Rewrite this in a format a fourth grader would understand.

With Their Knowledge Combined, Two Scholars Are Deciphering a Long-Lost Native Language

When historian Alejandra Dubcovsky was in graduate school in the early 2000s, she decided to focus her research on the Indigenous cultures of the Americas. “I asked my professors, ‘Should I learn any Native languages?’” Dubcovsky recalled. “And they were like, ‘Why? You know Spanish, you know French—you’re set for life.’” Dubcovsky laughed. “And I went to Berkeley!”

Dubcovsky’s teachers were just repeating what their own mentors had told them: Native languages were too hard to learn, and most pre-Columbian cultures didn’t leave behind written records anyway. Some, like the Aztec and Maya, had hieroglyphic systems, but those symbols offered little insight into the spoken languages themselves. Why shouldn’t Dubcovsky, who was born in Argentina, just study the records of Spanish colonizers the way generations before her had done?

When she connected with Aaron Broadwell, a linguistics professor at the University of Florida, she found the missing puzzle pieces she had been seeking. Broadwell was an expert on the Native languages of the American Southeast—Choctaw, Creek and others that belonged to the Muskogee family. His most ambitious project was decoding a language, spoken by the Timucua people, that is unrelated to any other known tongue.

When Spanish colonizers arrived in the 16th century, Timucua was the most widely spoken language in large swaths of Florida and Georgia. Within two centuries, by the time of U.S. independence, its speakers had all been enslaved, felled by disease or absorbed into other language groups. Despite its diminishment, Timucua left a record—it was the first Native language within modern U.S. borders to be put into writing, albeit using the Roman alphabet. Rare book libraries hold Franciscan texts that display Spanish on one side and Timucua on the other. Most historians just read the Spanish side. But Dubcovsky wanted to know what the Timucua texts really said.

Since around 2000, Broadwell has been assembling the first comprehensive online Timucua dictionary, with the help of graduate students and computer programs that can search for patterns in grammar and meaning. Together, he and Dubcovsky have also made a number of startling new discoveries that challenge the usual narrative about how the Timucua language came to be written down.

Those of us at Smithsonian repeated a version of that narrative in our March issue, briefly crediting the Franciscan missionary Francisco Pareja with transcribing the Timucua language into the Roman alphabet. That version of the story, with Pareja at the center, has been widely promulgated for generations. As a catalogue entry at the Library of Congress puts it: “Timucuan is a dead language. Spoken by an Indigenous tribe that lived in northeast-north central Florida during the time of Spanish colonization, it was learned and recorded by Friar Francisco Pareja, a missionary and self-taught linguist. Thanks to his efforts, Timucua is now considered the best-attested language from a Native tribe in Spanish Colonial Florida.”
system
Rewrite this in a format a fourth grader would understand.

With Their Knowledge Combined, Two Scholars Are Deciphering a Long-Lost Native Language

When historian Alejandra Dubcovsky was in graduate school in the early 2000s, she decided to focus her research on the Indigenous cultures of the Americas. “I asked my professors, ‘Should I learn any Native languages?’” Dubcovsky recalled. “And they were like, ‘Why? You know Spanish, you know French—you’re set for life.’” Dubcovsky laughed. “And I went to Berkeley!”

Dubcovsky’s teachers were just repeating what their own mentors had told them: Native languages were too hard to learn, and most pre-Columbian cultures didn’t leave behind written records anyway. Some, like the Aztec and Maya, had hieroglyphic systems, but those symbols offered little insight into the spoken languages themselves. Why shouldn’t Dubcovsky, who was born in Argentina, just study the records of Spanish colonizers the way generations before her had done?

When she connected with Aaron Broadwell, a linguistics professor at the University of Florida, she found the missing puzzle pieces she had been seeking. Broadwell was an expert on the Native languages of the American Southeast—Choctaw, Creek and others that belonged to the Muskogee family. His most ambitious project was decoding a language, spoken by the Timucua people, that is unrelated to any other known tongue.

When Spanish colonizers arrived in the 16th century, Timucua was the most widely spoken language in large swaths of Florida and Georgia. Within two centuries, by the time of U.S. independence, its speakers had all been enslaved, felled by disease or absorbed into other language groups. Despite its diminishment, Timucua left a record—it was the first Native language within modern U.S. borders to be put into writing, albeit using the Roman alphabet. Rare book libraries hold Franciscan texts that display Spanish on one side and Timucua on the other. Most historians just read the Spanish side. But Dubcovsky wanted to know what the Timucua texts really said.

Since around 2000, Broadwell has been assembling the first comprehensive online Timucua dictionary, with the help of graduate students and computer programs that can search for patterns in grammar and meaning. Together, he and Dubcovsky have also made a number of startling new discoveries that challenge the usual narrative about how the Timucua language came to be written down.

Those of us at Smithsonian repeated a version of that narrative in our March issue, briefly crediting the Franciscan missionary Francisco Pareja with transcribing the Timucua language into the Roman alphabet. That version of the story, with Pareja at the center, has been widely promulgated for generations. As a catalogue entry at the Library of Congress puts it: “Timucuan is a dead language. Spoken by an Indigenous tribe that lived in northeast-north central Florida during the time of Spanish colonization, it was learned and recorded by Friar Francisco Pareja, a missionary and self-taught linguist. Thanks to his efforts, Timucua is now considered the best-attested language from a Native tribe in Spanish Colonial Florida.”
user
You got it! Here’s a rewritten version of the article a fourth grader could comprehend.

Alejandra Dubcovsky and Aaron Broadwell were two smart people that wanted to see if they could figure out a lost Native American language. Different cultures and languages have always been interesting to Alejandra, but her teachers told her that she didn’t have to take language classes since she already knew Spanish and French. That didn’t stop her!

Aaron is really good at Native American languages, and he teaches other students all about them. At this time, he was trying to translate the Timucua language. Did you know that many people in Florida and Georgia spoke Timucua once? However, once Spanish invaders came to the land in the 1500s, and the language was no longer spoken due to problems that arose.

Some really old books have Timucua words, just like we do today, even though the language nearly went away forever. Many people stick to the Spanish translation, but Alejandra was very curious, and she found Timucua vocabulary inside these books. 

Since 2000, Aaron has been working very hard to make a dictionary based on the Timucua language. He has his students to help him and uses computers for complex assignments. Together, both Aaron and Alejandra have made a lot of progress!

People used to think that a Spanish missionary named Francisco Pareja was the first person to write Timucua. But there could be more to the story! Alejandra and Aaron’s actions have let us know more about Timucua.

assistant
<|system|>
</s>
<|user|>
Rewrite this in a format a fourth grader would understand.

With Their Knowledge Combined, Two Scholars Are Deciphering a Long-Lost Native Language

When historian Alejandra Dubcovsky was in graduate school in the early 2000s, she decided to focus her research on the Indigenous cultures of the Americas. “I asked my professors, ‘Should I learn any Native languages?’” Dubcovsky recalled. “And they were like, ‘Why? You know Spanish, you know French—you’re set for life.’” Dubcovsky laughed. “And I went to Berkeley!”

Dubcovsky’s teachers were just repeating what their own mentors had told them: Native languages were too hard to learn, and most pre-Columbian cultures didn’t leave behind written records anyway. Some, like the Aztec and Maya, had hieroglyphic systems, but those symbols offered little insight into the spoken languages themselves. Why shouldn’t Dubcovsky, who was born in Argentina, just study the records of Spanish colonizers the way generations before her had done?

When she connected with Aaron Broadwell, a linguistics professor at the University of Florida, she found the missing puzzle pieces she had been seeking. Broadwell was an expert on the Native languages of the American Southeast—Choctaw, Creek and others that belonged to the Muskogee family. His most ambitious project was decoding a language, spoken by the Timucua people, that is unrelated to any other known tongue.

When Spanish colonizers arrived in the 16th century, Timucua was the most widely spoken language in large swaths of Florida and Georgia. Within two centuries, by the time of U.S. independence, its speakers had all been enslaved, felled by disease or absorbed into other language groups. Despite its diminishment, Timucua left a record—it was the first Native language within modern U.S. borders to be put into writing, albeit using the Roman alphabet. Rare book libraries hold Franciscan texts that display Spanish on one side and Timucua on the other. Most historians just read the Spanish side. But Dubcovsky wanted to know what the Timucua texts really said.

Since around 2000, Broadwell has been assembling the first comprehensive online Timucua dictionary, with the help of graduate students and computer programs that can search for patterns in grammar and meaning. Together, he and Dubcovsky have also made a number of startling new discoveries that challenge the usual narrative about how the Timucua language came to be written down.

Those of us at Smithsonian repeated a version of that narrative in our March issue, briefly crediting the Franciscan missionary Francisco Pareja with transcribing the Timucua language into the Roman alphabet. That version of the story, with Pareja at the center, has been widely promulgated for generations. As a catalogue entry at the Library of Congress puts it: “Timucuan is a dead language. Spoken by an Indigenous tribe that lived in northeast-north central Florida during the time of Spanish colonization, it was learned and recorded by Friar Francisco Pareja, a missionary and self-taught linguist. Thanks to his efforts, Timucua is now considered the best-attested language from a Native tribe in Spanish Colonial Florida.”</s>
<|assistant|>
You got it! Here’s a rewritten version of the article a fourth grader could comprehend.

Alejandra Dubcovsky and Aaron Broadwell were two smart people that wanted to see if they could figure out a lost Native American language. Different cultures and languages have always been interesting to Alejandra, but her teachers told her that she didn’t have to take language classes since she already knew Spanish and French. That didn’t stop her!

Aaron is really good at Native American languages, and he teaches other students all about them. At this time, he was trying to translate the Timucua language. Did you know that many people in Florida and Georgia spoke Timucua once? However, once Spanish invaders came to the land in the 1500s, and the language was no longer spoken due to problems that arose.

Some really old books have Timucua words, just like we do today, even though the language nearly went away forever. Many people stick to the Spanish translation, but Alejandra was very curious, and she found Timucua vocabulary inside these books. 

Since 2000, Aaron has been working very hard to make a dictionary based on the Timucua language. He has his students to help him and uses computers for complex assignments. Together, both Aaron and Alejandra have made a lot of progress!

People used to think that a Spanish missionary named Francisco Pareja was the first person to write Timucua. But there could be more to the story! Alejandra and Aaron’s actions have let us know more about Timucua.
</s>
