[Jim]

In Native American chants, the singers often emit syllables that sound to my uneducated ear like ‘Uh hey hey ya yup uh hey hey.’ Are these real words in the singer’s language, or are they just sounds meant to follow the rhythm and melody, and to convey some kind of general mood?

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[ACC25037]

In music they’re called vocables, sounds that don’t ‘mean’ anything specifically, but still manage to convey a feeling. Their equivalent in English lyric songs might be ‘be-bop-a-lu-ah’ or ‘whoa-oh’ and so on. I’ve heard some people say that these vocables originally started being sung in some Native songs by young Native students in boarding schools where they were barred from using their own languages. But some of the songs are far older than the start of boarding schools. And different tribes use different styles of vocables.

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[AmberW]

We learned about this very thing in my ‘ Music of the World’s People’ class in my college. Apparently, these syllables are ‘nonsense syllables’, which are not actual words in any Native American language, but rather ‘filler’ for many of the songs and rituals in N.American dance.These ‘nonsense syllables’ usually begin with the letters N,H,L,S, or M and are followed by the endings ay,ah,oh, or y.

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[Dan-I]

While not a Native American myself, I grew up on a reservation, most of my friends are Natives, and I had no choice but to be completely immersed in Native American culture (this is a tribe of Anishinabe/Ojibwe/Chippewas in northern Minnesota, btw). There are lots of different types of songs, but it sounds like you’re talking about the typical sort of pow-wow song that would usually by performed by several people pounding on one drum and singing. Actually, these songs tend to follow a sort of verse-chorus-verse structure, just like most pop music. How it works is this: there’s typically a sort of ‘lead singer’ who will start out the song with a verse, which will actually have lyrics, although they may be incomprehensible because they are often sung in a high wailing voice without much enunciation of syllables. Then the rest of the singers join in, and the ‘chorus’ may be made up of either lyrics or just a general wailing sound. Often in songs like these even if there are lyrics most of the singers won’t know them and will just wail along.

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[Rob29707]

I spent a few years drumming and dancing at pow-wows. Most of the songs that I remember were composed of both words and what we called vocables, which were sounds interspersed amongst the words of a song. The same thing happens in most pop as well. Look at the Beatles’ song She Loves You – ‘She loves you, yeah yeah yeah’. The ‘yeah, yeah,yeah’ part has no real linguistic value, its a vocable. It creates a pleasing vocal rhythm.

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[Zen]

This subject came up in a ethnomusicology class I took in undergrad….the tones used are called ‘vocables’…and are more tones, rather than actual words with meaning outside the particular song. But you are pretty close to the meaning…the vocables are used to convey feeling, provide melody, and emphasis, the meter and melody are more important…though the same vocables are used in lots of songs, the order is usually unique to the song, mixing up the order might actually change the meaning…other songs do have words in the particular Tribes language, but the changing tends to be more ceremonial and specific, where the intent and feeling are more important than telling a story with words. I’m by no means very well educated on this…this is just what I could remember through the fog of time…(the class was 8 years ago)…and others feel free to correct me if I’m wrong… =)

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[swilson]

My wife studied and worked with the Native American community for some time. The sounds you hear are called ‘vocables’. They were developed for chanting at pow wows when pow wows first became common around 1900. Pow wows were one of the first time natives of many different tribes celebrated together with any regularity. As it was too hard to teach each other the tribal languages, they simplified the tribal songs to a common set of vocables.

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[Kelley]

I’m not Native American, but work as an anthropologist with several AZ tribal programs. My understanding is that northern Plains tribes, who speak many different languages,developed songs using sounds that don’t have meaning in specific languages, but that do convey meaning to spiritual beings. One Shoshone gentleman told me that God knows the intended meaning, and it isn’t necessary for humans to know. In contrast, Southwestern tribes like the Hopi and Navajo have songs with meaningful words in their own languages, and only sing the ‘heya heya’ forms in inter-tribal gatherings like pow-wows.

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[Riker]

Its just a form of musical chanting but there is more to it than just a hey ya hey ya. It really depends not so much on the tribe, but where they are from. Singers from the Texas/Okla area sing different than tribes in the northern areas.

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[Kari]

It all depends on the culture but I can safely say for most native american singing and chanting the words you hear are what is known as vocalbles which are sounds that have no real meaning they just add to the sound of the piece all together. There are songs out there that have actual native words, and there are some with a mix of vocables and words, while there are also some songs with nothing but vocables.

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[Arlyne23778]

Its a mixture of both. I can’t think of any words with my limited knowledge of ANY native language that would sound like what you’re talking about, but I do go to the pow-wows and religous ceremonies of my mother who, though mostly white, follows Oddawa traditional ceremonies and have noticed much the same and eventually got around to asking. The main answer is this: If you’re hearing this on tape or publically somewhere, be it at a pow wow or exibition, it’s likely half and half. It sounds good, it goes with the drum, and so it’s used. Some of them may well be actual words though, despite how they sound. I call my Mum ‘neigna’ half the time, which is Ojibway for ‘mother’. Most people just assume it’s some random sounds that I used for her in childhood and will laugh and mock it back at me ‘knee-yen-ga?’ (it’s actually pronounced much like its spelled, Neen-ga, but some people have a hard time satying it). In ceremonial songs a lot of this ‘filler’ has been cut out, leaving the music if a bit abrupt and harsh sounding, without uneccesary meaningless things that could offend the spirits. A possibible explination for this in social music that I have been given is that when people were put on the mixed tribe reservations they usually didn’t speak each others language so came up with ‘meaningless’ songs to share with each other to pass the time, without possibly pissing off their ancestors who may not like outsiders knowing spiritually-relevent songs without knowing their meaning/when and where they should be used. Hope that clarifies the issue somewhat for you.

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[Stephani]

I was actually just having this discussion with my boyfriend whom is caucasion. I am Native American, and was offended by little kids running around pretending to be ‘indians’ and patting their mouth with their hand and making howling noises. (The typical thing people do when impersonating a native american)This (idiotic) practice was dirived from most settlers inability to pronounce most of the words in Native American dialect. The sounds you are hearing are words in fact. Most Native languages are very complex. Most of the Europeans who came over found it very hard to pronounce the native words, because they made sounds that were never used in (English, french) dialect (lt lh ks kegh). Many of those sounds today are still very hard for most to make with their mouths. So thats why you may think you’re hearing nothing, but you’re actually hearing something.

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[Jessica G.]

In some cases, they are words, but in others they are just that. Noise. Not unspecific noise, but people who do yoga, use the sound ‘Ohm’ as a way to reach that point of inner spirituality, so do the native americans use the drums and the chants to reach their inner spirituality. But in many cases, it is a prayer that is being said. Just a bit of trivia for you: The word/phrase ‘huh?’ is Cherokee. It means ‘What did you say??’

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[Allen Retasket]

They are just that. Chants. Most Native American songs are just chants. Today, as our culture is ever changing, some of the contemporary Native American songs use Native American words. The old songs were just chants. The songs were handed down from generation to generation and most belonged to famlies and were only sung by the famlies that owned them. There are songs called ‘Round dance Songs’ that have English words and sometimes convey an expression of love for another and some convey humor.

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[LeTonne22905]

Within my tribal culture, the chanting type is directly linked to the type of ceremony. Most of our native language and dialects have been lost. Therefore, the syllabic emissions often follow a pattern of conveying emotion. A playful tone with sharp/short syllables are present in Sun Dances and Harvest celebrations, for example. A deeper toned, more somber sound comes with traditional Burial Marches. The only entire linguistic record related to ceremony preserved by our People is that of Joining or marriage. It is generally believed that this was saved through the secret ceremonies during the Reservation Eras. Some other tribes or People do have parts of their native language intact and celebrate their heritage through its use.

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