Siwa, Sardak, Chalay, Coble, Tuuca Orodji... The Living-Language-Land project collects words that make up a "grammar of animacy"

Illustration from Living-Language-Land’s entry on the Welsh word, ***Morfa***

This is a beautiful and simple exercise in trying on words that capture quite different realities from industrial modernity. Living-Language-Land explain themselves this way:

The languages we speak shape much of how we understand the world around us, including our connections to land and nature. But as fast as we are losing species from our planet, so we are losing languages that offer diverse ways of seeing. And with that, we run the risk of a poverty of both experience and imagination in responding to the climate and ecological crises we are facing today.

Living-Language-Land is a journey through endangered and minority languages that reveal diverse ways of relating to land and nature. Through this project we shared twenty-six words in the run-up to the 2021 climate talks (COP26) to bring a global audience fresh inspiration for tackling our environmental crisis.

[We are] inspired by the life-affirming message in Robin Wall Kimmerer’s book Braiding Sweetgrass: the possibilities of a “grammar of animacy,” of a deep reciprocity and respect between human and more-than-human beings… Searching for a soft but powerful approach to shifting conversations in the environmental movement.

Living-Language-Land came alive with two questions: How can we create a platform for the knowledge and experiences of minority and endangered language holders so that their words reach new audiences? And how can we reflect on and share the powerful strategies for sustainable living that these languages reveal to help look afresh at our environmental crisis?

Their main site is a delight - with audio clips of the words, and small documentaries around them, and a highly useable interface.. Below is a selection from the 20-odd natural keywords they gathered in their project:

Siwa

Pond; lake; adult woman’s vagina

Language: Mysk Kubun
Region: Central Colombia

Contributor: Comunidad Muisca CONA, Pedagogías Ancestrales

From the waters emerged Mother Bachué, who gave birth to our people and taught us how to live well in our territory. The waters sing stories; siwa speaks to us and reminds us of the humidity of our first vessel, our mother’s womb.

An offering of coca leaves is made to a lake in the Paáramos, Bogotá region, Colombia. ***Siwa: Weaving Roots into the Womb of Mother Earth***. Video: Comunidad Muisca CONA

Sardak

The ancestors and owners of the land

Language: Ladakhi
Region: Ladakh, India

Contributors: Tsetan Angmo and Padma Rigzin, featuring the Sardak of Ladakh

“The owners of the land and the rocks, please accept our food.”

Sardak means much more than “the ancestors and owners of the land.” The ways of being of the sardak enabled them to live here for thousands of years. The landscape has been indelibly marked by their presence, where they and their livestock left trails. The sardak are absent but present; they are like ghosts.

A village in the Changthang region of Ladakh. Photo: Padma Rigzin

Chalay

The practice of barter and exchange

Language: Quechua
Region: Peruvian Andes

Contributors: The communities of the Pisac Potato Park and Chalakuy Maize Park

Chalay embodies the Andean concept of value and reciprocity. The exchanges strengthen the relationships between family members and friends from different agricultural zones. Foods and seeds are also members of the family. When seeds are exchanged, the new seeds become “daughters-in-law.” These new family members need to be treated with great care and respect so they will produce well.

Exchange of *olluco* tubers and corn at the Choquecancha barter market in the Peruvian Andes. Photo: Asocia

Coble

A traditional open wooden fishing boat built without a keel

Language: Northumbrian Coastal speech
Region: Northumbrian Coast, United Kingdom

Contributors: Katrina Porteous and Northumbrian fisher families

Coble is more than just a boat. Built by eye, without a plan, its lines evolved over centuries for sail, to respond economically to the wind and local sea conditions.

Each coble brought human lives into direct, daily contact with powerful, unpredictable forces of nature.