Submitted by paul thomas rollinson on January 19, 2024, at 9:38
Mr. Gourgues- I am so glad that I have found this site!
I am a storyteller who honed his stories in the Wendat longhouses (Christian and non-Christian) at St. Marie among the Hurons in Midland, Ontario. In researching at the library (which no longer exists) I ran across the Wendat word Yihan in The Long Voyage by Sagard. The word, I believe, was used before a get together for storytelling and at the end. I intuitively thought the word meant" let the stories continue". I based that thought on the fact that given the nature of Wendat stories (and many other cultures) i.e. creation, discursive, traditional, familial etc. those stories all would be retold and/or told for the first time in some cases and that all stories their stories were not necessarily finite. I thought that because in life the stories always begin before you are born and continue even after you die. I thought it was a Wendat nod to the fact that all anybody is, is stories. Have I assumed too much? Have I over-thought what this word means?
I have always said yihan with an up lift/nasality on the 2nd syllable, is that correct? merci Paul
I am a storyteller who honed his stories in the Wendat longhouses (Christian and non-Christian) at St. Marie among the Hurons in Midland, Ontario. In researching at the library (which no longer exists) I ran across the Wendat word Yihan in The Long Voyage by Sagard. The word, I believe, was used before a get together for storytelling and at the end. I intuitively thought the word meant" let the stories continue". I based that thought on the fact that given the nature of Wendat stories (and many other cultures) i.e. creation, discursive, traditional, familial etc. those stories all would be retold and/or told for the first time in some cases and that all stories their stories were not necessarily finite. I thought that because in life the stories always begin before you are born and continue even after you die. I thought it was a Wendat nod to the fact that all anybody is, is stories. Have I assumed too much? Have I over-thought what this word means?
I have always said yihan with an up lift/nasality on the 2nd syllable, is that correct? merci Paul