines in Abenaki, but also learned the syntax behind the language and learnt from filming. This revitalization of the famous Thanksgiving story from a new tongue and perspective offered a more original and full version of what Thanksgiving might have really been like so many years ago.

In Bruchac's novel, L8dwaw8gan Wji Abaznodakaw8gan: The Language of Basket Making  Bruchac notes that Abenaki is a poly-synthetic language, which makes the ways to express oneself in Abenaki is almost limitless. Abenaki language consists of dependent and independent grammar, which address the gender of the speaker. Abenaki also uses nouns, pronouns, first, second, third, and indefinite parts of speech, and verbs, and adjectives. If the noun is animate or inanimate alters the structure of the sentence or phrase.