Hear the Beatles’ ‘Blackbird’ Sung in the Indigenous Mi’kmaq Language

To raise aware­ness of her native lan­guage, 16-year-old Emma Stevens sang a ver­sion of The Bea­t­les’ 1968 clas­sic “Black­bird” in the Mi’k­maq lan­guage, an East­ern Algo­nquian lan­guage spo­ken by near­ly 11,000 in Cana­da and the Unit­ed States. A mem­ber of the Eska­soni First Nation, the Nova Sco­tia stu­dent sang lyrics that were painstak­ing­ly trans­lat­ed by Katani Julian, a teacher who works in lan­guage revi­tal­iza­tion. Julian told WBUR. “My lan­guage is very dif­fer­ent from oth­er ones.” “There’s a lot of syl­la­bles in ours. And there’s a lot of long words that trans­late into some­thing real­ly easy in Eng­lish.”

You can find the lyrics below and the song above.

Pu’tliskiej wap­in­in­toq
Kina’masi telayja’timk
tel pitawsin
eskimatimu’sipnek nike’ mnja’sin

Pu’tliskiej wap­in­in­toq
Ewlapin nike’ nmiteke
tel pkitawsin
eskimatimu’sipnek nike’ seya’sin

Pu’tliskiej…layja’si
ta’n wasatek poqnitpa’qiktuk

Pu’tliskiej…layja’si
ta’n wasatek poqnitpa’qiktuk

Pu’tliskiej wap­in­in­toq
Kina’masi telayja’timk
tel pitawsin

eskimatimu’sipnek nike’ mnja’sin
eskimatimu’sipnek nike’ mnja’sin
eskimatimu’sipnek nike’ mnja’sin

——————————————————–

Boo-dull-ees-kee-edge wob­bin-in-toq
Kee-na-ma-see dell-I-jaw-dimk
dell-bit-ow-sin
ess-gum-mud-dum-oo-sup-neg nike’ mn-jaw-sin

Boo-dull-ees-kee-edge wob­bin-in-toq
ew-la-bin nike’ num-mid-deh-geh
dell-bit-ow-sin
ess-gum-mud-dum-oo-sup-neg say-ya-sin

Boo-dull-ees-kee-edge, lie-jaw-see
don was­sa-deg poq-nit-ba’q‑ik-tuk

Boo-dull-ees-kee-edge, lie-jaw-see
don was­sa-deg poq-nit-ba’q‑ik-tuk

Boo-dull-ees-kee-edge wob­bin-in-toq
Kee-na-ma-see dell-I-jaw-dimk
dell-bit-ow-sin

ess-gum-mud-dum-oo-sup-neg nike’ mn-jaw-sin
ess-gum-mud-dum-oo-sup-neg nike’ mn-jaw-sin
ess-gum-mud-dum-oo-sup-neg nike’ mn-jaw-sin

Relat­ed Con­tent 

Watch Pre­cious­ly Rare Footage of Paul McCart­ney Record­ing “Black­bird” at Abbey Road Stu­dios (1968)

Paul McCart­ney Explains How Bach Influ­enced “Black­bird”

How The Bea­t­les Reviewed Songs Top­ping the Charts Dur­ing the 1960s: Hear Their Takes on the Beach Boys, Ray Charles, the Byrds, Joan Baez & More

Hear the Brazil­ian Met­al Band Singing in–and Try­ing to Save–Their Native Lan­guage of Tupi-Guarani