From dzo at BISHARAT.NET  Wed Dec  1 16:22:15 2004
From: dzo at BISHARAT.NET (Donald Z. Osborn)
Date: Wed, 1 Dec 2004 10:22:15 -0600
Subject: Andean Center for Teacher Training improves reading in Bolivia
Message-ID: <WED.1.DEC.2004.102215.0600.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

The following from the Nur University Newsletter
http://www.nur.edu/nins/wp_nins0101.html may be of interest. Although it
doesn't mention it until the end, the approach is bilingual Quechua/Spanish.
DZO


Andean Center for Teacher Training:
Improving Reading in Primary Schools

The program trains teachers in methods that improve reading comprehension
After 18 months of operation, Nur's Andean Center of Excellence for Teacher
Training (CETT) is making a visible difference in the way children are learning
to read. Nur's teacher training Center, supported by the US Government and
private contributions, is one of three Latin American Centers established under
a Summit of the Americas Initiative in April, 2001.

The program trains teachers in methods that improve reading comprehension. It is
based on the concept of nurturing meaningful communication for children, not
only in the classroom, but in their lives.

The growing impact of the CETT project has been covered widely by Bolivian
newspapers. The articles focus on the resulting enthusiasm of children who
become more eager to read and learn after receiving instruction in the
interactive reading methods promoted by the program.

The program's goal is to provide intensive teacher training for 6,000 primary
school teachers who will reach 180,000 children in Bolivia. Its work is based
on the latest research findings identifying the most effective ways of teaching
reading. Through the documentation of its work, Nur's Center is advancing the
field of bilingual intercultural education -- in this case, Quechua and
Spanish.

[NB- The Universidad Nur website is http://www.nur.edu/]


From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US  Wed Dec  1 17:50:24 2004
From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP)
Date: Wed, 1 Dec 2004 10:50:24 -0700
Subject: microsoft
Message-ID: <WED.1.DEC.2004.105024.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

Hi, Keola,

I fixed the web site, took out all the over-corrective apostrophes. Am
working on implementing the Exploratorium concept (the first one was
established in San Francisco in 1967-68), for the math and science standards
here in New Mexico. It would be so wonderful if Mele could be a springboard
context in Hawai'i (Is that an over-correction? Or is that right?)

I think it would be so great if there were a First Nations group of people
who made fonts for others, who knew all the technical details and were
available to the people.. .  of course, and if they could earn a living wage
:-) ) Sometimes people forget about this part.

Mia

----- Original Message -----
From: "Keola Donaghy" <keola at LEOKI.UHH.HAWAII.EDU>
To: <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, November 17, 2004 5:20 PM
Subject: Re: microsoft


> Aloha e Mia. You raise a good point. Most of our technology initiatives
> have been grant funded. In our case, the Hawaiian language community and
> the university are very closely intertwined. It isn't a case of the
> University helping the language community - we are a big part of that
> larger community. We've been very successful at raising the level of
> computer proficiency from our pre-school programs through the university
> level, doing localizations, curriculum development, providing online
> services and technical support throughout the state, and have been doing
> it without having to hire $150 an hour "consultants" to do it for us. I
> can't imagine that we would have been successful if we did not have this
> dynamic. But it required people from within that language community (at
> the time mostly university students, myself included) with the technical
> expertise (or a willingness to gain the expertise) to pull it together.
>
> I don't think any tribe or language group would be very successful if they
> were not full and active partners, if not taking the lead, in a
> collaboration in this area. If it is simply done for them by others, it
> would be destined to flop.
>
> Keola
>
>
>
> Indigenous Languages and Technology <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU> writes:
> >Is anyone submitting to the AIQ? I really think a bunch of us ought to
> >write
> >about this. We have a lot of people talking about revitalization, but so
> >far, there is a lot a rhetoric. I think this is both because the
> >technological support is not there, and also because we aren't having a
> >public discussion about the processes, steps, and issues. I see a lot of
> >wonderful links provided by the tireless Phil, but I wonder how many of
> >these happen because someone at the university gets a grant. How many
> >actual
> >TRIBES have the technology and expertise to design, develop and support
> >their own programs (which I think is Very Important).
>
>
> ========================================================================
> Keola Donaghy
> Assistant Professor of Hawaiian Studies
> Ka Haka 'Ula O Ke'elikolani             keola at leoki.uhh.hawaii.edu
> University of Hawai'i at Hilo           http://www2.hawaii.edu/~donaghy/
> ========================================================================
>
>


From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU  Mon Dec  6 16:18:23 2004
From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash)
Date: Mon, 6 Dec 2004 09:18:23 -0700
Subject: Broadening linguistic horizon (fwd)
Message-ID: <MON.6.DEC.2004.091823.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

Broadening linguistic horizon

Posted on Friday, December 03 @ 19:16:19 CST BST
http://www.kuenselonline.com/article.php?sid=4771&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

3 December 2004 - A historical perspective on the development of
Dzongkha, a comparative study on written Tibetan and written Dzongkha
and the nominalization in Tshangla were among research papers presented
by Bhutanese scholars in the 10th Himalayan language symposium which
concluded today in Thimphu.

Two foreign linguists, George Van Driem and Dr. Stephen Watters also
presented papers on the grammars of Lhokpu, Black mountain Moenpa and
Kheng Gongduk and on the property concepts in Dzongkha.

At the three-day symposium, eight research papers were presented on
Bhutanese languages, the largest so far, besides five papers on
languages in Nepal, two on Tibetan languages, two on Indian languages
and one on a language in south China. The presentations were made by
sixteen international linguists and six Bhutanese scholars.

The hybridity in the Himalayas; thoughts on the terminological
construction of ethnic categories; dictionary writing in the Himalayas
and reflections on varying ethno linguistic approaches; Tibetan verb
paradigms were some of the other research papers that were presented.

“The research presentation, debate and discussion has opened a new
horizon, new field for research, and a new assignment for the linguists
on endangered Himalayan languages,” said the director of the Himalayan
Language Project Professor George Van Driem.

For Bhutanese scholars, the symposium stimulated more scientific
investigation of languages and dialects in the country. So far very few
had ventured in this field.

At the inauguration of the symposium, the education minister Lyonpo
Thinley Gyamtsho said that indigenous languages and dialects were
deteriorating all over the world and Bhutan too was feeling the pinch.

“Many languages in certain parts of the Himalayas are endangered. It is
the duty of the linguists to document these languages for the benefit
of our future generations before they vanish,” said Lyonpo Thinley
Gyamtsho.

The symposium, an annual event for linguists researching Himalayan
languages was held for the first time in Bhutan and was jointly
organized by the home ministry and the Dzongkha Development Authority.

By Bishal Rai
bishal at kuensel.com.bt


From mward at LUNA.CC.NM.US  Mon Dec  6 16:52:57 2004
From: mward at LUNA.CC.NM.US (Matthew Ward)
Date: Mon, 6 Dec 2004 09:52:57 -0700
Subject: As ice thaws, Arctic peoples at a loss for words (fwd)
Message-ID: <MON.6.DEC.2004.095257.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

...well, for the Arctic languages that are still used in everyday life
(many are), then new words will be created...  but not necessarily from
native roots.  The article below gives examples of word-coining ("bird
with red breast," which is no different from "blackbird" or other
descriptive terms), but also gives examples of borrowing (Saami
borrowing "elg," the Norwegian word for "Elk").  Both are very common
and equally legitimate forms of word-creation.  I do understand,
however, that the speakers of many indigenous languages resist borrowing
words from the dominant languages of their country or region.  There may
be good reasons for that, but, regardless,  a certain amount of
word-borrowing will continue...  as long as the language remains living,
that is.

I do find that, quite often, when you hear the statement "such and such
a word doesn't exist in X language," particularly if you are talking
about an object or concept that is new to the speakers of that language,
the word in question does in fact exist...  it's just that it's a recent
loanword, a recent coinage, a poorly-known term, that there is not yet
any agreement on which word to use, or some combination of the above.
 Of course, this is also true of English and other powerful languages,
it's just that, English-speakers can borrow a foreign word and see it as
a legitimate English word, while, for speakers of many other languages,
if they use an word borrowed from English, it is often seen as "speaking
English," even if the word has been fully nativized.

BTW, I also think it's worth noting that, while the Arctic peoples of
Alaska and Canada  may in fact use English (rather than borrowed English
words in their own languages) to discuss these new objects, all the
other Arctic peoples do not live in English-dominant societies, and, as
such, if they do discuss new objects in languages other than their
traditional languages, they will be using Danish, Norwegian, Swedish,
Finnish, Russian, etc., and are also much more likely to borrow words
from those languages than from English.

MiaKalish at LFP wrote:

>I think this is just one dimension of the Language Extension Issue. Computer
>technology is the one I am most familiar with. Living languages just
>naturally create words, like x-ray, photomicrograph, and carbuerator. SUV.
>Railroad. AK-47. For others, the creation of just one new word requires
>weeks of meetings. Possibly, the new word will never happen in that
>language, and people will use English.
>
>Mia
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "phil cash cash" <cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU>
>To: <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
>Sent: Sunday, November 21, 2004 10:44 AM
>Subject: spam: As ice thaws, Arctic peoples at a loss for words (fwd)
>
>
>As ice thaws, Arctic peoples at a loss for words
>
>By Alister Doyle
>http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_20-11-2004_pg4_8
>
>WHAT are the words used by indigenous peoples in the Arctic for
>�~Shornet�~T, �~Srobin�~T, �~Selk�~T, �~Sbarn owl�~T or �~Ssalmon�~T? If you don�~Rt know,
>you�~Rre not alone.
>
>Many indigenous languages have no words for legions of new animals,
>insects and plants advancing north as global warming thaws the polar
>ice and lets forests creep over tundra.
>
>�~SWe can�~Rt even describe what we�~Rre seeing,�~T said Sheila Watt-Cloutier,
>chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference which says it represents
>155,000 people in Canada, Alaska, Greenland and Russia.
>
>In the Inuit language Inuktitut, robins are known just as the �~Sbird with
>the red breast�~T, she said. Inuit hunters in north Canada recently saw
>some ducks but have not figured out what species they were, in
>Inuktitut or any other language.
>
>An eight-nation report this month says the Arctic is warming twice as
>fast as the rest of the planet and that the North Pole could be
>ice-free in northern hemisphere summer by 2100, threatening indigenous
>cultures and perhaps wiping out creatures like polar bears. The report,
>by 250 scientists and funded by the United States, Canada, Russia,
>Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark and Iceland, puts most of the blame on
>a build-up of heat-trapping gases from human use of fossil fuels like
>coal and oil.
>
>The thaw may have some positive spin-offs for people, for instance by
>making chill Arctic seas more habitable for cod or herring or by
>shifting agricultural lands and forestry north. But on land, more and
>more species will be cramming into an ever-narrowing strip bounded to
>the north by the Arctic Ocean, threatening to destroy fragile Arctic
>ecosystems from mosses to Arctic foxes or snowy owls.
>
>Elk shock: In Arctic Europe, birch trees are gaining ground and Saami
>reindeer herders are seeing roe deer or even elk, a forest-dwelling
>cousin of moose, on former lichen pastures.
>
>�~SI know about 1,200 words for reindeer- we classify them by age, sex,
>colour, antlers,�~T said Nils Isak Eira, who manages a herd of 2,000
>reindeer in north Norway.
>
>�~SI know just one word for elk - �~Qsarvva�~R,�~T said 50-year-old Eira. �~SBut
>the animals are so unusual that many Saami use the Norwegian word
>�~Qelg�~R. When I was a child it was like a mythical creature.�~T
>
>Thrushes have been spotted in Saami areas of the Arctic in winter,
>apparently too lazy to bother migrating south. Foreign ministers from
>the eight Arctic countries are due to meet in Reykjavik on Nov. 24 but
>are sharply divided about what to do. The United States is most opposed
>to any drastic new action.
>
>The US is the only country among the eight to reject the 127-nation
>Kyoto protocol meant to cap emissions of greenhouse gases. President
>George W Bush says the UN pact would cost too much and unfairly
>excludes developing states.
>
>In some more southerly areas of the Arctic, like Canada�~Rs Hudson Bay,
>receding ice means polar bears are already struggling. The bears�~R main
>trick is to pounce when seals surface to breathe through holes in the
>ice. The Arctic report says polar bears �~Sare unlikely to survive as a
>species if there is a complete loss of summer-ice cover�~T. Restricted to
>land, polar bears would have to compete with better-adapted grizzly or
>brown bears. �~SThe outlook for polar bears is stark. My grandson will
>lose the culture I had as a child,�~T said Watt-Cloutier, referring to
>Inuit hunting cultures based on catching seals, bears or whales.
>
>Salman, owls: Around the Arctic, salmon are swimming into more northerly
>waters, hornets are buzzing north and barn owls are flying to regions
>where indigenous people have never even seen a barn.
>
>Watt-Cloutier said indigenous peoples lacked well-known words for all of
>them.
>
>The Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA) report says that the region
>is set to warm by 4-7 degrees centigrade (7-13 degrees Fahrenheit) by
>2100, twice the rate of the rest of the globe. The Arctic warms fast
>partly because dark ground and water, once uncovered, soaks up much
>more heat than snow and ice.
>
>�~SOverall, forests are likely to move north and displace tundra,�~T said
>Terry Callaghan, a professor of Arctic ecology at the University of
>Lund, Sweden. �~SThat will bring more species - birds that nest in trees,
>beetles that live in bark, fungi�~T.
>
>The lack of words to describe newcomers does not stop at animals and
>plants. �~SWords like �~Qthunderstorm�~R don�~Rt exist because they are
>phenomena indigenous peoples have never known,�~T said Robert Corell,
>chair of the ACIA study. reuters
>
>
>


From mward at LUNA.CC.NM.US  Mon Dec  6 17:09:55 2004
From: mward at LUNA.CC.NM.US (Matthew Ward)
Date: Mon, 6 Dec 2004 10:09:55 -0700
Subject: Linguist Warns of Language Extinction (fwd)
Message-ID: <MON.6.DEC.2004.100955.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

Once again, we encounter the misleading belief that "global languages
like English" are responsible for the huge loss of languages worldwide.
 Yes, international languages like English, French, Spanish, Arabic, and
Mandarin Chinese are displacing numerous languages in the societies
where those international languages happen to be the dominant native
languages, but the real culprit is dominant national languages (whether
official or not).  Languages like Thai, Danish, Norwegian, Burmese,
Hindi and Russian are not considered international languages, yet they
threaten the indigenous languages of their societies just as effectively
as do English and French.  Focusing on international languages is highly
misleading.

phil cash cash wrote:

>Linguist Warns of Language Extinction
>
>By Patrick Sheridan
>Special to The Hoya
>Tuesday, November 23, 2004; Page A1
>http://www.thehoya.com/news/112304/news5.cfm
>
>Oxford University English Language Professor Suzanne Romaine emphasized
>the importance of preserving endangered languages in a speech Thursday
>evening at the Leavey Conference Center.
>
>"We should think about languages as other natural resources that require
>preserving," she said.
>
>Much of Romaine's speech focused on the diversity of languages around
>the world, which she said was threatened by the emergence of global
>languages like English.
>
>"We are crossing a threshold of extinction for certain languages," she
>said.
>
>Romaine said that it was not until the 1990s that professional
>linguistics began to be concerned about language death.
>
>She identified three possible responses to this problem.
>
>"One, do nothing. Two, document endangered languages. Or three, sustain
>or revitalize endangered languages," she said.
>
>Romaine noted that there are some linguists who claim that language
>death is a natural process that should not be interrupted.
>
>Romaine also said that most language death affects indigenous peoples
>that are poorly-equipped to prevent it.
>
>"Language death does not happen in the privileged communities, it
>happens to the dispossessed and disempowered," she said.
>
>While indigenous peoples make up only 4 percent of the world's
>population, they speak 60 percent of its over 6,000 languages, Romaine
>said.
>
>Though many dismiss language death outside the industrialized world as
>unimportant, Romaine said the loss of language diversity in the world
>is a significant problem.
>
>To emphasize that point, she described an analogy between language death
>and building destruction.
>
>Romaine said that if one-fifth of the world's buildings were endangered,
>architects would care. Linguists should therefore care in protecting
>languages, no matter where or by whom they are spoken, she said.
>
>She insisted that at the very least there should be an effort to
>document endangered languages. According to Romaine, even if these
>languages no longer serve a practical purpose they should still be
>recorded because knowledge is valuable in itself.
>
>Romaine cautioned, however, that while technology has made documentation
>of languages easier, it has also made the data more vulnerable and less
>likely to endure for future generations.
>
>"We will record more data than any other time but will probably lose
>more data than any other time," Romaine warned.
>
>Romaine also said that attempts to preserve and revitalize endangered
>languages did not require the isolation of indigenous peoples.
>
>"It is not about isolating endangered peoples and languages but at least
>giving them a choice to continue their way of life," she said.
>
>Romaine pointed to the Inuit people of North America as an example of an
>endangered culture and language. She said that over the years, efforts
>by the Canadian government to assimilate them had produced shame about
>their cultural and linguistic identity.
>
>In closing her speech, Romaine reasserted the need to stem language
>death and said that steps need to be taken to empower local
>populations.
>
>Romaine is a visiting professor for the year at Georgetown, serving in
>the Linguistics Department. She is this year's recipient of the Royden
>B. Davis, S.J., Chair in Interdisciplinary Studies.
>
>Her speech was delivered as the annual Royden B. Davis, S.J., Lecture in
>Interdisciplinary Studies.
>
>
>

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From mikinakn at SHAW.CA  Mon Dec  6 18:47:57 2004
From: mikinakn at SHAW.CA (Rolland Nadjiwon)
Date: Mon, 6 Dec 2004 13:47:57 -0500
Subject: Linguist Warns of Language Extinction (fwd)
Message-ID: <MON.6.DEC.2004.134757.0500.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

You can certainly have more than one worm differing in size and appetite in the same apple , however, the end result is still the same -- no more apple, which may, if I may, be the jist of Phil's post. It is unlikely, the destruction of language by particulars can be seen as a solution but rather an extension of the same discussion. In any situation where language(not restricted to language) exercises hegemony the result is, by nature, destructive to the other.

-------
wahjeh
rolland nadjiwon


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Matthew Ward 
  To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU 
  Sent: Monday, December 06, 2004 12:09 PM
  Subject: Re: Linguist Warns of Language Extinction (fwd)


  Once again, we encounter the misleading belief that "global languages like English" are responsible for the huge loss of languages worldwide. Yes, international languages like English, French, Spanish, Arabic, and Mandarin Chinese are displacing numerous languages in the societies where those international languages happen to be the dominant native languages, but the real culprit is dominant national languages (whether official or not). Languages like Thai, Danish, Norwegian, Burmese, Hindi and Russian are not considered international languages, yet they threaten the indigenous languages of their societies just as effectively as do English and French. Focusing on international languages is highly misleading. 

  phil cash cash wrote:

Linguist Warns of Language Extinction

By Patrick Sheridan
Special to The Hoya
Tuesday, November 23, 2004; Page A1
http://www.thehoya.com/news/112304/news5.cfm

Oxford University English Language Professor Suzanne Romaine emphasized
the importance of preserving endangered languages in a speech Thursday
evening at the Leavey Conference Center.

"We should think about languages as other natural resources that require
preserving," she said.

Much of Romaine's speech focused on the diversity of languages around
the world, which she said was threatened by the emergence of global
languages like English.

"We are crossing a threshold of extinction for certain languages," she
said.

Romaine said that it was not until the 1990s that professional
linguistics began to be concerned about language death.

She identified three possible responses to this problem.

"One, do nothing. Two, document endangered languages. Or three, sustain
or revitalize endangered languages," she said.

Romaine noted that there are some linguists who claim that language
death is a natural process that should not be interrupted.

Romaine also said that most language death affects indigenous peoples
that are poorly-equipped to prevent it.

"Language death does not happen in the privileged communities, it
happens to the dispossessed and disempowered," she said.

While indigenous peoples make up only 4 percent of the world's
population, they speak 60 percent of its over 6,000 languages, Romaine
said.

Though many dismiss language death outside the industrialized world as
unimportant, Romaine said the loss of language diversity in the world
is a significant problem.

To emphasize that point, she described an analogy between language death
and building destruction.

Romaine said that if one-fifth of the world's buildings were endangered,
architects would care. Linguists should therefore care in protecting
languages, no matter where or by whom they are spoken, she said.

She insisted that at the very least there should be an effort to
document endangered languages. According to Romaine, even if these
languages no longer serve a practical purpose they should still be
recorded because knowledge is valuable in itself.

Romaine cautioned, however, that while technology has made documentation
of languages easier, it has also made the data more vulnerable and less
likely to endure for future generations.

"We will record more data than any other time but will probably lose
more data than any other time," Romaine warned.

Romaine also said that attempts to preserve and revitalize endangered
languages did not require the isolation of indigenous peoples.

"It is not about isolating endangered peoples and languages but at least
giving them a choice to continue their way of life," she said.

Romaine pointed to the Inuit people of North America as an example of an
endangered culture and language. She said that over the years, efforts
by the Canadian government to assimilate them had produced shame about
their cultural and linguistic identity.

In closing her speech, Romaine reasserted the need to stem language
death and said that steps need to be taken to empower local
populations.

Romaine is a visiting professor for the year at Georgetown, serving in
the Linguistics Department. She is this year's recipient of the Royden
B. Davis, S.J., Chair in Interdisciplinary Studies.

Her speech was delivered as the annual Royden B. Davis, S.J., Lecture in
Interdisciplinary Studies.

  
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From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU  Tue Dec  7 00:40:47 2004
From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash)
Date: Mon, 6 Dec 2004 17:40:47 -0700
Subject: Language Endangerment,
 Preservation and Revitalization: Call for Papers (fwd)
Message-ID: <MON.6.DEC.2004.174047.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

The 41st Annual Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society:
At the Forefront of Linguistics, April 7-9, 2005
http://humanities.uchicago.edu/orgs/cls/conf/call41.html

Call for Papers
The Chicago Linguistic Society requests paper proposals in any major
subfield of linguistic inquiry. Papers relating to any of the panel
topics are especially encouraged.

Abstract Submission: The deadline for submissions is January 15, 2005.
Submissions will be accepted online.

Language Endangerment, Preservation and Revitalization
Looking forward, we also need to be concerned with the past and present.
The goal of this panel is to highlight work that has been done in
language preservation and methodologies for revitalizing endangered and
moribund languages.

Wallace Chafe
Department of Linguistics, Emeritus
University of California, Santa Barbara

Douglas Parks
Department of Anthropology
Indiana University


From kw.aaia at VERIZON.NET  Tue Dec  7 00:51:43 2004
From: kw.aaia at VERIZON.NET (Karenne Wood)
Date: Mon, 6 Dec 2004 19:51:43 -0500
Subject: Language Endangerment,
 Preservation and Revitalization: Call for Papers (fwd)
Message-ID: <MON.6.DEC.2004.195143.0500.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

Hi!
Do you know anything about an endangered language institute that might be
offered over the summer?  I am a Native PhD student in linguistic
antropology at the University of Virginia.  I remember that last spring an
announcement was issued for a summer program at U of AZ.  Is there a similar
program being offered this summer?  My university wishes for me to develop a
summer proposal for my intended activities.  I thought you might know.  With
respect, Karenne Wood (Monacan)

----- Original Message -----
From: "phil cash cash" <cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU>
To: <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
Sent: Monday, December 06, 2004 7:40 PM
Subject: Language Endangerment, Preservation and Revitalization: Call for
Papers (fwd)


> The 41st Annual Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society:
> At the Forefront of Linguistics, April 7-9, 2005
> http://humanities.uchicago.edu/orgs/cls/conf/call41.html
>
> Call for Papers
> The Chicago Linguistic Society requests paper proposals in any major
> subfield of linguistic inquiry. Papers relating to any of the panel
> topics are especially encouraged.
>
> Abstract Submission: The deadline for submissions is January 15, 2005.
> Submissions will be accepted online.
>
> Language Endangerment, Preservation and Revitalization
> Looking forward, we also need to be concerned with the past and present.
> The goal of this panel is to highlight work that has been done in
> language preservation and methodologies for revitalizing endangered and
> moribund languages.
>
> Wallace Chafe
> Department of Linguistics, Emeritus
> University of California, Santa Barbara
>
> Douglas Parks
> Department of Anthropology
> Indiana University
>


From Jon.Reyhner at NAU.EDU  Tue Dec  7 01:35:35 2004
From: Jon.Reyhner at NAU.EDU (Jon Reyhner)
Date: Mon, 6 Dec 2004 18:35:35 -0700
Subject: Language Endangerment,
 Preservation and Revitalization: Call for Papers (fwd)
Message-ID: <MON.6.DEC.2004.183535.0700.>

Kareene:

Yes, it is June 6 to July 1 in Tucson. Go to
http://www.ed.arizona.edu/AILDI/

Jon Reyhner

Karenne Wood wrote:
> Hi!
> Do you know anything about an endangered language institute that might be
> offered over the summer?  I am a Native PhD student in linguistic
> antropology at the University of Virginia.  I remember that last spring an
> announcement was issued for a summer program at U of AZ.  Is there a similar
> program being offered this summer?  My university wishes for me to develop a
> summer proposal for my intended activities.  I thought you might know.  With
> respect, Karenne Wood (Monacan)
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "phil cash cash" <cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU>
> To: <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
> Sent: Monday, December 06, 2004 7:40 PM
> Subject: Language Endangerment, Preservation and Revitalization: Call for
> Papers (fwd)
>
>
>> The 41st Annual Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society:
>> At the Forefront of Linguistics, April 7-9, 2005
>> http://humanities.uchicago.edu/orgs/cls/conf/call41.html
>>
>> Call for Papers
>> The Chicago Linguistic Society requests paper proposals in any major
>> subfield of linguistic inquiry. Papers relating to any of the panel
>> topics are especially encouraged.
>>
>> Abstract Submission: The deadline for submissions is January 15, 2005.
>> Submissions will be accepted online.
>>
>> Language Endangerment, Preservation and Revitalization
>> Looking forward, we also need to be concerned with the past and present.
>> The goal of this panel is to highlight work that has been done in
>> language preservation and methodologies for revitalizing endangered and
>> moribund languages.
>>
>> Wallace Chafe
>> Department of Linguistics, Emeritus
>> University of California, Santa Barbara
>>
>> Douglas Parks
>> Department of Anthropology
>> Indiana University
>>
>


From sandra at ASU.EDU  Tue Dec  7 22:47:00 2004
From: sandra at ASU.EDU (Sandra Andrews)
Date: Tue, 7 Dec 2004 15:47:00 -0700
Subject: FW: MEC 2005 Call for Proposals
Message-ID: <TUE.7.DEC.2004.154700.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

Apologies for cross posting, and we'd dearly love to have any or all of you be presenters at this conference. Attendees are mostly K-12 or college/university teachers so it is also an opportunity to educate them as to your research. You don't need a fully proposal to submit, just an abstract.

Sandy Andrews
sandra at asu.edu
MEC Proposal Review Committee

>       -------------------------------------------
>       Microcomputers in Education Conference 2005 
>       March 14-16, 2005 
>       Arizona State University 
>       http://mec.asu.edu 
>       ------------------------------------------- 
>       * Please forward to education / technology Lists * 
> 
> 
> 
> Call for proposals deadline is approaching
> ---------------------------------------------
> Anyone with a stake in educational technology and its role in improving student achievement can make a meaningful presentation at MEC.
> 
> Presentation Tracks: We are actively soliciting proposals which are reflective of one or more of the following program tracks: 
>       - Showcasing Successes
>       - Social Engagement and Innovative School Reform
>       - Distance Learning
>       - Leading into Tomorrow: Emerging Technology
>       - Accessibility
>       - Curriculum Integration
>       - Geographic Information Systems
>       - Research and Theory 
> 
> MEC provides a wonderful opportunity to share your research and good work, while networking with educators, researchers, administrators, and industry professionals. 
> 
> The deadline for presentation submissions is December 31, 2004; all sessions are sixty minutes in length. Please feel free to contact us at 480.965.9700 or email info at mec.asu.edu.
> 
> Share your research, successes, projects, expertise & experiences. The call for proposals form is available online at http://mec.asu.edu/presenterRegistration
> 
> 
> 
> About MEC
> ---------
> For twenty-five years MEC has provided a forum for discussion and networking among K-12 educators, administrators, researchers, instructional designers and technology leaders.
> 
> Learn more about MEC at http://mec.asu.edu/2005/
> 
> 
> Preview the Future of Technology: 
> ----------------- 
>       - Innovative Educational Technologies 
>       - IDEA & Assistive Technologies 
>       - AZ Learns & No Child Left Behind 
>       - Proposition 203 
>       - Highly Qualified Professional Training 
>       - Tools & Techniques for your classroom 
>       - Attend Hands-on Training & Workshops 
>       - Earn Re-certification Credits 
>       - Interact with the latest technology 
> 
> 
> Register Online
> ---------------
> http://is.asu.edu/cgi-bin/WebObjects/MEC05REGISTRATION
> 
> 
> For more information call 480-965-9700 or email info at mec.asu.edu Fax 480-965-4128 or mail to:  
>       ATTN: MEC 2005 - Arizona State University 
>       PO Box 870101
>       Tempe, AZ 85287-0101 
> 
> 
> Diamond Sponsors: 
>       - Apple Computer 
>       - CCS Presentation Systems 
> 
> Partners: 
>       - Arizona Department of Education 
>       - AzTEA 
>       - AEA 
>       - ASPIN 
>       - ASU Alumni - College of Education 
> 
> 


From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU  Fri Dec 10 16:46:57 2004
From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash)
Date: Fri, 10 Dec 2004 09:46:57 -0700
Subject: Inuit teachers key to Inuktitut curriculum (fwd)
Message-ID: <FRI.10.DEC.2004.094657.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

December 10, 2004

Inuit teachers key to Inuktitut curriculum
Bilingual education strategy depends on teacher training program
JANE GEORGE
http://www.nunatsiaq.com/news/nunavut/41210_02.html

Nunavut's department of education now has a plan to ensure that the
territory's schools become fully bilingual by 2020.

To work towards this goal over the next four years, Education Minister
Ed Picco tabled an ambitious new strategy last week at the end of the
legislature's recent sitting.

But here's the catch.

The strategy says there's an urgent need for large numbers of Inuit
teachers throughout Nunavut's school system. It says having
Inuktitut-language teachers is "the single most important factor in the
success of bilingual education in Nunavut."

"I can have the best strategy in the world, but if I don't have the
capacity to deliver the strategy, it will go by the way-side," Picco
said.

Picco wants to increase the number of community-based teacher training
programs in Nunavut and also boost the Nunavut Teacher Education
Program offered at the Iqaluit campus of Nunavut Arctic College.

"Over the next few months, you'll see a bigger focus by me as minister
of education to recruiting more teachers who will teach at the junior
high school or high school levels," Picco said.

But there's another challenge, too - at the same time, up to 30 per cent
of the Inuit teachers in Nunavut are due to retire in the next five
years.

"Not only do I have to recruit for the 8, 9, 10, 11 grades, but I also
have to replace the retiring teachers," Picco said.

This will take money, although Picco wouldn't say whether the additional
funds the strategy needs will come from his existing budget or from
other budgets. Wait until February when the new territorial budget is
tabled, was his response.

But the strategy gives hints that money may also be coming from other
departments in the form of language enhancement programs for children
and adults, as well as from partnerships with Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.

Another key to making bilingualism work at school, Picco said, lies in
the home, where parents and children need to speak to each other in
Inuktitut whenever possible.

During recent discussions with district educational authorities across
Nunavut, Picco said he heard the same thing over and over again:
schools only have children for about five hours a day, while families
have them for the balance of the time.

"Parents have to speak Inuktitut to their children - then you can expect
there's a spill-over to the playgrounds and schools," Picco said.

If schools are going to fulfill their role in creating a bilingual
Nunavut, they'll need curriculum and materials for students and
teachers. This will take up a good portion of the $3 million a year
that the strategy needs to get off the ground.

As it stands now, there is no coordinated K-12 curriculum that combines
Inuit and Qallunaat perspectives and no collection of teaching tools
that "reflect an Inuit perspective."

However, Picco said much of the curriculum for the lower grades already
exists in some form.

"We're not starting from scratch - 80 per cent is already completed or
has been rolled out or is ready to be rolled out," Picco said

The strategy calls for the development of programs to teach Inuktitut
and Inuinnaqtun as a first or second language and English as a first
language. It promises the curriculum will "reflect two cultures and
three languages." There will also be an "increased inclusion of Inuit
culture and values" in curriculum and schools, which will be drawn from
research with elders and other groups.

A big job lies ahead because all grades, including kindergarten, must
have their appropriate courses and materials as well as staff who are
trained and supported to use them.

Schools will have five models of bilingual education, each using
different combinations of "languages of instruction," to choose from:

--Early immersion will introduce children to Inuinnaqtun in communities
such as Kugluktuk and Cambridge Bay where Inuinnaqtun language fluency
has "eroded."

--Qulliq will be used in communities where Inuktitut is already strong.
Students will learn to read and write Inuktitut first and English will
be gradually introduced.

--Dual Language is suitable for communities like Rankin Inlet or
Iqaluit, that have many non-Inuit and a high percentage of blended
families. Students will receive instruction in language arts and core
subjects in their first language (English, French or Inuktitut), learn
another language as a second language and receive non-core courses in
either language.

Six Nunavut communities will participate in pilot projects to test out
these models.

The strategy also suggests some surprises may be in store, such as new
high school diploma courses, designed to reduce dropout rates. High
school diplomas could be given for non-academic majors, Inuit heritage
and culture, pre-trades, performing arts, family and community care
studies.

As well, schools may see welcome additional money, thanks to a revised
funding formula "to provide more support for teachers." They'll also
have a new school profile, review and improvement process called
Sivuniksamut Illinniarniq.

The District Education Authorities will be responsible for creating
public awareness about the new strategy - by sharing information with
families and staff so "Nunavummiut understand and provide feedback" and
by encouraging each community to develop its own "language enhancement"
program so bilingualism develops in and outside of the classroom.


From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU  Fri Dec 10 16:49:58 2004
From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash)
Date: Fri, 10 Dec 2004 09:49:58 -0700
Subject: Residential schools agreement stands despite Ontario court's
 ruling (fwd)
Message-ID: <FRI.10.DEC.2004.094958.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

Residential schools agreement stands despite Ontario court's ruling
http://generalsynod.anglican.ca/stories/news.php?newsItem=2004-12-10_r.ans

Toronto, December 10, 2004 -- An Ontario Court of Appeal decision to
certify a class of plaintiffs in a lawsuit for abuse at a native
residential school "does not change or threaten in any way" the
agreement between the Anglican church and the federal government that
caps the church's liability at $25 million, says Archdeacon Jim Boyles,
General Secretary of the national church.

The decision by the Ontario Court of Appeal allowed lawsuits by former
students at the Mohawk School in Brantford, Ont., to proceed as a class
action. The former students are suing the Anglican diocese of Huron and
the federal government.

In a letter sent to all Anglican bishops earlier this week, Mr. Boyles
said that any future findings of liability against the church for the
sexual or physical abuse of students at the schools would be shared
between the church and the government under the terms of the 2003
agreement.

The agreement says that the church and government would share in the
payment of any awards on a 30/70 per cent basis.

It also requires the church to contribute $25 million over five years to
a Settlement Fund out of which the church's share of court-ordered
awards would be paid. Once the Settlement Fund is expended, the
government will pay all awards.

Mr. Boyles also said that issues of liability for the loss of language
and culture by residential schools students would be decided at a
future date.

The full text of the General Secretary's letter to Canadian bishops
follows:

You will have read in the media that the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled
last week on the Cloud case, which is an application for certification
as a class under class action legislation in Ontario. Cloud and others
attended the Mohawk School in Brantford, Ontario, in the Diocese of
Huron. The court overruled the lower courts and certified the class,
which, subject to further appeals, allows the case to proceed as a
class action. In allowing the appeal the court redefined the common
issues, with the result that the class action is now focused primarily
on issues of physical and mental harm, with issues of loss of language
and culture claims being much less significant.

The government may decide to seek leave to appeal this decision to the
Supreme Court of Canada, which would delay the action for a further
period.

Questions have been raised about the possible impact of this decision on
the Settlement Agreement between the Federal Government and ourselves. I
have consulted with our legal counsel for the General Synod and the
Diocese of Huron. This court decision does not change or threaten in
any way the March 2003 Settlement Agreement. Since the focus has
shifted to claims of physical and sexual abuse, any court awards would
be shared on a 70/30 basis between the government and the church, with
the church portion being paid from the Settlement Fund. The maximum
amount of payment remains at $25M. Once that amount has been paid out,
the government is responsible for 100% of all payments for physical and
sexual abuse claims.

The issue of liability for loss of language and culture will be decided
at a future date. Although some resolution of these claims may occur in
the Cloud case, the issue exists in many other cases too. For example,
it is an issue in another class proceeding filed in Ontario, called the
Baxter case, where it is sought to certify a national class action on
behalf of all students who attended all residential schools throughout
Canada, and it is an issue in the test cases which are proceeding
though the process established in Alberta. The Settlement Fund does not
cover such claims if liability is found. There are however, provisions
in Section 6 of the Agreement that provide some protection for the
church if liability for language and culture claims is imposed against
the church. We continue to believe that such claims are not
compensible, and that if they are found to be so, the government bears
full responsibility.

We continue to believe that the ADR process as established by the
government is an effective way to resolve claims. There are aspects of
the process that could be improved, and we have joined with others in
pointing these out to the government and in seeking changes.

Through these evolving legal developments we continue to hold high our
primary goal as a church, to seek healing for those who have been
harmed by their experience in the residential schools. Church
representatives have attended a few ADR hearings, as requested by the
claimants, not to defend, but to offer support and express the church's
profound regret that the residential schools system in which it was
involved has caused so much damage in the aboriginal communities in
Canada.

Archdeacon Jim Boyles
General Secretary


From pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET  Sun Dec 12 17:38:03 2004
From: pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET (phil cash cash)
Date: Sun, 12 Dec 2004 10:38:03 -0700
Subject: Renaming 'Squaw' Sites Proves Touchy in Oregon (fwd)
Message-ID: <SUN.12.DEC.2004.103803.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

Renaming 'Squaw' Sites Proves Touchy in Oregon
By ELI SANDERS

Published: December 11, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/11/national/11squaw.html

[photo inset - Melanie Conner for The New York Times.  After three years
of debate among tribal leaders, 42 alternatives to Squaw Creek have
emerged in Sisters, Ore. Olivia Wallulatum, left, prefers "ayayat," or
"beautiful." Colleen Roba prefers "choosh," or "water."]

SISTERS, Ore. - It took two years for members of the Confederated Tribes
of Warm Springs to persuade Oregon lawmakers to remove the word "squaw"
from the state's maps, which are filled with places like Squaw Meadow,
Squaw Flat and, here in central Oregon, Squaw Creek.

Figuring out what to rename these places has proved more complicated.
Around the Warm Springs reservation and the nearby town of Sisters,
three years of pointed debate among local tribal leaders has produced
42 alternatives to Squaw Creek in three native languages.

Many of the suggestions are hard for English speakers and even some
Indians to pronounce, like "ixwutxp." It means "blackberry" in the
Wasco language. Other suggested Indian names are spelled using a
lowercase "l" with a slash through it, signifying a guttural "tla"
sound that does not exist in English.

"It's really gotten out of hand here," said Louie Pitt, director of
government affairs and planning for the confederated tribes, which
occupy the 670,000-acre reservation.

"Squaw" originated in a branch of the Algonquin language, where it meant
simply "woman," but it turned into a slur on the tongues of white
settlers, who used it to refer derisively to Indian women in general or
a part of their anatomy in particular. The settlers liked the word so
much that there are now more than 170 springs, gulches, bluffs,
valleys, and gaps in this state called "squaw." All must be renamed
under a 2001 law that was enacted after two members of the confederated
tribes persuaded the Legislature that the word was offensive to many
American Indians and should be erased from maps. But only 13 places
have been renamed so far. It is a problem familiar to Indians and
government officials in several states where attempts to outlaw "squaw"
have been caught in a thicket of bureaucratic, historical and
linguistic snares.

In Maine, one frustrated county changed all "squaw" names to "moose" in
one fell swoop to save on hassle, while in Minnesota, disgruntled
residents suggested new names like Politically Correct Creek and
Politically Correct Bay. But often the stumbling block has been
questions over what Indians themselves would prefer instead of "squaw."

The debate echoes those from decades ago over places named with slurs
for blacks and Japanese. In 1963 and 1974, respectively, offending
slurs were replaced on federal maps with "negro" and "Japanese" (about
a dozen of the "negro" names have since been changed). Concerns of
other groups have been addressed in a more piecemeal fashion, and not
always with the same result.

In the early 1990's, after two years of consideration, Yellowstone
National Park's Chinaman Spring was changed to Chinese Spring. In 2001,
American ichthyologists adopted a new name for the jewfish, the Goliath
grouper, citing the precedent of an earlier change, from squawfish to
pikeminnow. But the United States Board on Geographic Names declined to
rename Jewfish Creek in the Florida Keys because there was little local
sentiment for doing so. "Geographic names are parts of language," said
Roger Payne, executive secretary for the names board and a veteran of
the nation's long and frequently ethnically charged place name debates.
"Language evolves. Meanings change. This seems to be the case with
'squaw.' "

But no easy universal solution is possible with "squaw," Mr. Payne said,
because among Indian leaders, "there was endless disagreement on the
word it could be changed to."

That is precisely the problem with Squaw Creek. The list of 42
replacement words is causing considerable anxiety here, even among
non-Indian residents who support the renaming of the creek, which
drains out of glaciers in the nearby Cascade Mountains before running
through Sisters on the way to the Deschutes River.

"I think there's one or two on the list that appear to be sort of
pronounceable, but many of them are not," said Eileen Stein, city
manager of Sisters. One of the suggestions more easily pronounced by
English speakers, Itch Ish Kiin, which is another name for the Sahaptin
tribe, can come out sounding an awful lot like Itchy Skin, she noted.
"People don't want to live near Itchy Skin Creek," Ms. Stein said.

So the debate goes. Mr. Pitt of the Confederated Tribes dismisses those
concerns as "ethnocentric," saying ease of pronunciation for English
speakers is "not one of our criteria." But he also admits a measure of
scorn for the long list, which he sarcastically calls the "pan-Indian
solution."

If the controversy seems a bit overwrought, Mr. Pitt said, it is borne
of a painful dislocation from his ancestors' heritage, with many Indian
site names long forgotten. "What is the name of that creek?" he asked
himself, frustration filling his voice. "It has a name, what is it?"

Elders in the tribes have been unable to remember what the local Indians
used to call the creek, Mr. Pitt said. There has even been some debate
about which tribe first controlled the creek, hence the three languages
vying for naming rights.

Five other states have tried to take care of the "squaw" problem through
legislative action. In 1995, Mr. Payne said, Minnesota became the first
and has now renamed all 20 of its offending places (having rebuffed the
Politically Correct Creek contingent).

Maine, Montana, Oklahoma, and South Dakota followed suit, but all still
have work to do on their geographic lexicons.

Along the banks of Oregon's Squaw Creek, a resolution seems far off. In
an interview there, Olivia Wallulatum, wearing traditional otter skin
wraps around her long black braids and a dress adorned with small white
cowrie shells, said she preferred the word "ayayat," which means
"beautiful." Colleen Roba, who with Ms. Wallulatum lobbied the
Legislature to pass the renaming law, said she liked "choosh," which
means "water" and evokes the sound that Squaw Creek makes as it moves
around ice-capped rocks and through a grove of pine trees in Creekside
City Park in Sisters.

At Sisters City Hall, Ms. Stein, the city manager, said she just hoped
that whatever the new name, it would not "create a hardship" for
businesses in the area named after Squaw Creek, or for local tongues.


From dzo at BISHARAT.NET  Sat Dec 11 06:17:03 2004
From: dzo at BISHARAT.NET (Donald Z. Osborn)
Date: Sat, 11 Dec 2004 00:17:03 -0600
Subject: E-MELD Workshop on Digital Language Documentation of Endangered
 Languages
Message-ID: <SAT.11.DEC.2004.001703.0600.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

FYI (from the Linguist list)...  DZO


Date: 09-Dec-2004
From: Naomi Fox <fox at linguistlist.org>
Subject: E-MELD Workshop on Digital Language Documentation of Endangered
Languages


Full Title: E-MELD Workshop on Digital Language Documentation of Endangered
Languages

Date: 22-Jun-2005 - 24-Jun-2005
Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States of America
Contact Person: Naomi Fox
Meeting Email: fox at linguistlist.org
Web Site: http://emeld.org/workshop/2005/

Linguistic Field(s): Discipline of Linguistics; Language Description; Morphology


Call Deadline: 28-Mar-2005

Meeting Description:

E-MELD Digital Language Documentation Workshop on Morphosyntactic Annotation and
Terminology: Linguistic Ontologies

This is the 5th E-MELD (Electronic Metastructure for Endangered Languages Data)
workshop on digital language documentation,  sponsored by the National Science
Foundation. This year's workshop is entitled ''Morphosyntactic annotation and
terminology:  the use of linguistic ontologies.''  The conference will focus on
linguistic ontologies as aids in linguistic annotation and as tools for the
fine-grained search and retrieval of language documentation.

One goal of the workshop is to invite community participation in the development
 of GOLD, the General Ontology for Linguistic Description developed by the
E-MELD team at U. of Arizona. However we welcome presentations on all aspects
of morphosyntactic annotation and/or the use of ontologies in linguistic
description. For more information about GOLD, see
http://emeld.org/school/ontology-tree.cfm
http://emeld.org/tools/ontology.cfm

The E-MELD (Electronic Metastructure for Endangered Languages Data) Project is a
five-year project funded by the National Science Foundation with a dual
objective: to aid in the preservation of endangered languages data and
documentation and to aid in the development of the infrastructure necessary for
effective collaboration among electronic archives. As part of the effort to
promote consensus on best practices in digital language documentation, E-MELD
is hosting its fifth workshop from June 22-24, 2005 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The
 E-MELD workshop is being scheduled for convenient travel for participants who
are planning on going to the ACL meeting in Ann Arbor.

A detailed call for papers is forthcoming.

--


From dzo at BISHARAT.NET  Sat Dec 11 04:09:10 2004
From: dzo at BISHARAT.NET (Donald Z. Osborn)
Date: Fri, 10 Dec 2004 22:09:10 -0600
Subject: NABE 2005 Conference, 19-22 Jan. 2005
Message-ID: <FRI.10.DEC.2004.220910.0600.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

The following notice concerning the annual conference of the National
Association for Bilingual Education (NABE), a US organization, was seen on
MultiEd-L and is reposted here with some reformatting.  DZO


See You in San Antonio

NABE 2005 is fast approaching ~V January 19-22 in San Antonio, Texas ~V and we are
putting the final touches on an exciting program for our 34th annual
conference:
Many Rivers, On Course to Academic Excellence.
http://www.nabe.org/conferences.asp

Also be aware that the deadline for Pre-Registration is Friday, December 17. If
you act now, you can save up to 30 percent versus On-Site Registration fees.
Click here http://www.nabe.org/documents/conference/nabeprintable.pdf for
downloadable registration forms. Better yet, you can register and book your
hotel online http://www.nabe.org/conferences_registration.asp .

As always, the NABE conference will attract the best known experts in the field
of bilingual education. This year there will be many new names as well ~V
outstanding presenters who will address the most timely issues we face:
assessment and accountability, literacy development, language policy, program
design, educational leadership, heritage languages, and multicultural
education.

Here~Rs a partial roster of our confirmed Keynoters, Featured Speakers, and
Honorees:

      Henry Cisneros
      Former U.S. Secretary of HUD

      Sandra Cisneros
      Author, The House on Mango Street

      Lily Eskelsen
      Secretary-Treasurer, National Education Association

      Stephen Krashen
      University of Southern California

      Lily Wong Fillmore
      University of California, Berkeley

      Jim Cummins
      University of Toronto

      Donaldo Macedo
      University of Massachusetts, Boston

      Angela Valenzuela
      University of Texas, Austin

      Raúl Yzaguirre
      National Council of La Raza

      Elaine Garan
      Author, Resisting Reading Mandates

      Alma Flor
      Ada and Isabel Campoy
      Best-Selling Children's Authors

      Fred Genesee
      McGill University

      Mary Jew
      Cupertino (CA) School District and NABE Board

      Daphne Kwok
      Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies

      Alfie Kohn
      Author, The Case Against Standardized Testing and Punished by Rewards

      Sonia Nieto
      Author, Affirming Diversity
      University of Massachusetts, Amherst

      Virginia Collier and Wayne Thomas
      George Mason University

      James Crawford
      NABE Executive Director
      Author, Educating English Learners

      Yvonne and David Freeman
      University of Texas, Pan American

      Mary Eunice Romero
      Cochiti Pueblo and Arizona State University

      Teresa McCarty
      Arizona State University

      Jamal Abedi
      Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing, UCLA

      Monty Neill
      FairTest (National  Center for Fair and Open Testing)

      Sylvia Hatton
      TX Region One Education Service Center

      Anton Treuer
      Ojibwe Language Program, Bemidje State University

      Consuelo Kickbusch LTC (Ret.)
      Motivational Speaker

Meanwhile, NABE Special Interest Groups are planning institutes in Asian and
Pacific American Education, Critical Pedagogy, Early Childhood, Elementary
Education, Gifted and Talented, Higher Education, Indigenous Bilingual
Education, Language Policy, Paraprofessionals, Research, Secondary Education,
Special Education, and World Languages and Cultures. The annual Parent
Institute will take place on Friday, January 21. And don~Rt forget our
Pre-Conference activities on Wednesday, January 19: the all-day Dual Language
Institute, and half-day Intensive Sessions on Special Education, Literacy and
Writing, Low-Incidence Language Groups, and Second-Language Acquisition.

A NABE conference would not be complete without plenty of great food, music, and
dancing. Be sure to mark your calendars for the President~Rs Reception and Dance
(a free event) after our Opening Ceremonies on Wednesday evening and the NABE
Fundraiser Dance on Saturday from 8 p.m. to midnight. Meanwhile, there~Rs a
great deal to do in San Antonio, home to the Riverwalk, Historic Market Square,
the Institute of Texan Cultures, and many other attractions.

For more information about the NABE 2005 program, accommodations, and logistics,
please visit our web site at http://www.nabe.org/.
Or email us at nabe at nabe.org.

I really hope you can join us for a productive and memorable conference.


~V  James Crawford
   NABE Executive Director



----- End forwarded message -----


From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU  Wed Dec 15 17:33:03 2004
From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash)
Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2004 10:33:03 -0700
Subject: Government language study released (fwd)
Message-ID: <WED.15.DEC.2004.103303.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

December 12, 2004

Government language study released
By BRUCE CHEADLE
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2004/12/12/779599-cp.html

OTTAWA (CP) - A government study on language training in the federal
public service says natives can't learn in black and white.

The draft document, part of a $700,000 report completed in 2001 and
obtained under an Access to Information Act request, points to
particular difficulties in teaching French to employment equity groups.

"Furthermore, black and white presentation materials carry no meaning to
aboriginals," says the study, commissioned by the Public Service
Commission and Treasury Board Secretariat.

"Earth tones and aboriginal designs will immediately attract their
attention."

The description was panned as "extremely racist" by Taiaiake Alfred, a
Mohawk author, scholar and activist who teaches at the University of
Victoria.

"What are we, monkeys?" Alfred said after an incredulous hoot of
laughter.

"I could probably write a whole dissertation on how racist that is. It's
the worst sort of pandering to romantic notions of what it is to be
indigenous.

"Earth tones? Where does that come from, (the movie) Dances with Wolves?
What it's saying, obviously, is that we can't read, that we need
pictures."

The paragraph was flagged as potentially offensive by a Treasury Board
official in a July 2001 memo.

"There are some rank generalizations about aboriginal learners that I
find questionable and may be inappropriate," Sharon Smith wrote in a
critique of the draft report.

But a further draft in October 2001 maintained the offensive paragraph
verbatim and added more:

- On group training and role-playing: "Impersonal story-telling would be
more appropriate. Furthermore, aboriginals tend to be introverted,
making adaptation to the learning environment and testing methods all
the more difficult."

- On language aptitude testing: "Aboriginals are visual thinkers and
learners, therefore the auditory nature of this test is a problem for
them."

Finally, in a copy of the report that included hand-written editing
notes dated December 2001, the sentence referring to earth tones and
aboriginal learners was scratched out without comment, although an
attached annex repeated the entire paragraph.

The "permanent draft" placed on file as a departmental reference
document later that month made no mention of aboriginal learning
problems.


From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US  Wed Dec 15 18:04:50 2004
From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP)
Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2004 11:04:50 -0700
Subject: Government language study released (fwd)
Message-ID: <WED.15.DEC.2004.110450.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

The response to this report reminds me of a response I saw in one of my
classes when I referred to a book that talked about a longitudinal study
that was able to count the number of words children had heard (total volume,
not unique words) and showed that the more words children had heard, the
better they were able to learn. Based on cognitive research that shows that
the more connections you can make when assimilating new information, this
makes total sense.

Because the writers were supposed to identify their participants, they found
themselves in the unfortunate position of having to say that people in
different SES groups spoke different volumes and different forms to their
children.

So my professor Totally Ignored the Good Information about neuron density,
activation of prior knowledge, clues to how learning happened, and referred
to a listserv where people where having similar responses to that shared
with us by Taiaiake Alfred. Certainly he can take that position.

However.

My research shows that people In General don't learn well in black and white
if they have no prior knowledge. Lit reviews show that people don't know how
to teach language. And finally, other cognitive research shows that people
respond best to things about themselves and their friends. So, if you show
the colors of the vegetation around the Colorado river, especially in
winter, to the people who live there, they will respond more positively to
it than to black and white. Why? Because it is deeply familiar to them. Does
it matter if they are Tribal? Nooooo, not really. Unless of course the
colors you choose just happen to be the Tribal colors. So, quiz: In this
case, will the Tribal people respond more? Or less? Than people who don't
have deep cultural significance for the colors?

It's really too bad that the results of these studies are published in terms
of the People INSTEAD of the Materials.

Guess I was on a soapbox, but this sort of thing really irritates me. I-Mia
don't learn well in black and white. I take the time to build visual models
in my head, in full color, and I dream the same way. If someone discovered
that about me, I would say, Gee, does that mean you will be building
materials that facilitate learning for me? Instead of going around howling
that it is racist against Irish-Jewish women with green eyes who tend to get
cranky.

!
Mia

----- Original Message -----
From: "phil cash cash" <cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU>
To: <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, December 15, 2004 10:33 AM
Subject: Government language study released (fwd)


> December 12, 2004
>
> Government language study released
> By BRUCE CHEADLE
> http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2004/12/12/779599-cp.html
>
> OTTAWA (CP) - A government study on language training in the federal
> public service says natives can't learn in black and white.
>
> The draft document, part of a $700,000 report completed in 2001 and
> obtained under an Access to Information Act request, points to
> particular difficulties in teaching French to employment equity groups.
>
> "Furthermore, black and white presentation materials carry no meaning to
> aboriginals," says the study, commissioned by the Public Service
> Commission and Treasury Board Secretariat.
>
> "Earth tones and aboriginal designs will immediately attract their
> attention."
>
> The description was panned as "extremely racist" by Taiaiake Alfred, a
> Mohawk author, scholar and activist who teaches at the University of
> Victoria.
>
> "What are we, monkeys?" Alfred said after an incredulous hoot of
> laughter.
>
> "I could probably write a whole dissertation on how racist that is. It's
> the worst sort of pandering to romantic notions of what it is to be
> indigenous.
>
> "Earth tones? Where does that come from, (the movie) Dances with Wolves?
> What it's saying, obviously, is that we can't read, that we need
> pictures."
>
> The paragraph was flagged as potentially offensive by a Treasury Board
> official in a July 2001 memo.
>
> "There are some rank generalizations about aboriginal learners that I
> find questionable and may be inappropriate," Sharon Smith wrote in a
> critique of the draft report.
>
> But a further draft in October 2001 maintained the offensive paragraph
> verbatim and added more:
>
> - On group training and role-playing: "Impersonal story-telling would be
> more appropriate. Furthermore, aboriginals tend to be introverted,
> making adaptation to the learning environment and testing methods all
> the more difficult."
>
> - On language aptitude testing: "Aboriginals are visual thinkers and
> learners, therefore the auditory nature of this test is a problem for
> them."
>
> Finally, in a copy of the report that included hand-written editing
> notes dated December 2001, the sentence referring to earth tones and
> aboriginal learners was scratched out without comment, although an
> attached annex repeated the entire paragraph.
>
> The "permanent draft" placed on file as a departmental reference
> document later that month made no mention of aboriginal learning
> problems.
>


From mikinakn at SHAW.CA  Wed Dec 15 18:52:57 2004
From: mikinakn at SHAW.CA (Rolland Nadjiwon)
Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2004 13:52:57 -0500
Subject: Government language study released (fwd)
Message-ID: <WED.15.DEC.2004.135257.0500.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

Mia...your comments on this, perhaps:

I forwarded the news release on this study in standard black and white to
most of my online 'skindian' friends. Some wrote back saying they could not
see it. I then sent it around in brown(earthtones). I spoke a bit later with
my son and asked him what he thought of it being in brown. He said, "I'm
color blind so it looked all the same to me. I did wonder why you posted it
twice."  I told him it must have been pretty rough trying to find a Mexicano
when he lived in Oaxaca.

Second thought: On your mention of "clues to how learning happened"
(paragraph 3 line 2), and "build[ing] visual models
 in my[your] head, in full color...."(last para),  I was very interested in
what you might respond to the question whether there is a Chomsky(Syntactic
Structures (1951)) difference between learning and language learning, or,
any comment you might have. And, how would you see this in terms of
orality(primary orality) vs. literacy vs. full color visual modeling and/or
their juxtaposition in any order...I guess this last one is number three :)

-------
wahjeh
rolland nadjiwon


----- Original Message -----
From: "MiaKalish at LFP" <MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US>
To: <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, December 15, 2004 1:04 PM
Subject: Re: Government language study released (fwd)


> The response to this report reminds me of a response I saw in one of my
> classes when I referred to a book that talked about a longitudinal study
> that was able to count the number of words children had heard (total
> volume,
> not unique words) and showed that the more words children had heard, the
> better they were able to learn. Based on cognitive research that shows
> that
> the more connections you can make when assimilating new information, this
> makes total sense.
>
> Because the writers were supposed to identify their participants, they
> found
> themselves in the unfortunate position of having to say that people in
> different SES groups spoke different volumes and different forms to their
> children.
>
> So my professor Totally Ignored the Good Information about neuron density,
> activation of prior knowledge, clues to how learning happened, and
> referred
> to a listserv where people where having similar responses to that shared
> with us by Taiaiake Alfred. Certainly he can take that position.
>
> However.
>
> My research shows that people In General don't learn well in black and
> white
> if they have no prior knowledge. Lit reviews show that people don't know
> how
> to teach language. And finally, other cognitive research shows that people
> respond best to things about themselves and their friends. So, if you show
> the colors of the vegetation around the Colorado river, especially in
> winter, to the people who live there, they will respond more positively to
> it than to black and white. Why? Because it is deeply familiar to them.
> Does
> it matter if they are Tribal? Nooooo, not really. Unless of course the
> colors you choose just happen to be the Tribal colors. So, quiz: In this
> case, will the Tribal people respond more? Or less? Than people who don't
> have deep cultural significance for the colors?
>
> It's really too bad that the results of these studies are published in
> terms
> of the People INSTEAD of the Materials.
>
> Guess I was on a soapbox, but this sort of thing really irritates me.
> I-Mia
> don't learn well in black and white. I take the time to build visual
> models
> in my head, in full color, and I dream the same way. If someone discovered
> that about me, I would say, Gee, does that mean you will be building
> materials that facilitate learning for me? Instead of going around howling
> that it is racist against Irish-Jewish women with green eyes who tend to
> get
> cranky.
>
> !
> Mia


From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US  Wed Dec 15 19:50:03 2004
From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP)
Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2004 12:50:03 -0700
Subject: Government language study released (fwd)
Message-ID: <WED.15.DEC.2004.125003.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

----- Original Message -----
From: "Rolland Nadjiwon" <mikinakn at SHAW.CA>
To: <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, December 15, 2004 11:52 AM
Subject: Re: Government language study released (fwd)


> Mia...your comments on this, perhaps:
>
> I forwarded the news release on this study in standard black and white to
> most of my online 'skindian' friends. Some wrote back saying they could
not
> see it. I then sent it around in brown(earthtones). I spoke a bit later
with
> my son and asked him what he thought of it being in brown. He said, "I'm
> color blind so it looked all the same to me. I did wonder why you posted
it
> twice."


I told him it must have been pretty rough trying to find a Mexicano
> when he lived in Oaxaca.
--> I laughed so hard. . . . .

Although, brown color-blindness is a bit unusual, except in the
psychological sense. Usually, people are green/blue color blind, and often
red/blue color blind. The really unfortunate people, like my past uncle,
managed somehow to be blind both ways, and yet made his living as an
electrician.



>
> Second thought: On your mention of "clues to how learning happened"
> (paragraph 3 line 2), and "build[ing] visual models
>  in my[your] head, in full color...."(last para),  I was very interested
in
> what you might respond to the question whether there is a
Chomsky(Syntactic
> Structures (1951)) difference between learning and language learning, or,
> any comment you might have.
Actually, Rolland, I am in the middle of writing a grant for cognitively
informed learning materials. Otherwise, I would like to do a detailed
analysis of what I think about Chomsky. However, in the light of short time,
I will hit what I consider the high spots:
    1: Chomsky is superb as an anarchist (Letters from Lexington is one of
my all-time faves)
    2: Chomsky doesn't know diddly about how people learn language. He is a
structuralist because he always really wanted to be a programmer, but
unfortunately, when he graduated from Penn in 1954, computers had only been
breathing for 6 years, and they were still made of huge tubes.
    3: Chomsky spent most of his life coming up with modeling strategies
that were supposed to run on the computer that the military funded that
never worked. He an Victor Yngve, also a Linguistist, also a programmer
wanna-be, butted heads for years. . . (I know Victor personally).
    4: There are syntactic structures, and some cool Psych experiments have
looked at the differences between the ways different learners rely on them.
Interestingly, English speakers rely on syntax: they would accept something
like The man bit the dog. Speakers of say, Italian, who rely on semantics,
would not accept such a thing. They rely on semantics and would interpret
the meaning as The dog bit the man.
    5: I think we use structure a lot. . . . I just don't have any really
good details to share at the moment.

And, how would you see this in terms of
> orality(primary orality) vs. literacy vs. full color visual modeling
and/or
> their juxtaposition in any order...I guess this last one is number three
:)

**** This one I can do :-)

I did my thesis on learning Apache without using English as a bridge (such a
waste of cognitive time, space and effort to produce such a poor result),
and so I had to cope with how I could help people learn without introducing
foreign cultural effects (from English) into the process. Here is what I
did. First, I built the fonts to write Apache. Then I got the spellings.
Then I got a native speaker who was also literate to say the words for us.
Then I clipped out just the target words, so I now had a collection of
written words, and matching spoken words. Then, I got pictures, ones that
didn't move for the nouny things like Li (horse), and ones that did for
verby things like hutas (running). Hugish was my favorite because we had a
green lizard crawling. We used GIF animations. It was so cool. I put them
together on the computer in Flash movies, and than I let 42 people, some
Apache people, some people here at the University, play with these
animations. I told them it was an experiment, but they had so much fun, and
they were so happy with their learning that it didn't seem to matter.

What were the results? 77.8% effective across populations, self-directed
learning, average 20 minutes. People learned 48 words, and were tested on
24. We hit an unexpected ceiling. When we designed the experiment, my
advisors though I would be lucky if people learned 7 of the words. They
didn't think that 25% of the people, evenly distributed between Apache and
non-Apache people, would learn that many (24, 25% of the people learned all
24 words. They could choose the correct text, the correct spoken word, and
disambiguate the word in conversation.)

Of course, then we got all smashed up with the Tribal politics, but that's
another day's story.

Does this answer your question in a very indirect, but very perceptually
multi-modal way? See, if you give people rich stuff to learn from,
especially when they can make connections to prior knowledge, they do really
good. And when you give them skimpy, stingy, ugly stuff that doesn't relate
to anything they know, doesn't have any point in their lives, and doesn't
meet any of their goals, well, they don't bother to learn it. For a
particularly interesting view of the learning process, read Walter J.
Freeman's book on his experiments with bunnies. I don't remember what its
called, but it was published in 2000.

Mia


>
> -------
> wahjeh
> rolland nadjiwon
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "MiaKalish at LFP" <MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US>
> To: <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
> Sent: Wednesday, December 15, 2004 1:04 PM
> Subject: Re: Government language study released (fwd)
>
>
> > The response to this report reminds me of a response I saw in one of my
> > classes when I referred to a book that talked about a longitudinal study
> > that was able to count the number of words children had heard (total
> > volume,
> > not unique words) and showed that the more words children had heard, the
> > better they were able to learn. Based on cognitive research that shows
> > that
> > the more connections you can make when assimilating new information,
this
> > makes total sense.
> >
> > Because the writers were supposed to identify their participants, they
> > found
> > themselves in the unfortunate position of having to say that people in
> > different SES groups spoke different volumes and different forms to
their
> > children.
> >
> > So my professor Totally Ignored the Good Information about neuron
density,
> > activation of prior knowledge, clues to how learning happened, and
> > referred
> > to a listserv where people where having similar responses to that shared
> > with us by Taiaiake Alfred. Certainly he can take that position.
> >
> > However.
> >
> > My research shows that people In General don't learn well in black and
> > white
> > if they have no prior knowledge. Lit reviews show that people don't know
> > how
> > to teach language. And finally, other cognitive research shows that
people
> > respond best to things about themselves and their friends. So, if you
show
> > the colors of the vegetation around the Colorado river, especially in
> > winter, to the people who live there, they will respond more positively
to
> > it than to black and white. Why? Because it is deeply familiar to them.
> > Does
> > it matter if they are Tribal? Nooooo, not really. Unless of course the
> > colors you choose just happen to be the Tribal colors. So, quiz: In this
> > case, will the Tribal people respond more? Or less? Than people who
don't
> > have deep cultural significance for the colors?
> >
> > It's really too bad that the results of these studies are published in
> > terms
> > of the People INSTEAD of the Materials.
> >
> > Guess I was on a soapbox, but this sort of thing really irritates me.
> > I-Mia
> > don't learn well in black and white. I take the time to build visual
> > models
> > in my head, in full color, and I dream the same way. If someone
discovered
> > that about me, I would say, Gee, does that mean you will be building
> > materials that facilitate learning for me? Instead of going around
howling
> > that it is racist against Irish-Jewish women with green eyes who tend to
> > get
> > cranky.
> >
> > !
> > Mia
>
>


From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US  Wed Dec 15 20:51:31 2004
From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP)
Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2004 13:51:31 -0700
Subject: Freeman, Walter J.: How Brains Make up their Minds
Message-ID: <WED.15.DEC.2004.135131.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

Hi, Rolland,

The book was actually published in 2001. It is:
How Brains Make Up Their Minds
by Walter J. Freeman (Hardcover - February 15, 2001)
The link probably goes to Amazon.com.

I always call this "Walter J. and the Bunnies" :-)

Mia




----- Original Message -----
From: "MiaKalish at LFP" <MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US>
To: <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, December 15, 2004 12:50 PM
Subject: Re: Government language study released (fwd)


> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Rolland Nadjiwon" <mikinakn at SHAW.CA>
> To: <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
> Sent: Wednesday, December 15, 2004 11:52 AM
> Subject: Re: Government language study released (fwd)
>
>
> > Mia...your comments on this, perhaps:
> >
> > I forwarded the news release on this study in standard black and white
to
> > most of my online 'skindian' friends. Some wrote back saying they could
> not
> > see it. I then sent it around in brown(earthtones). I spoke a bit later
> with
> > my son and asked him what he thought of it being in brown. He said, "I'm
> > color blind so it looked all the same to me. I did wonder why you posted
> it
> > twice."
>
>
> I told him it must have been pretty rough trying to find a Mexicano
> > when he lived in Oaxaca.
> --> I laughed so hard. . . . .
>
> Although, brown color-blindness is a bit unusual, except in the
> psychological sense. Usually, people are green/blue color blind, and often
> red/blue color blind. The really unfortunate people, like my past uncle,
> managed somehow to be blind both ways, and yet made his living as an
> electrician.
>
>
>
> >
> > Second thought: On your mention of "clues to how learning happened"
> > (paragraph 3 line 2), and "build[ing] visual models
> >  in my[your] head, in full color...."(last para),  I was very interested
> in
> > what you might respond to the question whether there is a
> Chomsky(Syntactic
> > Structures (1951)) difference between learning and language learning,
or,
> > any comment you might have.
> Actually, Rolland, I am in the middle of writing a grant for cognitively
> informed learning materials. Otherwise, I would like to do a detailed
> analysis of what I think about Chomsky. However, in the light of short
time,
> I will hit what I consider the high spots:
>     1: Chomsky is superb as an anarchist (Letters from Lexington is one of
> my all-time faves)
>     2: Chomsky doesn't know diddly about how people learn language. He is
a
> structuralist because he always really wanted to be a programmer, but
> unfortunately, when he graduated from Penn in 1954, computers had only
been
> breathing for 6 years, and they were still made of huge tubes.
>     3: Chomsky spent most of his life coming up with modeling strategies
> that were supposed to run on the computer that the military funded that
> never worked. He an Victor Yngve, also a Linguistist, also a programmer
> wanna-be, butted heads for years. . . (I know Victor personally).
>     4: There are syntactic structures, and some cool Psych experiments
have
> looked at the differences between the ways different learners rely on
them.
> Interestingly, English speakers rely on syntax: they would accept
something
> like The man bit the dog. Speakers of say, Italian, who rely on semantics,
> would not accept such a thing. They rely on semantics and would interpret
> the meaning as The dog bit the man.
>     5: I think we use structure a lot. . . . I just don't have any really
> good details to share at the moment.
>
> And, how would you see this in terms of
> > orality(primary orality) vs. literacy vs. full color visual modeling
> and/or
> > their juxtaposition in any order...I guess this last one is number three
> :)
>
> **** This one I can do :-)
>
> I did my thesis on learning Apache without using English as a bridge (such
a
> waste of cognitive time, space and effort to produce such a poor result),
> and so I had to cope with how I could help people learn without
introducing
> foreign cultural effects (from English) into the process. Here is what I
> did. First, I built the fonts to write Apache. Then I got the spellings.
> Then I got a native speaker who was also literate to say the words for us.
> Then I clipped out just the target words, so I now had a collection of
> written words, and matching spoken words. Then, I got pictures, ones that
> didn't move for the nouny things like Li (horse), and ones that did for
> verby things like hutas (running). Hugish was my favorite because we had a
> green lizard crawling. We used GIF animations. It was so cool. I put them
> together on the computer in Flash movies, and than I let 42 people, some
> Apache people, some people here at the University, play with these
> animations. I told them it was an experiment, but they had so much fun,
and
> they were so happy with their learning that it didn't seem to matter.
>
> What were the results? 77.8% effective across populations, self-directed
> learning, average 20 minutes. People learned 48 words, and were tested on
> 24. We hit an unexpected ceiling. When we designed the experiment, my
> advisors though I would be lucky if people learned 7 of the words. They
> didn't think that 25% of the people, evenly distributed between Apache and
> non-Apache people, would learn that many (24, 25% of the people learned
all
> 24 words. They could choose the correct text, the correct spoken word, and
> disambiguate the word in conversation.)
>
> Of course, then we got all smashed up with the Tribal politics, but that's
> another day's story.
>
> Does this answer your question in a very indirect, but very perceptually
> multi-modal way? See, if you give people rich stuff to learn from,
> especially when they can make connections to prior knowledge, they do
really
> good. And when you give them skimpy, stingy, ugly stuff that doesn't
relate
> to anything they know, doesn't have any point in their lives, and doesn't
> meet any of their goals, well, they don't bother to learn it. For a
> particularly interesting view of the learning process, read Walter J.
> Freeman's book on his experiments with bunnies. I don't remember what its
> called, but it was published in 2000.
>
> Mia
>
>
> >
> > -------
> > wahjeh
> > rolland nadjiwon
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "MiaKalish at LFP" <MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US>
> > To: <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
> > Sent: Wednesday, December 15, 2004 1:04 PM
> > Subject: Re: Government language study released (fwd)
> >
> >
> > > The response to this report reminds me of a response I saw in one of
my
> > > classes when I referred to a book that talked about a longitudinal
study
> > > that was able to count the number of words children had heard (total
> > > volume,
> > > not unique words) and showed that the more words children had heard,
the
> > > better they were able to learn. Based on cognitive research that shows
> > > that
> > > the more connections you can make when assimilating new information,
> this
> > > makes total sense.
> > >
> > > Because the writers were supposed to identify their participants, they
> > > found
> > > themselves in the unfortunate position of having to say that people in
> > > different SES groups spoke different volumes and different forms to
> their
> > > children.
> > >
> > > So my professor Totally Ignored the Good Information about neuron
> density,
> > > activation of prior knowledge, clues to how learning happened, and
> > > referred
> > > to a listserv where people where having similar responses to that
shared
> > > with us by Taiaiake Alfred. Certainly he can take that position.
> > >
> > > However.
> > >
> > > My research shows that people In General don't learn well in black and
> > > white
> > > if they have no prior knowledge. Lit reviews show that people don't
know
> > > how
> > > to teach language. And finally, other cognitive research shows that
> people
> > > respond best to things about themselves and their friends. So, if you
> show
> > > the colors of the vegetation around the Colorado river, especially in
> > > winter, to the people who live there, they will respond more
positively
> to
> > > it than to black and white. Why? Because it is deeply familiar to
them.
> > > Does
> > > it matter if they are Tribal? Nooooo, not really. Unless of course the
> > > colors you choose just happen to be the Tribal colors. So, quiz: In
this
> > > case, will the Tribal people respond more? Or less? Than people who
> don't
> > > have deep cultural significance for the colors?
> > >
> > > It's really too bad that the results of these studies are published in
> > > terms
> > > of the People INSTEAD of the Materials.
> > >
> > > Guess I was on a soapbox, but this sort of thing really irritates me.
> > > I-Mia
> > > don't learn well in black and white. I take the time to build visual
> > > models
> > > in my head, in full color, and I dream the same way. If someone
> discovered
> > > that about me, I would say, Gee, does that mean you will be building
> > > materials that facilitate learning for me? Instead of going around
> howling
> > > that it is racist against Irish-Jewish women with green eyes who tend
to
> > > get
> > > cranky.
> > >
> > > !
> > > Mia
> >
> >
>
>


From pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET  Wed Dec 15 22:28:20 2004
From: pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET (phil cash cash)
Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2004 15:28:20 -0700
Subject: Government language study released (fwd)
In-Reply-To: <000901c4e2d0$92df28f0$03ec7b80@red6bvg9btk>
Message-ID: <WED.15.DEC.2004.152820.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

tá'c haláXp (good day),

it had to have been from Dances with Wolves!  ideas like this have to 
come from somewhere  <;-p

it is unfortunate though that the research reported here is focused on 
native peoples and not on the real issues of learning and cognition.  
but i think that is the whole point of this kind of research and the 
governmental entities noted here are not as innocent as Mia makes them 
out to be.  Taiaiake Alfred and others are correct to protest such 
research as it smacks of deficit theory (superior literate Western 
minds vs inferior illiterate Indigenous minds).  and the protest is 
appropriate i think due to the fact that governmental entities do 
indeed base policy decisions on research of this kind and hence 
under-represented populations see no benefits, have no say, etc..  but 
we all know this already (No Child Left Behind, English-only 
legislation) despite the abundance of important research and advocacy 
to the contrary.

just a few thoughts in black and white...
phil

From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US  Wed Dec 15 23:58:14 2004
From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP)
Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2004 16:58:14 -0700
Subject: Government language study released (fwd)
Message-ID: <WED.15.DEC.2004.165814.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

Phil, dear? Innocence is not something I impute to people. . . especially in
this area of research. I think they are just as underhanded, sneaky and
nasty as they probably are. In a class, I once read a transcribed speech by
a women who was head of the school board, who wanted to make sure the
"little brown children" didn't do as well as their white children because
then the little brown children would be able to compete for (and probably
get) the jobs that the white kids wanted.

That really irritated me.

However, I just like to move on down the path. Basically, all my research is
showing that it doesn't have squat to do with race or color or even SES. It
has to do with MATERIALS. Heeeheee. Of course, this is not a new idea. It is
simply one that people haven't been able to test before. I am still kind of
a hardscrabble activist. I just do it differently these days because boy,
quantitative power will knock these people out of the box every time. See?
And you thought I was being sweet!

Thanks for the nice thoughts anyway. Hope you are having fun out there. I
think fondly of my days at AILDI and hope someday to make it back. Maybe
when I really famous, eh?

best ever,
Mia

----- Original Message -----
From: "phil cash cash" <pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET>
To: <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, December 15, 2004 3:28 PM
Subject: Re: Government language study released (fwd)


tá'c haláXp (good day),

it had to have been from Dances with Wolves!  ideas like this have to
come from somewhere  <;-p

it is unfortunate though that the research reported here is focused on
native peoples and not on the real issues of learning and cognition.
but i think that is the whole point of this kind of research and the
governmental entities noted here are not as innocent as Mia makes them
out to be.  Taiaiake Alfred and others are correct to protest such
research as it smacks of deficit theory (superior literate Western
minds vs inferior illiterate Indigenous minds).  and the protest is
appropriate i think due to the fact that governmental entities do
indeed base policy decisions on research of this kind and hence
under-represented populations see no benefits, have no say, etc..  but
we all know this already (No Child Left Behind, English-only
legislation) despite the abundance of important research and advocacy
to the contrary.

just a few thoughts in black and white...
phil


From sburke at CPAN.ORG  Thu Dec 16 03:29:38 2004
From: sburke at CPAN.ORG (Sean M. Burke)
Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2004 18:29:38 -0900
Subject: Government language study released (fwd)
In-Reply-To: <000401c4e2d7$4d91bfe0$167e4c18@Nadjiwon>
Message-ID: <WED.15.DEC.2004.182938.0900.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

At 09:52 AM 2004-12-15, Rolland Nadjiwon wrote:
>I was very interested in what you might respond to the question whether
>there is a Chomsky(Syntactic Structures (1951)) difference between
>learning and language learning

He would say: yes.

--
Sean M. Burke    http://search.cpan.org/~sburke/


From sburke at CPAN.ORG  Thu Dec 16 03:32:17 2004
From: sburke at CPAN.ORG (Sean M. Burke)
Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2004 18:32:17 -0900
Subject: Government language study released (fwd)
In-Reply-To: <001801c4e2df$4535bab0$03ec7b80@red6bvg9btk>
Message-ID: <WED.15.DEC.2004.183217.0900.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

At 10:50 AM 2004-12-15, MiaKalish at LFP wrote:
>What were the results? 77.8% effective across populations, self-directed
>learning, average 20 minutes. People learned 48 words, and were tested on 24.

How well did they test on learning grammatical formations, and other
non-lexical things?
--
Sean M. Burke    http://search.cpan.org/~sburke/


From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US  Thu Dec 16 03:46:53 2004
From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP)
Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2004 20:46:53 -0700
Subject: Government language study released (fwd)
Message-ID: <WED.15.DEC.2004.204653.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

We didn't get that far. This was for basic lexical acquisition, without
using Any English. We thought the success of our first project would excite
others, and we would have the chance to develop the Flash movies for
teaching grammar dynamically, the way it is usually learned. . . but alas,
we became bogged in politics I care not to remember, and we never got the
chance to take the project further. It was as if they hated us for being
successful, even though half our partnership was indeed of the same tribe,
and our success would have helped the middle generation recover language and
culture.

sad.


----- Original Message -----
From: "Sean M. Burke" <sburke at CPAN.ORG>
To: <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, December 15, 2004 8:32 PM
Subject: Re: Government language study released (fwd)


> At 10:50 AM 2004-12-15, MiaKalish at LFP wrote:
> >What were the results? 77.8% effective across populations, self-directed
> >learning, average 20 minutes. People learned 48 words, and were tested on
24.
>
> How well did they test on learning grammatical formations, and other
> non-lexical things?
> --
> Sean M. Burke    http://search.cpan.org/~sburke/
>
>


From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU  Thu Dec 16 07:53:20 2004
From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash)
Date: Thu, 16 Dec 2004 00:53:20 -0700
Subject: Program updates Navajo language for computers (fwd)
Message-ID: <THU.16.DEC.2004.005320.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

Program updates Navajo language for computers

The Associated Press
http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/index.php?page=local&story_id=121304a7_navajofonts

FARMINGTON, N.M. - The Navajo language is getting an updated look,
thanks to students at San Juan College.

Navajo Word Processor 3.1 will soon hit shelves at the college
bookstore, offering a full-featured word processor with four new Navajo
fonts, an English-to-Navajo dictionary and a Navajo-to-English
dictionary.

It is the latest version of a program first developed in the early 1990s
when instructor Timothy Reeves asked his advanced computer programming
students to develop a word processor for the Navajo language.

Reeves had taught at a community college in Tsaile, Ariz., in the late
1980s, where he developed a special font for Navajo after students
asked for his help in publishing a campus newspaper in Navajo.

"Navajo has some accent marks that do not exist anywhere in the world
except other Athabaskan languages," said Reeves, who teaches computer
science.

His students have been updating and improving the software since the
original version was rolled out.

The latest version includes a pop-up menu, color palette and insert
buttons and a style bar with font selections.

The four new fonts are Times New Roman for Navajo, Lucida Sans for
Navajo, Courier for Navajo and Arial for Navajo. The fonts have been
licensed by Agfa Monotype Corp., the font owner.

"The reason we're doing this is, there are plenty of people who need to
type in Navajo," Reeves said.


From sdp at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU  Thu Dec 16 14:41:22 2004
From: sdp at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Susan Penfield)
Date: Thu, 16 Dec 2004 07:41:22 -0700
Subject: Fw: [Languse] Fwd:  LISO conference call for papers
Message-ID: <THU.16.DEC.2004.074122.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

This might be of interest to some of you... "recorded spontaneous
interaction" is still rare in indigenous language documentation and
attention to the role that technology might play in both the collection and
analysis of this type of data is very needed. (my thoughts..)



**Please give widest possible distribution**

CALL FOR PAPERS
11th Annual Conference on Language, Interaction and Culture May 12-14,  2005
University of California, Santa Barbara

Presented by
The Language, Interaction, and Social Organization (LISO) Graduate Student
Association at the University of California, Santa Barbara and The Center
for Language, Interaction and Culture (CLIC) Graduate Student Association at
the University of California, Los Angeles

Plenary Speakers
Paul Drew-University of York, Sociology
Lanita Jacobs-Huey-University of Southern California, Anthropology Michael
Silverstein-University of Chicago, Anthropology Catherine Snow-Harvard
University, Education

Submissions should address topics at the intersection of language,
interaction, and culture from theoretical perspectives which employ data
from recorded, spontaneous interaction. This includes but is not limited to
conversation analysis, discourse analysis, ethnography of communication,
ethnomethodology, and interactional sociolinguistics.  We welcome abstracts
from graduate students and faculty working in the areas of Anthropology,
Applied Linguistics, Education, Linguistics, Psychology, and Sociology.
Speakers will have 20 minutes for presentation and 10 minutes for
discussion. Selected papers will be published in the conference proceedings.

Abstracts are due no later than February 15, 2005, by e-mail submission only
<LISOconf05 at linguistics.ucsb.edu>.

Please see submission guidelines below and the LISO webpage at
http://www.liso.ucsb.edu/conferences/LISOConf2005/ for more information.

The Language, Interaction, and Social Organization (LISO) Conference
Organizing
Committee: Jennifer Garland and Melissa Kwon, Co-Chairs; Valerie Sultan,
Treasurer; Jesse Gillespie, Webmaster; Kevin Whitehead and Annette Harrison.

University of California, Santa Barbara, Department of Linguistics South
Hall 3605, Santa Barbara, CA 93106 LISOconf05 at linguistics.ucsb.edu
http://www.liso.ucsb.edu/conferences/LISOConf2005/


SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

This year we are accepting submissions by e-mail only:

The 500 word abstract should be sent to LISOconf05 at linguistics.ucsb.edu with
"Conference Submission" in the subject line. The abstract should be attached
in Rich Text Format (.rtf), and should contain no information which
identifies the author(s). In a second attached document, please include the
following
information:
§      Name(s) of author(s)
§     Affiliation(s) of author(s)
§     The address, phone number, and email address
§     at which the author(s) would liketo be notified
§      The title of the paper
§     A note indicating your equipment requirements
§     Any additional comments

In the case of an abstract longer than 500 words, only the first 500 words
will be read. Papers will be selected based on evaluation of the anonymous
abstract.

In your abstract, make sure to clearly state the main point or argument of
the paper.  Briefly discuss the problem or research question situated by
reference to previous research and by the work's relevance to developments
in your field.
You may wish to include a short example to support your main point or
argument.
State your conclusions, however tentative.

Deadline for the receipt of abstracts is February 15, 2005. Late submissions
will not be accepted. Notification of acceptance or non-acceptance will be
sent via email by March 31, 2005.


     _______________________________________________
     For general information on LANGUSE, including instructions on how to
SUBSCRIBE and UNSUBSCRIBE:

     http://www.list.hum.aau.dk/mailman/listinfo/languse

     Many excellent and informative exchanges have taken place on Languse
over the years. To view the entire Languse ARCHIVES (dating from 1999):

     http://www.list.hum.aau.dk/pipermail/languse/

     ----------------------------------------


From sdp at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU  Thu Dec 16 18:46:01 2004
From: sdp at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Susan Penfield)
Date: Thu, 16 Dec 2004 11:46:01 -0700
Subject: FW: Article on efforts to revive the Hawaiian language
Message-ID: <THU.16.DEC.2004.114601.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

-----
Below is the website for an article some of you might be interested in, from
the Dec. 10 issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Kim

Kimberly Jones
East Asian Studies
University of Arizona

-----Original Message-----
From: Aniko Rankine [mailto:animagdi at yahoo.com]
Sent: Monday, December 13, 2004 11:58 AM
To: biling-fam at nethelp.no
Subject: OT: Article on efforts to revive the Hawaiian language

This (longish) article in the Chronicle of Higher
Education describes ongoing efforts to boost the
number of fluent speakers of Hawaiian, including
preschools, schools, university programs as well as
people deciding to bring up their children with
Hawaiian as the "primary language".

http://chronicle.com/temp/email.php?id=qsrn6yo7x079i27hbn3pvc6q2edc0c0p


----- End forwarded message -----


Susan D. Penfield, Ph.D.
Department of English
   The Writing Program
   Second Language Acquisition and Teaching Ph.D. Program (affiliate faculty)
   Indigenous Languages and Technology
Southwest Center, Research Associate in Anthropology
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721


From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU  Thu Dec 16 19:14:40 2004
From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash)
Date: Thu, 16 Dec 2004 12:14:40 -0700
Subject: Program updates Navajo language for computers (fwd)
In-Reply-To: <1103183600.7b56d585ae450@www.email.arizona.edu>
Message-ID: <THU.16.DEC.2004.121440.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

you can go to the website below to find out more about the Navajo Word
Processor 3.1.  looks interesting!

http://www.sanjuancollege.edu/pages/2097.asp

phil


From dzo at BISHARAT.NET  Fri Dec 17 09:18:59 2004
From: dzo at BISHARAT.NET (Donald Z. Osborn)
Date: Fri, 17 Dec 2004 03:18:59 -0600
Subject: No subject
Message-ID: <FRI.17.DEC.2004.031859.0600.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

FYI... (reposted from the Linguist list)  DZO


Date: 16-Dec-2004
From: Nicholas Ostler <nostler at chibcha.demon.co.uk>
Subject: Call for Proposals:Foundation for Endangered Langs


The Foundation for Endangered Languages is now accepting proposals for projects
of work that will support, enable or assist the documentation, protection or
promotion of one or more endangered languages.  These endangered languages may
be anywhere in the  world.

The Foundation's funds remain extremely limited and only an exceptional award
will be greater than US $1,500. Smaller proposals stand a better chance of
funding.

Please pass on this announcement to your friends and colleagues in
endangered-language communities who may not have access to Ogmios,  the
Internet or e-mail.

**Format for Submissions:
As of this year, there has been a change in the format for submissions to the
Foundation.  In future, applicants must submit a short Case for Support and a
Application Form.  Guidance on how to write a Case, and fill out the form, is
accessible at the Foundation's website: -
http://www.ogmios.org/grant.htm
It may also be obtained from me at the address below.  (Any other, older, FEL
materials - as still at http://www.ogmios.org/question.htm - are obsolete, and
should not be used.)

The Case for Support (CS) and Application Form (AF) are best  submitted as Word
files attached to an e-mail message sent to <FEL at chibcha.demon.co.uk>.
Non-ascii text should be in some form  of Unicode. The two files should be
named "languageCS.doc" and "languageAF.doc", substituting the name of the
language to be studied for 'language'.

Copies printed on paper will also be accepted as an alternative. In general, it
is not necessary to send  a hard copy of an electronic proposal for
confirmation, but FEL may request this if there are major difficulties in
reading the file.

All proposals must be submitted in this format, to ensure comparability. Unless
agreed with me in advance in writing, all proposals must be in English.

** Deadline:
The time-limit for proposals will be 30 January 2005. By that date, full
proposals (consisting of Case for Support and Application Form) must reach me
at the address below. All proposals received will be acknowledged on receipt.

The FEL Committee will announce its decision by 31st March 2005.

** Comments on Draft Proposals:
FEL tries to keep its procedures as simple as possible. But it recognizes that
they may be especially taxing for those without training in a western
university. In the case of proposals from communities or community linguists,
FEL is prepared to comment on drafts, and suggest weaknesses and potential
remedies (without prejudice) before the selection. Such draft proposals -
clearly marked "DRAFT" - should reach FEL as soon as possible, and no later
than 31 December 2004.

This commenting service is simply offered in order to help: it is never required
to submit such a draft.  If  draft applications are received from applicants
who are judged not to be members of endangered language communities or such
communities' designated linguists, they may be re-classified as final
applications, at FELs discretion.

Nicholas Ostler <nostler at chibcha.demon.co.uk>
FEL Chairman and Grants Officer
Note:
The Foundation for Endangered Languages (FEL) is a separate from ELF, the
Endangered Language Fund (www.haskins.yale.edu). It is perfectly possible (and
has indeed occurred in the past) that the same project can be partially funded
by both FEL and ELF.

Foundation for Endangered Languages
Registered Charity: England and Wales 1070616
172 Bailbrook Lane, Bath BA1 7AA, England
+44-1225-852865  nostler at chibcha.demon.co.uk
http://www.ogmios.org


From sburke at CPAN.ORG  Sat Dec 18 01:10:01 2004
From: sburke at CPAN.ORG (Sean M. Burke)
Date: Fri, 17 Dec 2004 16:10:01 -0900
Subject: Government language study released (fwd)
In-Reply-To: <002401c4e321$e2302b10$03ec7b80@red6bvg9btk>
Message-ID: <FRI.17.DEC.2004.161001.0900.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

At 06:46 PM 2004-12-15, MiaKalish at LFP wrote:
> > How well did they test on learning grammatical formations, and other
> > non-lexical things?
>We didn't get that far. This was for basic lexical acquisition, without
>using Any English.  We thought the success of our first project would
>excite others, and we would have the chance to develop the Flash movies
>for teaching grammar dynamically[...]

Yes, the problem of tribal politics is always a massive obstacle in any
language revitalization program.  I think the best solution is to have on
your side not just your ample enthusiasm for technologies that you feel can
be promising, but also clear documentation of past experiments showing the
technologies to be brilliantly useful for the task you're proposing --
demonstrating this with an experimental group and a control group, and
going past just lexical retention.  Having experimental results in hand is
what can put you head and shoulders over the other dog-and-pony shows
that're out there in the realm of language technology.

I mean, anybody can learn a few dozen nouns in an Apachean language -- but
it's trying to go from "he runs" to "I ran" or "he ran around" that trips
up all the learners.  Find a technology that helps with that more than
/just/ chalk-and-talk does, and show proof of how and when your new tech is
effective, and you'll be practically immune to the hassles of tribal politics.

--
Sean M. Burke    http://search.cpan.org/~sburke/


From mikinakn at SHAW.CA  Sat Dec 18 07:53:47 2004
From: mikinakn at SHAW.CA (Rolland Nadjiwon)
Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2004 02:53:47 -0500
Subject: Government language study released (fwd)
Message-ID: <SAT.18.DEC.2004.025347.0500.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

What if you are working with a language that has no(your last paragraph)
pronouns, genderization, binarism or linearity(time/history)...do you invent
them?

If the language, or anything of the 'other' for that matter, is reinvented
to fit the structure is this not somewhat of a 'Cinderella Syndrome' -- the
stepsisters distorted contortions to fit their gross feet into the glass
slipper.

Further, 'tribal politics' is not an obstacle it is a process, an 'obstacle'
perhaps to externalized retrofitting retrofitters.

Obviously, there is so much more to this.

-------
wahjeh
rolland nadjiwon


----- Original Message -----
From: "Sean M. Burke" <sburke at CPAN.ORG>
To: <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
Sent: Friday, December 17, 2004 8:10 PM
Subject: Re: Government language study released (fwd)


> At 06:46 PM 2004-12-15, MiaKalish at LFP wrote:
>> > How well did they test on learning grammatical formations, and other
>> > non-lexical things?
>>We didn't get that far. This was for basic lexical acquisition, without
>>using Any English.  We thought the success of our first project would
>>excite others, and we would have the chance to develop the Flash movies
>>for teaching grammar dynamically[...]
>
> Yes, the problem of tribal politics is always a massive obstacle in any
> language revitalization program.  I think the best solution is to have on
> your side not just your ample enthusiasm for technologies that you feel
> can
> be promising, but also clear documentation of past experiments showing the
> technologies to be brilliantly useful for the task you're proposing --
> demonstrating this with an experimental group and a control group, and
> going past just lexical retention.  Having experimental results in hand is
> what can put you head and shoulders over the other dog-and-pony shows
> that're out there in the realm of language technology.
>
> I mean, anybody can learn a few dozen nouns in an Apachean language -- but
> it's trying to go from "he runs" to "I ran" or "he ran around" that trips
> up all the learners.  Find a technology that helps with that more than
> /just/ chalk-and-talk does, and show proof of how and when your new tech
> is
> effective, and you'll be practically immune to the hassles of tribal
> politics.
>
> --
> Sean M. Burke    http://search.cpan.org/~sburke/
>


From linguist3 at KATHLANGCENTRE.ORG.AU  Sat Dec 18 09:23:06 2004
From: linguist3 at KATHLANGCENTRE.ORG.AU (Greg Dickson)
Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2004 18:53:06 +0930
Subject: No subject
In-Reply-To: <1103275139.41c2a48321a19@webmail.kabissa.org>
Message-ID: <SAT.18.DEC.2004.185306.0930.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

What do you mob think of the proposals?  To me, it seems like the
amount of work that goes into writing the proposal isn't worth the
small value of the grants.  Has anyone ever been involved in a project
that used this funding and how was it?

Greg Dickson
Linguist
Ngukurr Language Centre
PMB 6
via Katherine  NT  0852
Australia
phone/fax: +61 8 8975 4362
mob:  +61 427 391 153
email: greg.dickson at kathlangcentre.org.au


On 17/12/2004, at 6:48 PM, Donald Z. Osborn wrote:

> FYI... (reposted from the Linguist list)  DZO
>
>
> Date: 16-Dec-2004
> From: Nicholas Ostler <nostler at chibcha.demon.co.uk>
> Subject: Call for Proposals:Foundation for Endangered Langs
>
>
> The Foundation for Endangered Languages is now accepting proposals for
> projects
> of work that will support, enable or assist the documentation,
> protection or
> promotion of one or more endangered languages.  These endangered
> languages may
> be anywhere in the  world.
>
> The Foundation's funds remain extremely limited and only an
> exceptional award
> will be greater than US $1,500. Smaller proposals stand a better
> chance of
> funding.
>
> Please pass on this announcement to your friends and colleagues in
> endangered-language communities who may not have access to Ogmios,  the
> Internet or e-mail.
>
> **Format for Submissions:
> As of this year, there has been a change in the format for submissions
> to the
> Foundation.  In future, applicants must submit a short Case for
> Support and a
> Application Form.  Guidance on how to write a Case, and fill out the
> form, is
> accessible at the Foundation's website: -
> http://www.ogmios.org/grant.htm
> It may also be obtained from me at the address below.  (Any other,
> older, FEL
> materials - as still at http://www.ogmios.org/question.htm - are
> obsolete, and
> should not be used.)
>
> The Case for Support (CS) and Application Form (AF) are best
> submitted as Word
> files attached to an e-mail message sent to <FEL at chibcha.demon.co.uk>.
> Non-ascii text should be in some form  of Unicode. The two files
> should be
> named "languageCS.doc" and "languageAF.doc", substituting the name of
> the
> language to be studied for 'language'.
>
> Copies printed on paper will also be accepted as an alternative. In
> general, it
> is not necessary to send  a hard copy of an electronic proposal for
> confirmation, but FEL may request this if there are major difficulties
> in
> reading the file.
>
> All proposals must be submitted in this format, to ensure
> comparability. Unless
> agreed with me in advance in writing, all proposals must be in English.
>
> ** Deadline:
> The time-limit for proposals will be 30 January 2005. By that date,
> full
> proposals (consisting of Case for Support and Application Form) must
> reach me
> at the address below. All proposals received will be acknowledged on
> receipt.
>
> The FEL Committee will announce its decision by 31st March 2005.
>
> ** Comments on Draft Proposals:
> FEL tries to keep its procedures as simple as possible. But it
> recognizes that
> they may be especially taxing for those without training in a western
> university. In the case of proposals from communities or community
> linguists,
> FEL is prepared to comment on drafts, and suggest weaknesses and
> potential
> remedies (without prejudice) before the selection. Such draft
> proposals -
> clearly marked "DRAFT" - should reach FEL as soon as possible, and no
> later
> than 31 December 2004.
>
> This commenting service is simply offered in order to help: it is
> never required
> to submit such a draft.  If  draft applications are received from
> applicants
> who are judged not to be members of endangered language communities or
> such
> communities' designated linguists, they may be re-classified as final
> applications, at FELs discretion.
>
> Nicholas Ostler <nostler at chibcha.demon.co.uk>
> FEL Chairman and Grants Officer
> Note:
> The Foundation for Endangered Languages (FEL) is a separate from ELF,
> the
> Endangered Language Fund (www.haskins.yale.edu). It is perfectly
> possible (and
> has indeed occurred in the past) that the same project can be
> partially funded
> by both FEL and ELF.
>
> Foundation for Endangered Languages
> Registered Charity: England and Wales 1070616
> 172 Bailbrook Lane, Bath BA1 7AA, England
> +44-1225-852865  nostler at chibcha.demon.co.uk
> http://www.ogmios.org
>


From sburke at CPAN.ORG  Sat Dec 18 09:53:36 2004
From: sburke at CPAN.ORG (Sean M. Burke)
Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2004 00:53:36 -0900
Subject: Government language study released (fwd)
In-Reply-To: <004b01c4e4d6$b6e483a0$167e4c18@Nadjiwon>
Message-ID: <SAT.18.DEC.2004.005336.0900.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

At 10:53 PM 2004-12-17, Rolland Nadjiwon wrote:
>What if you are working with a language that has no(your last paragraph)
>pronouns, genderization, binarism or linearity(time/history)...do you
>invent them?

What do /you/ think?  I was talking about (largely uninflected) nouns and
(highly inflected) verbs in Apachean, a distinction that I think is about
as uncontroversial as they get -- if that bothers you, explain why.
For chrissake, I wasn't insisting that Your Favorite Language has an
ablative absolutive!

>Further, 'tribal politics' is not an obstacle it is a process, an
>'obstacle' perhaps to externalized retrofitting retrofitters.

Oh my yes, when the head of the culture program /still/ won't talk to the
head of the language program because her sister Orlene asked his
teasing-cousin Bulerd to the prom in 1952 instead of asking /him/, I'll be
sure to bear in mind your heartfelt advice that this is all just a joyous
process, and that to view it otherwise is to be a retrofitty retrofitso.

Who needs a hug?!?

--
Sean M. Burke    http://search.cpan.org/~sburke/


From sdp at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU  Sat Dec 18 12:56:13 2004
From: sdp at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Susan Penfield)
Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2004 05:56:13 -0700
Subject: Government language study released (fwd)
Message-ID: <SAT.18.DEC.2004.055613.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

Can't resist this thread.

Tribal politics is always a process, often a hassle and occasionally an
obstacle ---Does that strike a middle ground here?  I'd say both 'insiders'
and 'outsiders' would  agree with that---has nothing to do with
'retrofitting'. An understanding of tribal politics is essential since it
defines the space and parameters for negotiations. But, blanket
characterizations of tribal politics either way, while tempting, are not
fair.
 Probably goes without saying, but let's not forget that each community is
different, as is each person's and program's involvement with tribal
politics. I'll agree with Sean in that providing practical, very usable,
results mitigates much of the tension in most situations. Nevertheless,
sincere commitment and practical results are only usually, not always, a
winning combination.
In any case,  tribal politics are always to be considered and respected.

Patience everyone! Isn't that the great lesson of working with community
level programs or politics?

Susan
----- Original Message -----
From: "Sean M. Burke" <sburke at CPAN.ORG>
To: <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
Sent: Saturday, December 18, 2004 2:53 AM
Subject: Re: Government language study released (fwd)


> At 10:53 PM 2004-12-17, Rolland Nadjiwon wrote:
>>What if you are working with a language that has no(your last paragraph)
>>pronouns, genderization, binarism or linearity(time/history)...do you
>>invent them?
>
> What do /you/ think?  I was talking about (largely uninflected) nouns and
> (highly inflected) verbs in Apachean, a distinction that I think is about
> as uncontroversial as they get -- if that bothers you, explain why.
> For chrissake, I wasn't insisting that Your Favorite Language has an
> ablative absolutive!
>
>>Further, 'tribal politics' is not an obstacle it is a process, an
>>'obstacle' perhaps to externalized retrofitting retrofitters.
>
> Oh my yes, when the head of the culture program /still/ won't talk to the
> head of the language program because her sister Orlene asked his
> teasing-cousin Bulerd to the prom in 1952 instead of asking /him/, I'll be
> sure to bear in mind your heartfelt advice that this is all just a joyous
> process, and that to view it otherwise is to be a retrofitty retrofitso.
>
> Who needs a hug?!?
>
> --
> Sean M. Burke    http://search.cpan.org/~sburke/


From anguksuar at YAHOO.COM  Sat Dec 18 14:18:40 2004
From: anguksuar at YAHOO.COM (Richard LaFortune)
Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2004 06:18:40 -0800
Subject: language funding considerations
In-Reply-To: <6D1E8A70-50D6-11D9-98A7-000A95BE94DE@kathlangcentre.org.au>
Message-ID: <SAT.18.DEC.2004.061840.0800.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

Here are a few thoughts from a Native philanthropy
professional focusing on language revitalization- hope
it provides a bit of food for thought-
Anguksuar (Richard LaFortune)

Sometimes a modest or small grant acquires greater
dimension in communities with national or local
economies that can't meaningfully support individual
language activists or organizations - in those
instances, an apparently small grant can sometimes
accomplish more than a larger dollar grant for
constituents in a richer economy.

Also, smaller and emerging Aboriginal organizations
embarking on fundraising efforts may not initially
find a receptive or aware philanthropy audience.
Therefore, a grant of any size is useful when a new-
or grassroots- effort submits proposals and can
already show a committed funding source- it makes for
a stronger argument to other funders, and can serve as
a platform for stronger fundraising efforts.

Funders talk to each other frequently, and a
foundation officer may call other funders to assess
the readiness or worthiness of an organization, for
immediate or future funding.

Grants are often registered in the press and
professional (philanthropy) journals in the country of
origin, so that may represent one of the only
introductions to the larger foundation community.

And of course, if a grantee disseminates
organizational literature of any description, a public
thank you to a funder can serve to advertise the
worthiness of its mission and attract other potential
donors.

FEL is one of a handful of philanthropies worldwide
that provides grants in the range of US$1000 or so,
dedicated to the field in which we work.  Sometimes a
fund with national or international geographic focus
is able to transcend the ignorance or resistance of
more locally based public or private sources of
funding.

Happy Solstice! (which occurs at the customary time of
our ancient winter Nakaciuryaraq celebration, in the
Ancestral Domain of the Yupik people)

PS  Phil: can we add a default 'ILAT' signature into
the subject line of listserve messages?  People
sometimes delete messages from unrecognized or
unfamiliar senders, particularly with attachments

--- Greg Dickson <linguist3 at KATHLANGCENTRE.ORG.AU>
wrote:

> What do you mob think of the proposals?  To me, it
> seems like the
> amount of work that goes into writing the proposal
> isn't worth the
> small value of the grants.  Has anyone ever been
> involved in a project
> that used this funding and how was it?
>
> Greg Dickson
> Linguist
> Ngukurr Language Centre
> PMB 6
> via Katherine  NT  0852
> Australia
> phone/fax: +61 8 8975 4362
> mob:  +61 427 391 153
> email: greg.dickson at kathlangcentre.org.au
>
>



__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Take Yahoo! Mail with you! Get it on your mobile phone.
http://mobile.yahoo.com/maildemo


From sdp at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU  Sat Dec 18 16:11:12 2004
From: sdp at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Susan Penfield)
Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2004 09:11:12 -0700
Subject: No subject
Message-ID: <SAT.18.DEC.2004.091112.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

All,
Small grants have their place. It was a small grant five years ago (in house
from the UA) which allowed us to work with the CRIT tribal library
experimenting with technology. That work attracted the attention of the Bill
Gates Foundation and their funding (large grant) helped establish this
listserv --along with establishing other projects still in place at CRIT all
of which focus on providing training in tech. for tribal members related to
language documentation and revitalization.
Grant writing, at all levels, seems to me to be work intensive with
unpredictable outcomes -- still worth the effort.
Best,
Susan

----- Original Message -----
From: "Greg Dickson" <linguist3 at KATHLANGCENTRE.ORG.AU>
To: <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
Sent: Saturday, December 18, 2004 2:23 AM


> What do you mob think of the proposals?  To me, it seems like the
> amount of work that goes into writing the proposal isn't worth the
> small value of the grants.  Has anyone ever been involved in a project
> that used this funding and how was it?
>
> Greg Dickson
> Linguist
> Ngukurr Language Centre
> PMB 6
> via Katherine  NT  0852
> Australia
> phone/fax: +61 8 8975 4362
> mob:  +61 427 391 153
> email: greg.dickson at kathlangcentre.org.au
>
>
> On 17/12/2004, at 6:48 PM, Donald Z. Osborn wrote:
>
>> FYI... (reposted from the Linguist list)  DZO
>>
>>
>> Date: 16-Dec-2004
>> From: Nicholas Ostler <nostler at chibcha.demon.co.uk>
>> Subject: Call for Proposals:Foundation for Endangered Langs
>>
>>
>> The Foundation for Endangered Languages is now accepting proposals for
>> projects
>> of work that will support, enable or assist the documentation,
>> protection or
>> promotion of one or more endangered languages.  These endangered
>> languages may
>> be anywhere in the  world.
>>
>> The Foundation's funds remain extremely limited and only an
>> exceptional award
>> will be greater than US $1,500. Smaller proposals stand a better
>> chance of
>> funding.
>>
>> Please pass on this announcement to your friends and colleagues in
>> endangered-language communities who may not have access to Ogmios,  the
>> Internet or e-mail.
>>
>> **Format for Submissions:
>> As of this year, there has been a change in the format for submissions
>> to the
>> Foundation.  In future, applicants must submit a short Case for
>> Support and a
>> Application Form.  Guidance on how to write a Case, and fill out the
>> form, is
>> accessible at the Foundation's website: -
>> http://www.ogmios.org/grant.htm
>> It may also be obtained from me at the address below.  (Any other,
>> older, FEL
>> materials - as still at http://www.ogmios.org/question.htm - are
>> obsolete, and
>> should not be used.)
>>
>> The Case for Support (CS) and Application Form (AF) are best
>> submitted as Word
>> files attached to an e-mail message sent to <FEL at chibcha.demon.co.uk>.
>> Non-ascii text should be in some form  of Unicode. The two files
>> should be
>> named "languageCS.doc" and "languageAF.doc", substituting the name of
>> the
>> language to be studied for 'language'.
>>
>> Copies printed on paper will also be accepted as an alternative. In
>> general, it
>> is not necessary to send  a hard copy of an electronic proposal for
>> confirmation, but FEL may request this if there are major difficulties
>> in
>> reading the file.
>>
>> All proposals must be submitted in this format, to ensure
>> comparability. Unless
>> agreed with me in advance in writing, all proposals must be in English.
>>
>> ** Deadline:
>> The time-limit for proposals will be 30 January 2005. By that date,
>> full
>> proposals (consisting of Case for Support and Application Form) must
>> reach me
>> at the address below. All proposals received will be acknowledged on
>> receipt.
>>
>> The FEL Committee will announce its decision by 31st March 2005.
>>
>> ** Comments on Draft Proposals:
>> FEL tries to keep its procedures as simple as possible. But it
>> recognizes that
>> they may be especially taxing for those without training in a western
>> university. In the case of proposals from communities or community
>> linguists,
>> FEL is prepared to comment on drafts, and suggest weaknesses and
>> potential
>> remedies (without prejudice) before the selection. Such draft
>> proposals -
>> clearly marked "DRAFT" - should reach FEL as soon as possible, and no
>> later
>> than 31 December 2004.
>>
>> This commenting service is simply offered in order to help: it is
>> never required
>> to submit such a draft.  If  draft applications are received from
>> applicants
>> who are judged not to be members of endangered language communities or
>> such
>> communities' designated linguists, they may be re-classified as final
>> applications, at FELs discretion.
>>
>> Nicholas Ostler <nostler at chibcha.demon.co.uk>
>> FEL Chairman and Grants Officer
>> Note:
>> The Foundation for Endangered Languages (FEL) is a separate from ELF,
>> the
>> Endangered Language Fund (www.haskins.yale.edu). It is perfectly
>> possible (and
>> has indeed occurred in the past) that the same project can be
>> partially funded
>> by both FEL and ELF.
>>
>> Foundation for Endangered Languages
>> Registered Charity: England and Wales 1070616
>> 172 Bailbrook Lane, Bath BA1 7AA, England
>> +44-1225-852865  nostler at chibcha.demon.co.uk
>> http://www.ogmios.org
>>


From pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET  Sat Dec 18 16:50:25 2004
From: pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET (phil cash cash)
Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2004 09:50:25 -0700
Subject: language funding considerations
In-Reply-To: <20041218141840.40649.qmail@web11206.mail.yahoo.com>
Message-ID: <SAT.18.DEC.2004.095025.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

hi Richard,

i have been thinking about adding an ILAT subject line.  for example,
your email it might look like:

Re: [ILAT] language funding considerations

or some configuration like that.  if others are interested in seeing
this happen just let me know and i will give it a try.

phil cash cash
UofA, ILAT list manager



On Dec 18, 2004, at 7:18 AM, Richard LaFortune wrote:
> PS  Phil: can we add a default 'ILAT' signature into
> the subject line of listserve messages?  People
> sometimes delete messages from unrecognized or
> unfamiliar senders, particularly with attachments


From anguksuar at YAHOO.COM  Sat Dec 18 19:25:53 2004
From: anguksuar at YAHOO.COM (Richard LaFortune)
Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2004 11:25:53 -0800
Subject: ILAT  re:  re
In-Reply-To: <EA36B626-5114-11D9-8A55-0003936727C2@dakotacom.net>
Message-ID: <SAT.18.DEC.2004.112553.0800.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

I think that would be ideal- I realize that I don't
know everyone on the listserve, so the occassional
unfamiliar name can make me hesitate opening it- a
couple of other listserves I am- or have been-on have
a little identifier, so if nothing else, I know it's
from ILAT, for example
Peace
Anguksuar

--- phil cash cash <pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET> wrote:

> hi Richard,
>
> i have been thinking about adding an ILAT subject
> line.  for example,
> your email it might look like:
>
> Re: [ILAT] language funding considerations
>
> or some configuration like that.  if others are
> interested in seeing
> this happen just let me know and i will give it a
> try.
>
> phil cash cash
> UofA, ILAT list manager
>
>
>
> On Dec 18, 2004, at 7:18 AM, Richard LaFortune
> wrote:
> > PS  Phil: can we add a default 'ILAT' signature
> into
> > the subject line of listserve messages?  People
> > sometimes delete messages from unrecognized or
> > unfamiliar senders, particularly with attachments
>




__________________________________
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Send holiday email and support a worthy cause. Do good.
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From Dmark916 at AOL.COM  Sun Dec 19 00:09:33 2004
From: Dmark916 at AOL.COM (Dmark916 at AOL.COM)
Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2004 19:09:33 EST
Subject: language funding considerations
Message-ID: <SAT.18.DEC.2004.190933.EST.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

Yes, Please do add the ILAT identifier. That way I will not delete some of
the interesting comments from those of us served. What a great idea!
Dorothy Martinez
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ilat/attachments/20041218/ebc14b50/attachment.html>

From dzo at BISHARAT.NET  Sun Dec 19 00:45:09 2004
From: dzo at BISHARAT.NET (Donald Z. Osborn)
Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2004 18:45:09 -0600
Subject: Fwd: Re: Question re FEL grants
Message-ID: <SAT.18.DEC.2004.184509.0600.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

I asked Nicholas Ostler for more info on the grant and here is the reply
(forwarded with permission). You may want to skip to his text towards the end
of the message. Of course I forwarded more info on ILAT to him. DZO


----- Forwarded message from Nicholas Ostler <nostler at chibcha.demon.co.uk>
-----
    Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2004 15:59:09 +0000
    From: Nicholas Ostler <nostler at chibcha.demon.co.uk>
Reply-To: nostler at chibcha.demon.co.uk
 Subject: Re: Question re FEL grants
      To: "Donald Z. Osborn" <dzo at bisharat.net>


Donald Z. Osborn wrote:

>Dear Nicholas, Hope you are doing well. I forwarded your announcement to a
>couple of lists, including ILAT.
>
THanks. That's very helpful.  But what does "ILAT" stand for?

>Here is one reader's question. Not sure if you
>might have any response, suggestions, or cases for example.
>
>
My answer is below.

>On one hand the reader has a point (though we all I think recognize that FEL
>does not have deep pockets).
>
Gradually deeper, luckily.

>On the other hand, I personally would see your
>grant as something like (1) seed money, (2) something to complete/advance work
>that may have had other funding or (3) something aimed at grassroots efforts
in
>places where <$1500 might translate into quite a bit of working funds.
>
>
I agree totally, especially with point three.

>Thanks in advance for any feedback and best of luck with your ongoing and
>vitally important efforts.
>
>Don
>
>Don Osborn, Ph.D.         dzo at bisharat.net
>*Bisharat! A language, technology & development initiative
>*Bisharat! Initiative langues - technologie - développement
>http://www.bisharat.net
>
>
>
>
>
>
>----- Forwarded message from Greg Dickson <linguist3 at KATHLANGCENTRE.ORG.AU>
>-----
>    Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2004 18:53:06 +0930
>    From: Greg Dickson <linguist3 at KATHLANGCENTRE.ORG.AU>
>Reply-To: Indigenous Languages and Technology <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
>      To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
>
>What do you mob think of the proposals?  To me, it seems like the
>amount of work that goes into writing the proposal isn't worth the
>small value of the grants.  Has anyone ever been involved in a project
>that used this funding and how was it?
>
>
Certainly, > $1500 isn't going to go far in a first-world country,
especially if the costs are for equipment, but:

A.
If you look at the documentation it's not so difficult to put together
an application, maybe an afternoon's work. People tend to submit
applications that are far longer than we need. That's why we have said
3-pages maximum for the Case for Support and a two-page application form.

B.
Money often goes a long way in third-world countries - especally pounds
sterling, currently the hardest currency there is!

C.
The fact of being awarded something from a global fund can work wonders
for morale.

For anyone interested, I can send a resume of past grant-winners.

All the best

Nicholas Ostler

--
Foundation for Endangered Languages
Registered Charity: England and Wales 1070616
172 Bailbrook Lane, Bath BA1 7AA, England
+44-1225-852865  nostler at chibcha.demon.co.uk
http://www.ogmios.org




----- End forwarded message -----


From dzo at BISHARAT.NET  Sun Dec 19 13:15:30 2004
From: dzo at BISHARAT.NET (Donald Z. Osborn)
Date: Sun, 19 Dec 2004 07:15:30 -0600
Subject: Assimilation, in the 21st century?
Message-ID: <SUN.19.DEC.2004.071530.0600.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

I would like to invite anyone interested to participate in a consideration of
the concept of assimilation on the Assimilation list - see
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Assimilation/ .

Assimilation, of course, is a process by which individuals of a more or less
distinct group are subsumed into the identity of a larger society. As such it
has long been a goal of many plural states, and also of many immigrant groups
settling in different countries. Often its meaning seems to be assumed without
much clarity as to what the implications are. Sometimes the implications are
too clear, with minorities obliged one way or another to conform.

The "Assimilation" group seeks to explore
* what "assimilation" means in an era of globalization, integration (i.e.,
transnational, like the European Union, etc.), and migration, and
* what other similar terms like "acculturation" mean in this context.

These questions bring up other issues, such as the future of the nation-state,
and forms of multiculturalism and national identities. And other related
questions too, such as: Is it possible to speak of assimilation to an emerging
"global culture," and if so what would that mean for cultural traditions and
discussion of assimilation within countries?

Does it make any sense to talk of assimilation in the 21st century? If so, how
and in what ways? If not, is there another term/concept that is more
appropriate and productive for changing realities that peoples and nations are
living today?

Don Osborn


From pmeyer at SDCOE.K12.CA.US  Sun Dec 19 17:54:11 2004
From: pmeyer at SDCOE.K12.CA.US (Paula Meyer)
Date: Sun, 19 Dec 2004 09:54:11 -0800
Subject: language funding considerations
Message-ID: <SUN.19.DEC.2004.095411.0800.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

I would appreciate the [ILAT] in the subject ling, for the reasons that
Richard mentioned.
Paula

----- Original Message -----
From: "phil cash cash" <pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET>
To: <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
Sent: Saturday, December 18, 2004 8:50 AM
Subject: Re: language funding considerations


> hi Richard,
>
> i have been thinking about adding an ILAT subject line.  for example,
> your email it might look like:
>
> Re: [ILAT] language funding considerations
>
> or some configuration like that.  if others are interested in seeing
> this happen just let me know and i will give it a try.
>
> phil cash cash
> UofA, ILAT list manager
>
>
>
> On Dec 18, 2004, at 7:18 AM, Richard LaFortune wrote:
> > PS  Phil: can we add a default 'ILAT' signature into
> > the subject line of listserve messages?  People
> > sometimes delete messages from unrecognized or
> > unfamiliar senders, particularly with attachments
>


From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US  Mon Dec 20 17:59:00 2004
From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP)
Date: Mon, 20 Dec 2004 10:59:00 -0700
Subject: Government language study released (fwd)
Message-ID: <MON.20.DEC.2004.105900.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

Hi, Sean,
 Top O' the Beautiful New Mexico moarnin' to yeh! :-)

I agree that we need to have demonstrations that show our success in the
value terms of the listening Group.

My thesis was a standard Psychology thesis, hypotheses, control groups,
Native participants, whole nine.

We "thought" (silly us), that people would respond to our efforts (One
person from the Tribe, good technology, tribal participants asking for
more). NOT.

Also, I have recently noticed something. (Duh!) What I "do", what I am
really, really interested in, is how the principles of cognitive psychology
regarding learning, and other work that people have done, can be harnessed
to make learning easier, more fun, and above all, more powerful in the
actual process. For example, it takes lots of time to develop the cognitive
models of things you read in text. If you don't understand the concept
behind a word, you have a blank space in the model until you find a way to
complete it. What you get is, to coin an appropriate metaphor, is Cognitive
Bowderlization. Of course there is no Bowdler, and there is no intention to
create the blank spot, but if you don't have the concepts, you can't
populate the space.

So to bring it back around, what I was trying to show people is that
different, more cognitively informed ways of Teaching and Learning can in a
reasonable, though certainly not complete, way, make up for the fact that
the environment in which people could learn language by immersion has been
obliterated, the number of fluent speakers who can teach is a) small to
begin with, since not every fluent speaker can teach, and b) decreasing
exponentially. I wasn't "selling" a complete program for them to buy; I was
selling a cooperative way for the community to become involved in saving its
language and culture by working with people who knew how to use technology
to support the process and engender a new emergent structure of culture and
learning.

Nope.

Not having any.

Also, to develop the really comprehensive software like you are talking, to
teach grammar dynamically, takes time, and support for the people who are
building it. We wanted them to support us financially, and we weren't asking
vast sums of money like the quarter of a million dollars people pay for
Macromedia Flash advertising. We were graduate students, and we thought the
graduate student hourly rate was fair, plus we wanted an office on site.
They had the space; one half of us was a Tribal member. Didn't happen. Just!
Didn't! Happen!

So I gave up on the Tribe and went away, reconceived what I wanted to do in
a new format. My main problem was not needing to figure out how to solve the
problem, but developing the materials for building the solution. I have
people here who want to use the software approach I designed for English
language learners, but I don't have the resources to build the materials in
huge enough amounts fast enough.

<BIG WIDE SMILE> So I am working on solving my supply problem. <BIG WIDE
SMILE>

By the way, does anyone know Gilles Fauconnier? He and Mark Turner, who I
also don't know, wrote a wonderful book called The Way We Think. They have a
beautiful structure of networks and spaces. Interestingly enough, the
approach that I used that was so successful is called a Simplex Netowrk in
their format. The nice thing is that they did a lot of the work, so I can
simply use their structure for developing learning materials. I can highly
recommend it. Although, I should add the caveat that the reason I find this
book so clear and infomative is because I have been thinking along these
lines for 20+ years. I would like to hear from people to check the book out
and find it inscrutable. . . and those who don't. I'm thinking of using the
book as a foundation text in a multi-media development course (The answer to
the unasked question: GIGO. . . . if you don't have theory for what
components you are including, you get the same shlock in multiple dimensions
as you do in text. People just assimilate it faster.)

best.
Mia

----- Original Message -----
From: "Sean M. Burke" <sburke at CPAN.ORG>
To: <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
Sent: Friday, December 17, 2004 6:10 PM
Subject: Re: Government language study released (fwd)


> At 06:46 PM 2004-12-15, MiaKalish at LFP wrote:
> > > How well did they test on learning grammatical formations, and other
> > > non-lexical things?
> >We didn't get that far. This was for basic lexical acquisition, without
> >using Any English.  We thought the success of our first project would
> >excite others, and we would have the chance to develop the Flash movies
> >for teaching grammar dynamically[...]
>
> Yes, the problem of tribal politics is always a massive obstacle in any
> language revitalization program.  I think the best solution is to have on
> your side not just your ample enthusiasm for technologies that you feel
can
> be promising, but also clear documentation of past experiments showing the
> technologies to be brilliantly useful for the task you're proposing --
> demonstrating this with an experimental group and a control group, and
> going past just lexical retention.  Having experimental results in hand is
> what can put you head and shoulders over the other dog-and-pony shows
> that're out there in the realm of language technology.
>
> I mean, anybody can learn a few dozen nouns in an Apachean language -- but
> it's trying to go from "he runs" to "I ran" or "he ran around" that trips
> up all the learners.  Find a technology that helps with that more than
> /just/ chalk-and-talk does, and show proof of how and when your new tech
is
> effective, and you'll be practically immune to the hassles of tribal
politics.
>
> --
> Sean M. Burke    http://search.cpan.org/~sburke/
>


From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US  Mon Dec 20 18:09:49 2004
From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP)
Date: Mon, 20 Dec 2004 11:09:49 -0700
Subject: No subject
Message-ID: <MON.20.DEC.2004.110949.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

Gee I know some people. M.J. Hardman, down at FAU? FIU? U-Miami? Gee I
forget. Anyway, she got one of these wonderful grants and she was able to go
down and work with her people in Central America. I saw her when she got
back, after she had compiled her research, and she was ecstatic. I also met
some people who were doing work in Cherokee, in Oklahoma. Without this
grant, NaDA!

So little grants are good because sometimes what you want to do isn't big
enough even to be a blip on the BigGrantFunders horizon. Sometimes, you need
just that little piece of cash that can make the difference between Eureka!
and NaDa!

Also, I know these people. They are great people. They work tirelessly to
raise funds,  become know, get more people to contribute. They care very
deeply about this effort. And their application process isn't so complex:
just three pages, I think.

I just finished writing a smallish grant (~ a million for 3 years), and it
took us almost 3 weeks. There were two of us, truly co-editors, plus the ERC
associate director who did all the administrative stuff for us. Did I feel
like I had been dragged down the pike last Thursday at 5pm when our grant
sailed off to Washington?! You betchie!

Mia

----- Original Message -----
From: "Greg Dickson" <linguist3 at KATHLANGCENTRE.ORG.AU>
To: <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
Sent: Saturday, December 18, 2004 2:23 AM


> What do you mob think of the proposals?  To me, it seems like the
> amount of work that goes into writing the proposal isn't worth the
> small value of the grants.  Has anyone ever been involved in a project
> that used this funding and how was it?
>
> Greg Dickson
> Linguist
> Ngukurr Language Centre
> PMB 6
> via Katherine  NT  0852
> Australia
> phone/fax: +61 8 8975 4362
> mob:  +61 427 391 153
> email: greg.dickson at kathlangcentre.org.au
>
>
> On 17/12/2004, at 6:48 PM, Donald Z. Osborn wrote:
>
> > FYI... (reposted from the Linguist list)  DZO
> >
> >
> > Date: 16-Dec-2004
> > From: Nicholas Ostler <nostler at chibcha.demon.co.uk>
> > Subject: Call for Proposals:Foundation for Endangered Langs
> >
> >
> > The Foundation for Endangered Languages is now accepting proposals for
> > projects
> > of work that will support, enable or assist the documentation,
> > protection or
> > promotion of one or more endangered languages.  These endangered
> > languages may
> > be anywhere in the  world.
> >
> > The Foundation's funds remain extremely limited and only an
> > exceptional award
> > will be greater than US $1,500. Smaller proposals stand a better
> > chance of
> > funding.
> >
> > Please pass on this announcement to your friends and colleagues in
> > endangered-language communities who may not have access to Ogmios,  the
> > Internet or e-mail.
> >
> > **Format for Submissions:
> > As of this year, there has been a change in the format for submissions
> > to the
> > Foundation.  In future, applicants must submit a short Case for
> > Support and a
> > Application Form.  Guidance on how to write a Case, and fill out the
> > form, is
> > accessible at the Foundation's website: -
> > http://www.ogmios.org/grant.htm
> > It may also be obtained from me at the address below.  (Any other,
> > older, FEL
> > materials - as still at http://www.ogmios.org/question.htm - are
> > obsolete, and
> > should not be used.)
> >
> > The Case for Support (CS) and Application Form (AF) are best
> > submitted as Word
> > files attached to an e-mail message sent to <FEL at chibcha.demon.co.uk>.
> > Non-ascii text should be in some form  of Unicode. The two files
> > should be
> > named "languageCS.doc" and "languageAF.doc", substituting the name of
> > the
> > language to be studied for 'language'.
> >
> > Copies printed on paper will also be accepted as an alternative. In
> > general, it
> > is not necessary to send  a hard copy of an electronic proposal for
> > confirmation, but FEL may request this if there are major difficulties
> > in
> > reading the file.
> >
> > All proposals must be submitted in this format, to ensure
> > comparability. Unless
> > agreed with me in advance in writing, all proposals must be in English.
> >
> > ** Deadline:
> > The time-limit for proposals will be 30 January 2005. By that date,
> > full
> > proposals (consisting of Case for Support and Application Form) must
> > reach me
> > at the address below. All proposals received will be acknowledged on
> > receipt.
> >
> > The FEL Committee will announce its decision by 31st March 2005.
> >
> > ** Comments on Draft Proposals:
> > FEL tries to keep its procedures as simple as possible. But it
> > recognizes that
> > they may be especially taxing for those without training in a western
> > university. In the case of proposals from communities or community
> > linguists,
> > FEL is prepared to comment on drafts, and suggest weaknesses and
> > potential
> > remedies (without prejudice) before the selection. Such draft
> > proposals -
> > clearly marked "DRAFT" - should reach FEL as soon as possible, and no
> > later
> > than 31 December 2004.
> >
> > This commenting service is simply offered in order to help: it is
> > never required
> > to submit such a draft.  If  draft applications are received from
> > applicants
> > who are judged not to be members of endangered language communities or
> > such
> > communities' designated linguists, they may be re-classified as final
> > applications, at FELs discretion.
> >
> > Nicholas Ostler <nostler at chibcha.demon.co.uk>
> > FEL Chairman and Grants Officer
> > Note:
> > The Foundation for Endangered Languages (FEL) is a separate from ELF,
> > the
> > Endangered Language Fund (www.haskins.yale.edu). It is perfectly
> > possible (and
> > has indeed occurred in the past) that the same project can be
> > partially funded
> > by both FEL and ELF.
> >
> > Foundation for Endangered Languages
> > Registered Charity: England and Wales 1070616
> > 172 Bailbrook Lane, Bath BA1 7AA, England
> > +44-1225-852865  nostler at chibcha.demon.co.uk
> > http://www.ogmios.org
> >
>
>


From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US  Mon Dec 20 18:25:19 2004
From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP)
Date: Mon, 20 Dec 2004 11:25:19 -0700
Subject: Government language study released (fwd)
Message-ID: <MON.20.DEC.2004.112519.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

You know Susan, you bring up a really good point. Since we are in semester
break, perhaps people have time.

Is Patience the right way to deal with these issues?

Here's "my" logic, which is to say, this is how I am evaluating things, Not:
This is the way everyone should a) see it; b) do it.

    1. I have a limited amount of time;
    2. Correspondlingly, I have a limited amount of money;
    3. Elders are dying more quickly than I can research, design, and build
good technology;
    4. Hundreds of languages die every year;
    5. Much of the dialog in Tribes that I have been exposed to is based ed
on the premise that those of us who are
        trying to help a) want something that we haven't yet disclosed, that
is, we are trying to get over on them so we
        will get vast fortunes, none of which will acrue to them; and, b)
because we are waiting for such a huge reward,
        we will wait.
    6. All the time I was "patient", I didn't make much progress. It was
only when I got fed up and went away that things started to get better. Of
course, I don't know if the Tribe will be successful in saving language and
culture, but at least I will be able to do things that will be of value to
others who are interested.

Others?
Mia




----- Original Message -----
From: "Susan Penfield" <sdp at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU>
To: <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
Sent: Saturday, December 18, 2004 5:56 AM
Subject: Re: Government language study released (fwd)


> Can't resist this thread.
>
> Tribal politics is always a process, often a hassle and occasionally an
> obstacle ---Does that strike a middle ground here?  I'd say both
'insiders'
> and 'outsiders' would  agree with that---has nothing to do with
> 'retrofitting'. An understanding of tribal politics is essential since it
> defines the space and parameters for negotiations. But, blanket
> characterizations of tribal politics either way, while tempting, are not
> fair.
>  Probably goes without saying, but let's not forget that each community is
> different, as is each person's and program's involvement with tribal
> politics. I'll agree with Sean in that providing practical, very usable,
> results mitigates much of the tension in most situations. Nevertheless,
> sincere commitment and practical results are only usually, not always, a
> winning combination.
> In any case,  tribal politics are always to be considered and respected.
>
> Patience everyone! Isn't that the great lesson of working with community
> level programs or politics?
>
> Susan
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Sean M. Burke" <sburke at CPAN.ORG>
> To: <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
> Sent: Saturday, December 18, 2004 2:53 AM
> Subject: Re: Government language study released (fwd)
>
>
> > At 10:53 PM 2004-12-17, Rolland Nadjiwon wrote:
> >>What if you are working with a language that has no(your last paragraph)
> >>pronouns, genderization, binarism or linearity(time/history)...do you
> >>invent them?
> >
> > What do /you/ think?  I was talking about (largely uninflected) nouns
and
> > (highly inflected) verbs in Apachean, a distinction that I think is
about
> > as uncontroversial as they get -- if that bothers you, explain why.
> > For chrissake, I wasn't insisting that Your Favorite Language has an
> > ablative absolutive!
> >
> >>Further, 'tribal politics' is not an obstacle it is a process, an
> >>'obstacle' perhaps to externalized retrofitting retrofitters.
> >
> > Oh my yes, when the head of the culture program /still/ won't talk to
the
> > head of the language program because her sister Orlene asked his
> > teasing-cousin Bulerd to the prom in 1952 instead of asking /him/, I'll
be
> > sure to bear in mind your heartfelt advice that this is all just a
joyous
> > process, and that to view it otherwise is to be a retrofitty retrofitso.
> >
> > Who needs a hug?!?
> >
> > --
> > Sean M. Burke    http://search.cpan.org/~sburke/
>
>


From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US  Mon Dec 20 18:37:31 2004
From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP)
Date: Mon, 20 Dec 2004 11:37:31 -0700
Subject: Government language study released (fwd)
Message-ID: <MON.20.DEC.2004.113731.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

----- Original Message -----
From: "Sean M. Burke" <sburke at CPAN.ORG>
To: <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
Sent: Saturday, December 18, 2004 2:53 AM
Subject: Re: Government language study released (fwd)


> At 10:53 PM 2004-12-17, Rolland Nadjiwon wrote:
> >What if you are working with a language that has no(your last paragraph)
> >pronouns, genderization, binarism or linearity(time/history)...do you
> >invent them?
>
> What do /you/ think?  I was talking about (largely uninflected) nouns and
> (highly inflected) verbs in Apachean, a distinction that I think is about
> as uncontroversial as they get -- if that bothers you, explain why.
> For chrissake, I wasn't insisting that Your Favorite Language has an
> ablative absolutive!
tske, tske, Sean. That's kind of cranky, doncha think?

In fact, that idiot Powell, the one-armed danger to Indigenous Languages,
did exactly this. He wrote a prescriptive document for language collection.
Implicit in the word list was the "invention" of forms. John Peabody
Harrington, laboring under this garish, bigoted, ignorant document wrote in
a monograph on Tewa: "There are many 'parts of speech," he says, "each of
which behaves differently, and for which we have in English no satisfactory
nomenclature. Perhaps they may all be reduced to 'nouns,' 'pronouns,'
'verbs,' and 'modifying elements'" (Harrington, 1910).

Harrington, John (1910). A Brief Description of the Tewa Language, Papers of
the School of American Archeology, 17 Washington, D.C.: The Smithsonian)



>
> >Further, 'tribal politics' is not an obstacle it is a process, an
> >'obstacle' perhaps to externalized retrofitting retrofitters.
>
> Oh my yes, when the head of the culture program /still/ won't talk to the
> head of the language program because her sister Orlene asked his
> teasing-cousin Bulerd to the prom in 1952 instead of asking /him/, I'll be
> sure to bear in mind your heartfelt advice that this is all just a joyous
> process, and that to view it otherwise is to be a retrofitty retrofitso.
>
> Who needs a hug?!?

Sean needs a Hug. Here, Sean: *#*#*#*#* (  )  *#*#*#*#*#*

That's my best iconographic hug. I saw someone do a better one some time
ago, but I can't remember it now.

. . . .====> retrofitty retrofitso.   (GUFFAW, ROTFL, ROTFL, ROTFL)

made my day!



>
> --
> Sean M. Burke    http://search.cpan.org/~sburke/
>
>


From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US  Mon Dec 20 21:41:43 2004
From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP)
Date: Mon, 20 Dec 2004 14:41:43 -0700
Subject: Government language study released (fwd)
Message-ID: <MON.20.DEC.2004.144143.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

----- Original Message -----
From: "Rolland Nadjiwon" <mikinakn at SHAW.CA>
To: <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
Sent: Saturday, December 18, 2004 12:53 AM
Subject: Re: Government language study released (fwd)


> What if you are working with a language that has no(your last paragraph)
> pronouns, genderization, binarism or linearity(time/history)...do you
invent
> them?

shouldn't. The world's languages are not based on "English". . . or PIE
(Proto-Indo-European, either, for that matter)

>
> If the language, or anything of the 'other' for that matter, is reinvented
> to fit the structure is this not somewhat of a 'Cinderella Syndrome' --
the
> stepsisters distorted contortions to fit their gross feet into the glass
> slipper.
see my comments on Powell.


>
> Further, 'tribal politics' is not an obstacle it is a process, an
'obstacle'
> perhaps to externalized retrofitting retrofitters.
>
> Obviously, there is so much more to this.
I came here from the East, where to my feeble perceptions, people treat each
other equitably, and with respect. I wasn't prepared for the historical
passive-agressive smash and bash games people play here. So. . . one day . .
. considering my pain in a hour of navel-gazing, I realized that I wanted to
be treated with respect, There was no reason for people to treat me badly
simply because I had worked so hard, studied, learned, perfected few things.
I also realized that if I wanted respect, I was going to have to take action
that said, No, I am not going to put up with you treating me like this while
I continue to HOPE that one day you will treat me decently.

So I voted. With my feet.

And you know, people were surprised. They were surprised that I was unhappy
and that I did something about it besides talking and hoping.

I was surprised that they were surprised. I thought they were doing what
they were doing consciously, and on purpose, all along.

It was the Kline bottle of social relations.


>
> -------
> wahjeh
> rolland nadjiwon
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Sean M. Burke" <sburke at CPAN.ORG>
> To: <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
> Sent: Friday, December 17, 2004 8:10 PM
> Subject: Re: Government language study released (fwd)
>
>
> > At 06:46 PM 2004-12-15, MiaKalish at LFP wrote:
> >> > How well did they test on learning grammatical formations, and other
> >> > non-lexical things?
> >>We didn't get that far. This was for basic lexical acquisition, without
> >>using Any English.  We thought the success of our first project would
> >>excite others, and we would have the chance to develop the Flash movies
> >>for teaching grammar dynamically[...]
> >
> > Yes, the problem of tribal politics is always a massive obstacle in any
> > language revitalization program.  I think the best solution is to have
on
> > your side not just your ample enthusiasm for technologies that you feel
> > can
> > be promising, but also clear documentation of past experiments showing
the
> > technologies to be brilliantly useful for the task you're proposing --
> > demonstrating this with an experimental group and a control group, and
> > going past just lexical retention.  Having experimental results in hand
is
> > what can put you head and shoulders over the other dog-and-pony shows
> > that're out there in the realm of language technology.
> >
> > I mean, anybody can learn a few dozen nouns in an Apachean language --
but
> > it's trying to go from "he runs" to "I ran" or "he ran around" that
trips
> > up all the learners.  Find a technology that helps with that more than
> > /just/ chalk-and-talk does, and show proof of how and when your new tech
> > is
> > effective, and you'll be practically immune to the hassles of tribal
> > politics.
> >
> > --
> > Sean M. Burke    http://search.cpan.org/~sburke/
> >
>
>


From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU  Mon Dec 20 22:03:41 2004
From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash)
Date: Mon, 20 Dec 2004 15:03:41 -0700
Subject: reference on research in endangered language communities (fwd
 link)
Message-ID: <MON.20.DEC.2004.150341.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

tá'c halaxp (greetings),

fyi and to complement the recent discussions on working with endangered
language communities, i posted to...

http://projects.ltc.arizona.edu/gates/online_resources.html

a recent article that might be of interest.

"Patricia A. Shaw. Negotiating Against Loss: Responsibility,
Reciprocity, and Respect in Endangered Language Research"

i am not sure how long this article will be available since it is
scheduled for publication sometime soon.  again, as always, i claim a
"fair use" exemption on the use of the hyperlink.

phil cash cash
UofA


From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US  Mon Dec 20 22:52:10 2004
From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP)
Date: Mon, 20 Dec 2004 15:52:10 -0700
Subject: reference on research in endangered language communities (fwd
 link)
Message-ID: <MON.20.DEC.2004.155210.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

How do you say "tá'c halaxp" back? Or maybe it's just all tá'c halaxp.

I read the article with interest, since it seems to be the topic of the day.
But I think we need some new perspective in addition to the academic
linguist/traditional tribal member perspective.

First, many societies have undergone catastropic loss. In 1943, a ship with
3746 Jews tried to seek asylum in the US. Roosevelt sent them back. They
were all killed in the concentration camps. For more than 5,000 years, the
Jews wandered without a land, unable to own certain kinds of businesses,
unable to worship in public. As recently as 1945, people still believed Jews
had horns. In Germany, Hitler didn't kill only the Jews: He killed all the
"undesirables", Gypsies, Homosexuals, the poor, the blind, the feeble, the
deaf. . .He even got the people to kill their own.

Recently, populations of Eastern Europe and the Middle East have been
annihilated, their women raped by "conquering" soldiers. . . . there has
been massive genocide.

So I am no saying that Patrica Shaw is wrong; I am saying that more balance
is needed. For example, she said the following:

"What the community's expectations entail here is a re-evaluation of the two
principal goals motivating research on endangered languages, namely:

1. The scientific documentation of linguistic diversity; and

2. The reclamation and revitalization of these languages for posterity.

Linguists, traditionally, have been compelled by the first. Communities are
compelled by the second. The stakes are pretty high for both parties."

When we were working, we were very focused on (2), the reclaimation and
revitalization of these languages for posterity. My partner in this crime
was a Tribal member. What they did to her was abominable. I am still stunned
and angry that a bunch of humans could treat a sweet, good-hearted person,
one of their own, the way they did.

I can't say that "everyone has history". I can only say that "I have
history". I come from 2 displaced Peoples, the Irish who were annihilated as
a practice effort in anticipation of the American Indian effort, and the
Jews. So when people say to me, Oh, you're White and your advantaged, and
nothing like this ever happened to you and so on and so forth, eventually, I
run out of patience.

So there Are other sides.

Shaw also recommends: "Local control through increased skills development in
research, development, and implementation at the community level are
integral to the success, the stability and the long term efficacy of the
shared objectives of language documentation and language revitalization."

I don't know how this can be accomplished in a world where everyone is the
enemy. I don't know how this can be accomplished in a world where people
don't do things because they are "hard". Technology is "hard" by many
standards. Coming into a place where there are no fonts, no tools, no
technology, and having to build it all to support a language, by yourself. .
. THAT is hard. Maybe we were too nice, too giving. I don't know.

I still support my friends who are trying to teach the children. I make sure
they have materials, and old stories reformatted into Word-accessible fonts
so they can be used in the classroom. But I don't know that I will ever
really go back, at least not to the Tribe here, because they broke my
partner's heart. They took her beautiful gift and they stomped on it and
then they threw it in her face. And when I saw how hurt she was, it broke my
heart, too.

So we need some more sides here, where people talk about who and how they
are and why. I know some linguists who fit Shaw's description. I could name
them. I won't.

Mia

----- Original Message -----
From: "phil cash cash" <cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU>
To: <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
Sent: Monday, December 20, 2004 3:03 PM
Subject: reference on research in endangered language communities (fwd link)


tá'c halaxp (greetings),

fyi and to complement the recent discussions on working with endangered
language communities, i posted to...

http://projects.ltc.arizona.edu/gates/online_resources.html

a recent article that might be of interest.

"Patricia A. Shaw. Negotiating Against Loss: Responsibility,
Reciprocity, and Respect in Endangered Language Research"

i am not sure how long this article will be available since it is
scheduled for publication sometime soon.  again, as always, i claim a
"fair use" exemption on the use of the hyperlink.

phil cash cash
UofA


From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU  Tue Dec 21 07:32:44 2004
From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash)
Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2004 00:32:44 -0700
Subject: 1st test for subj header...
Message-ID: <TUE.21.DEC.2004.003244.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

to see if it works, phil


From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU  Tue Dec 21 07:41:30 2004
From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash)
Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2004 00:41:30 -0700
Subject: 2nd test for subj header...
Message-ID: <TUE.21.DEC.2004.004130.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

to see if it works.

ILAT list management


From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU  Tue Dec 21 07:49:11 2004
From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash)
Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2004 00:49:11 -0700
Subject: 2nd test for subj header...
In-Reply-To: <1103614890.2b2d10b76e568@www.email.arizona.edu>
Message-ID: <TUE.21.DEC.2004.004911.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

dear ILAT subscribers,

i believe the subj header is now working, although i should have done a
"quiet set" for the listserv so as to not send you an innocuous list
management notice.  my apologies.

phil
ILAT list manager


From Dmark916 at AOL.COM  Wed Dec 22 01:42:20 2004
From: Dmark916 at AOL.COM (Dmark916 at AOL.COM)
Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2004 20:42:20 EST
Subject: 2nd test for subj header...
Message-ID: <TUE.21.DEC.2004.204220.EST.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

Yes! It works. Perfectly. Ah, linguistic manipulation!!
Dorothy
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From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU  Sun Dec 26 18:34:49 2004
From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash)
Date: Sun, 26 Dec 2004 11:34:49 -0700
Subject: Group seeks to reconstruct Bay Area Indians' language
Message-ID: <SUN.26.DEC.2004.113449.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

Group seeks to reconstruct Bay Area Indians' language

By Lisa M. Krieger
KNIGHT RIDDER
http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/state/10501573.htm

When Jose Guzman died in 1930, the ancient Bay Area language called
Chochenyo died with him. Or so it was thought.

But the language can be heard again, in bits and pieces, in local homes.
With the help of university linguists, Guzman's descendants are working
to recreate Chochenyo and teach it to their children.

"If we learn the language, it will bring us closer to our culture," said
16-year-old Alison Symonds of Fremont, a member of the Ohlone-Muwekma
Tribe. "We once had a big culture."

Through songs, flash cards, puzzles and bingo games, a committee of the
tribe's elder women lead lessons for about two dozen children, ages 4
to 16. They meet for pizza parties and birthdays; this month the
youngsters sang their first-ever translation of holiday songs.

"It hasn't been spoken in 75 years," said Michele Sanchez of Hayward, a
member of the tribe's language committee. "Our goal is to learn it
again."

She never heard it as a child; her grandmother, raised at the orphanage
at the Mission San Jose convent in Fremont, wasn't allowed to speak
Chochenyo and so couldn't pass it on.

Chochenyo was once spoken by thousands throughout much of the East and
South Bay, until their region fell under the influence of
Spanish-speaking Franciscan missionaries with the founding of Mission
San Jose in 1797. The name Muwekma translates as "the people."

The language was suppressed, part of a larger effort to assimilate
American Indians at missions and boarding schools. Some members were
punished for speaking the language; others died from disease or
homicide.

Chochenyo was well on its way toward extinction when Guzman met
Stanford-educated anthropologist John Peabody Harrington, field
linguist for the Smithsonian's Bureau of American Ethnology.

Guzman and his companion, Maria de los Angeles Colos, were members of a
small group called the Verona Band who worked on the Pleasanton estate
built by George and Phoebe Apperson Hearst and lived in Sunol in the
1920s.

They were the last fluent speakers of Chochenyo, according to San Jose
State University archaeologist Alan Leventhal.

Harrington recorded Guzman's voice on a wax cylinder. He also took
extensive notes.

Guzman sang stories that had been passed down through generations of his
family. He recited verb tenses. He used specific vocabulary, such as
words for "rabbit skin" or "sweetheart," according to Sanchez.

And he described everyday customs that offer insights into the culture,
such as "Stir the acorn mush," "The women are carrying tule on their
backs," and "Go get your horse so we can go hunt for meat." Shortly
after the visit, Guzman died.

Guzman's voice has since been preserved on tape and a CD.

The project was part of Harrington's near-obsessive mission to find and
record the last speakers of American Indian tongues. He knew that many
of the 250 languages once spoken in what is now the United States were
disappearing.

But Harrington's work proved impenetrable to subsequent linguists. For
years, it languished in massive, dirty and disorganized files.

His notes on Chochenyo were found after his death by the Smithsonian's
Catherine Callaghan in a folder identified only as "Chock." Callaghan
took the hand-written field notes and turned them into preliminary
teaching materials, including a dictionary.

They have since been supplemented by a few other discoveries, such as a
copy of the Lord's Prayer in Chochenyo.

Guzman's voice was translated in 2001 by UC Berkeley graduate student
Jon Rodney, using the Callaghan materials. In 2003, UC Berkeley
professor Juliette Blevins was hired by the tribe to provide language
lessons.

The scant archival material means that the Chochenyo revitalization
faces significant challenges, such as accurate pronunciation. There are
gaps in the lexicon as well.

"There's not a lot," said Sanchez, who has learned the orthographic
symbols used by linguists. "There were once 15,000 words; we know only
1,500 to 2,000. There are holes in it."

To complicate matters, there were huge regional differences in the
language, with variants in San Jose, Niles and San Lorenzo. It was
related to at least seven other American Indian languages of
mid-coastal California. Linguists say the region's highly varied
ecology encouraged great linguistic diversity.

The Bay Area's Muwekma are not alone in their revitalization effort.
Similar efforts are under way for the Mohawk language of northern New
York; Wampanoag, an Algonquin language of Massachusetts; and Choctaw,
native to Mississippi. These tribes all look to native Hawaiian,
re-established in 1984 and flourishing within small tribes today, for
inspiration.

The 425 members of the present-day Muwekma tribe, which comprises all of
the known surviving American Indian lineages native to the region, are
striving to win federal recognition. Among many other things,
recognition would provide funding to expand their language lessons.
They now must pay for professors' time and materials out of their own
pockets, a big constraint.

As they learn, they cherish the fuzzy but fluent recording of Guzman's
voice. He left a bridge between their past and future, they say.

"The language speaks to who we are, where we come from and how we
identify ourselves as a people," said tribal chairwoman Rosemary Cambra
of Fremont.


From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU  Sun Dec 26 18:38:12 2004
From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash)
Date: Sun, 26 Dec 2004 11:38:12 -0700
Subject: Institute says book teaches language, values (fwd)
Message-ID: <SUN.26.DEC.2004.113812.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

Institute says book teaches language, values
Sealaska linguist: children's book not like 'Dick and Jane'

December 24, 2004

By ERIC FRY
JUNEAU EMPIRE
http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/122404/loc_20041224005.shtml

When a Tlingit boy is rude to his mother and contemptuous of a piece of
salmon, it's an opportunity to teach respect.

A new illustrated book published by Sealaska Heritage Institute tells a
shortened version of an old story as a way to teach the Tlingit
language and Tlingit values to young children.

"Moldy End" is the first book produced by the institute under a grant to
create materials and lesson plans for school programs in which children
in kindergarten to second grade would be immersed in Tlingit language
and values.

They go hand in hand, the editors said.

In creating a culturally relevant curriculum, the institute asked how
the Tlingit culture would teach about salmon, said Keri Edwards, a
linguist and director of the language department.

"We think it would be done through a story," she said.

"When we look at the Tlingit philosophy of education," said David
Katzeek, one of the book's editors, "for us the classroom is not a
particular building or a particular place, but nature in its entirety.
That classroom includes seeing salmon returning every year."

If uncles or aunts, parents or grandparents saw a child throwing a rock
at a salmon, they would stop the child, he said.

"They would then take that as an opportunity to provide lessons on
values as they relate to respect - respecting what is created," Katzeek
said.

The short book serves as an icon, like a totem pole, that reveals its
meanings not all at once, Katzeek said.

"A long time ago they would carve totems to tell the story," he said.
"Now it's a transition to take stories from the totem and begin to be
like a scribe, to scribe out the story. We're not the story experts,
but the goal is to bring values to the young person."

Katzeek, Johnny Marks, Hans Chester, Nora Dauenhauer and Richard
Dauenhauer derived the story from a longer version, "The Salmon Boy
Legend," told in 1904. Lisa Teas, a student at Sitka High School,
illustrated the book.

The book comes with a CD on which Katzeek reads the text in Tlingit. The
book's pages include Tlingit and English text. "Moldy End" with the CD
sells for $25 and is available from the institute. The text can be
downloaded for free from the Web site www.sealaskaheritage.org.

Although it's an abbreviated version, and it's intended for young
children, the language isn't simple, Edwards said.

"It's not like Dick and Jane," she said, referring to the famous
elementary reading books. "But it's a first step in teaching it to
kids."

A teacher could refer to the longer version, which is on the institute's
Web site, for richer details, she said.

So far, with the institute in the last year of a $278,000 curriculum
grant from the U.S. Department of Education, no schools in Southeast
Alaska have a true Tlingit-language immersion program.

But the institute plans to be ready for the day.

It doesn't want to translate a Western curriculum into Tlingit.

"We're trying to create something that starts from the Native
perspective by consulting with the right people and keeping things
correct from the cultural standpoint," Edwards said.

At the same time, the curriculum should be teacher-friendly so that any
teacher can enrich their curriculum with Tlingit culture, said Nancy
Douglas, a curriculum specialist at the institute.

"It's a real challenging thing to try to merge two cultures," Katzeek
said. "One (culture) comes at it one way and the other from another
way. Striking a balance is important in being able to achieve it."

• Eric Fry can be reached at eric.fry at juneauempire.com.


From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU  Sun Dec 26 18:49:30 2004
From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash)
Date: Sun, 26 Dec 2004 11:49:30 -0700
Subject: Haida Past Speaks To Troubled Present (fwd)
Message-ID: <SUN.26.DEC.2004.114930.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

Haida Past Speaks To Troubled Present

By brian lynch and colin thomas
Publish Date: 23-Dec-2004
http://www.straight.com/content.cfm?id=7185

Last week, B.C. poet, historian, and linguist Robert Bringhurst's
magisterial three-volume Masterworks of the Classical Haida Mythtellers
(Douglas & McIntyre) received the Edward Sapir Book Prize, an honour
bestowed every two years by the U.S.­based Society for Linguistic
Anthropology. The award, according to the SLA's Web site, recognizes
works that make "the most significant contribution to our understanding
of language in society".

Drawing on 15 years of study in the Haida language, Bringhurst created
his English renderings of these vital epics--now widely compared in
importance to Homer's Iliad and The Epic of Gilgamesh--from phonetic
transcriptions made at the turn of the last century by an American
anthropologist who sought out the great Haida storytellers of the time.
As Bringhurst explained when reached by the Straight at his home on
Quadra Island, his immersion in this work has deepened his own sense of
the forests and ocean at the source of the stories.

"What this kind of poetry does is, in a sense, knit the human world and
the natural world together," he said. "Human beings are minor
characters in these stories. The major characters are spirits of the
landscape, plants, and animals....And after you've been soaked in those
kinds of stories for a long period of time, just the experience of
walking through the woods becomes different than it was. The stories
become really attached to the place. And I think in a sense that's what
they were always for, one of the functions that they always served: to
knit people into the place where they live."

Yet the Haida language, despite this great history of integrating mind
with environment, is itself in serious danger of unravelling, with a
mere handful of fluent speakers now remaining. Like thousands of other
indigenous tongues on the planet, Bringhurst said, it is uniquely
valuable and yet wholly vulnerable in a world where an ever-increasing
majority of livelihoods are made in a small but powerful set of
languages including English, Spanish, Arabic, and Mandarin.

"Language is a part of culture that is easier to lose than other parts,
because it doesn't translate readily into saleable objects," Bringhurst
observed. "And yet it's like brain matter. It's filled with neurons,
almost--with little threads that carry information from way back in the
past, from parts of the mind that we might not know exist."


From dzo at BISHARAT.NET  Mon Dec 27 00:09:21 2004
From: dzo at BISHARAT.NET (Donald Z. Osborn)
Date: Sun, 26 Dec 2004 18:09:21 -0600
Subject: Haida Past Speaks To Troubled Present (fwd)
In-Reply-To: <1104086970.facd0ed12b7b7@www.email.arizona.edu>
Message-ID: <SUN.26.DEC.2004.180921.0600.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know if Haida epics have been published in
the Haida language (alone or in parallel text with another language like
English)?

Don Osborn
Bisharat.net



Quoting phil cash cash <cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU>:

> Haida Past Speaks To Troubled Present
>
> By brian lynch and colin thomas
> Publish Date: 23-Dec-2004
> http://www.straight.com/content.cfm?id=7185
>
> Last week, B.C. poet, historian, and linguist Robert Bringhurst's
> magisterial three-volume Masterworks of the Classical Haida Mythtellers
> (Douglas & McIntyre) received the Edward Sapir Book Prize, an honour
> bestowed every two years by the U.S.-­based Society for Linguistic
> Anthropology. The award, according to the SLA's Web site, recognizes
> works that make "the most significant contribution to our understanding
> of language in society".
>
> Drawing on 15 years of study in the Haida language, Bringhurst created
> his English renderings of these vital epics--now widely compared in
> importance to Homer's Iliad and The Epic of Gilgamesh--from phonetic
> transcriptions made at the turn of the last century by an American
> anthropologist who sought out the great Haida storytellers of the time.
> As Bringhurst explained when reached by the Straight at his home on
> Quadra Island, his immersion in this work has deepened his own sense of
> the forests and ocean at the source of the stories.
>
> "What this kind of poetry does is, in a sense, knit the human world and
> the natural world together," he said. "Human beings are minor
> characters in these stories. The major characters are spirits of the
> landscape, plants, and animals....And after you've been soaked in those
> kinds of stories for a long period of time, just the experience of
> walking through the woods becomes different than it was. The stories
> become really attached to the place. And I think in a sense that's what
> they were always for, one of the functions that they always served: to
> knit people into the place where they live."
>
> Yet the Haida language, despite this great history of integrating mind
> with environment, is itself in serious danger of unravelling, with a
> mere handful of fluent speakers now remaining. Like thousands of other
> indigenous tongues on the planet, Bringhurst said, it is uniquely
> valuable and yet wholly vulnerable in a world where an ever-increasing
> majority of livelihoods are made in a small but powerful set of
> languages including English, Spanish, Arabic, and Mandarin.
>
> "Language is a part of culture that is easier to lose than other parts,
> because it doesn't translate readily into saleable objects," Bringhurst
> observed. "And yet it's like brain matter. It's filled with neurons,
> almost--with little threads that carry information from way back in the
> past, from parts of the mind that we might not know exist."
>


From lachler at UNM.EDU  Mon Dec 27 02:17:40 2004
From: lachler at UNM.EDU (Jordan Lachler)
Date: Sun, 26 Dec 2004 17:17:40 -0900
Subject: Haida Past Speaks To Troubled Present (fwd)
In-Reply-To: <1104106161.41cf52b1ab47a@webmail.kabissa.org>
Message-ID: <SUN.26.DEC.2004.171740.0900.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

Hi Don,

>Just out of curiosity, does anyone know if Haida epics have been published in
>the Haida language (alone or in parallel text with another language like
>English)?

The original published versions, collected by John Swanton at the turn of
the last century, contained some transcribed Haida, included a couple of
texts with word-by-word as well as free translations.  But most of the
published volume was just the English translations, with the original Haida
transcriptions remaining in manuscript form.

In 1995, John Enrico published a large, re-elicited and retranscribed
collection of Swanton's texts in the Skidegate dialect of Haida.  For the
most part, the Haida was on the left-hand pages and the English on the
right-hand pages.  With some work, the reader could sync up the two versions.

We're currently working on a collection of Haida narratives recorded from
elders here in Alaska back in the 1970's.  With the help of the last 5 or 6
fluent speakers left here, we're hoping over the next couple of years to be
able to incorporate those stories into our intermediate and advanced level
Haida language classes at the University, and perhaps publish them, either
on their own or as part of other pedagogical materials.

Jordan Lachler
Haida Language Project Director
Sealaska Heritage Institute
Ketchikan, Alaska


From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU  Mon Dec 27 17:03:53 2004
From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash)
Date: Mon, 27 Dec 2004 10:03:53 -0700
Subject: Tribe awarded grant to keep language alive (fwd)
Message-ID: <MON.27.DEC.2004.100353.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

Web posted Sunday, December 26, 2004

Tribe awarded grant to keep language alive

By JOSEPH ROBERTIA
Peninsula Clarion
http://www.peninsulaclarion.com/stories/122604/news_1226new001001.shtml

The late Peter Kalifornsky, a Native elder that made significant
contributions to keeping the Dena'ina language alive once wrote a story
called "Education."

In that story he said education was "To prepare school students for the
reality of today's world. To relearn. To tell about what remains of the
past. That it is their country from the ancient past and that they are
Dena'ina."

The Kenaitze Indian Tribe recently received a three-year, $584,000
Administration for Native Americans grant that will allow them to do
just that — to "educate" using a variety of projects all designed to
revitalize the Dena'ina language.

"Our goal is to have a tribe of lifelong learners and teachers of
Dena'ina culture and language," said Sasha Lindgren, language program
director.

Dena'ina is part of the Athabascan or Na'Dene language family. There are
five dialects for the Dena'ina language: Upper Inlet, Iliamna, Inland,
Outer Inlet and Seldovia.

The Kenaitze Indian Tribe is one of three Native organizations to
receive funding to work on revitalizing the Dena'ina language. The
Alaska Native Language Center in Fairbanks and the Alaska Native
Heritage Center in Anchorage both received grants from the Department
of Education as well.

The approach of the three programs varies in different ways, but all are
the same in that they attempt to maintain and perpetuate the language
by teaching it to younger generations.

"We want to reconnect with our tribal youth, and language is our
strongest tool for that," Lindgren said.

One of her initial objectives is to develop six curriculum units on
Dena'ina language to be implemented into the Kenaitze's Head Start and
Cultural Heritage programs.

Lindgren said the curriculums will be modeled after those currently used
by Pauline Hobson, a Dena'ina language instructor from Nondalton, and
Alan Boraas, a Kenai Peninsula College professor of anthropology who
co-taught the course "Dena'ina Language and Culture" with adjunct
professor of Native studies Donita Peter this past semester at KPC.

Both curriculums heavily use immersion techniques. Students are taught
conversation skills, such as how to introduce themselves in Dena'ina,
as well as several other topics such as numbers, colors, animal names,
days of the week, body parts, clothing, plants, household items and
food.

"We'll begin by teaching the teachers and grow from there," Lindgren
said.

She said she also hopes more age appropriate curriculums with strong
additional emphasis on culture can be developed to complement the
current curriculums.

To assist Lindgren in carrying out these tribal goals, two new positions
— language archivist and language developer — have been created through
the grant and filled by qualified applicants.

Brett Encelewski of North Kenai was hired as the language archivist. His
primary duties include collecting, transcribing, digitizing and
archiving Dena'ina language materials.

"It's a huge task," he said, but added that it was a task he's wanted to
do for practically his whole life.

Encelewski explained that as a youth he felt estranged from his Native
heritage, until his mother encouraged him to attend the Kenaitze's
Susten Camp, which provides cultural heritage exploration for youths
during the summer. While there, Encelewski was exposed to Native words,
history and concepts.

"I just had never had that, and it created a lifelong passion and
interest in my culture," he said.

Now he said he hopes to inspire future generations through the Dena'ina
language in the same way he was inspired.

"My goal is, through cooperation and sharing, to make sure tribal
members and others in the community have access to what everyone else
has," Encelewski said in regard to archived language materials.

Wanda Reams of Soldotna was hired as the language developer. Her primary
duties include collecting materials related to the Dena'ina language
and preparing word lists, pronunciation keys and written and
audio-visual teaching materials, as well as assisting in language camps
and festivals.

Reams has over the past few years participated in several language
courses including the Denaqenaga Language Ladder, an Alaska Native
Language Center language mentor and apprenticeship program, and
received her teaching certificate through the tribe.

However, she has a story similar to Encelewski's when it comes to
finding her path in life.

"Growing up I was ashamed of being Native," Reams said. However, upon
learning of her shame, her grandmother sternly told her she should be
proud of who she was.

She said hearing her normally mild-mannered grandmother speak so
adamantly about their heritage had a profound affect on her and changed
how she felt about her Native roots.

"I see that shame in a lot of kids today, but being Dena'ina is a good
thing and our children need to know it," Reams said.

"Learning the language is a large part of strengthening their identity,
their value and their sense of place," she added.

Lindgren said in many ways Encelewski and Reams represent the Kenaitze
tribe's labor coming to fruition.

"The tribe gave to them and now they are giving back to the tribe," she
said.

Lindgren said it also proves that claims that the Dena'ina language is
dead or dying couldn't be more wrong.

"I prefer to think of our language like a flower," she said. "It was
lying dormant waiting to bloom again. Now it's alive and growing. It
just took time."


From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU  Fri Dec 31 19:16:36 2004
From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash)
Date: Fri, 31 Dec 2004 12:16:36 -0700
Subject: analog-to-digital devices
Message-ID: <FRI.31.DEC.2004.121636.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

Nuuyee, Nuuyee!
(New Year! in Pidgin English)

A number of analog-to-digital devices came out recently that might be of
interest to our ILAT members, especially those working directly with
analog audio and video recordings on a daily basis.  With the prices
coming down, these devices will make it easier to transfer your analog
(cassette tapes and VHS tapes) recordings to digital format.

Audio (analog-to-digital)

PowerWave
USB Audio Interface & Amplifier (online 99$)
http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/powerwave/

Video (analog-to-digital)

Canopus ADVC-100
http://www.simplydv.co.uk/advc100.html

Pextor series
http://www.plextor.com/english/products/product_dvc.html

my mini-review: I recently acquired the PowerWave because of the price
(student budget) and I must say that it works great.  I am now able to
transfer all of my analog tape recordings directly into my computers,
both Mac and PC.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that
analog-to-digital audio capture works fine with Audacity (free audio
editor).

Phil Cash Cash
UofA, ILAT


From dzo at BISHARAT.NET  Wed Dec  1 16:22:15 2004
From: dzo at BISHARAT.NET (Donald Z. Osborn)
Date: Wed, 1 Dec 2004 10:22:15 -0600
Subject: Andean Center for Teacher Training improves reading in Bolivia
Message-ID: <WED.1.DEC.2004.102215.0600.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

The following from the Nur University Newsletter
http://www.nur.edu/nins/wp_nins0101.html may be of interest. Although it
doesn't mention it until the end, the approach is bilingual Quechua/Spanish.
DZO


Andean Center for Teacher Training:
Improving Reading in Primary Schools

The program trains teachers in methods that improve reading comprehension
After 18 months of operation, Nur's Andean Center of Excellence for Teacher
Training (CETT) is making a visible difference in the way children are learning
to read. Nur's teacher training Center, supported by the US Government and
private contributions, is one of three Latin American Centers established under
a Summit of the Americas Initiative in April, 2001.

The program trains teachers in methods that improve reading comprehension. It is
based on the concept of nurturing meaningful communication for children, not
only in the classroom, but in their lives.

The growing impact of the CETT project has been covered widely by Bolivian
newspapers. The articles focus on the resulting enthusiasm of children who
become more eager to read and learn after receiving instruction in the
interactive reading methods promoted by the program.

The program's goal is to provide intensive teacher training for 6,000 primary
school teachers who will reach 180,000 children in Bolivia. Its work is based
on the latest research findings identifying the most effective ways of teaching
reading. Through the documentation of its work, Nur's Center is advancing the
field of bilingual intercultural education -- in this case, Quechua and
Spanish.

[NB- The Universidad Nur website is http://www.nur.edu/]


From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US  Wed Dec  1 17:50:24 2004
From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP)
Date: Wed, 1 Dec 2004 10:50:24 -0700
Subject: microsoft
Message-ID: <WED.1.DEC.2004.105024.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

Hi, Keola,

I fixed the web site, took out all the over-corrective apostrophes. Am
working on implementing the Exploratorium concept (the first one was
established in San Francisco in 1967-68), for the math and science standards
here in New Mexico. It would be so wonderful if Mele could be a springboard
context in Hawai'i (Is that an over-correction? Or is that right?)

I think it would be so great if there were a First Nations group of people
who made fonts for others, who knew all the technical details and were
available to the people.. .  of course, and if they could earn a living wage
:-) ) Sometimes people forget about this part.

Mia

----- Original Message -----
From: "Keola Donaghy" <keola at LEOKI.UHH.HAWAII.EDU>
To: <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, November 17, 2004 5:20 PM
Subject: Re: microsoft


> Aloha e Mia. You raise a good point. Most of our technology initiatives
> have been grant funded. In our case, the Hawaiian language community and
> the university are very closely intertwined. It isn't a case of the
> University helping the language community - we are a big part of that
> larger community. We've been very successful at raising the level of
> computer proficiency from our pre-school programs through the university
> level, doing localizations, curriculum development, providing online
> services and technical support throughout the state, and have been doing
> it without having to hire $150 an hour "consultants" to do it for us. I
> can't imagine that we would have been successful if we did not have this
> dynamic. But it required people from within that language community (at
> the time mostly university students, myself included) with the technical
> expertise (or a willingness to gain the expertise) to pull it together.
>
> I don't think any tribe or language group would be very successful if they
> were not full and active partners, if not taking the lead, in a
> collaboration in this area. If it is simply done for them by others, it
> would be destined to flop.
>
> Keola
>
>
>
> Indigenous Languages and Technology <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU> writes:
> >Is anyone submitting to the AIQ? I really think a bunch of us ought to
> >write
> >about this. We have a lot of people talking about revitalization, but so
> >far, there is a lot a rhetoric. I think this is both because the
> >technological support is not there, and also because we aren't having a
> >public discussion about the processes, steps, and issues. I see a lot of
> >wonderful links provided by the tireless Phil, but I wonder how many of
> >these happen because someone at the university gets a grant. How many
> >actual
> >TRIBES have the technology and expertise to design, develop and support
> >their own programs (which I think is Very Important).
>
>
> ========================================================================
> Keola Donaghy
> Assistant Professor of Hawaiian Studies
> Ka Haka 'Ula O Ke'elikolani             keola at leoki.uhh.hawaii.edu
> University of Hawai'i at Hilo           http://www2.hawaii.edu/~donaghy/
> ========================================================================
>
>


From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU  Mon Dec  6 16:18:23 2004
From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash)
Date: Mon, 6 Dec 2004 09:18:23 -0700
Subject: Broadening linguistic horizon (fwd)
Message-ID: <MON.6.DEC.2004.091823.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

Broadening linguistic horizon

Posted on Friday, December 03 @ 19:16:19 CST BST
http://www.kuenselonline.com/article.php?sid=4771&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

3 December 2004 - A historical perspective on the development of
Dzongkha, a comparative study on written Tibetan and written Dzongkha
and the nominalization in Tshangla were among research papers presented
by Bhutanese scholars in the 10th Himalayan language symposium which
concluded today in Thimphu.

Two foreign linguists, George Van Driem and Dr. Stephen Watters also
presented papers on the grammars of Lhokpu, Black mountain Moenpa and
Kheng Gongduk and on the property concepts in Dzongkha.

At the three-day symposium, eight research papers were presented on
Bhutanese languages, the largest so far, besides five papers on
languages in Nepal, two on Tibetan languages, two on Indian languages
and one on a language in south China. The presentations were made by
sixteen international linguists and six Bhutanese scholars.

The hybridity in the Himalayas; thoughts on the terminological
construction of ethnic categories; dictionary writing in the Himalayas
and reflections on varying ethno linguistic approaches; Tibetan verb
paradigms were some of the other research papers that were presented.

?The research presentation, debate and discussion has opened a new
horizon, new field for research, and a new assignment for the linguists
on endangered Himalayan languages,? said the director of the Himalayan
Language Project Professor George Van Driem.

For Bhutanese scholars, the symposium stimulated more scientific
investigation of languages and dialects in the country. So far very few
had ventured in this field.

At the inauguration of the symposium, the education minister Lyonpo
Thinley Gyamtsho said that indigenous languages and dialects were
deteriorating all over the world and Bhutan too was feeling the pinch.

?Many languages in certain parts of the Himalayas are endangered. It is
the duty of the linguists to document these languages for the benefit
of our future generations before they vanish,? said Lyonpo Thinley
Gyamtsho.

The symposium, an annual event for linguists researching Himalayan
languages was held for the first time in Bhutan and was jointly
organized by the home ministry and the Dzongkha Development Authority.

By Bishal Rai
bishal at kuensel.com.bt


From mward at LUNA.CC.NM.US  Mon Dec  6 16:52:57 2004
From: mward at LUNA.CC.NM.US (Matthew Ward)
Date: Mon, 6 Dec 2004 09:52:57 -0700
Subject: As ice thaws, Arctic peoples at a loss for words (fwd)
Message-ID: <MON.6.DEC.2004.095257.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

...well, for the Arctic languages that are still used in everyday life
(many are), then new words will be created...  but not necessarily from
native roots.  The article below gives examples of word-coining ("bird
with red breast," which is no different from "blackbird" or other
descriptive terms), but also gives examples of borrowing (Saami
borrowing "elg," the Norwegian word for "Elk").  Both are very common
and equally legitimate forms of word-creation.  I do understand,
however, that the speakers of many indigenous languages resist borrowing
words from the dominant languages of their country or region.  There may
be good reasons for that, but, regardless,  a certain amount of
word-borrowing will continue...  as long as the language remains living,
that is.

I do find that, quite often, when you hear the statement "such and such
a word doesn't exist in X language," particularly if you are talking
about an object or concept that is new to the speakers of that language,
the word in question does in fact exist...  it's just that it's a recent
loanword, a recent coinage, a poorly-known term, that there is not yet
any agreement on which word to use, or some combination of the above.
 Of course, this is also true of English and other powerful languages,
it's just that, English-speakers can borrow a foreign word and see it as
a legitimate English word, while, for speakers of many other languages,
if they use an word borrowed from English, it is often seen as "speaking
English," even if the word has been fully nativized.

BTW, I also think it's worth noting that, while the Arctic peoples of
Alaska and Canada  may in fact use English (rather than borrowed English
words in their own languages) to discuss these new objects, all the
other Arctic peoples do not live in English-dominant societies, and, as
such, if they do discuss new objects in languages other than their
traditional languages, they will be using Danish, Norwegian, Swedish,
Finnish, Russian, etc., and are also much more likely to borrow words
from those languages than from English.

MiaKalish at LFP wrote:

>I think this is just one dimension of the Language Extension Issue. Computer
>technology is the one I am most familiar with. Living languages just
>naturally create words, like x-ray, photomicrograph, and carbuerator. SUV.
>Railroad. AK-47. For others, the creation of just one new word requires
>weeks of meetings. Possibly, the new word will never happen in that
>language, and people will use English.
>
>Mia
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "phil cash cash" <cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU>
>To: <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
>Sent: Sunday, November 21, 2004 10:44 AM
>Subject: spam: As ice thaws, Arctic peoples at a loss for words (fwd)
>
>
>As ice thaws, Arctic peoples at a loss for words
>
>By Alister Doyle
>http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_20-11-2004_pg4_8
>
>WHAT are the words used by indigenous peoples in the Arctic for
>?~Shornet?~T, ?~Srobin?~T, ?~Selk?~T, ?~Sbarn owl?~T or ?~Ssalmon?~T? If you don?~Rt know,
>you?~Rre not alone.
>
>Many indigenous languages have no words for legions of new animals,
>insects and plants advancing north as global warming thaws the polar
>ice and lets forests creep over tundra.
>
>?~SWe can?~Rt even describe what we?~Rre seeing,?~T said Sheila Watt-Cloutier,
>chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference which says it represents
>155,000 people in Canada, Alaska, Greenland and Russia.
>
>In the Inuit language Inuktitut, robins are known just as the ?~Sbird with
>the red breast?~T, she said. Inuit hunters in north Canada recently saw
>some ducks but have not figured out what species they were, in
>Inuktitut or any other language.
>
>An eight-nation report this month says the Arctic is warming twice as
>fast as the rest of the planet and that the North Pole could be
>ice-free in northern hemisphere summer by 2100, threatening indigenous
>cultures and perhaps wiping out creatures like polar bears. The report,
>by 250 scientists and funded by the United States, Canada, Russia,
>Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark and Iceland, puts most of the blame on
>a build-up of heat-trapping gases from human use of fossil fuels like
>coal and oil.
>
>The thaw may have some positive spin-offs for people, for instance by
>making chill Arctic seas more habitable for cod or herring or by
>shifting agricultural lands and forestry north. But on land, more and
>more species will be cramming into an ever-narrowing strip bounded to
>the north by the Arctic Ocean, threatening to destroy fragile Arctic
>ecosystems from mosses to Arctic foxes or snowy owls.
>
>Elk shock: In Arctic Europe, birch trees are gaining ground and Saami
>reindeer herders are seeing roe deer or even elk, a forest-dwelling
>cousin of moose, on former lichen pastures.
>
>?~SI know about 1,200 words for reindeer- we classify them by age, sex,
>colour, antlers,?~T said Nils Isak Eira, who manages a herd of 2,000
>reindeer in north Norway.
>
>?~SI know just one word for elk - ?~Qsarvva?~R,?~T said 50-year-old Eira. ?~SBut
>the animals are so unusual that many Saami use the Norwegian word
>?~Qelg?~R. When I was a child it was like a mythical creature.?~T
>
>Thrushes have been spotted in Saami areas of the Arctic in winter,
>apparently too lazy to bother migrating south. Foreign ministers from
>the eight Arctic countries are due to meet in Reykjavik on Nov. 24 but
>are sharply divided about what to do. The United States is most opposed
>to any drastic new action.
>
>The US is the only country among the eight to reject the 127-nation
>Kyoto protocol meant to cap emissions of greenhouse gases. President
>George W Bush says the UN pact would cost too much and unfairly
>excludes developing states.
>
>In some more southerly areas of the Arctic, like Canada?~Rs Hudson Bay,
>receding ice means polar bears are already struggling. The bears?~R main
>trick is to pounce when seals surface to breathe through holes in the
>ice. The Arctic report says polar bears ?~Sare unlikely to survive as a
>species if there is a complete loss of summer-ice cover?~T. Restricted to
>land, polar bears would have to compete with better-adapted grizzly or
>brown bears. ?~SThe outlook for polar bears is stark. My grandson will
>lose the culture I had as a child,?~T said Watt-Cloutier, referring to
>Inuit hunting cultures based on catching seals, bears or whales.
>
>Salman, owls: Around the Arctic, salmon are swimming into more northerly
>waters, hornets are buzzing north and barn owls are flying to regions
>where indigenous people have never even seen a barn.
>
>Watt-Cloutier said indigenous peoples lacked well-known words for all of
>them.
>
>The Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA) report says that the region
>is set to warm by 4-7 degrees centigrade (7-13 degrees Fahrenheit) by
>2100, twice the rate of the rest of the globe. The Arctic warms fast
>partly because dark ground and water, once uncovered, soaks up much
>more heat than snow and ice.
>
>?~SOverall, forests are likely to move north and displace tundra,?~T said
>Terry Callaghan, a professor of Arctic ecology at the University of
>Lund, Sweden. ?~SThat will bring more species - birds that nest in trees,
>beetles that live in bark, fungi?~T.
>
>The lack of words to describe newcomers does not stop at animals and
>plants. ?~SWords like ?~Qthunderstorm?~R don?~Rt exist because they are
>phenomena indigenous peoples have never known,?~T said Robert Corell,
>chair of the ACIA study. reuters
>
>
>


From mward at LUNA.CC.NM.US  Mon Dec  6 17:09:55 2004
From: mward at LUNA.CC.NM.US (Matthew Ward)
Date: Mon, 6 Dec 2004 10:09:55 -0700
Subject: Linguist Warns of Language Extinction (fwd)
Message-ID: <MON.6.DEC.2004.100955.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

Once again, we encounter the misleading belief that "global languages
like English" are responsible for the huge loss of languages worldwide.
 Yes, international languages like English, French, Spanish, Arabic, and
Mandarin Chinese are displacing numerous languages in the societies
where those international languages happen to be the dominant native
languages, but the real culprit is dominant national languages (whether
official or not).  Languages like Thai, Danish, Norwegian, Burmese,
Hindi and Russian are not considered international languages, yet they
threaten the indigenous languages of their societies just as effectively
as do English and French.  Focusing on international languages is highly
misleading.

phil cash cash wrote:

>Linguist Warns of Language Extinction
>
>By Patrick Sheridan
>Special to The Hoya
>Tuesday, November 23, 2004; Page A1
>http://www.thehoya.com/news/112304/news5.cfm
>
>Oxford University English Language Professor Suzanne Romaine emphasized
>the importance of preserving endangered languages in a speech Thursday
>evening at the Leavey Conference Center.
>
>"We should think about languages as other natural resources that require
>preserving," she said.
>
>Much of Romaine's speech focused on the diversity of languages around
>the world, which she said was threatened by the emergence of global
>languages like English.
>
>"We are crossing a threshold of extinction for certain languages," she
>said.
>
>Romaine said that it was not until the 1990s that professional
>linguistics began to be concerned about language death.
>
>She identified three possible responses to this problem.
>
>"One, do nothing. Two, document endangered languages. Or three, sustain
>or revitalize endangered languages," she said.
>
>Romaine noted that there are some linguists who claim that language
>death is a natural process that should not be interrupted.
>
>Romaine also said that most language death affects indigenous peoples
>that are poorly-equipped to prevent it.
>
>"Language death does not happen in the privileged communities, it
>happens to the dispossessed and disempowered," she said.
>
>While indigenous peoples make up only 4 percent of the world's
>population, they speak 60 percent of its over 6,000 languages, Romaine
>said.
>
>Though many dismiss language death outside the industrialized world as
>unimportant, Romaine said the loss of language diversity in the world
>is a significant problem.
>
>To emphasize that point, she described an analogy between language death
>and building destruction.
>
>Romaine said that if one-fifth of the world's buildings were endangered,
>architects would care. Linguists should therefore care in protecting
>languages, no matter where or by whom they are spoken, she said.
>
>She insisted that at the very least there should be an effort to
>document endangered languages. According to Romaine, even if these
>languages no longer serve a practical purpose they should still be
>recorded because knowledge is valuable in itself.
>
>Romaine cautioned, however, that while technology has made documentation
>of languages easier, it has also made the data more vulnerable and less
>likely to endure for future generations.
>
>"We will record more data than any other time but will probably lose
>more data than any other time," Romaine warned.
>
>Romaine also said that attempts to preserve and revitalize endangered
>languages did not require the isolation of indigenous peoples.
>
>"It is not about isolating endangered peoples and languages but at least
>giving them a choice to continue their way of life," she said.
>
>Romaine pointed to the Inuit people of North America as an example of an
>endangered culture and language. She said that over the years, efforts
>by the Canadian government to assimilate them had produced shame about
>their cultural and linguistic identity.
>
>In closing her speech, Romaine reasserted the need to stem language
>death and said that steps need to be taken to empower local
>populations.
>
>Romaine is a visiting professor for the year at Georgetown, serving in
>the Linguistics Department. She is this year's recipient of the Royden
>B. Davis, S.J., Chair in Interdisciplinary Studies.
>
>Her speech was delivered as the annual Royden B. Davis, S.J., Lecture in
>Interdisciplinary Studies.
>
>
>

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From mikinakn at SHAW.CA  Mon Dec  6 18:47:57 2004
From: mikinakn at SHAW.CA (Rolland Nadjiwon)
Date: Mon, 6 Dec 2004 13:47:57 -0500
Subject: Linguist Warns of Language Extinction (fwd)
Message-ID: <MON.6.DEC.2004.134757.0500.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

You can certainly have more than one worm differing in size and appetite in the same apple , however, the end result is still the same -- no more apple, which may, if I may, be the jist of Phil's post. It is unlikely, the destruction of language by particulars can be seen as a solution but rather an extension of the same discussion. In any situation where language(not restricted to language) exercises hegemony the result is, by nature, destructive to the other.

-------
wahjeh
rolland nadjiwon


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Matthew Ward 
  To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU 
  Sent: Monday, December 06, 2004 12:09 PM
  Subject: Re: Linguist Warns of Language Extinction (fwd)


  Once again, we encounter the misleading belief that "global languages like English" are responsible for the huge loss of languages worldwide. Yes, international languages like English, French, Spanish, Arabic, and Mandarin Chinese are displacing numerous languages in the societies where those international languages happen to be the dominant native languages, but the real culprit is dominant national languages (whether official or not). Languages like Thai, Danish, Norwegian, Burmese, Hindi and Russian are not considered international languages, yet they threaten the indigenous languages of their societies just as effectively as do English and French. Focusing on international languages is highly misleading. 

  phil cash cash wrote:

Linguist Warns of Language Extinction

By Patrick Sheridan
Special to The Hoya
Tuesday, November 23, 2004; Page A1
http://www.thehoya.com/news/112304/news5.cfm

Oxford University English Language Professor Suzanne Romaine emphasized
the importance of preserving endangered languages in a speech Thursday
evening at the Leavey Conference Center.

"We should think about languages as other natural resources that require
preserving," she said.

Much of Romaine's speech focused on the diversity of languages around
the world, which she said was threatened by the emergence of global
languages like English.

"We are crossing a threshold of extinction for certain languages," she
said.

Romaine said that it was not until the 1990s that professional
linguistics began to be concerned about language death.

She identified three possible responses to this problem.

"One, do nothing. Two, document endangered languages. Or three, sustain
or revitalize endangered languages," she said.

Romaine noted that there are some linguists who claim that language
death is a natural process that should not be interrupted.

Romaine also said that most language death affects indigenous peoples
that are poorly-equipped to prevent it.

"Language death does not happen in the privileged communities, it
happens to the dispossessed and disempowered," she said.

While indigenous peoples make up only 4 percent of the world's
population, they speak 60 percent of its over 6,000 languages, Romaine
said.

Though many dismiss language death outside the industrialized world as
unimportant, Romaine said the loss of language diversity in the world
is a significant problem.

To emphasize that point, she described an analogy between language death
and building destruction.

Romaine said that if one-fifth of the world's buildings were endangered,
architects would care. Linguists should therefore care in protecting
languages, no matter where or by whom they are spoken, she said.

She insisted that at the very least there should be an effort to
document endangered languages. According to Romaine, even if these
languages no longer serve a practical purpose they should still be
recorded because knowledge is valuable in itself.

Romaine cautioned, however, that while technology has made documentation
of languages easier, it has also made the data more vulnerable and less
likely to endure for future generations.

"We will record more data than any other time but will probably lose
more data than any other time," Romaine warned.

Romaine also said that attempts to preserve and revitalize endangered
languages did not require the isolation of indigenous peoples.

"It is not about isolating endangered peoples and languages but at least
giving them a choice to continue their way of life," she said.

Romaine pointed to the Inuit people of North America as an example of an
endangered culture and language. She said that over the years, efforts
by the Canadian government to assimilate them had produced shame about
their cultural and linguistic identity.

In closing her speech, Romaine reasserted the need to stem language
death and said that steps need to be taken to empower local
populations.

Romaine is a visiting professor for the year at Georgetown, serving in
the Linguistics Department. She is this year's recipient of the Royden
B. Davis, S.J., Chair in Interdisciplinary Studies.

Her speech was delivered as the annual Royden B. Davis, S.J., Lecture in
Interdisciplinary Studies.

  
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From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU  Tue Dec  7 00:40:47 2004
From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash)
Date: Mon, 6 Dec 2004 17:40:47 -0700
Subject: Language Endangerment,
 Preservation and Revitalization: Call for Papers (fwd)
Message-ID: <MON.6.DEC.2004.174047.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

The 41st Annual Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society:
At the Forefront of Linguistics, April 7-9, 2005
http://humanities.uchicago.edu/orgs/cls/conf/call41.html

Call for Papers
The Chicago Linguistic Society requests paper proposals in any major
subfield of linguistic inquiry. Papers relating to any of the panel
topics are especially encouraged.

Abstract Submission: The deadline for submissions is January 15, 2005.
Submissions will be accepted online.

Language Endangerment, Preservation and Revitalization
Looking forward, we also need to be concerned with the past and present.
The goal of this panel is to highlight work that has been done in
language preservation and methodologies for revitalizing endangered and
moribund languages.

Wallace Chafe
Department of Linguistics, Emeritus
University of California, Santa Barbara

Douglas Parks
Department of Anthropology
Indiana University


From kw.aaia at VERIZON.NET  Tue Dec  7 00:51:43 2004
From: kw.aaia at VERIZON.NET (Karenne Wood)
Date: Mon, 6 Dec 2004 19:51:43 -0500
Subject: Language Endangerment,
 Preservation and Revitalization: Call for Papers (fwd)
Message-ID: <MON.6.DEC.2004.195143.0500.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

Hi!
Do you know anything about an endangered language institute that might be
offered over the summer?  I am a Native PhD student in linguistic
antropology at the University of Virginia.  I remember that last spring an
announcement was issued for a summer program at U of AZ.  Is there a similar
program being offered this summer?  My university wishes for me to develop a
summer proposal for my intended activities.  I thought you might know.  With
respect, Karenne Wood (Monacan)

----- Original Message -----
From: "phil cash cash" <cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU>
To: <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
Sent: Monday, December 06, 2004 7:40 PM
Subject: Language Endangerment, Preservation and Revitalization: Call for
Papers (fwd)


> The 41st Annual Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society:
> At the Forefront of Linguistics, April 7-9, 2005
> http://humanities.uchicago.edu/orgs/cls/conf/call41.html
>
> Call for Papers
> The Chicago Linguistic Society requests paper proposals in any major
> subfield of linguistic inquiry. Papers relating to any of the panel
> topics are especially encouraged.
>
> Abstract Submission: The deadline for submissions is January 15, 2005.
> Submissions will be accepted online.
>
> Language Endangerment, Preservation and Revitalization
> Looking forward, we also need to be concerned with the past and present.
> The goal of this panel is to highlight work that has been done in
> language preservation and methodologies for revitalizing endangered and
> moribund languages.
>
> Wallace Chafe
> Department of Linguistics, Emeritus
> University of California, Santa Barbara
>
> Douglas Parks
> Department of Anthropology
> Indiana University
>


From Jon.Reyhner at NAU.EDU  Tue Dec  7 01:35:35 2004
From: Jon.Reyhner at NAU.EDU (Jon Reyhner)
Date: Mon, 6 Dec 2004 18:35:35 -0700
Subject: Language Endangerment,
 Preservation and Revitalization: Call for Papers (fwd)
Message-ID: <MON.6.DEC.2004.183535.0700.>

Kareene:

Yes, it is June 6 to July 1 in Tucson. Go to
http://www.ed.arizona.edu/AILDI/

Jon Reyhner

Karenne Wood wrote:
> Hi!
> Do you know anything about an endangered language institute that might be
> offered over the summer?  I am a Native PhD student in linguistic
> antropology at the University of Virginia.  I remember that last spring an
> announcement was issued for a summer program at U of AZ.  Is there a similar
> program being offered this summer?  My university wishes for me to develop a
> summer proposal for my intended activities.  I thought you might know.  With
> respect, Karenne Wood (Monacan)
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "phil cash cash" <cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU>
> To: <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
> Sent: Monday, December 06, 2004 7:40 PM
> Subject: Language Endangerment, Preservation and Revitalization: Call for
> Papers (fwd)
>
>
>> The 41st Annual Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society:
>> At the Forefront of Linguistics, April 7-9, 2005
>> http://humanities.uchicago.edu/orgs/cls/conf/call41.html
>>
>> Call for Papers
>> The Chicago Linguistic Society requests paper proposals in any major
>> subfield of linguistic inquiry. Papers relating to any of the panel
>> topics are especially encouraged.
>>
>> Abstract Submission: The deadline for submissions is January 15, 2005.
>> Submissions will be accepted online.
>>
>> Language Endangerment, Preservation and Revitalization
>> Looking forward, we also need to be concerned with the past and present.
>> The goal of this panel is to highlight work that has been done in
>> language preservation and methodologies for revitalizing endangered and
>> moribund languages.
>>
>> Wallace Chafe
>> Department of Linguistics, Emeritus
>> University of California, Santa Barbara
>>
>> Douglas Parks
>> Department of Anthropology
>> Indiana University
>>
>


From sandra at ASU.EDU  Tue Dec  7 22:47:00 2004
From: sandra at ASU.EDU (Sandra Andrews)
Date: Tue, 7 Dec 2004 15:47:00 -0700
Subject: FW: MEC 2005 Call for Proposals
Message-ID: <TUE.7.DEC.2004.154700.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

Apologies for cross posting, and we'd dearly love to have any or all of you be presenters at this conference. Attendees are mostly K-12 or college/university teachers so it is also an opportunity to educate them as to your research. You don't need a fully proposal to submit, just an abstract.

Sandy Andrews
sandra at asu.edu
MEC Proposal Review Committee

>       -------------------------------------------
>       Microcomputers in Education Conference 2005 
>       March 14-16, 2005 
>       Arizona State University 
>       http://mec.asu.edu 
>       ------------------------------------------- 
>       * Please forward to education / technology Lists * 
> 
> 
> 
> Call for proposals deadline is approaching
> ---------------------------------------------
> Anyone with a stake in educational technology and its role in improving student achievement can make a meaningful presentation at MEC.
> 
> Presentation Tracks: We are actively soliciting proposals which are reflective of one or more of the following program tracks: 
>       - Showcasing Successes
>       - Social Engagement and Innovative School Reform
>       - Distance Learning
>       - Leading into Tomorrow: Emerging Technology
>       - Accessibility
>       - Curriculum Integration
>       - Geographic Information Systems
>       - Research and Theory 
> 
> MEC provides a wonderful opportunity to share your research and good work, while networking with educators, researchers, administrators, and industry professionals. 
> 
> The deadline for presentation submissions is December 31, 2004; all sessions are sixty minutes in length. Please feel free to contact us at 480.965.9700 or email info at mec.asu.edu.
> 
> Share your research, successes, projects, expertise & experiences. The call for proposals form is available online at http://mec.asu.edu/presenterRegistration
> 
> 
> 
> About MEC
> ---------
> For twenty-five years MEC has provided a forum for discussion and networking among K-12 educators, administrators, researchers, instructional designers and technology leaders.
> 
> Learn more about MEC at http://mec.asu.edu/2005/
> 
> 
> Preview the Future of Technology: 
> ----------------- 
>       - Innovative Educational Technologies 
>       - IDEA & Assistive Technologies 
>       - AZ Learns & No Child Left Behind 
>       - Proposition 203 
>       - Highly Qualified Professional Training 
>       - Tools & Techniques for your classroom 
>       - Attend Hands-on Training & Workshops 
>       - Earn Re-certification Credits 
>       - Interact with the latest technology 
> 
> 
> Register Online
> ---------------
> http://is.asu.edu/cgi-bin/WebObjects/MEC05REGISTRATION
> 
> 
> For more information call 480-965-9700 or email info at mec.asu.edu Fax 480-965-4128 or mail to:  
>       ATTN: MEC 2005 - Arizona State University 
>       PO Box 870101
>       Tempe, AZ 85287-0101 
> 
> 
> Diamond Sponsors: 
>       - Apple Computer 
>       - CCS Presentation Systems 
> 
> Partners: 
>       - Arizona Department of Education 
>       - AzTEA 
>       - AEA 
>       - ASPIN 
>       - ASU Alumni - College of Education 
> 
> 


From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU  Fri Dec 10 16:46:57 2004
From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash)
Date: Fri, 10 Dec 2004 09:46:57 -0700
Subject: Inuit teachers key to Inuktitut curriculum (fwd)
Message-ID: <FRI.10.DEC.2004.094657.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

December 10, 2004

Inuit teachers key to Inuktitut curriculum
Bilingual education strategy depends on teacher training program
JANE GEORGE
http://www.nunatsiaq.com/news/nunavut/41210_02.html

Nunavut's department of education now has a plan to ensure that the
territory's schools become fully bilingual by 2020.

To work towards this goal over the next four years, Education Minister
Ed Picco tabled an ambitious new strategy last week at the end of the
legislature's recent sitting.

But here's the catch.

The strategy says there's an urgent need for large numbers of Inuit
teachers throughout Nunavut's school system. It says having
Inuktitut-language teachers is "the single most important factor in the
success of bilingual education in Nunavut."

"I can have the best strategy in the world, but if I don't have the
capacity to deliver the strategy, it will go by the way-side," Picco
said.

Picco wants to increase the number of community-based teacher training
programs in Nunavut and also boost the Nunavut Teacher Education
Program offered at the Iqaluit campus of Nunavut Arctic College.

"Over the next few months, you'll see a bigger focus by me as minister
of education to recruiting more teachers who will teach at the junior
high school or high school levels," Picco said.

But there's another challenge, too - at the same time, up to 30 per cent
of the Inuit teachers in Nunavut are due to retire in the next five
years.

"Not only do I have to recruit for the 8, 9, 10, 11 grades, but I also
have to replace the retiring teachers," Picco said.

This will take money, although Picco wouldn't say whether the additional
funds the strategy needs will come from his existing budget or from
other budgets. Wait until February when the new territorial budget is
tabled, was his response.

But the strategy gives hints that money may also be coming from other
departments in the form of language enhancement programs for children
and adults, as well as from partnerships with Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.

Another key to making bilingualism work at school, Picco said, lies in
the home, where parents and children need to speak to each other in
Inuktitut whenever possible.

During recent discussions with district educational authorities across
Nunavut, Picco said he heard the same thing over and over again:
schools only have children for about five hours a day, while families
have them for the balance of the time.

"Parents have to speak Inuktitut to their children - then you can expect
there's a spill-over to the playgrounds and schools," Picco said.

If schools are going to fulfill their role in creating a bilingual
Nunavut, they'll need curriculum and materials for students and
teachers. This will take up a good portion of the $3 million a year
that the strategy needs to get off the ground.

As it stands now, there is no coordinated K-12 curriculum that combines
Inuit and Qallunaat perspectives and no collection of teaching tools
that "reflect an Inuit perspective."

However, Picco said much of the curriculum for the lower grades already
exists in some form.

"We're not starting from scratch - 80 per cent is already completed or
has been rolled out or is ready to be rolled out," Picco said

The strategy calls for the development of programs to teach Inuktitut
and Inuinnaqtun as a first or second language and English as a first
language. It promises the curriculum will "reflect two cultures and
three languages." There will also be an "increased inclusion of Inuit
culture and values" in curriculum and schools, which will be drawn from
research with elders and other groups.

A big job lies ahead because all grades, including kindergarten, must
have their appropriate courses and materials as well as staff who are
trained and supported to use them.

Schools will have five models of bilingual education, each using
different combinations of "languages of instruction," to choose from:

--Early immersion will introduce children to Inuinnaqtun in communities
such as Kugluktuk and Cambridge Bay where Inuinnaqtun language fluency
has "eroded."

--Qulliq will be used in communities where Inuktitut is already strong.
Students will learn to read and write Inuktitut first and English will
be gradually introduced.

--Dual Language is suitable for communities like Rankin Inlet or
Iqaluit, that have many non-Inuit and a high percentage of blended
families. Students will receive instruction in language arts and core
subjects in their first language (English, French or Inuktitut), learn
another language as a second language and receive non-core courses in
either language.

Six Nunavut communities will participate in pilot projects to test out
these models.

The strategy also suggests some surprises may be in store, such as new
high school diploma courses, designed to reduce dropout rates. High
school diplomas could be given for non-academic majors, Inuit heritage
and culture, pre-trades, performing arts, family and community care
studies.

As well, schools may see welcome additional money, thanks to a revised
funding formula "to provide more support for teachers." They'll also
have a new school profile, review and improvement process called
Sivuniksamut Illinniarniq.

The District Education Authorities will be responsible for creating
public awareness about the new strategy - by sharing information with
families and staff so "Nunavummiut understand and provide feedback" and
by encouraging each community to develop its own "language enhancement"
program so bilingualism develops in and outside of the classroom.


From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU  Fri Dec 10 16:49:58 2004
From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash)
Date: Fri, 10 Dec 2004 09:49:58 -0700
Subject: Residential schools agreement stands despite Ontario court's
 ruling (fwd)
Message-ID: <FRI.10.DEC.2004.094958.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

Residential schools agreement stands despite Ontario court's ruling
http://generalsynod.anglican.ca/stories/news.php?newsItem=2004-12-10_r.ans

Toronto, December 10, 2004 -- An Ontario Court of Appeal decision to
certify a class of plaintiffs in a lawsuit for abuse at a native
residential school "does not change or threaten in any way" the
agreement between the Anglican church and the federal government that
caps the church's liability at $25 million, says Archdeacon Jim Boyles,
General Secretary of the national church.

The decision by the Ontario Court of Appeal allowed lawsuits by former
students at the Mohawk School in Brantford, Ont., to proceed as a class
action. The former students are suing the Anglican diocese of Huron and
the federal government.

In a letter sent to all Anglican bishops earlier this week, Mr. Boyles
said that any future findings of liability against the church for the
sexual or physical abuse of students at the schools would be shared
between the church and the government under the terms of the 2003
agreement.

The agreement says that the church and government would share in the
payment of any awards on a 30/70 per cent basis.

It also requires the church to contribute $25 million over five years to
a Settlement Fund out of which the church's share of court-ordered
awards would be paid. Once the Settlement Fund is expended, the
government will pay all awards.

Mr. Boyles also said that issues of liability for the loss of language
and culture by residential schools students would be decided at a
future date.

The full text of the General Secretary's letter to Canadian bishops
follows:

You will have read in the media that the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled
last week on the Cloud case, which is an application for certification
as a class under class action legislation in Ontario. Cloud and others
attended the Mohawk School in Brantford, Ontario, in the Diocese of
Huron. The court overruled the lower courts and certified the class,
which, subject to further appeals, allows the case to proceed as a
class action. In allowing the appeal the court redefined the common
issues, with the result that the class action is now focused primarily
on issues of physical and mental harm, with issues of loss of language
and culture claims being much less significant.

The government may decide to seek leave to appeal this decision to the
Supreme Court of Canada, which would delay the action for a further
period.

Questions have been raised about the possible impact of this decision on
the Settlement Agreement between the Federal Government and ourselves. I
have consulted with our legal counsel for the General Synod and the
Diocese of Huron. This court decision does not change or threaten in
any way the March 2003 Settlement Agreement. Since the focus has
shifted to claims of physical and sexual abuse, any court awards would
be shared on a 70/30 basis between the government and the church, with
the church portion being paid from the Settlement Fund. The maximum
amount of payment remains at $25M. Once that amount has been paid out,
the government is responsible for 100% of all payments for physical and
sexual abuse claims.

The issue of liability for loss of language and culture will be decided
at a future date. Although some resolution of these claims may occur in
the Cloud case, the issue exists in many other cases too. For example,
it is an issue in another class proceeding filed in Ontario, called the
Baxter case, where it is sought to certify a national class action on
behalf of all students who attended all residential schools throughout
Canada, and it is an issue in the test cases which are proceeding
though the process established in Alberta. The Settlement Fund does not
cover such claims if liability is found. There are however, provisions
in Section 6 of the Agreement that provide some protection for the
church if liability for language and culture claims is imposed against
the church. We continue to believe that such claims are not
compensible, and that if they are found to be so, the government bears
full responsibility.

We continue to believe that the ADR process as established by the
government is an effective way to resolve claims. There are aspects of
the process that could be improved, and we have joined with others in
pointing these out to the government and in seeking changes.

Through these evolving legal developments we continue to hold high our
primary goal as a church, to seek healing for those who have been
harmed by their experience in the residential schools. Church
representatives have attended a few ADR hearings, as requested by the
claimants, not to defend, but to offer support and express the church's
profound regret that the residential schools system in which it was
involved has caused so much damage in the aboriginal communities in
Canada.

Archdeacon Jim Boyles
General Secretary


From pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET  Sun Dec 12 17:38:03 2004
From: pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET (phil cash cash)
Date: Sun, 12 Dec 2004 10:38:03 -0700
Subject: Renaming 'Squaw' Sites Proves Touchy in Oregon (fwd)
Message-ID: <SUN.12.DEC.2004.103803.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

Renaming 'Squaw' Sites Proves Touchy in Oregon
By ELI SANDERS

Published: December 11, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/11/national/11squaw.html

[photo inset - Melanie Conner for The New York Times.  After three years
of debate among tribal leaders, 42 alternatives to Squaw Creek have
emerged in Sisters, Ore. Olivia Wallulatum, left, prefers "ayayat," or
"beautiful." Colleen Roba prefers "choosh," or "water."]

SISTERS, Ore. - It took two years for members of the Confederated Tribes
of Warm Springs to persuade Oregon lawmakers to remove the word "squaw"
from the state's maps, which are filled with places like Squaw Meadow,
Squaw Flat and, here in central Oregon, Squaw Creek.

Figuring out what to rename these places has proved more complicated.
Around the Warm Springs reservation and the nearby town of Sisters,
three years of pointed debate among local tribal leaders has produced
42 alternatives to Squaw Creek in three native languages.

Many of the suggestions are hard for English speakers and even some
Indians to pronounce, like "ixwutxp." It means "blackberry" in the
Wasco language. Other suggested Indian names are spelled using a
lowercase "l" with a slash through it, signifying a guttural "tla"
sound that does not exist in English.

"It's really gotten out of hand here," said Louie Pitt, director of
government affairs and planning for the confederated tribes, which
occupy the 670,000-acre reservation.

"Squaw" originated in a branch of the Algonquin language, where it meant
simply "woman," but it turned into a slur on the tongues of white
settlers, who used it to refer derisively to Indian women in general or
a part of their anatomy in particular. The settlers liked the word so
much that there are now more than 170 springs, gulches, bluffs,
valleys, and gaps in this state called "squaw." All must be renamed
under a 2001 law that was enacted after two members of the confederated
tribes persuaded the Legislature that the word was offensive to many
American Indians and should be erased from maps. But only 13 places
have been renamed so far. It is a problem familiar to Indians and
government officials in several states where attempts to outlaw "squaw"
have been caught in a thicket of bureaucratic, historical and
linguistic snares.

In Maine, one frustrated county changed all "squaw" names to "moose" in
one fell swoop to save on hassle, while in Minnesota, disgruntled
residents suggested new names like Politically Correct Creek and
Politically Correct Bay. But often the stumbling block has been
questions over what Indians themselves would prefer instead of "squaw."

The debate echoes those from decades ago over places named with slurs
for blacks and Japanese. In 1963 and 1974, respectively, offending
slurs were replaced on federal maps with "negro" and "Japanese" (about
a dozen of the "negro" names have since been changed). Concerns of
other groups have been addressed in a more piecemeal fashion, and not
always with the same result.

In the early 1990's, after two years of consideration, Yellowstone
National Park's Chinaman Spring was changed to Chinese Spring. In 2001,
American ichthyologists adopted a new name for the jewfish, the Goliath
grouper, citing the precedent of an earlier change, from squawfish to
pikeminnow. But the United States Board on Geographic Names declined to
rename Jewfish Creek in the Florida Keys because there was little local
sentiment for doing so. "Geographic names are parts of language," said
Roger Payne, executive secretary for the names board and a veteran of
the nation's long and frequently ethnically charged place name debates.
"Language evolves. Meanings change. This seems to be the case with
'squaw.' "

But no easy universal solution is possible with "squaw," Mr. Payne said,
because among Indian leaders, "there was endless disagreement on the
word it could be changed to."

That is precisely the problem with Squaw Creek. The list of 42
replacement words is causing considerable anxiety here, even among
non-Indian residents who support the renaming of the creek, which
drains out of glaciers in the nearby Cascade Mountains before running
through Sisters on the way to the Deschutes River.

"I think there's one or two on the list that appear to be sort of
pronounceable, but many of them are not," said Eileen Stein, city
manager of Sisters. One of the suggestions more easily pronounced by
English speakers, Itch Ish Kiin, which is another name for the Sahaptin
tribe, can come out sounding an awful lot like Itchy Skin, she noted.
"People don't want to live near Itchy Skin Creek," Ms. Stein said.

So the debate goes. Mr. Pitt of the Confederated Tribes dismisses those
concerns as "ethnocentric," saying ease of pronunciation for English
speakers is "not one of our criteria." But he also admits a measure of
scorn for the long list, which he sarcastically calls the "pan-Indian
solution."

If the controversy seems a bit overwrought, Mr. Pitt said, it is borne
of a painful dislocation from his ancestors' heritage, with many Indian
site names long forgotten. "What is the name of that creek?" he asked
himself, frustration filling his voice. "It has a name, what is it?"

Elders in the tribes have been unable to remember what the local Indians
used to call the creek, Mr. Pitt said. There has even been some debate
about which tribe first controlled the creek, hence the three languages
vying for naming rights.

Five other states have tried to take care of the "squaw" problem through
legislative action. In 1995, Mr. Payne said, Minnesota became the first
and has now renamed all 20 of its offending places (having rebuffed the
Politically Correct Creek contingent).

Maine, Montana, Oklahoma, and South Dakota followed suit, but all still
have work to do on their geographic lexicons.

Along the banks of Oregon's Squaw Creek, a resolution seems far off. In
an interview there, Olivia Wallulatum, wearing traditional otter skin
wraps around her long black braids and a dress adorned with small white
cowrie shells, said she preferred the word "ayayat," which means
"beautiful." Colleen Roba, who with Ms. Wallulatum lobbied the
Legislature to pass the renaming law, said she liked "choosh," which
means "water" and evokes the sound that Squaw Creek makes as it moves
around ice-capped rocks and through a grove of pine trees in Creekside
City Park in Sisters.

At Sisters City Hall, Ms. Stein, the city manager, said she just hoped
that whatever the new name, it would not "create a hardship" for
businesses in the area named after Squaw Creek, or for local tongues.


From dzo at BISHARAT.NET  Sat Dec 11 06:17:03 2004
From: dzo at BISHARAT.NET (Donald Z. Osborn)
Date: Sat, 11 Dec 2004 00:17:03 -0600
Subject: E-MELD Workshop on Digital Language Documentation of Endangered
 Languages
Message-ID: <SAT.11.DEC.2004.001703.0600.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

FYI (from the Linguist list)...  DZO


Date: 09-Dec-2004
From: Naomi Fox <fox at linguistlist.org>
Subject: E-MELD Workshop on Digital Language Documentation of Endangered
Languages


Full Title: E-MELD Workshop on Digital Language Documentation of Endangered
Languages

Date: 22-Jun-2005 - 24-Jun-2005
Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States of America
Contact Person: Naomi Fox
Meeting Email: fox at linguistlist.org
Web Site: http://emeld.org/workshop/2005/

Linguistic Field(s): Discipline of Linguistics; Language Description; Morphology


Call Deadline: 28-Mar-2005

Meeting Description:

E-MELD Digital Language Documentation Workshop on Morphosyntactic Annotation and
Terminology: Linguistic Ontologies

This is the 5th E-MELD (Electronic Metastructure for Endangered Languages Data)
workshop on digital language documentation,  sponsored by the National Science
Foundation. This year's workshop is entitled ''Morphosyntactic annotation and
terminology:  the use of linguistic ontologies.''  The conference will focus on
linguistic ontologies as aids in linguistic annotation and as tools for the
fine-grained search and retrieval of language documentation.

One goal of the workshop is to invite community participation in the development
 of GOLD, the General Ontology for Linguistic Description developed by the
E-MELD team at U. of Arizona. However we welcome presentations on all aspects
of morphosyntactic annotation and/or the use of ontologies in linguistic
description. For more information about GOLD, see
http://emeld.org/school/ontology-tree.cfm
http://emeld.org/tools/ontology.cfm

The E-MELD (Electronic Metastructure for Endangered Languages Data) Project is a
five-year project funded by the National Science Foundation with a dual
objective: to aid in the preservation of endangered languages data and
documentation and to aid in the development of the infrastructure necessary for
effective collaboration among electronic archives. As part of the effort to
promote consensus on best practices in digital language documentation, E-MELD
is hosting its fifth workshop from June 22-24, 2005 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The
 E-MELD workshop is being scheduled for convenient travel for participants who
are planning on going to the ACL meeting in Ann Arbor.

A detailed call for papers is forthcoming.

--


From dzo at BISHARAT.NET  Sat Dec 11 04:09:10 2004
From: dzo at BISHARAT.NET (Donald Z. Osborn)
Date: Fri, 10 Dec 2004 22:09:10 -0600
Subject: NABE 2005 Conference, 19-22 Jan. 2005
Message-ID: <FRI.10.DEC.2004.220910.0600.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

The following notice concerning the annual conference of the National
Association for Bilingual Education (NABE), a US organization, was seen on
MultiEd-L and is reposted here with some reformatting.  DZO


See You in San Antonio

NABE 2005 is fast approaching ~V January 19-22 in San Antonio, Texas ~V and we are
putting the final touches on an exciting program for our 34th annual
conference:
Many Rivers, On Course to Academic Excellence.
http://www.nabe.org/conferences.asp

Also be aware that the deadline for Pre-Registration is Friday, December 17. If
you act now, you can save up to 30 percent versus On-Site Registration fees.
Click here http://www.nabe.org/documents/conference/nabeprintable.pdf for
downloadable registration forms. Better yet, you can register and book your
hotel online http://www.nabe.org/conferences_registration.asp .

As always, the NABE conference will attract the best known experts in the field
of bilingual education. This year there will be many new names as well ~V
outstanding presenters who will address the most timely issues we face:
assessment and accountability, literacy development, language policy, program
design, educational leadership, heritage languages, and multicultural
education.

Here~Rs a partial roster of our confirmed Keynoters, Featured Speakers, and
Honorees:

      Henry Cisneros
      Former U.S. Secretary of HUD

      Sandra Cisneros
      Author, The House on Mango Street

      Lily Eskelsen
      Secretary-Treasurer, National Education Association

      Stephen Krashen
      University of Southern California

      Lily Wong Fillmore
      University of California, Berkeley

      Jim Cummins
      University of Toronto

      Donaldo Macedo
      University of Massachusetts, Boston

      Angela Valenzuela
      University of Texas, Austin

      Ra?l Yzaguirre
      National Council of La Raza

      Elaine Garan
      Author, Resisting Reading Mandates

      Alma Flor
      Ada and Isabel Campoy
      Best-Selling Children's Authors

      Fred Genesee
      McGill University

      Mary Jew
      Cupertino (CA) School District and NABE Board

      Daphne Kwok
      Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies

      Alfie Kohn
      Author, The Case Against Standardized Testing and Punished by Rewards

      Sonia Nieto
      Author, Affirming Diversity
      University of Massachusetts, Amherst

      Virginia Collier and Wayne Thomas
      George Mason University

      James Crawford
      NABE Executive Director
      Author, Educating English Learners

      Yvonne and David Freeman
      University of Texas, Pan American

      Mary Eunice Romero
      Cochiti Pueblo and Arizona State University

      Teresa McCarty
      Arizona State University

      Jamal Abedi
      Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing, UCLA

      Monty Neill
      FairTest (National  Center for Fair and Open Testing)

      Sylvia Hatton
      TX Region One Education Service Center

      Anton Treuer
      Ojibwe Language Program, Bemidje State University

      Consuelo Kickbusch LTC (Ret.)
      Motivational Speaker

Meanwhile, NABE Special Interest Groups are planning institutes in Asian and
Pacific American Education, Critical Pedagogy, Early Childhood, Elementary
Education, Gifted and Talented, Higher Education, Indigenous Bilingual
Education, Language Policy, Paraprofessionals, Research, Secondary Education,
Special Education, and World Languages and Cultures. The annual Parent
Institute will take place on Friday, January 21. And don~Rt forget our
Pre-Conference activities on Wednesday, January 19: the all-day Dual Language
Institute, and half-day Intensive Sessions on Special Education, Literacy and
Writing, Low-Incidence Language Groups, and Second-Language Acquisition.

A NABE conference would not be complete without plenty of great food, music, and
dancing. Be sure to mark your calendars for the President~Rs Reception and Dance
(a free event) after our Opening Ceremonies on Wednesday evening and the NABE
Fundraiser Dance on Saturday from 8 p.m. to midnight. Meanwhile, there~Rs a
great deal to do in San Antonio, home to the Riverwalk, Historic Market Square,
the Institute of Texan Cultures, and many other attractions.

For more information about the NABE 2005 program, accommodations, and logistics,
please visit our web site at http://www.nabe.org/.
Or email us at nabe at nabe.org.

I really hope you can join us for a productive and memorable conference.


~V  James Crawford
   NABE Executive Director



----- End forwarded message -----


From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU  Wed Dec 15 17:33:03 2004
From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash)
Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2004 10:33:03 -0700
Subject: Government language study released (fwd)
Message-ID: <WED.15.DEC.2004.103303.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

December 12, 2004

Government language study released
By BRUCE CHEADLE
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2004/12/12/779599-cp.html

OTTAWA (CP) - A government study on language training in the federal
public service says natives can't learn in black and white.

The draft document, part of a $700,000 report completed in 2001 and
obtained under an Access to Information Act request, points to
particular difficulties in teaching French to employment equity groups.

"Furthermore, black and white presentation materials carry no meaning to
aboriginals," says the study, commissioned by the Public Service
Commission and Treasury Board Secretariat.

"Earth tones and aboriginal designs will immediately attract their
attention."

The description was panned as "extremely racist" by Taiaiake Alfred, a
Mohawk author, scholar and activist who teaches at the University of
Victoria.

"What are we, monkeys?" Alfred said after an incredulous hoot of
laughter.

"I could probably write a whole dissertation on how racist that is. It's
the worst sort of pandering to romantic notions of what it is to be
indigenous.

"Earth tones? Where does that come from, (the movie) Dances with Wolves?
What it's saying, obviously, is that we can't read, that we need
pictures."

The paragraph was flagged as potentially offensive by a Treasury Board
official in a July 2001 memo.

"There are some rank generalizations about aboriginal learners that I
find questionable and may be inappropriate," Sharon Smith wrote in a
critique of the draft report.

But a further draft in October 2001 maintained the offensive paragraph
verbatim and added more:

- On group training and role-playing: "Impersonal story-telling would be
more appropriate. Furthermore, aboriginals tend to be introverted,
making adaptation to the learning environment and testing methods all
the more difficult."

- On language aptitude testing: "Aboriginals are visual thinkers and
learners, therefore the auditory nature of this test is a problem for
them."

Finally, in a copy of the report that included hand-written editing
notes dated December 2001, the sentence referring to earth tones and
aboriginal learners was scratched out without comment, although an
attached annex repeated the entire paragraph.

The "permanent draft" placed on file as a departmental reference
document later that month made no mention of aboriginal learning
problems.


From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US  Wed Dec 15 18:04:50 2004
From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP)
Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2004 11:04:50 -0700
Subject: Government language study released (fwd)
Message-ID: <WED.15.DEC.2004.110450.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

The response to this report reminds me of a response I saw in one of my
classes when I referred to a book that talked about a longitudinal study
that was able to count the number of words children had heard (total volume,
not unique words) and showed that the more words children had heard, the
better they were able to learn. Based on cognitive research that shows that
the more connections you can make when assimilating new information, this
makes total sense.

Because the writers were supposed to identify their participants, they found
themselves in the unfortunate position of having to say that people in
different SES groups spoke different volumes and different forms to their
children.

So my professor Totally Ignored the Good Information about neuron density,
activation of prior knowledge, clues to how learning happened, and referred
to a listserv where people where having similar responses to that shared
with us by Taiaiake Alfred. Certainly he can take that position.

However.

My research shows that people In General don't learn well in black and white
if they have no prior knowledge. Lit reviews show that people don't know how
to teach language. And finally, other cognitive research shows that people
respond best to things about themselves and their friends. So, if you show
the colors of the vegetation around the Colorado river, especially in
winter, to the people who live there, they will respond more positively to
it than to black and white. Why? Because it is deeply familiar to them. Does
it matter if they are Tribal? Nooooo, not really. Unless of course the
colors you choose just happen to be the Tribal colors. So, quiz: In this
case, will the Tribal people respond more? Or less? Than people who don't
have deep cultural significance for the colors?

It's really too bad that the results of these studies are published in terms
of the People INSTEAD of the Materials.

Guess I was on a soapbox, but this sort of thing really irritates me. I-Mia
don't learn well in black and white. I take the time to build visual models
in my head, in full color, and I dream the same way. If someone discovered
that about me, I would say, Gee, does that mean you will be building
materials that facilitate learning for me? Instead of going around howling
that it is racist against Irish-Jewish women with green eyes who tend to get
cranky.

!
Mia

----- Original Message -----
From: "phil cash cash" <cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU>
To: <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, December 15, 2004 10:33 AM
Subject: Government language study released (fwd)


> December 12, 2004
>
> Government language study released
> By BRUCE CHEADLE
> http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2004/12/12/779599-cp.html
>
> OTTAWA (CP) - A government study on language training in the federal
> public service says natives can't learn in black and white.
>
> The draft document, part of a $700,000 report completed in 2001 and
> obtained under an Access to Information Act request, points to
> particular difficulties in teaching French to employment equity groups.
>
> "Furthermore, black and white presentation materials carry no meaning to
> aboriginals," says the study, commissioned by the Public Service
> Commission and Treasury Board Secretariat.
>
> "Earth tones and aboriginal designs will immediately attract their
> attention."
>
> The description was panned as "extremely racist" by Taiaiake Alfred, a
> Mohawk author, scholar and activist who teaches at the University of
> Victoria.
>
> "What are we, monkeys?" Alfred said after an incredulous hoot of
> laughter.
>
> "I could probably write a whole dissertation on how racist that is. It's
> the worst sort of pandering to romantic notions of what it is to be
> indigenous.
>
> "Earth tones? Where does that come from, (the movie) Dances with Wolves?
> What it's saying, obviously, is that we can't read, that we need
> pictures."
>
> The paragraph was flagged as potentially offensive by a Treasury Board
> official in a July 2001 memo.
>
> "There are some rank generalizations about aboriginal learners that I
> find questionable and may be inappropriate," Sharon Smith wrote in a
> critique of the draft report.
>
> But a further draft in October 2001 maintained the offensive paragraph
> verbatim and added more:
>
> - On group training and role-playing: "Impersonal story-telling would be
> more appropriate. Furthermore, aboriginals tend to be introverted,
> making adaptation to the learning environment and testing methods all
> the more difficult."
>
> - On language aptitude testing: "Aboriginals are visual thinkers and
> learners, therefore the auditory nature of this test is a problem for
> them."
>
> Finally, in a copy of the report that included hand-written editing
> notes dated December 2001, the sentence referring to earth tones and
> aboriginal learners was scratched out without comment, although an
> attached annex repeated the entire paragraph.
>
> The "permanent draft" placed on file as a departmental reference
> document later that month made no mention of aboriginal learning
> problems.
>


From mikinakn at SHAW.CA  Wed Dec 15 18:52:57 2004
From: mikinakn at SHAW.CA (Rolland Nadjiwon)
Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2004 13:52:57 -0500
Subject: Government language study released (fwd)
Message-ID: <WED.15.DEC.2004.135257.0500.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

Mia...your comments on this, perhaps:

I forwarded the news release on this study in standard black and white to
most of my online 'skindian' friends. Some wrote back saying they could not
see it. I then sent it around in brown(earthtones). I spoke a bit later with
my son and asked him what he thought of it being in brown. He said, "I'm
color blind so it looked all the same to me. I did wonder why you posted it
twice."  I told him it must have been pretty rough trying to find a Mexicano
when he lived in Oaxaca.

Second thought: On your mention of "clues to how learning happened"
(paragraph 3 line 2), and "build[ing] visual models
 in my[your] head, in full color...."(last para),  I was very interested in
what you might respond to the question whether there is a Chomsky(Syntactic
Structures (1951)) difference between learning and language learning, or,
any comment you might have. And, how would you see this in terms of
orality(primary orality) vs. literacy vs. full color visual modeling and/or
their juxtaposition in any order...I guess this last one is number three :)

-------
wahjeh
rolland nadjiwon


----- Original Message -----
From: "MiaKalish at LFP" <MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US>
To: <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, December 15, 2004 1:04 PM
Subject: Re: Government language study released (fwd)


> The response to this report reminds me of a response I saw in one of my
> classes when I referred to a book that talked about a longitudinal study
> that was able to count the number of words children had heard (total
> volume,
> not unique words) and showed that the more words children had heard, the
> better they were able to learn. Based on cognitive research that shows
> that
> the more connections you can make when assimilating new information, this
> makes total sense.
>
> Because the writers were supposed to identify their participants, they
> found
> themselves in the unfortunate position of having to say that people in
> different SES groups spoke different volumes and different forms to their
> children.
>
> So my professor Totally Ignored the Good Information about neuron density,
> activation of prior knowledge, clues to how learning happened, and
> referred
> to a listserv where people where having similar responses to that shared
> with us by Taiaiake Alfred. Certainly he can take that position.
>
> However.
>
> My research shows that people In General don't learn well in black and
> white
> if they have no prior knowledge. Lit reviews show that people don't know
> how
> to teach language. And finally, other cognitive research shows that people
> respond best to things about themselves and their friends. So, if you show
> the colors of the vegetation around the Colorado river, especially in
> winter, to the people who live there, they will respond more positively to
> it than to black and white. Why? Because it is deeply familiar to them.
> Does
> it matter if they are Tribal? Nooooo, not really. Unless of course the
> colors you choose just happen to be the Tribal colors. So, quiz: In this
> case, will the Tribal people respond more? Or less? Than people who don't
> have deep cultural significance for the colors?
>
> It's really too bad that the results of these studies are published in
> terms
> of the People INSTEAD of the Materials.
>
> Guess I was on a soapbox, but this sort of thing really irritates me.
> I-Mia
> don't learn well in black and white. I take the time to build visual
> models
> in my head, in full color, and I dream the same way. If someone discovered
> that about me, I would say, Gee, does that mean you will be building
> materials that facilitate learning for me? Instead of going around howling
> that it is racist against Irish-Jewish women with green eyes who tend to
> get
> cranky.
>
> !
> Mia


From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US  Wed Dec 15 19:50:03 2004
From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP)
Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2004 12:50:03 -0700
Subject: Government language study released (fwd)
Message-ID: <WED.15.DEC.2004.125003.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

----- Original Message -----
From: "Rolland Nadjiwon" <mikinakn at SHAW.CA>
To: <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, December 15, 2004 11:52 AM
Subject: Re: Government language study released (fwd)


> Mia...your comments on this, perhaps:
>
> I forwarded the news release on this study in standard black and white to
> most of my online 'skindian' friends. Some wrote back saying they could
not
> see it. I then sent it around in brown(earthtones). I spoke a bit later
with
> my son and asked him what he thought of it being in brown. He said, "I'm
> color blind so it looked all the same to me. I did wonder why you posted
it
> twice."


I told him it must have been pretty rough trying to find a Mexicano
> when he lived in Oaxaca.
--> I laughed so hard. . . . .

Although, brown color-blindness is a bit unusual, except in the
psychological sense. Usually, people are green/blue color blind, and often
red/blue color blind. The really unfortunate people, like my past uncle,
managed somehow to be blind both ways, and yet made his living as an
electrician.



>
> Second thought: On your mention of "clues to how learning happened"
> (paragraph 3 line 2), and "build[ing] visual models
>  in my[your] head, in full color...."(last para),  I was very interested
in
> what you might respond to the question whether there is a
Chomsky(Syntactic
> Structures (1951)) difference between learning and language learning, or,
> any comment you might have.
Actually, Rolland, I am in the middle of writing a grant for cognitively
informed learning materials. Otherwise, I would like to do a detailed
analysis of what I think about Chomsky. However, in the light of short time,
I will hit what I consider the high spots:
    1: Chomsky is superb as an anarchist (Letters from Lexington is one of
my all-time faves)
    2: Chomsky doesn't know diddly about how people learn language. He is a
structuralist because he always really wanted to be a programmer, but
unfortunately, when he graduated from Penn in 1954, computers had only been
breathing for 6 years, and they were still made of huge tubes.
    3: Chomsky spent most of his life coming up with modeling strategies
that were supposed to run on the computer that the military funded that
never worked. He an Victor Yngve, also a Linguistist, also a programmer
wanna-be, butted heads for years. . . (I know Victor personally).
    4: There are syntactic structures, and some cool Psych experiments have
looked at the differences between the ways different learners rely on them.
Interestingly, English speakers rely on syntax: they would accept something
like The man bit the dog. Speakers of say, Italian, who rely on semantics,
would not accept such a thing. They rely on semantics and would interpret
the meaning as The dog bit the man.
    5: I think we use structure a lot. . . . I just don't have any really
good details to share at the moment.

And, how would you see this in terms of
> orality(primary orality) vs. literacy vs. full color visual modeling
and/or
> their juxtaposition in any order...I guess this last one is number three
:)

**** This one I can do :-)

I did my thesis on learning Apache without using English as a bridge (such a
waste of cognitive time, space and effort to produce such a poor result),
and so I had to cope with how I could help people learn without introducing
foreign cultural effects (from English) into the process. Here is what I
did. First, I built the fonts to write Apache. Then I got the spellings.
Then I got a native speaker who was also literate to say the words for us.
Then I clipped out just the target words, so I now had a collection of
written words, and matching spoken words. Then, I got pictures, ones that
didn't move for the nouny things like Li (horse), and ones that did for
verby things like hutas (running). Hugish was my favorite because we had a
green lizard crawling. We used GIF animations. It was so cool. I put them
together on the computer in Flash movies, and than I let 42 people, some
Apache people, some people here at the University, play with these
animations. I told them it was an experiment, but they had so much fun, and
they were so happy with their learning that it didn't seem to matter.

What were the results? 77.8% effective across populations, self-directed
learning, average 20 minutes. People learned 48 words, and were tested on
24. We hit an unexpected ceiling. When we designed the experiment, my
advisors though I would be lucky if people learned 7 of the words. They
didn't think that 25% of the people, evenly distributed between Apache and
non-Apache people, would learn that many (24, 25% of the people learned all
24 words. They could choose the correct text, the correct spoken word, and
disambiguate the word in conversation.)

Of course, then we got all smashed up with the Tribal politics, but that's
another day's story.

Does this answer your question in a very indirect, but very perceptually
multi-modal way? See, if you give people rich stuff to learn from,
especially when they can make connections to prior knowledge, they do really
good. And when you give them skimpy, stingy, ugly stuff that doesn't relate
to anything they know, doesn't have any point in their lives, and doesn't
meet any of their goals, well, they don't bother to learn it. For a
particularly interesting view of the learning process, read Walter J.
Freeman's book on his experiments with bunnies. I don't remember what its
called, but it was published in 2000.

Mia


>
> -------
> wahjeh
> rolland nadjiwon
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "MiaKalish at LFP" <MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US>
> To: <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
> Sent: Wednesday, December 15, 2004 1:04 PM
> Subject: Re: Government language study released (fwd)
>
>
> > The response to this report reminds me of a response I saw in one of my
> > classes when I referred to a book that talked about a longitudinal study
> > that was able to count the number of words children had heard (total
> > volume,
> > not unique words) and showed that the more words children had heard, the
> > better they were able to learn. Based on cognitive research that shows
> > that
> > the more connections you can make when assimilating new information,
this
> > makes total sense.
> >
> > Because the writers were supposed to identify their participants, they
> > found
> > themselves in the unfortunate position of having to say that people in
> > different SES groups spoke different volumes and different forms to
their
> > children.
> >
> > So my professor Totally Ignored the Good Information about neuron
density,
> > activation of prior knowledge, clues to how learning happened, and
> > referred
> > to a listserv where people where having similar responses to that shared
> > with us by Taiaiake Alfred. Certainly he can take that position.
> >
> > However.
> >
> > My research shows that people In General don't learn well in black and
> > white
> > if they have no prior knowledge. Lit reviews show that people don't know
> > how
> > to teach language. And finally, other cognitive research shows that
people
> > respond best to things about themselves and their friends. So, if you
show
> > the colors of the vegetation around the Colorado river, especially in
> > winter, to the people who live there, they will respond more positively
to
> > it than to black and white. Why? Because it is deeply familiar to them.
> > Does
> > it matter if they are Tribal? Nooooo, not really. Unless of course the
> > colors you choose just happen to be the Tribal colors. So, quiz: In this
> > case, will the Tribal people respond more? Or less? Than people who
don't
> > have deep cultural significance for the colors?
> >
> > It's really too bad that the results of these studies are published in
> > terms
> > of the People INSTEAD of the Materials.
> >
> > Guess I was on a soapbox, but this sort of thing really irritates me.
> > I-Mia
> > don't learn well in black and white. I take the time to build visual
> > models
> > in my head, in full color, and I dream the same way. If someone
discovered
> > that about me, I would say, Gee, does that mean you will be building
> > materials that facilitate learning for me? Instead of going around
howling
> > that it is racist against Irish-Jewish women with green eyes who tend to
> > get
> > cranky.
> >
> > !
> > Mia
>
>


From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US  Wed Dec 15 20:51:31 2004
From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP)
Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2004 13:51:31 -0700
Subject: Freeman, Walter J.: How Brains Make up their Minds
Message-ID: <WED.15.DEC.2004.135131.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

Hi, Rolland,

The book was actually published in 2001. It is:
How Brains Make Up Their Minds
by Walter J. Freeman (Hardcover - February 15, 2001)
The link probably goes to Amazon.com.

I always call this "Walter J. and the Bunnies" :-)

Mia




----- Original Message -----
From: "MiaKalish at LFP" <MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US>
To: <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, December 15, 2004 12:50 PM
Subject: Re: Government language study released (fwd)


> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Rolland Nadjiwon" <mikinakn at SHAW.CA>
> To: <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
> Sent: Wednesday, December 15, 2004 11:52 AM
> Subject: Re: Government language study released (fwd)
>
>
> > Mia...your comments on this, perhaps:
> >
> > I forwarded the news release on this study in standard black and white
to
> > most of my online 'skindian' friends. Some wrote back saying they could
> not
> > see it. I then sent it around in brown(earthtones). I spoke a bit later
> with
> > my son and asked him what he thought of it being in brown. He said, "I'm
> > color blind so it looked all the same to me. I did wonder why you posted
> it
> > twice."
>
>
> I told him it must have been pretty rough trying to find a Mexicano
> > when he lived in Oaxaca.
> --> I laughed so hard. . . . .
>
> Although, brown color-blindness is a bit unusual, except in the
> psychological sense. Usually, people are green/blue color blind, and often
> red/blue color blind. The really unfortunate people, like my past uncle,
> managed somehow to be blind both ways, and yet made his living as an
> electrician.
>
>
>
> >
> > Second thought: On your mention of "clues to how learning happened"
> > (paragraph 3 line 2), and "build[ing] visual models
> >  in my[your] head, in full color...."(last para),  I was very interested
> in
> > what you might respond to the question whether there is a
> Chomsky(Syntactic
> > Structures (1951)) difference between learning and language learning,
or,
> > any comment you might have.
> Actually, Rolland, I am in the middle of writing a grant for cognitively
> informed learning materials. Otherwise, I would like to do a detailed
> analysis of what I think about Chomsky. However, in the light of short
time,
> I will hit what I consider the high spots:
>     1: Chomsky is superb as an anarchist (Letters from Lexington is one of
> my all-time faves)
>     2: Chomsky doesn't know diddly about how people learn language. He is
a
> structuralist because he always really wanted to be a programmer, but
> unfortunately, when he graduated from Penn in 1954, computers had only
been
> breathing for 6 years, and they were still made of huge tubes.
>     3: Chomsky spent most of his life coming up with modeling strategies
> that were supposed to run on the computer that the military funded that
> never worked. He an Victor Yngve, also a Linguistist, also a programmer
> wanna-be, butted heads for years. . . (I know Victor personally).
>     4: There are syntactic structures, and some cool Psych experiments
have
> looked at the differences between the ways different learners rely on
them.
> Interestingly, English speakers rely on syntax: they would accept
something
> like The man bit the dog. Speakers of say, Italian, who rely on semantics,
> would not accept such a thing. They rely on semantics and would interpret
> the meaning as The dog bit the man.
>     5: I think we use structure a lot. . . . I just don't have any really
> good details to share at the moment.
>
> And, how would you see this in terms of
> > orality(primary orality) vs. literacy vs. full color visual modeling
> and/or
> > their juxtaposition in any order...I guess this last one is number three
> :)
>
> **** This one I can do :-)
>
> I did my thesis on learning Apache without using English as a bridge (such
a
> waste of cognitive time, space and effort to produce such a poor result),
> and so I had to cope with how I could help people learn without
introducing
> foreign cultural effects (from English) into the process. Here is what I
> did. First, I built the fonts to write Apache. Then I got the spellings.
> Then I got a native speaker who was also literate to say the words for us.
> Then I clipped out just the target words, so I now had a collection of
> written words, and matching spoken words. Then, I got pictures, ones that
> didn't move for the nouny things like Li (horse), and ones that did for
> verby things like hutas (running). Hugish was my favorite because we had a
> green lizard crawling. We used GIF animations. It was so cool. I put them
> together on the computer in Flash movies, and than I let 42 people, some
> Apache people, some people here at the University, play with these
> animations. I told them it was an experiment, but they had so much fun,
and
> they were so happy with their learning that it didn't seem to matter.
>
> What were the results? 77.8% effective across populations, self-directed
> learning, average 20 minutes. People learned 48 words, and were tested on
> 24. We hit an unexpected ceiling. When we designed the experiment, my
> advisors though I would be lucky if people learned 7 of the words. They
> didn't think that 25% of the people, evenly distributed between Apache and
> non-Apache people, would learn that many (24, 25% of the people learned
all
> 24 words. They could choose the correct text, the correct spoken word, and
> disambiguate the word in conversation.)
>
> Of course, then we got all smashed up with the Tribal politics, but that's
> another day's story.
>
> Does this answer your question in a very indirect, but very perceptually
> multi-modal way? See, if you give people rich stuff to learn from,
> especially when they can make connections to prior knowledge, they do
really
> good. And when you give them skimpy, stingy, ugly stuff that doesn't
relate
> to anything they know, doesn't have any point in their lives, and doesn't
> meet any of their goals, well, they don't bother to learn it. For a
> particularly interesting view of the learning process, read Walter J.
> Freeman's book on his experiments with bunnies. I don't remember what its
> called, but it was published in 2000.
>
> Mia
>
>
> >
> > -------
> > wahjeh
> > rolland nadjiwon
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "MiaKalish at LFP" <MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US>
> > To: <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
> > Sent: Wednesday, December 15, 2004 1:04 PM
> > Subject: Re: Government language study released (fwd)
> >
> >
> > > The response to this report reminds me of a response I saw in one of
my
> > > classes when I referred to a book that talked about a longitudinal
study
> > > that was able to count the number of words children had heard (total
> > > volume,
> > > not unique words) and showed that the more words children had heard,
the
> > > better they were able to learn. Based on cognitive research that shows
> > > that
> > > the more connections you can make when assimilating new information,
> this
> > > makes total sense.
> > >
> > > Because the writers were supposed to identify their participants, they
> > > found
> > > themselves in the unfortunate position of having to say that people in
> > > different SES groups spoke different volumes and different forms to
> their
> > > children.
> > >
> > > So my professor Totally Ignored the Good Information about neuron
> density,
> > > activation of prior knowledge, clues to how learning happened, and
> > > referred
> > > to a listserv where people where having similar responses to that
shared
> > > with us by Taiaiake Alfred. Certainly he can take that position.
> > >
> > > However.
> > >
> > > My research shows that people In General don't learn well in black and
> > > white
> > > if they have no prior knowledge. Lit reviews show that people don't
know
> > > how
> > > to teach language. And finally, other cognitive research shows that
> people
> > > respond best to things about themselves and their friends. So, if you
> show
> > > the colors of the vegetation around the Colorado river, especially in
> > > winter, to the people who live there, they will respond more
positively
> to
> > > it than to black and white. Why? Because it is deeply familiar to
them.
> > > Does
> > > it matter if they are Tribal? Nooooo, not really. Unless of course the
> > > colors you choose just happen to be the Tribal colors. So, quiz: In
this
> > > case, will the Tribal people respond more? Or less? Than people who
> don't
> > > have deep cultural significance for the colors?
> > >
> > > It's really too bad that the results of these studies are published in
> > > terms
> > > of the People INSTEAD of the Materials.
> > >
> > > Guess I was on a soapbox, but this sort of thing really irritates me.
> > > I-Mia
> > > don't learn well in black and white. I take the time to build visual
> > > models
> > > in my head, in full color, and I dream the same way. If someone
> discovered
> > > that about me, I would say, Gee, does that mean you will be building
> > > materials that facilitate learning for me? Instead of going around
> howling
> > > that it is racist against Irish-Jewish women with green eyes who tend
to
> > > get
> > > cranky.
> > >
> > > !
> > > Mia
> >
> >
>
>


From pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET  Wed Dec 15 22:28:20 2004
From: pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET (phil cash cash)
Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2004 15:28:20 -0700
Subject: Government language study released (fwd)
In-Reply-To: <000901c4e2d0$92df28f0$03ec7b80@red6bvg9btk>
Message-ID: <WED.15.DEC.2004.152820.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

t?'c hal?Xp (good day),

it had to have been from Dances with Wolves!  ideas like this have to 
come from somewhere  <;-p

it is unfortunate though that the research reported here is focused on 
native peoples and not on the real issues of learning and cognition.  
but i think that is the whole point of this kind of research and the 
governmental entities noted here are not as innocent as Mia makes them 
out to be.  Taiaiake Alfred and others are correct to protest such 
research as it smacks of deficit theory (superior literate Western 
minds vs inferior illiterate Indigenous minds).  and the protest is 
appropriate i think due to the fact that governmental entities do 
indeed base policy decisions on research of this kind and hence 
under-represented populations see no benefits, have no say, etc..  but 
we all know this already (No Child Left Behind, English-only 
legislation) despite the abundance of important research and advocacy 
to the contrary.

just a few thoughts in black and white...
phil

From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US  Wed Dec 15 23:58:14 2004
From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP)
Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2004 16:58:14 -0700
Subject: Government language study released (fwd)
Message-ID: <WED.15.DEC.2004.165814.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

Phil, dear? Innocence is not something I impute to people. . . especially in
this area of research. I think they are just as underhanded, sneaky and
nasty as they probably are. In a class, I once read a transcribed speech by
a women who was head of the school board, who wanted to make sure the
"little brown children" didn't do as well as their white children because
then the little brown children would be able to compete for (and probably
get) the jobs that the white kids wanted.

That really irritated me.

However, I just like to move on down the path. Basically, all my research is
showing that it doesn't have squat to do with race or color or even SES. It
has to do with MATERIALS. Heeeheee. Of course, this is not a new idea. It is
simply one that people haven't been able to test before. I am still kind of
a hardscrabble activist. I just do it differently these days because boy,
quantitative power will knock these people out of the box every time. See?
And you thought I was being sweet!

Thanks for the nice thoughts anyway. Hope you are having fun out there. I
think fondly of my days at AILDI and hope someday to make it back. Maybe
when I really famous, eh?

best ever,
Mia

----- Original Message -----
From: "phil cash cash" <pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET>
To: <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, December 15, 2004 3:28 PM
Subject: Re: Government language study released (fwd)


t?'c hal?Xp (good day),

it had to have been from Dances with Wolves!  ideas like this have to
come from somewhere  <;-p

it is unfortunate though that the research reported here is focused on
native peoples and not on the real issues of learning and cognition.
but i think that is the whole point of this kind of research and the
governmental entities noted here are not as innocent as Mia makes them
out to be.  Taiaiake Alfred and others are correct to protest such
research as it smacks of deficit theory (superior literate Western
minds vs inferior illiterate Indigenous minds).  and the protest is
appropriate i think due to the fact that governmental entities do
indeed base policy decisions on research of this kind and hence
under-represented populations see no benefits, have no say, etc..  but
we all know this already (No Child Left Behind, English-only
legislation) despite the abundance of important research and advocacy
to the contrary.

just a few thoughts in black and white...
phil


From sburke at CPAN.ORG  Thu Dec 16 03:29:38 2004
From: sburke at CPAN.ORG (Sean M. Burke)
Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2004 18:29:38 -0900
Subject: Government language study released (fwd)
In-Reply-To: <000401c4e2d7$4d91bfe0$167e4c18@Nadjiwon>
Message-ID: <WED.15.DEC.2004.182938.0900.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

At 09:52 AM 2004-12-15, Rolland Nadjiwon wrote:
>I was very interested in what you might respond to the question whether
>there is a Chomsky(Syntactic Structures (1951)) difference between
>learning and language learning

He would say: yes.

--
Sean M. Burke    http://search.cpan.org/~sburke/


From sburke at CPAN.ORG  Thu Dec 16 03:32:17 2004
From: sburke at CPAN.ORG (Sean M. Burke)
Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2004 18:32:17 -0900
Subject: Government language study released (fwd)
In-Reply-To: <001801c4e2df$4535bab0$03ec7b80@red6bvg9btk>
Message-ID: <WED.15.DEC.2004.183217.0900.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

At 10:50 AM 2004-12-15, MiaKalish at LFP wrote:
>What were the results? 77.8% effective across populations, self-directed
>learning, average 20 minutes. People learned 48 words, and were tested on 24.

How well did they test on learning grammatical formations, and other
non-lexical things?
--
Sean M. Burke    http://search.cpan.org/~sburke/


From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US  Thu Dec 16 03:46:53 2004
From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP)
Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2004 20:46:53 -0700
Subject: Government language study released (fwd)
Message-ID: <WED.15.DEC.2004.204653.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

We didn't get that far. This was for basic lexical acquisition, without
using Any English. We thought the success of our first project would excite
others, and we would have the chance to develop the Flash movies for
teaching grammar dynamically, the way it is usually learned. . . but alas,
we became bogged in politics I care not to remember, and we never got the
chance to take the project further. It was as if they hated us for being
successful, even though half our partnership was indeed of the same tribe,
and our success would have helped the middle generation recover language and
culture.

sad.


----- Original Message -----
From: "Sean M. Burke" <sburke at CPAN.ORG>
To: <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, December 15, 2004 8:32 PM
Subject: Re: Government language study released (fwd)


> At 10:50 AM 2004-12-15, MiaKalish at LFP wrote:
> >What were the results? 77.8% effective across populations, self-directed
> >learning, average 20 minutes. People learned 48 words, and were tested on
24.
>
> How well did they test on learning grammatical formations, and other
> non-lexical things?
> --
> Sean M. Burke    http://search.cpan.org/~sburke/
>
>


From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU  Thu Dec 16 07:53:20 2004
From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash)
Date: Thu, 16 Dec 2004 00:53:20 -0700
Subject: Program updates Navajo language for computers (fwd)
Message-ID: <THU.16.DEC.2004.005320.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

Program updates Navajo language for computers

The Associated Press
http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/index.php?page=local&story_id=121304a7_navajofonts

FARMINGTON, N.M. - The Navajo language is getting an updated look,
thanks to students at San Juan College.

Navajo Word Processor 3.1 will soon hit shelves at the college
bookstore, offering a full-featured word processor with four new Navajo
fonts, an English-to-Navajo dictionary and a Navajo-to-English
dictionary.

It is the latest version of a program first developed in the early 1990s
when instructor Timothy Reeves asked his advanced computer programming
students to develop a word processor for the Navajo language.

Reeves had taught at a community college in Tsaile, Ariz., in the late
1980s, where he developed a special font for Navajo after students
asked for his help in publishing a campus newspaper in Navajo.

"Navajo has some accent marks that do not exist anywhere in the world
except other Athabaskan languages," said Reeves, who teaches computer
science.

His students have been updating and improving the software since the
original version was rolled out.

The latest version includes a pop-up menu, color palette and insert
buttons and a style bar with font selections.

The four new fonts are Times New Roman for Navajo, Lucida Sans for
Navajo, Courier for Navajo and Arial for Navajo. The fonts have been
licensed by Agfa Monotype Corp., the font owner.

"The reason we're doing this is, there are plenty of people who need to
type in Navajo," Reeves said.


From sdp at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU  Thu Dec 16 14:41:22 2004
From: sdp at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Susan Penfield)
Date: Thu, 16 Dec 2004 07:41:22 -0700
Subject: Fw: [Languse] Fwd:  LISO conference call for papers
Message-ID: <THU.16.DEC.2004.074122.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

This might be of interest to some of you... "recorded spontaneous
interaction" is still rare in indigenous language documentation and
attention to the role that technology might play in both the collection and
analysis of this type of data is very needed. (my thoughts..)



**Please give widest possible distribution**

CALL FOR PAPERS
11th Annual Conference on Language, Interaction and Culture May 12-14,  2005
University of California, Santa Barbara

Presented by
The Language, Interaction, and Social Organization (LISO) Graduate Student
Association at the University of California, Santa Barbara and The Center
for Language, Interaction and Culture (CLIC) Graduate Student Association at
the University of California, Los Angeles

Plenary Speakers
Paul Drew-University of York, Sociology
Lanita Jacobs-Huey-University of Southern California, Anthropology Michael
Silverstein-University of Chicago, Anthropology Catherine Snow-Harvard
University, Education

Submissions should address topics at the intersection of language,
interaction, and culture from theoretical perspectives which employ data
from recorded, spontaneous interaction. This includes but is not limited to
conversation analysis, discourse analysis, ethnography of communication,
ethnomethodology, and interactional sociolinguistics.  We welcome abstracts
from graduate students and faculty working in the areas of Anthropology,
Applied Linguistics, Education, Linguistics, Psychology, and Sociology.
Speakers will have 20 minutes for presentation and 10 minutes for
discussion. Selected papers will be published in the conference proceedings.

Abstracts are due no later than February 15, 2005, by e-mail submission only
<LISOconf05 at linguistics.ucsb.edu>.

Please see submission guidelines below and the LISO webpage at
http://www.liso.ucsb.edu/conferences/LISOConf2005/ for more information.

The Language, Interaction, and Social Organization (LISO) Conference
Organizing
Committee: Jennifer Garland and Melissa Kwon, Co-Chairs; Valerie Sultan,
Treasurer; Jesse Gillespie, Webmaster; Kevin Whitehead and Annette Harrison.

University of California, Santa Barbara, Department of Linguistics South
Hall 3605, Santa Barbara, CA 93106 LISOconf05 at linguistics.ucsb.edu
http://www.liso.ucsb.edu/conferences/LISOConf2005/


SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

This year we are accepting submissions by e-mail only:

The 500 word abstract should be sent to LISOconf05 at linguistics.ucsb.edu with
"Conference Submission" in the subject line. The abstract should be attached
in Rich Text Format (.rtf), and should contain no information which
identifies the author(s). In a second attached document, please include the
following
information:
?      Name(s) of author(s)
?     Affiliation(s) of author(s)
?     The address, phone number, and email address
?     at which the author(s) would liketo be notified
?      The title of the paper
?     A note indicating your equipment requirements
?     Any additional comments

In the case of an abstract longer than 500 words, only the first 500 words
will be read. Papers will be selected based on evaluation of the anonymous
abstract.

In your abstract, make sure to clearly state the main point or argument of
the paper.  Briefly discuss the problem or research question situated by
reference to previous research and by the work's relevance to developments
in your field.
You may wish to include a short example to support your main point or
argument.
State your conclusions, however tentative.

Deadline for the receipt of abstracts is February 15, 2005. Late submissions
will not be accepted. Notification of acceptance or non-acceptance will be
sent via email by March 31, 2005.


     _______________________________________________
     For general information on LANGUSE, including instructions on how to
SUBSCRIBE and UNSUBSCRIBE:

     http://www.list.hum.aau.dk/mailman/listinfo/languse

     Many excellent and informative exchanges have taken place on Languse
over the years. To view the entire Languse ARCHIVES (dating from 1999):

     http://www.list.hum.aau.dk/pipermail/languse/

     ----------------------------------------


From sdp at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU  Thu Dec 16 18:46:01 2004
From: sdp at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Susan Penfield)
Date: Thu, 16 Dec 2004 11:46:01 -0700
Subject: FW: Article on efforts to revive the Hawaiian language
Message-ID: <THU.16.DEC.2004.114601.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

-----
Below is the website for an article some of you might be interested in, from
the Dec. 10 issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Kim

Kimberly Jones
East Asian Studies
University of Arizona

-----Original Message-----
From: Aniko Rankine [mailto:animagdi at yahoo.com]
Sent: Monday, December 13, 2004 11:58 AM
To: biling-fam at nethelp.no
Subject: OT: Article on efforts to revive the Hawaiian language

This (longish) article in the Chronicle of Higher
Education describes ongoing efforts to boost the
number of fluent speakers of Hawaiian, including
preschools, schools, university programs as well as
people deciding to bring up their children with
Hawaiian as the "primary language".

http://chronicle.com/temp/email.php?id=qsrn6yo7x079i27hbn3pvc6q2edc0c0p


----- End forwarded message -----


Susan D. Penfield, Ph.D.
Department of English
   The Writing Program
   Second Language Acquisition and Teaching Ph.D. Program (affiliate faculty)
   Indigenous Languages and Technology
Southwest Center, Research Associate in Anthropology
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721


From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU  Thu Dec 16 19:14:40 2004
From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash)
Date: Thu, 16 Dec 2004 12:14:40 -0700
Subject: Program updates Navajo language for computers (fwd)
In-Reply-To: <1103183600.7b56d585ae450@www.email.arizona.edu>
Message-ID: <THU.16.DEC.2004.121440.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

you can go to the website below to find out more about the Navajo Word
Processor 3.1.  looks interesting!

http://www.sanjuancollege.edu/pages/2097.asp

phil


From dzo at BISHARAT.NET  Fri Dec 17 09:18:59 2004
From: dzo at BISHARAT.NET (Donald Z. Osborn)
Date: Fri, 17 Dec 2004 03:18:59 -0600
Subject: No subject
Message-ID: <FRI.17.DEC.2004.031859.0600.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

FYI... (reposted from the Linguist list)  DZO


Date: 16-Dec-2004
From: Nicholas Ostler <nostler at chibcha.demon.co.uk>
Subject: Call for Proposals:Foundation for Endangered Langs


The Foundation for Endangered Languages is now accepting proposals for projects
of work that will support, enable or assist the documentation, protection or
promotion of one or more endangered languages.  These endangered languages may
be anywhere in the  world.

The Foundation's funds remain extremely limited and only an exceptional award
will be greater than US $1,500. Smaller proposals stand a better chance of
funding.

Please pass on this announcement to your friends and colleagues in
endangered-language communities who may not have access to Ogmios,  the
Internet or e-mail.

**Format for Submissions:
As of this year, there has been a change in the format for submissions to the
Foundation.  In future, applicants must submit a short Case for Support and a
Application Form.  Guidance on how to write a Case, and fill out the form, is
accessible at the Foundation's website: -
http://www.ogmios.org/grant.htm
It may also be obtained from me at the address below.  (Any other, older, FEL
materials - as still at http://www.ogmios.org/question.htm - are obsolete, and
should not be used.)

The Case for Support (CS) and Application Form (AF) are best  submitted as Word
files attached to an e-mail message sent to <FEL at chibcha.demon.co.uk>.
Non-ascii text should be in some form  of Unicode. The two files should be
named "languageCS.doc" and "languageAF.doc", substituting the name of the
language to be studied for 'language'.

Copies printed on paper will also be accepted as an alternative. In general, it
is not necessary to send  a hard copy of an electronic proposal for
confirmation, but FEL may request this if there are major difficulties in
reading the file.

All proposals must be submitted in this format, to ensure comparability. Unless
agreed with me in advance in writing, all proposals must be in English.

** Deadline:
The time-limit for proposals will be 30 January 2005. By that date, full
proposals (consisting of Case for Support and Application Form) must reach me
at the address below. All proposals received will be acknowledged on receipt.

The FEL Committee will announce its decision by 31st March 2005.

** Comments on Draft Proposals:
FEL tries to keep its procedures as simple as possible. But it recognizes that
they may be especially taxing for those without training in a western
university. In the case of proposals from communities or community linguists,
FEL is prepared to comment on drafts, and suggest weaknesses and potential
remedies (without prejudice) before the selection. Such draft proposals -
clearly marked "DRAFT" - should reach FEL as soon as possible, and no later
than 31 December 2004.

This commenting service is simply offered in order to help: it is never required
to submit such a draft.  If  draft applications are received from applicants
who are judged not to be members of endangered language communities or such
communities' designated linguists, they may be re-classified as final
applications, at FELs discretion.

Nicholas Ostler <nostler at chibcha.demon.co.uk>
FEL Chairman and Grants Officer
Note:
The Foundation for Endangered Languages (FEL) is a separate from ELF, the
Endangered Language Fund (www.haskins.yale.edu). It is perfectly possible (and
has indeed occurred in the past) that the same project can be partially funded
by both FEL and ELF.

Foundation for Endangered Languages
Registered Charity: England and Wales 1070616
172 Bailbrook Lane, Bath BA1 7AA, England
+44-1225-852865  nostler at chibcha.demon.co.uk
http://www.ogmios.org


From sburke at CPAN.ORG  Sat Dec 18 01:10:01 2004
From: sburke at CPAN.ORG (Sean M. Burke)
Date: Fri, 17 Dec 2004 16:10:01 -0900
Subject: Government language study released (fwd)
In-Reply-To: <002401c4e321$e2302b10$03ec7b80@red6bvg9btk>
Message-ID: <FRI.17.DEC.2004.161001.0900.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

At 06:46 PM 2004-12-15, MiaKalish at LFP wrote:
> > How well did they test on learning grammatical formations, and other
> > non-lexical things?
>We didn't get that far. This was for basic lexical acquisition, without
>using Any English.  We thought the success of our first project would
>excite others, and we would have the chance to develop the Flash movies
>for teaching grammar dynamically[...]

Yes, the problem of tribal politics is always a massive obstacle in any
language revitalization program.  I think the best solution is to have on
your side not just your ample enthusiasm for technologies that you feel can
be promising, but also clear documentation of past experiments showing the
technologies to be brilliantly useful for the task you're proposing --
demonstrating this with an experimental group and a control group, and
going past just lexical retention.  Having experimental results in hand is
what can put you head and shoulders over the other dog-and-pony shows
that're out there in the realm of language technology.

I mean, anybody can learn a few dozen nouns in an Apachean language -- but
it's trying to go from "he runs" to "I ran" or "he ran around" that trips
up all the learners.  Find a technology that helps with that more than
/just/ chalk-and-talk does, and show proof of how and when your new tech is
effective, and you'll be practically immune to the hassles of tribal politics.

--
Sean M. Burke    http://search.cpan.org/~sburke/


From mikinakn at SHAW.CA  Sat Dec 18 07:53:47 2004
From: mikinakn at SHAW.CA (Rolland Nadjiwon)
Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2004 02:53:47 -0500
Subject: Government language study released (fwd)
Message-ID: <SAT.18.DEC.2004.025347.0500.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

What if you are working with a language that has no(your last paragraph)
pronouns, genderization, binarism or linearity(time/history)...do you invent
them?

If the language, or anything of the 'other' for that matter, is reinvented
to fit the structure is this not somewhat of a 'Cinderella Syndrome' -- the
stepsisters distorted contortions to fit their gross feet into the glass
slipper.

Further, 'tribal politics' is not an obstacle it is a process, an 'obstacle'
perhaps to externalized retrofitting retrofitters.

Obviously, there is so much more to this.

-------
wahjeh
rolland nadjiwon


----- Original Message -----
From: "Sean M. Burke" <sburke at CPAN.ORG>
To: <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
Sent: Friday, December 17, 2004 8:10 PM
Subject: Re: Government language study released (fwd)


> At 06:46 PM 2004-12-15, MiaKalish at LFP wrote:
>> > How well did they test on learning grammatical formations, and other
>> > non-lexical things?
>>We didn't get that far. This was for basic lexical acquisition, without
>>using Any English.  We thought the success of our first project would
>>excite others, and we would have the chance to develop the Flash movies
>>for teaching grammar dynamically[...]
>
> Yes, the problem of tribal politics is always a massive obstacle in any
> language revitalization program.  I think the best solution is to have on
> your side not just your ample enthusiasm for technologies that you feel
> can
> be promising, but also clear documentation of past experiments showing the
> technologies to be brilliantly useful for the task you're proposing --
> demonstrating this with an experimental group and a control group, and
> going past just lexical retention.  Having experimental results in hand is
> what can put you head and shoulders over the other dog-and-pony shows
> that're out there in the realm of language technology.
>
> I mean, anybody can learn a few dozen nouns in an Apachean language -- but
> it's trying to go from "he runs" to "I ran" or "he ran around" that trips
> up all the learners.  Find a technology that helps with that more than
> /just/ chalk-and-talk does, and show proof of how and when your new tech
> is
> effective, and you'll be practically immune to the hassles of tribal
> politics.
>
> --
> Sean M. Burke    http://search.cpan.org/~sburke/
>


From linguist3 at KATHLANGCENTRE.ORG.AU  Sat Dec 18 09:23:06 2004
From: linguist3 at KATHLANGCENTRE.ORG.AU (Greg Dickson)
Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2004 18:53:06 +0930
Subject: No subject
In-Reply-To: <1103275139.41c2a48321a19@webmail.kabissa.org>
Message-ID: <SAT.18.DEC.2004.185306.0930.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

What do you mob think of the proposals?  To me, it seems like the
amount of work that goes into writing the proposal isn't worth the
small value of the grants.  Has anyone ever been involved in a project
that used this funding and how was it?

Greg Dickson
Linguist
Ngukurr Language Centre
PMB 6
via Katherine  NT  0852
Australia
phone/fax: +61 8 8975 4362
mob:  +61 427 391 153
email: greg.dickson at kathlangcentre.org.au


On 17/12/2004, at 6:48 PM, Donald Z. Osborn wrote:

> FYI... (reposted from the Linguist list)  DZO
>
>
> Date: 16-Dec-2004
> From: Nicholas Ostler <nostler at chibcha.demon.co.uk>
> Subject: Call for Proposals:Foundation for Endangered Langs
>
>
> The Foundation for Endangered Languages is now accepting proposals for
> projects
> of work that will support, enable or assist the documentation,
> protection or
> promotion of one or more endangered languages.  These endangered
> languages may
> be anywhere in the  world.
>
> The Foundation's funds remain extremely limited and only an
> exceptional award
> will be greater than US $1,500. Smaller proposals stand a better
> chance of
> funding.
>
> Please pass on this announcement to your friends and colleagues in
> endangered-language communities who may not have access to Ogmios,  the
> Internet or e-mail.
>
> **Format for Submissions:
> As of this year, there has been a change in the format for submissions
> to the
> Foundation.  In future, applicants must submit a short Case for
> Support and a
> Application Form.  Guidance on how to write a Case, and fill out the
> form, is
> accessible at the Foundation's website: -
> http://www.ogmios.org/grant.htm
> It may also be obtained from me at the address below.  (Any other,
> older, FEL
> materials - as still at http://www.ogmios.org/question.htm - are
> obsolete, and
> should not be used.)
>
> The Case for Support (CS) and Application Form (AF) are best
> submitted as Word
> files attached to an e-mail message sent to <FEL at chibcha.demon.co.uk>.
> Non-ascii text should be in some form  of Unicode. The two files
> should be
> named "languageCS.doc" and "languageAF.doc", substituting the name of
> the
> language to be studied for 'language'.
>
> Copies printed on paper will also be accepted as an alternative. In
> general, it
> is not necessary to send  a hard copy of an electronic proposal for
> confirmation, but FEL may request this if there are major difficulties
> in
> reading the file.
>
> All proposals must be submitted in this format, to ensure
> comparability. Unless
> agreed with me in advance in writing, all proposals must be in English.
>
> ** Deadline:
> The time-limit for proposals will be 30 January 2005. By that date,
> full
> proposals (consisting of Case for Support and Application Form) must
> reach me
> at the address below. All proposals received will be acknowledged on
> receipt.
>
> The FEL Committee will announce its decision by 31st March 2005.
>
> ** Comments on Draft Proposals:
> FEL tries to keep its procedures as simple as possible. But it
> recognizes that
> they may be especially taxing for those without training in a western
> university. In the case of proposals from communities or community
> linguists,
> FEL is prepared to comment on drafts, and suggest weaknesses and
> potential
> remedies (without prejudice) before the selection. Such draft
> proposals -
> clearly marked "DRAFT" - should reach FEL as soon as possible, and no
> later
> than 31 December 2004.
>
> This commenting service is simply offered in order to help: it is
> never required
> to submit such a draft.  If  draft applications are received from
> applicants
> who are judged not to be members of endangered language communities or
> such
> communities' designated linguists, they may be re-classified as final
> applications, at FELs discretion.
>
> Nicholas Ostler <nostler at chibcha.demon.co.uk>
> FEL Chairman and Grants Officer
> Note:
> The Foundation for Endangered Languages (FEL) is a separate from ELF,
> the
> Endangered Language Fund (www.haskins.yale.edu). It is perfectly
> possible (and
> has indeed occurred in the past) that the same project can be
> partially funded
> by both FEL and ELF.
>
> Foundation for Endangered Languages
> Registered Charity: England and Wales 1070616
> 172 Bailbrook Lane, Bath BA1 7AA, England
> +44-1225-852865  nostler at chibcha.demon.co.uk
> http://www.ogmios.org
>


From sburke at CPAN.ORG  Sat Dec 18 09:53:36 2004
From: sburke at CPAN.ORG (Sean M. Burke)
Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2004 00:53:36 -0900
Subject: Government language study released (fwd)
In-Reply-To: <004b01c4e4d6$b6e483a0$167e4c18@Nadjiwon>
Message-ID: <SAT.18.DEC.2004.005336.0900.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

At 10:53 PM 2004-12-17, Rolland Nadjiwon wrote:
>What if you are working with a language that has no(your last paragraph)
>pronouns, genderization, binarism or linearity(time/history)...do you
>invent them?

What do /you/ think?  I was talking about (largely uninflected) nouns and
(highly inflected) verbs in Apachean, a distinction that I think is about
as uncontroversial as they get -- if that bothers you, explain why.
For chrissake, I wasn't insisting that Your Favorite Language has an
ablative absolutive!

>Further, 'tribal politics' is not an obstacle it is a process, an
>'obstacle' perhaps to externalized retrofitting retrofitters.

Oh my yes, when the head of the culture program /still/ won't talk to the
head of the language program because her sister Orlene asked his
teasing-cousin Bulerd to the prom in 1952 instead of asking /him/, I'll be
sure to bear in mind your heartfelt advice that this is all just a joyous
process, and that to view it otherwise is to be a retrofitty retrofitso.

Who needs a hug?!?

--
Sean M. Burke    http://search.cpan.org/~sburke/


From sdp at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU  Sat Dec 18 12:56:13 2004
From: sdp at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Susan Penfield)
Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2004 05:56:13 -0700
Subject: Government language study released (fwd)
Message-ID: <SAT.18.DEC.2004.055613.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

Can't resist this thread.

Tribal politics is always a process, often a hassle and occasionally an
obstacle ---Does that strike a middle ground here?  I'd say both 'insiders'
and 'outsiders' would  agree with that---has nothing to do with
'retrofitting'. An understanding of tribal politics is essential since it
defines the space and parameters for negotiations. But, blanket
characterizations of tribal politics either way, while tempting, are not
fair.
 Probably goes without saying, but let's not forget that each community is
different, as is each person's and program's involvement with tribal
politics. I'll agree with Sean in that providing practical, very usable,
results mitigates much of the tension in most situations. Nevertheless,
sincere commitment and practical results are only usually, not always, a
winning combination.
In any case,  tribal politics are always to be considered and respected.

Patience everyone! Isn't that the great lesson of working with community
level programs or politics?

Susan
----- Original Message -----
From: "Sean M. Burke" <sburke at CPAN.ORG>
To: <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
Sent: Saturday, December 18, 2004 2:53 AM
Subject: Re: Government language study released (fwd)


> At 10:53 PM 2004-12-17, Rolland Nadjiwon wrote:
>>What if you are working with a language that has no(your last paragraph)
>>pronouns, genderization, binarism or linearity(time/history)...do you
>>invent them?
>
> What do /you/ think?  I was talking about (largely uninflected) nouns and
> (highly inflected) verbs in Apachean, a distinction that I think is about
> as uncontroversial as they get -- if that bothers you, explain why.
> For chrissake, I wasn't insisting that Your Favorite Language has an
> ablative absolutive!
>
>>Further, 'tribal politics' is not an obstacle it is a process, an
>>'obstacle' perhaps to externalized retrofitting retrofitters.
>
> Oh my yes, when the head of the culture program /still/ won't talk to the
> head of the language program because her sister Orlene asked his
> teasing-cousin Bulerd to the prom in 1952 instead of asking /him/, I'll be
> sure to bear in mind your heartfelt advice that this is all just a joyous
> process, and that to view it otherwise is to be a retrofitty retrofitso.
>
> Who needs a hug?!?
>
> --
> Sean M. Burke    http://search.cpan.org/~sburke/


From anguksuar at YAHOO.COM  Sat Dec 18 14:18:40 2004
From: anguksuar at YAHOO.COM (Richard LaFortune)
Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2004 06:18:40 -0800
Subject: language funding considerations
In-Reply-To: <6D1E8A70-50D6-11D9-98A7-000A95BE94DE@kathlangcentre.org.au>
Message-ID: <SAT.18.DEC.2004.061840.0800.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

Here are a few thoughts from a Native philanthropy
professional focusing on language revitalization- hope
it provides a bit of food for thought-
Anguksuar (Richard LaFortune)

Sometimes a modest or small grant acquires greater
dimension in communities with national or local
economies that can't meaningfully support individual
language activists or organizations - in those
instances, an apparently small grant can sometimes
accomplish more than a larger dollar grant for
constituents in a richer economy.

Also, smaller and emerging Aboriginal organizations
embarking on fundraising efforts may not initially
find a receptive or aware philanthropy audience.
Therefore, a grant of any size is useful when a new-
or grassroots- effort submits proposals and can
already show a committed funding source- it makes for
a stronger argument to other funders, and can serve as
a platform for stronger fundraising efforts.

Funders talk to each other frequently, and a
foundation officer may call other funders to assess
the readiness or worthiness of an organization, for
immediate or future funding.

Grants are often registered in the press and
professional (philanthropy) journals in the country of
origin, so that may represent one of the only
introductions to the larger foundation community.

And of course, if a grantee disseminates
organizational literature of any description, a public
thank you to a funder can serve to advertise the
worthiness of its mission and attract other potential
donors.

FEL is one of a handful of philanthropies worldwide
that provides grants in the range of US$1000 or so,
dedicated to the field in which we work.  Sometimes a
fund with national or international geographic focus
is able to transcend the ignorance or resistance of
more locally based public or private sources of
funding.

Happy Solstice! (which occurs at the customary time of
our ancient winter Nakaciuryaraq celebration, in the
Ancestral Domain of the Yupik people)

PS  Phil: can we add a default 'ILAT' signature into
the subject line of listserve messages?  People
sometimes delete messages from unrecognized or
unfamiliar senders, particularly with attachments

--- Greg Dickson <linguist3 at KATHLANGCENTRE.ORG.AU>
wrote:

> What do you mob think of the proposals?  To me, it
> seems like the
> amount of work that goes into writing the proposal
> isn't worth the
> small value of the grants.  Has anyone ever been
> involved in a project
> that used this funding and how was it?
>
> Greg Dickson
> Linguist
> Ngukurr Language Centre
> PMB 6
> via Katherine  NT  0852
> Australia
> phone/fax: +61 8 8975 4362
> mob:  +61 427 391 153
> email: greg.dickson at kathlangcentre.org.au
>
>



__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Take Yahoo! Mail with you! Get it on your mobile phone.
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From sdp at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU  Sat Dec 18 16:11:12 2004
From: sdp at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Susan Penfield)
Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2004 09:11:12 -0700
Subject: No subject
Message-ID: <SAT.18.DEC.2004.091112.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

All,
Small grants have their place. It was a small grant five years ago (in house
from the UA) which allowed us to work with the CRIT tribal library
experimenting with technology. That work attracted the attention of the Bill
Gates Foundation and their funding (large grant) helped establish this
listserv --along with establishing other projects still in place at CRIT all
of which focus on providing training in tech. for tribal members related to
language documentation and revitalization.
Grant writing, at all levels, seems to me to be work intensive with
unpredictable outcomes -- still worth the effort.
Best,
Susan

----- Original Message -----
From: "Greg Dickson" <linguist3 at KATHLANGCENTRE.ORG.AU>
To: <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
Sent: Saturday, December 18, 2004 2:23 AM


> What do you mob think of the proposals?  To me, it seems like the
> amount of work that goes into writing the proposal isn't worth the
> small value of the grants.  Has anyone ever been involved in a project
> that used this funding and how was it?
>
> Greg Dickson
> Linguist
> Ngukurr Language Centre
> PMB 6
> via Katherine  NT  0852
> Australia
> phone/fax: +61 8 8975 4362
> mob:  +61 427 391 153
> email: greg.dickson at kathlangcentre.org.au
>
>
> On 17/12/2004, at 6:48 PM, Donald Z. Osborn wrote:
>
>> FYI... (reposted from the Linguist list)  DZO
>>
>>
>> Date: 16-Dec-2004
>> From: Nicholas Ostler <nostler at chibcha.demon.co.uk>
>> Subject: Call for Proposals:Foundation for Endangered Langs
>>
>>
>> The Foundation for Endangered Languages is now accepting proposals for
>> projects
>> of work that will support, enable or assist the documentation,
>> protection or
>> promotion of one or more endangered languages.  These endangered
>> languages may
>> be anywhere in the  world.
>>
>> The Foundation's funds remain extremely limited and only an
>> exceptional award
>> will be greater than US $1,500. Smaller proposals stand a better
>> chance of
>> funding.
>>
>> Please pass on this announcement to your friends and colleagues in
>> endangered-language communities who may not have access to Ogmios,  the
>> Internet or e-mail.
>>
>> **Format for Submissions:
>> As of this year, there has been a change in the format for submissions
>> to the
>> Foundation.  In future, applicants must submit a short Case for
>> Support and a
>> Application Form.  Guidance on how to write a Case, and fill out the
>> form, is
>> accessible at the Foundation's website: -
>> http://www.ogmios.org/grant.htm
>> It may also be obtained from me at the address below.  (Any other,
>> older, FEL
>> materials - as still at http://www.ogmios.org/question.htm - are
>> obsolete, and
>> should not be used.)
>>
>> The Case for Support (CS) and Application Form (AF) are best
>> submitted as Word
>> files attached to an e-mail message sent to <FEL at chibcha.demon.co.uk>.
>> Non-ascii text should be in some form  of Unicode. The two files
>> should be
>> named "languageCS.doc" and "languageAF.doc", substituting the name of
>> the
>> language to be studied for 'language'.
>>
>> Copies printed on paper will also be accepted as an alternative. In
>> general, it
>> is not necessary to send  a hard copy of an electronic proposal for
>> confirmation, but FEL may request this if there are major difficulties
>> in
>> reading the file.
>>
>> All proposals must be submitted in this format, to ensure
>> comparability. Unless
>> agreed with me in advance in writing, all proposals must be in English.
>>
>> ** Deadline:
>> The time-limit for proposals will be 30 January 2005. By that date,
>> full
>> proposals (consisting of Case for Support and Application Form) must
>> reach me
>> at the address below. All proposals received will be acknowledged on
>> receipt.
>>
>> The FEL Committee will announce its decision by 31st March 2005.
>>
>> ** Comments on Draft Proposals:
>> FEL tries to keep its procedures as simple as possible. But it
>> recognizes that
>> they may be especially taxing for those without training in a western
>> university. In the case of proposals from communities or community
>> linguists,
>> FEL is prepared to comment on drafts, and suggest weaknesses and
>> potential
>> remedies (without prejudice) before the selection. Such draft
>> proposals -
>> clearly marked "DRAFT" - should reach FEL as soon as possible, and no
>> later
>> than 31 December 2004.
>>
>> This commenting service is simply offered in order to help: it is
>> never required
>> to submit such a draft.  If  draft applications are received from
>> applicants
>> who are judged not to be members of endangered language communities or
>> such
>> communities' designated linguists, they may be re-classified as final
>> applications, at FELs discretion.
>>
>> Nicholas Ostler <nostler at chibcha.demon.co.uk>
>> FEL Chairman and Grants Officer
>> Note:
>> The Foundation for Endangered Languages (FEL) is a separate from ELF,
>> the
>> Endangered Language Fund (www.haskins.yale.edu). It is perfectly
>> possible (and
>> has indeed occurred in the past) that the same project can be
>> partially funded
>> by both FEL and ELF.
>>
>> Foundation for Endangered Languages
>> Registered Charity: England and Wales 1070616
>> 172 Bailbrook Lane, Bath BA1 7AA, England
>> +44-1225-852865  nostler at chibcha.demon.co.uk
>> http://www.ogmios.org
>>


From pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET  Sat Dec 18 16:50:25 2004
From: pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET (phil cash cash)
Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2004 09:50:25 -0700
Subject: language funding considerations
In-Reply-To: <20041218141840.40649.qmail@web11206.mail.yahoo.com>
Message-ID: <SAT.18.DEC.2004.095025.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

hi Richard,

i have been thinking about adding an ILAT subject line.  for example,
your email it might look like:

Re: [ILAT] language funding considerations

or some configuration like that.  if others are interested in seeing
this happen just let me know and i will give it a try.

phil cash cash
UofA, ILAT list manager



On Dec 18, 2004, at 7:18 AM, Richard LaFortune wrote:
> PS  Phil: can we add a default 'ILAT' signature into
> the subject line of listserve messages?  People
> sometimes delete messages from unrecognized or
> unfamiliar senders, particularly with attachments


From anguksuar at YAHOO.COM  Sat Dec 18 19:25:53 2004
From: anguksuar at YAHOO.COM (Richard LaFortune)
Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2004 11:25:53 -0800
Subject: ILAT  re:  re
In-Reply-To: <EA36B626-5114-11D9-8A55-0003936727C2@dakotacom.net>
Message-ID: <SAT.18.DEC.2004.112553.0800.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

I think that would be ideal- I realize that I don't
know everyone on the listserve, so the occassional
unfamiliar name can make me hesitate opening it- a
couple of other listserves I am- or have been-on have
a little identifier, so if nothing else, I know it's
from ILAT, for example
Peace
Anguksuar

--- phil cash cash <pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET> wrote:

> hi Richard,
>
> i have been thinking about adding an ILAT subject
> line.  for example,
> your email it might look like:
>
> Re: [ILAT] language funding considerations
>
> or some configuration like that.  if others are
> interested in seeing
> this happen just let me know and i will give it a
> try.
>
> phil cash cash
> UofA, ILAT list manager
>
>
>
> On Dec 18, 2004, at 7:18 AM, Richard LaFortune
> wrote:
> > PS  Phil: can we add a default 'ILAT' signature
> into
> > the subject line of listserve messages?  People
> > sometimes delete messages from unrecognized or
> > unfamiliar senders, particularly with attachments
>




__________________________________
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Send holiday email and support a worthy cause. Do good.
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From Dmark916 at AOL.COM  Sun Dec 19 00:09:33 2004
From: Dmark916 at AOL.COM (Dmark916 at AOL.COM)
Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2004 19:09:33 EST
Subject: language funding considerations
Message-ID: <SAT.18.DEC.2004.190933.EST.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

Yes, Please do add the ILAT identifier. That way I will not delete some of
the interesting comments from those of us served. What a great idea!
Dorothy Martinez
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
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From dzo at BISHARAT.NET  Sun Dec 19 00:45:09 2004
From: dzo at BISHARAT.NET (Donald Z. Osborn)
Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2004 18:45:09 -0600
Subject: Fwd: Re: Question re FEL grants
Message-ID: <SAT.18.DEC.2004.184509.0600.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

I asked Nicholas Ostler for more info on the grant and here is the reply
(forwarded with permission). You may want to skip to his text towards the end
of the message. Of course I forwarded more info on ILAT to him. DZO


----- Forwarded message from Nicholas Ostler <nostler at chibcha.demon.co.uk>
-----
    Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2004 15:59:09 +0000
    From: Nicholas Ostler <nostler at chibcha.demon.co.uk>
Reply-To: nostler at chibcha.demon.co.uk
 Subject: Re: Question re FEL grants
      To: "Donald Z. Osborn" <dzo at bisharat.net>


Donald Z. Osborn wrote:

>Dear Nicholas, Hope you are doing well. I forwarded your announcement to a
>couple of lists, including ILAT.
>
THanks. That's very helpful.  But what does "ILAT" stand for?

>Here is one reader's question. Not sure if you
>might have any response, suggestions, or cases for example.
>
>
My answer is below.

>On one hand the reader has a point (though we all I think recognize that FEL
>does not have deep pockets).
>
Gradually deeper, luckily.

>On the other hand, I personally would see your
>grant as something like (1) seed money, (2) something to complete/advance work
>that may have had other funding or (3) something aimed at grassroots efforts
in
>places where <$1500 might translate into quite a bit of working funds.
>
>
I agree totally, especially with point three.

>Thanks in advance for any feedback and best of luck with your ongoing and
>vitally important efforts.
>
>Don
>
>Don Osborn, Ph.D.         dzo at bisharat.net
>*Bisharat! A language, technology & development initiative
>*Bisharat! Initiative langues - technologie - d?veloppement
>http://www.bisharat.net
>
>
>
>
>
>
>----- Forwarded message from Greg Dickson <linguist3 at KATHLANGCENTRE.ORG.AU>
>-----
>    Date: Sat, 18 Dec 2004 18:53:06 +0930
>    From: Greg Dickson <linguist3 at KATHLANGCENTRE.ORG.AU>
>Reply-To: Indigenous Languages and Technology <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
>      To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
>
>What do you mob think of the proposals?  To me, it seems like the
>amount of work that goes into writing the proposal isn't worth the
>small value of the grants.  Has anyone ever been involved in a project
>that used this funding and how was it?
>
>
Certainly, > $1500 isn't going to go far in a first-world country,
especially if the costs are for equipment, but:

A.
If you look at the documentation it's not so difficult to put together
an application, maybe an afternoon's work. People tend to submit
applications that are far longer than we need. That's why we have said
3-pages maximum for the Case for Support and a two-page application form.

B.
Money often goes a long way in third-world countries - especally pounds
sterling, currently the hardest currency there is!

C.
The fact of being awarded something from a global fund can work wonders
for morale.

For anyone interested, I can send a resume of past grant-winners.

All the best

Nicholas Ostler

--
Foundation for Endangered Languages
Registered Charity: England and Wales 1070616
172 Bailbrook Lane, Bath BA1 7AA, England
+44-1225-852865  nostler at chibcha.demon.co.uk
http://www.ogmios.org




----- End forwarded message -----


From dzo at BISHARAT.NET  Sun Dec 19 13:15:30 2004
From: dzo at BISHARAT.NET (Donald Z. Osborn)
Date: Sun, 19 Dec 2004 07:15:30 -0600
Subject: Assimilation, in the 21st century?
Message-ID: <SUN.19.DEC.2004.071530.0600.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

I would like to invite anyone interested to participate in a consideration of
the concept of assimilation on the Assimilation list - see
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Assimilation/ .

Assimilation, of course, is a process by which individuals of a more or less
distinct group are subsumed into the identity of a larger society. As such it
has long been a goal of many plural states, and also of many immigrant groups
settling in different countries. Often its meaning seems to be assumed without
much clarity as to what the implications are. Sometimes the implications are
too clear, with minorities obliged one way or another to conform.

The "Assimilation" group seeks to explore
* what "assimilation" means in an era of globalization, integration (i.e.,
transnational, like the European Union, etc.), and migration, and
* what other similar terms like "acculturation" mean in this context.

These questions bring up other issues, such as the future of the nation-state,
and forms of multiculturalism and national identities. And other related
questions too, such as: Is it possible to speak of assimilation to an emerging
"global culture," and if so what would that mean for cultural traditions and
discussion of assimilation within countries?

Does it make any sense to talk of assimilation in the 21st century? If so, how
and in what ways? If not, is there another term/concept that is more
appropriate and productive for changing realities that peoples and nations are
living today?

Don Osborn


From pmeyer at SDCOE.K12.CA.US  Sun Dec 19 17:54:11 2004
From: pmeyer at SDCOE.K12.CA.US (Paula Meyer)
Date: Sun, 19 Dec 2004 09:54:11 -0800
Subject: language funding considerations
Message-ID: <SUN.19.DEC.2004.095411.0800.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

I would appreciate the [ILAT] in the subject ling, for the reasons that
Richard mentioned.
Paula

----- Original Message -----
From: "phil cash cash" <pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET>
To: <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
Sent: Saturday, December 18, 2004 8:50 AM
Subject: Re: language funding considerations


> hi Richard,
>
> i have been thinking about adding an ILAT subject line.  for example,
> your email it might look like:
>
> Re: [ILAT] language funding considerations
>
> or some configuration like that.  if others are interested in seeing
> this happen just let me know and i will give it a try.
>
> phil cash cash
> UofA, ILAT list manager
>
>
>
> On Dec 18, 2004, at 7:18 AM, Richard LaFortune wrote:
> > PS  Phil: can we add a default 'ILAT' signature into
> > the subject line of listserve messages?  People
> > sometimes delete messages from unrecognized or
> > unfamiliar senders, particularly with attachments
>


From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US  Mon Dec 20 17:59:00 2004
From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP)
Date: Mon, 20 Dec 2004 10:59:00 -0700
Subject: Government language study released (fwd)
Message-ID: <MON.20.DEC.2004.105900.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

Hi, Sean,
 Top O' the Beautiful New Mexico moarnin' to yeh! :-)

I agree that we need to have demonstrations that show our success in the
value terms of the listening Group.

My thesis was a standard Psychology thesis, hypotheses, control groups,
Native participants, whole nine.

We "thought" (silly us), that people would respond to our efforts (One
person from the Tribe, good technology, tribal participants asking for
more). NOT.

Also, I have recently noticed something. (Duh!) What I "do", what I am
really, really interested in, is how the principles of cognitive psychology
regarding learning, and other work that people have done, can be harnessed
to make learning easier, more fun, and above all, more powerful in the
actual process. For example, it takes lots of time to develop the cognitive
models of things you read in text. If you don't understand the concept
behind a word, you have a blank space in the model until you find a way to
complete it. What you get is, to coin an appropriate metaphor, is Cognitive
Bowderlization. Of course there is no Bowdler, and there is no intention to
create the blank spot, but if you don't have the concepts, you can't
populate the space.

So to bring it back around, what I was trying to show people is that
different, more cognitively informed ways of Teaching and Learning can in a
reasonable, though certainly not complete, way, make up for the fact that
the environment in which people could learn language by immersion has been
obliterated, the number of fluent speakers who can teach is a) small to
begin with, since not every fluent speaker can teach, and b) decreasing
exponentially. I wasn't "selling" a complete program for them to buy; I was
selling a cooperative way for the community to become involved in saving its
language and culture by working with people who knew how to use technology
to support the process and engender a new emergent structure of culture and
learning.

Nope.

Not having any.

Also, to develop the really comprehensive software like you are talking, to
teach grammar dynamically, takes time, and support for the people who are
building it. We wanted them to support us financially, and we weren't asking
vast sums of money like the quarter of a million dollars people pay for
Macromedia Flash advertising. We were graduate students, and we thought the
graduate student hourly rate was fair, plus we wanted an office on site.
They had the space; one half of us was a Tribal member. Didn't happen. Just!
Didn't! Happen!

So I gave up on the Tribe and went away, reconceived what I wanted to do in
a new format. My main problem was not needing to figure out how to solve the
problem, but developing the materials for building the solution. I have
people here who want to use the software approach I designed for English
language learners, but I don't have the resources to build the materials in
huge enough amounts fast enough.

<BIG WIDE SMILE> So I am working on solving my supply problem. <BIG WIDE
SMILE>

By the way, does anyone know Gilles Fauconnier? He and Mark Turner, who I
also don't know, wrote a wonderful book called The Way We Think. They have a
beautiful structure of networks and spaces. Interestingly enough, the
approach that I used that was so successful is called a Simplex Netowrk in
their format. The nice thing is that they did a lot of the work, so I can
simply use their structure for developing learning materials. I can highly
recommend it. Although, I should add the caveat that the reason I find this
book so clear and infomative is because I have been thinking along these
lines for 20+ years. I would like to hear from people to check the book out
and find it inscrutable. . . and those who don't. I'm thinking of using the
book as a foundation text in a multi-media development course (The answer to
the unasked question: GIGO. . . . if you don't have theory for what
components you are including, you get the same shlock in multiple dimensions
as you do in text. People just assimilate it faster.)

best.
Mia

----- Original Message -----
From: "Sean M. Burke" <sburke at CPAN.ORG>
To: <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
Sent: Friday, December 17, 2004 6:10 PM
Subject: Re: Government language study released (fwd)


> At 06:46 PM 2004-12-15, MiaKalish at LFP wrote:
> > > How well did they test on learning grammatical formations, and other
> > > non-lexical things?
> >We didn't get that far. This was for basic lexical acquisition, without
> >using Any English.  We thought the success of our first project would
> >excite others, and we would have the chance to develop the Flash movies
> >for teaching grammar dynamically[...]
>
> Yes, the problem of tribal politics is always a massive obstacle in any
> language revitalization program.  I think the best solution is to have on
> your side not just your ample enthusiasm for technologies that you feel
can
> be promising, but also clear documentation of past experiments showing the
> technologies to be brilliantly useful for the task you're proposing --
> demonstrating this with an experimental group and a control group, and
> going past just lexical retention.  Having experimental results in hand is
> what can put you head and shoulders over the other dog-and-pony shows
> that're out there in the realm of language technology.
>
> I mean, anybody can learn a few dozen nouns in an Apachean language -- but
> it's trying to go from "he runs" to "I ran" or "he ran around" that trips
> up all the learners.  Find a technology that helps with that more than
> /just/ chalk-and-talk does, and show proof of how and when your new tech
is
> effective, and you'll be practically immune to the hassles of tribal
politics.
>
> --
> Sean M. Burke    http://search.cpan.org/~sburke/
>


From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US  Mon Dec 20 18:09:49 2004
From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP)
Date: Mon, 20 Dec 2004 11:09:49 -0700
Subject: No subject
Message-ID: <MON.20.DEC.2004.110949.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

Gee I know some people. M.J. Hardman, down at FAU? FIU? U-Miami? Gee I
forget. Anyway, she got one of these wonderful grants and she was able to go
down and work with her people in Central America. I saw her when she got
back, after she had compiled her research, and she was ecstatic. I also met
some people who were doing work in Cherokee, in Oklahoma. Without this
grant, NaDA!

So little grants are good because sometimes what you want to do isn't big
enough even to be a blip on the BigGrantFunders horizon. Sometimes, you need
just that little piece of cash that can make the difference between Eureka!
and NaDa!

Also, I know these people. They are great people. They work tirelessly to
raise funds,  become know, get more people to contribute. They care very
deeply about this effort. And their application process isn't so complex:
just three pages, I think.

I just finished writing a smallish grant (~ a million for 3 years), and it
took us almost 3 weeks. There were two of us, truly co-editors, plus the ERC
associate director who did all the administrative stuff for us. Did I feel
like I had been dragged down the pike last Thursday at 5pm when our grant
sailed off to Washington?! You betchie!

Mia

----- Original Message -----
From: "Greg Dickson" <linguist3 at KATHLANGCENTRE.ORG.AU>
To: <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
Sent: Saturday, December 18, 2004 2:23 AM


> What do you mob think of the proposals?  To me, it seems like the
> amount of work that goes into writing the proposal isn't worth the
> small value of the grants.  Has anyone ever been involved in a project
> that used this funding and how was it?
>
> Greg Dickson
> Linguist
> Ngukurr Language Centre
> PMB 6
> via Katherine  NT  0852
> Australia
> phone/fax: +61 8 8975 4362
> mob:  +61 427 391 153
> email: greg.dickson at kathlangcentre.org.au
>
>
> On 17/12/2004, at 6:48 PM, Donald Z. Osborn wrote:
>
> > FYI... (reposted from the Linguist list)  DZO
> >
> >
> > Date: 16-Dec-2004
> > From: Nicholas Ostler <nostler at chibcha.demon.co.uk>
> > Subject: Call for Proposals:Foundation for Endangered Langs
> >
> >
> > The Foundation for Endangered Languages is now accepting proposals for
> > projects
> > of work that will support, enable or assist the documentation,
> > protection or
> > promotion of one or more endangered languages.  These endangered
> > languages may
> > be anywhere in the  world.
> >
> > The Foundation's funds remain extremely limited and only an
> > exceptional award
> > will be greater than US $1,500. Smaller proposals stand a better
> > chance of
> > funding.
> >
> > Please pass on this announcement to your friends and colleagues in
> > endangered-language communities who may not have access to Ogmios,  the
> > Internet or e-mail.
> >
> > **Format for Submissions:
> > As of this year, there has been a change in the format for submissions
> > to the
> > Foundation.  In future, applicants must submit a short Case for
> > Support and a
> > Application Form.  Guidance on how to write a Case, and fill out the
> > form, is
> > accessible at the Foundation's website: -
> > http://www.ogmios.org/grant.htm
> > It may also be obtained from me at the address below.  (Any other,
> > older, FEL
> > materials - as still at http://www.ogmios.org/question.htm - are
> > obsolete, and
> > should not be used.)
> >
> > The Case for Support (CS) and Application Form (AF) are best
> > submitted as Word
> > files attached to an e-mail message sent to <FEL at chibcha.demon.co.uk>.
> > Non-ascii text should be in some form  of Unicode. The two files
> > should be
> > named "languageCS.doc" and "languageAF.doc", substituting the name of
> > the
> > language to be studied for 'language'.
> >
> > Copies printed on paper will also be accepted as an alternative. In
> > general, it
> > is not necessary to send  a hard copy of an electronic proposal for
> > confirmation, but FEL may request this if there are major difficulties
> > in
> > reading the file.
> >
> > All proposals must be submitted in this format, to ensure
> > comparability. Unless
> > agreed with me in advance in writing, all proposals must be in English.
> >
> > ** Deadline:
> > The time-limit for proposals will be 30 January 2005. By that date,
> > full
> > proposals (consisting of Case for Support and Application Form) must
> > reach me
> > at the address below. All proposals received will be acknowledged on
> > receipt.
> >
> > The FEL Committee will announce its decision by 31st March 2005.
> >
> > ** Comments on Draft Proposals:
> > FEL tries to keep its procedures as simple as possible. But it
> > recognizes that
> > they may be especially taxing for those without training in a western
> > university. In the case of proposals from communities or community
> > linguists,
> > FEL is prepared to comment on drafts, and suggest weaknesses and
> > potential
> > remedies (without prejudice) before the selection. Such draft
> > proposals -
> > clearly marked "DRAFT" - should reach FEL as soon as possible, and no
> > later
> > than 31 December 2004.
> >
> > This commenting service is simply offered in order to help: it is
> > never required
> > to submit such a draft.  If  draft applications are received from
> > applicants
> > who are judged not to be members of endangered language communities or
> > such
> > communities' designated linguists, they may be re-classified as final
> > applications, at FELs discretion.
> >
> > Nicholas Ostler <nostler at chibcha.demon.co.uk>
> > FEL Chairman and Grants Officer
> > Note:
> > The Foundation for Endangered Languages (FEL) is a separate from ELF,
> > the
> > Endangered Language Fund (www.haskins.yale.edu). It is perfectly
> > possible (and
> > has indeed occurred in the past) that the same project can be
> > partially funded
> > by both FEL and ELF.
> >
> > Foundation for Endangered Languages
> > Registered Charity: England and Wales 1070616
> > 172 Bailbrook Lane, Bath BA1 7AA, England
> > +44-1225-852865  nostler at chibcha.demon.co.uk
> > http://www.ogmios.org
> >
>
>


From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US  Mon Dec 20 18:25:19 2004
From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP)
Date: Mon, 20 Dec 2004 11:25:19 -0700
Subject: Government language study released (fwd)
Message-ID: <MON.20.DEC.2004.112519.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

You know Susan, you bring up a really good point. Since we are in semester
break, perhaps people have time.

Is Patience the right way to deal with these issues?

Here's "my" logic, which is to say, this is how I am evaluating things, Not:
This is the way everyone should a) see it; b) do it.

    1. I have a limited amount of time;
    2. Correspondlingly, I have a limited amount of money;
    3. Elders are dying more quickly than I can research, design, and build
good technology;
    4. Hundreds of languages die every year;
    5. Much of the dialog in Tribes that I have been exposed to is based ed
on the premise that those of us who are
        trying to help a) want something that we haven't yet disclosed, that
is, we are trying to get over on them so we
        will get vast fortunes, none of which will acrue to them; and, b)
because we are waiting for such a huge reward,
        we will wait.
    6. All the time I was "patient", I didn't make much progress. It was
only when I got fed up and went away that things started to get better. Of
course, I don't know if the Tribe will be successful in saving language and
culture, but at least I will be able to do things that will be of value to
others who are interested.

Others?
Mia




----- Original Message -----
From: "Susan Penfield" <sdp at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU>
To: <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
Sent: Saturday, December 18, 2004 5:56 AM
Subject: Re: Government language study released (fwd)


> Can't resist this thread.
>
> Tribal politics is always a process, often a hassle and occasionally an
> obstacle ---Does that strike a middle ground here?  I'd say both
'insiders'
> and 'outsiders' would  agree with that---has nothing to do with
> 'retrofitting'. An understanding of tribal politics is essential since it
> defines the space and parameters for negotiations. But, blanket
> characterizations of tribal politics either way, while tempting, are not
> fair.
>  Probably goes without saying, but let's not forget that each community is
> different, as is each person's and program's involvement with tribal
> politics. I'll agree with Sean in that providing practical, very usable,
> results mitigates much of the tension in most situations. Nevertheless,
> sincere commitment and practical results are only usually, not always, a
> winning combination.
> In any case,  tribal politics are always to be considered and respected.
>
> Patience everyone! Isn't that the great lesson of working with community
> level programs or politics?
>
> Susan
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Sean M. Burke" <sburke at CPAN.ORG>
> To: <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
> Sent: Saturday, December 18, 2004 2:53 AM
> Subject: Re: Government language study released (fwd)
>
>
> > At 10:53 PM 2004-12-17, Rolland Nadjiwon wrote:
> >>What if you are working with a language that has no(your last paragraph)
> >>pronouns, genderization, binarism or linearity(time/history)...do you
> >>invent them?
> >
> > What do /you/ think?  I was talking about (largely uninflected) nouns
and
> > (highly inflected) verbs in Apachean, a distinction that I think is
about
> > as uncontroversial as they get -- if that bothers you, explain why.
> > For chrissake, I wasn't insisting that Your Favorite Language has an
> > ablative absolutive!
> >
> >>Further, 'tribal politics' is not an obstacle it is a process, an
> >>'obstacle' perhaps to externalized retrofitting retrofitters.
> >
> > Oh my yes, when the head of the culture program /still/ won't talk to
the
> > head of the language program because her sister Orlene asked his
> > teasing-cousin Bulerd to the prom in 1952 instead of asking /him/, I'll
be
> > sure to bear in mind your heartfelt advice that this is all just a
joyous
> > process, and that to view it otherwise is to be a retrofitty retrofitso.
> >
> > Who needs a hug?!?
> >
> > --
> > Sean M. Burke    http://search.cpan.org/~sburke/
>
>


From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US  Mon Dec 20 18:37:31 2004
From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP)
Date: Mon, 20 Dec 2004 11:37:31 -0700
Subject: Government language study released (fwd)
Message-ID: <MON.20.DEC.2004.113731.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

----- Original Message -----
From: "Sean M. Burke" <sburke at CPAN.ORG>
To: <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
Sent: Saturday, December 18, 2004 2:53 AM
Subject: Re: Government language study released (fwd)


> At 10:53 PM 2004-12-17, Rolland Nadjiwon wrote:
> >What if you are working with a language that has no(your last paragraph)
> >pronouns, genderization, binarism or linearity(time/history)...do you
> >invent them?
>
> What do /you/ think?  I was talking about (largely uninflected) nouns and
> (highly inflected) verbs in Apachean, a distinction that I think is about
> as uncontroversial as they get -- if that bothers you, explain why.
> For chrissake, I wasn't insisting that Your Favorite Language has an
> ablative absolutive!
tske, tske, Sean. That's kind of cranky, doncha think?

In fact, that idiot Powell, the one-armed danger to Indigenous Languages,
did exactly this. He wrote a prescriptive document for language collection.
Implicit in the word list was the "invention" of forms. John Peabody
Harrington, laboring under this garish, bigoted, ignorant document wrote in
a monograph on Tewa: "There are many 'parts of speech," he says, "each of
which behaves differently, and for which we have in English no satisfactory
nomenclature. Perhaps they may all be reduced to 'nouns,' 'pronouns,'
'verbs,' and 'modifying elements'" (Harrington, 1910).

Harrington, John (1910). A Brief Description of the Tewa Language, Papers of
the School of American Archeology, 17 Washington, D.C.: The Smithsonian)



>
> >Further, 'tribal politics' is not an obstacle it is a process, an
> >'obstacle' perhaps to externalized retrofitting retrofitters.
>
> Oh my yes, when the head of the culture program /still/ won't talk to the
> head of the language program because her sister Orlene asked his
> teasing-cousin Bulerd to the prom in 1952 instead of asking /him/, I'll be
> sure to bear in mind your heartfelt advice that this is all just a joyous
> process, and that to view it otherwise is to be a retrofitty retrofitso.
>
> Who needs a hug?!?

Sean needs a Hug. Here, Sean: *#*#*#*#* (  )  *#*#*#*#*#*

That's my best iconographic hug. I saw someone do a better one some time
ago, but I can't remember it now.

. . . .====> retrofitty retrofitso.   (GUFFAW, ROTFL, ROTFL, ROTFL)

made my day!



>
> --
> Sean M. Burke    http://search.cpan.org/~sburke/
>
>


From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US  Mon Dec 20 21:41:43 2004
From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP)
Date: Mon, 20 Dec 2004 14:41:43 -0700
Subject: Government language study released (fwd)
Message-ID: <MON.20.DEC.2004.144143.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

----- Original Message -----
From: "Rolland Nadjiwon" <mikinakn at SHAW.CA>
To: <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
Sent: Saturday, December 18, 2004 12:53 AM
Subject: Re: Government language study released (fwd)


> What if you are working with a language that has no(your last paragraph)
> pronouns, genderization, binarism or linearity(time/history)...do you
invent
> them?

shouldn't. The world's languages are not based on "English". . . or PIE
(Proto-Indo-European, either, for that matter)

>
> If the language, or anything of the 'other' for that matter, is reinvented
> to fit the structure is this not somewhat of a 'Cinderella Syndrome' --
the
> stepsisters distorted contortions to fit their gross feet into the glass
> slipper.
see my comments on Powell.


>
> Further, 'tribal politics' is not an obstacle it is a process, an
'obstacle'
> perhaps to externalized retrofitting retrofitters.
>
> Obviously, there is so much more to this.
I came here from the East, where to my feeble perceptions, people treat each
other equitably, and with respect. I wasn't prepared for the historical
passive-agressive smash and bash games people play here. So. . . one day . .
. considering my pain in a hour of navel-gazing, I realized that I wanted to
be treated with respect, There was no reason for people to treat me badly
simply because I had worked so hard, studied, learned, perfected few things.
I also realized that if I wanted respect, I was going to have to take action
that said, No, I am not going to put up with you treating me like this while
I continue to HOPE that one day you will treat me decently.

So I voted. With my feet.

And you know, people were surprised. They were surprised that I was unhappy
and that I did something about it besides talking and hoping.

I was surprised that they were surprised. I thought they were doing what
they were doing consciously, and on purpose, all along.

It was the Kline bottle of social relations.


>
> -------
> wahjeh
> rolland nadjiwon
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Sean M. Burke" <sburke at CPAN.ORG>
> To: <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
> Sent: Friday, December 17, 2004 8:10 PM
> Subject: Re: Government language study released (fwd)
>
>
> > At 06:46 PM 2004-12-15, MiaKalish at LFP wrote:
> >> > How well did they test on learning grammatical formations, and other
> >> > non-lexical things?
> >>We didn't get that far. This was for basic lexical acquisition, without
> >>using Any English.  We thought the success of our first project would
> >>excite others, and we would have the chance to develop the Flash movies
> >>for teaching grammar dynamically[...]
> >
> > Yes, the problem of tribal politics is always a massive obstacle in any
> > language revitalization program.  I think the best solution is to have
on
> > your side not just your ample enthusiasm for technologies that you feel
> > can
> > be promising, but also clear documentation of past experiments showing
the
> > technologies to be brilliantly useful for the task you're proposing --
> > demonstrating this with an experimental group and a control group, and
> > going past just lexical retention.  Having experimental results in hand
is
> > what can put you head and shoulders over the other dog-and-pony shows
> > that're out there in the realm of language technology.
> >
> > I mean, anybody can learn a few dozen nouns in an Apachean language --
but
> > it's trying to go from "he runs" to "I ran" or "he ran around" that
trips
> > up all the learners.  Find a technology that helps with that more than
> > /just/ chalk-and-talk does, and show proof of how and when your new tech
> > is
> > effective, and you'll be practically immune to the hassles of tribal
> > politics.
> >
> > --
> > Sean M. Burke    http://search.cpan.org/~sburke/
> >
>
>


From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU  Mon Dec 20 22:03:41 2004
From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash)
Date: Mon, 20 Dec 2004 15:03:41 -0700
Subject: reference on research in endangered language communities (fwd
 link)
Message-ID: <MON.20.DEC.2004.150341.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

t?'c halaxp (greetings),

fyi and to complement the recent discussions on working with endangered
language communities, i posted to...

http://projects.ltc.arizona.edu/gates/online_resources.html

a recent article that might be of interest.

"Patricia A. Shaw. Negotiating Against Loss: Responsibility,
Reciprocity, and Respect in Endangered Language Research"

i am not sure how long this article will be available since it is
scheduled for publication sometime soon.  again, as always, i claim a
"fair use" exemption on the use of the hyperlink.

phil cash cash
UofA


From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US  Mon Dec 20 22:52:10 2004
From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP)
Date: Mon, 20 Dec 2004 15:52:10 -0700
Subject: reference on research in endangered language communities (fwd
 link)
Message-ID: <MON.20.DEC.2004.155210.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

How do you say "t?'c halaxp" back? Or maybe it's just all t?'c halaxp.

I read the article with interest, since it seems to be the topic of the day.
But I think we need some new perspective in addition to the academic
linguist/traditional tribal member perspective.

First, many societies have undergone catastropic loss. In 1943, a ship with
3746 Jews tried to seek asylum in the US. Roosevelt sent them back. They
were all killed in the concentration camps. For more than 5,000 years, the
Jews wandered without a land, unable to own certain kinds of businesses,
unable to worship in public. As recently as 1945, people still believed Jews
had horns. In Germany, Hitler didn't kill only the Jews: He killed all the
"undesirables", Gypsies, Homosexuals, the poor, the blind, the feeble, the
deaf. . .He even got the people to kill their own.

Recently, populations of Eastern Europe and the Middle East have been
annihilated, their women raped by "conquering" soldiers. . . . there has
been massive genocide.

So I am no saying that Patrica Shaw is wrong; I am saying that more balance
is needed. For example, she said the following:

"What the community's expectations entail here is a re-evaluation of the two
principal goals motivating research on endangered languages, namely:

1. The scientific documentation of linguistic diversity; and

2. The reclamation and revitalization of these languages for posterity.

Linguists, traditionally, have been compelled by the first. Communities are
compelled by the second. The stakes are pretty high for both parties."

When we were working, we were very focused on (2), the reclaimation and
revitalization of these languages for posterity. My partner in this crime
was a Tribal member. What they did to her was abominable. I am still stunned
and angry that a bunch of humans could treat a sweet, good-hearted person,
one of their own, the way they did.

I can't say that "everyone has history". I can only say that "I have
history". I come from 2 displaced Peoples, the Irish who were annihilated as
a practice effort in anticipation of the American Indian effort, and the
Jews. So when people say to me, Oh, you're White and your advantaged, and
nothing like this ever happened to you and so on and so forth, eventually, I
run out of patience.

So there Are other sides.

Shaw also recommends: "Local control through increased skills development in
research, development, and implementation at the community level are
integral to the success, the stability and the long term efficacy of the
shared objectives of language documentation and language revitalization."

I don't know how this can be accomplished in a world where everyone is the
enemy. I don't know how this can be accomplished in a world where people
don't do things because they are "hard". Technology is "hard" by many
standards. Coming into a place where there are no fonts, no tools, no
technology, and having to build it all to support a language, by yourself. .
. THAT is hard. Maybe we were too nice, too giving. I don't know.

I still support my friends who are trying to teach the children. I make sure
they have materials, and old stories reformatted into Word-accessible fonts
so they can be used in the classroom. But I don't know that I will ever
really go back, at least not to the Tribe here, because they broke my
partner's heart. They took her beautiful gift and they stomped on it and
then they threw it in her face. And when I saw how hurt she was, it broke my
heart, too.

So we need some more sides here, where people talk about who and how they
are and why. I know some linguists who fit Shaw's description. I could name
them. I won't.

Mia

----- Original Message -----
From: "phil cash cash" <cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU>
To: <ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
Sent: Monday, December 20, 2004 3:03 PM
Subject: reference on research in endangered language communities (fwd link)


t?'c halaxp (greetings),

fyi and to complement the recent discussions on working with endangered
language communities, i posted to...

http://projects.ltc.arizona.edu/gates/online_resources.html

a recent article that might be of interest.

"Patricia A. Shaw. Negotiating Against Loss: Responsibility,
Reciprocity, and Respect in Endangered Language Research"

i am not sure how long this article will be available since it is
scheduled for publication sometime soon.  again, as always, i claim a
"fair use" exemption on the use of the hyperlink.

phil cash cash
UofA


From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU  Tue Dec 21 07:32:44 2004
From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash)
Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2004 00:32:44 -0700
Subject: 1st test for subj header...
Message-ID: <TUE.21.DEC.2004.003244.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

to see if it works, phil


From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU  Tue Dec 21 07:41:30 2004
From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash)
Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2004 00:41:30 -0700
Subject: 2nd test for subj header...
Message-ID: <TUE.21.DEC.2004.004130.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

to see if it works.

ILAT list management


From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU  Tue Dec 21 07:49:11 2004
From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash)
Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2004 00:49:11 -0700
Subject: 2nd test for subj header...
In-Reply-To: <1103614890.2b2d10b76e568@www.email.arizona.edu>
Message-ID: <TUE.21.DEC.2004.004911.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

dear ILAT subscribers,

i believe the subj header is now working, although i should have done a
"quiet set" for the listserv so as to not send you an innocuous list
management notice.  my apologies.

phil
ILAT list manager


From Dmark916 at AOL.COM  Wed Dec 22 01:42:20 2004
From: Dmark916 at AOL.COM (Dmark916 at AOL.COM)
Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2004 20:42:20 EST
Subject: 2nd test for subj header...
Message-ID: <TUE.21.DEC.2004.204220.EST.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

Yes! It works. Perfectly. Ah, linguistic manipulation!!
Dorothy
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From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU  Sun Dec 26 18:34:49 2004
From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash)
Date: Sun, 26 Dec 2004 11:34:49 -0700
Subject: Group seeks to reconstruct Bay Area Indians' language
Message-ID: <SUN.26.DEC.2004.113449.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

Group seeks to reconstruct Bay Area Indians' language

By Lisa M. Krieger
KNIGHT RIDDER
http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/state/10501573.htm

When Jose Guzman died in 1930, the ancient Bay Area language called
Chochenyo died with him. Or so it was thought.

But the language can be heard again, in bits and pieces, in local homes.
With the help of university linguists, Guzman's descendants are working
to recreate Chochenyo and teach it to their children.

"If we learn the language, it will bring us closer to our culture," said
16-year-old Alison Symonds of Fremont, a member of the Ohlone-Muwekma
Tribe. "We once had a big culture."

Through songs, flash cards, puzzles and bingo games, a committee of the
tribe's elder women lead lessons for about two dozen children, ages 4
to 16. They meet for pizza parties and birthdays; this month the
youngsters sang their first-ever translation of holiday songs.

"It hasn't been spoken in 75 years," said Michele Sanchez of Hayward, a
member of the tribe's language committee. "Our goal is to learn it
again."

She never heard it as a child; her grandmother, raised at the orphanage
at the Mission San Jose convent in Fremont, wasn't allowed to speak
Chochenyo and so couldn't pass it on.

Chochenyo was once spoken by thousands throughout much of the East and
South Bay, until their region fell under the influence of
Spanish-speaking Franciscan missionaries with the founding of Mission
San Jose in 1797. The name Muwekma translates as "the people."

The language was suppressed, part of a larger effort to assimilate
American Indians at missions and boarding schools. Some members were
punished for speaking the language; others died from disease or
homicide.

Chochenyo was well on its way toward extinction when Guzman met
Stanford-educated anthropologist John Peabody Harrington, field
linguist for the Smithsonian's Bureau of American Ethnology.

Guzman and his companion, Maria de los Angeles Colos, were members of a
small group called the Verona Band who worked on the Pleasanton estate
built by George and Phoebe Apperson Hearst and lived in Sunol in the
1920s.

They were the last fluent speakers of Chochenyo, according to San Jose
State University archaeologist Alan Leventhal.

Harrington recorded Guzman's voice on a wax cylinder. He also took
extensive notes.

Guzman sang stories that had been passed down through generations of his
family. He recited verb tenses. He used specific vocabulary, such as
words for "rabbit skin" or "sweetheart," according to Sanchez.

And he described everyday customs that offer insights into the culture,
such as "Stir the acorn mush," "The women are carrying tule on their
backs," and "Go get your horse so we can go hunt for meat." Shortly
after the visit, Guzman died.

Guzman's voice has since been preserved on tape and a CD.

The project was part of Harrington's near-obsessive mission to find and
record the last speakers of American Indian tongues. He knew that many
of the 250 languages once spoken in what is now the United States were
disappearing.

But Harrington's work proved impenetrable to subsequent linguists. For
years, it languished in massive, dirty and disorganized files.

His notes on Chochenyo were found after his death by the Smithsonian's
Catherine Callaghan in a folder identified only as "Chock." Callaghan
took the hand-written field notes and turned them into preliminary
teaching materials, including a dictionary.

They have since been supplemented by a few other discoveries, such as a
copy of the Lord's Prayer in Chochenyo.

Guzman's voice was translated in 2001 by UC Berkeley graduate student
Jon Rodney, using the Callaghan materials. In 2003, UC Berkeley
professor Juliette Blevins was hired by the tribe to provide language
lessons.

The scant archival material means that the Chochenyo revitalization
faces significant challenges, such as accurate pronunciation. There are
gaps in the lexicon as well.

"There's not a lot," said Sanchez, who has learned the orthographic
symbols used by linguists. "There were once 15,000 words; we know only
1,500 to 2,000. There are holes in it."

To complicate matters, there were huge regional differences in the
language, with variants in San Jose, Niles and San Lorenzo. It was
related to at least seven other American Indian languages of
mid-coastal California. Linguists say the region's highly varied
ecology encouraged great linguistic diversity.

The Bay Area's Muwekma are not alone in their revitalization effort.
Similar efforts are under way for the Mohawk language of northern New
York; Wampanoag, an Algonquin language of Massachusetts; and Choctaw,
native to Mississippi. These tribes all look to native Hawaiian,
re-established in 1984 and flourishing within small tribes today, for
inspiration.

The 425 members of the present-day Muwekma tribe, which comprises all of
the known surviving American Indian lineages native to the region, are
striving to win federal recognition. Among many other things,
recognition would provide funding to expand their language lessons.
They now must pay for professors' time and materials out of their own
pockets, a big constraint.

As they learn, they cherish the fuzzy but fluent recording of Guzman's
voice. He left a bridge between their past and future, they say.

"The language speaks to who we are, where we come from and how we
identify ourselves as a people," said tribal chairwoman Rosemary Cambra
of Fremont.


From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU  Sun Dec 26 18:38:12 2004
From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash)
Date: Sun, 26 Dec 2004 11:38:12 -0700
Subject: Institute says book teaches language, values (fwd)
Message-ID: <SUN.26.DEC.2004.113812.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

Institute says book teaches language, values
Sealaska linguist: children's book not like 'Dick and Jane'

December 24, 2004

By ERIC FRY
JUNEAU EMPIRE
http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/122404/loc_20041224005.shtml

When a Tlingit boy is rude to his mother and contemptuous of a piece of
salmon, it's an opportunity to teach respect.

A new illustrated book published by Sealaska Heritage Institute tells a
shortened version of an old story as a way to teach the Tlingit
language and Tlingit values to young children.

"Moldy End" is the first book produced by the institute under a grant to
create materials and lesson plans for school programs in which children
in kindergarten to second grade would be immersed in Tlingit language
and values.

They go hand in hand, the editors said.

In creating a culturally relevant curriculum, the institute asked how
the Tlingit culture would teach about salmon, said Keri Edwards, a
linguist and director of the language department.

"We think it would be done through a story," she said.

"When we look at the Tlingit philosophy of education," said David
Katzeek, one of the book's editors, "for us the classroom is not a
particular building or a particular place, but nature in its entirety.
That classroom includes seeing salmon returning every year."

If uncles or aunts, parents or grandparents saw a child throwing a rock
at a salmon, they would stop the child, he said.

"They would then take that as an opportunity to provide lessons on
values as they relate to respect - respecting what is created," Katzeek
said.

The short book serves as an icon, like a totem pole, that reveals its
meanings not all at once, Katzeek said.

"A long time ago they would carve totems to tell the story," he said.
"Now it's a transition to take stories from the totem and begin to be
like a scribe, to scribe out the story. We're not the story experts,
but the goal is to bring values to the young person."

Katzeek, Johnny Marks, Hans Chester, Nora Dauenhauer and Richard
Dauenhauer derived the story from a longer version, "The Salmon Boy
Legend," told in 1904. Lisa Teas, a student at Sitka High School,
illustrated the book.

The book comes with a CD on which Katzeek reads the text in Tlingit. The
book's pages include Tlingit and English text. "Moldy End" with the CD
sells for $25 and is available from the institute. The text can be
downloaded for free from the Web site www.sealaskaheritage.org.

Although it's an abbreviated version, and it's intended for young
children, the language isn't simple, Edwards said.

"It's not like Dick and Jane," she said, referring to the famous
elementary reading books. "But it's a first step in teaching it to
kids."

A teacher could refer to the longer version, which is on the institute's
Web site, for richer details, she said.

So far, with the institute in the last year of a $278,000 curriculum
grant from the U.S. Department of Education, no schools in Southeast
Alaska have a true Tlingit-language immersion program.

But the institute plans to be ready for the day.

It doesn't want to translate a Western curriculum into Tlingit.

"We're trying to create something that starts from the Native
perspective by consulting with the right people and keeping things
correct from the cultural standpoint," Edwards said.

At the same time, the curriculum should be teacher-friendly so that any
teacher can enrich their curriculum with Tlingit culture, said Nancy
Douglas, a curriculum specialist at the institute.

"It's a real challenging thing to try to merge two cultures," Katzeek
said. "One (culture) comes at it one way and the other from another
way. Striking a balance is important in being able to achieve it."

? Eric Fry can be reached at eric.fry at juneauempire.com.


From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU  Sun Dec 26 18:49:30 2004
From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash)
Date: Sun, 26 Dec 2004 11:49:30 -0700
Subject: Haida Past Speaks To Troubled Present (fwd)
Message-ID: <SUN.26.DEC.2004.114930.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

Haida Past Speaks To Troubled Present

By brian lynch and colin thomas
Publish Date: 23-Dec-2004
http://www.straight.com/content.cfm?id=7185

Last week, B.C. poet, historian, and linguist Robert Bringhurst's
magisterial three-volume Masterworks of the Classical Haida Mythtellers
(Douglas & McIntyre) received the Edward Sapir Book Prize, an honour
bestowed every two years by the U.S.?based Society for Linguistic
Anthropology. The award, according to the SLA's Web site, recognizes
works that make "the most significant contribution to our understanding
of language in society".

Drawing on 15 years of study in the Haida language, Bringhurst created
his English renderings of these vital epics--now widely compared in
importance to Homer's Iliad and The Epic of Gilgamesh--from phonetic
transcriptions made at the turn of the last century by an American
anthropologist who sought out the great Haida storytellers of the time.
As Bringhurst explained when reached by the Straight at his home on
Quadra Island, his immersion in this work has deepened his own sense of
the forests and ocean at the source of the stories.

"What this kind of poetry does is, in a sense, knit the human world and
the natural world together," he said. "Human beings are minor
characters in these stories. The major characters are spirits of the
landscape, plants, and animals....And after you've been soaked in those
kinds of stories for a long period of time, just the experience of
walking through the woods becomes different than it was. The stories
become really attached to the place. And I think in a sense that's what
they were always for, one of the functions that they always served: to
knit people into the place where they live."

Yet the Haida language, despite this great history of integrating mind
with environment, is itself in serious danger of unravelling, with a
mere handful of fluent speakers now remaining. Like thousands of other
indigenous tongues on the planet, Bringhurst said, it is uniquely
valuable and yet wholly vulnerable in a world where an ever-increasing
majority of livelihoods are made in a small but powerful set of
languages including English, Spanish, Arabic, and Mandarin.

"Language is a part of culture that is easier to lose than other parts,
because it doesn't translate readily into saleable objects," Bringhurst
observed. "And yet it's like brain matter. It's filled with neurons,
almost--with little threads that carry information from way back in the
past, from parts of the mind that we might not know exist."


From dzo at BISHARAT.NET  Mon Dec 27 00:09:21 2004
From: dzo at BISHARAT.NET (Donald Z. Osborn)
Date: Sun, 26 Dec 2004 18:09:21 -0600
Subject: Haida Past Speaks To Troubled Present (fwd)
In-Reply-To: <1104086970.facd0ed12b7b7@www.email.arizona.edu>
Message-ID: <SUN.26.DEC.2004.180921.0600.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know if Haida epics have been published in
the Haida language (alone or in parallel text with another language like
English)?

Don Osborn
Bisharat.net



Quoting phil cash cash <cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU>:

> Haida Past Speaks To Troubled Present
>
> By brian lynch and colin thomas
> Publish Date: 23-Dec-2004
> http://www.straight.com/content.cfm?id=7185
>
> Last week, B.C. poet, historian, and linguist Robert Bringhurst's
> magisterial three-volume Masterworks of the Classical Haida Mythtellers
> (Douglas & McIntyre) received the Edward Sapir Book Prize, an honour
> bestowed every two years by the U.S.-?based Society for Linguistic
> Anthropology. The award, according to the SLA's Web site, recognizes
> works that make "the most significant contribution to our understanding
> of language in society".
>
> Drawing on 15 years of study in the Haida language, Bringhurst created
> his English renderings of these vital epics--now widely compared in
> importance to Homer's Iliad and The Epic of Gilgamesh--from phonetic
> transcriptions made at the turn of the last century by an American
> anthropologist who sought out the great Haida storytellers of the time.
> As Bringhurst explained when reached by the Straight at his home on
> Quadra Island, his immersion in this work has deepened his own sense of
> the forests and ocean at the source of the stories.
>
> "What this kind of poetry does is, in a sense, knit the human world and
> the natural world together," he said. "Human beings are minor
> characters in these stories. The major characters are spirits of the
> landscape, plants, and animals....And after you've been soaked in those
> kinds of stories for a long period of time, just the experience of
> walking through the woods becomes different than it was. The stories
> become really attached to the place. And I think in a sense that's what
> they were always for, one of the functions that they always served: to
> knit people into the place where they live."
>
> Yet the Haida language, despite this great history of integrating mind
> with environment, is itself in serious danger of unravelling, with a
> mere handful of fluent speakers now remaining. Like thousands of other
> indigenous tongues on the planet, Bringhurst said, it is uniquely
> valuable and yet wholly vulnerable in a world where an ever-increasing
> majority of livelihoods are made in a small but powerful set of
> languages including English, Spanish, Arabic, and Mandarin.
>
> "Language is a part of culture that is easier to lose than other parts,
> because it doesn't translate readily into saleable objects," Bringhurst
> observed. "And yet it's like brain matter. It's filled with neurons,
> almost--with little threads that carry information from way back in the
> past, from parts of the mind that we might not know exist."
>


From lachler at UNM.EDU  Mon Dec 27 02:17:40 2004
From: lachler at UNM.EDU (Jordan Lachler)
Date: Sun, 26 Dec 2004 17:17:40 -0900
Subject: Haida Past Speaks To Troubled Present (fwd)
In-Reply-To: <1104106161.41cf52b1ab47a@webmail.kabissa.org>
Message-ID: <SUN.26.DEC.2004.171740.0900.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

Hi Don,

>Just out of curiosity, does anyone know if Haida epics have been published in
>the Haida language (alone or in parallel text with another language like
>English)?

The original published versions, collected by John Swanton at the turn of
the last century, contained some transcribed Haida, included a couple of
texts with word-by-word as well as free translations.  But most of the
published volume was just the English translations, with the original Haida
transcriptions remaining in manuscript form.

In 1995, John Enrico published a large, re-elicited and retranscribed
collection of Swanton's texts in the Skidegate dialect of Haida.  For the
most part, the Haida was on the left-hand pages and the English on the
right-hand pages.  With some work, the reader could sync up the two versions.

We're currently working on a collection of Haida narratives recorded from
elders here in Alaska back in the 1970's.  With the help of the last 5 or 6
fluent speakers left here, we're hoping over the next couple of years to be
able to incorporate those stories into our intermediate and advanced level
Haida language classes at the University, and perhaps publish them, either
on their own or as part of other pedagogical materials.

Jordan Lachler
Haida Language Project Director
Sealaska Heritage Institute
Ketchikan, Alaska


From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU  Mon Dec 27 17:03:53 2004
From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash)
Date: Mon, 27 Dec 2004 10:03:53 -0700
Subject: Tribe awarded grant to keep language alive (fwd)
Message-ID: <MON.27.DEC.2004.100353.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

Web posted Sunday, December 26, 2004

Tribe awarded grant to keep language alive

By JOSEPH ROBERTIA
Peninsula Clarion
http://www.peninsulaclarion.com/stories/122604/news_1226new001001.shtml

The late Peter Kalifornsky, a Native elder that made significant
contributions to keeping the Dena'ina language alive once wrote a story
called "Education."

In that story he said education was "To prepare school students for the
reality of today's world. To relearn. To tell about what remains of the
past. That it is their country from the ancient past and that they are
Dena'ina."

The Kenaitze Indian Tribe recently received a three-year, $584,000
Administration for Native Americans grant that will allow them to do
just that ? to "educate" using a variety of projects all designed to
revitalize the Dena'ina language.

"Our goal is to have a tribe of lifelong learners and teachers of
Dena'ina culture and language," said Sasha Lindgren, language program
director.

Dena'ina is part of the Athabascan or Na'Dene language family. There are
five dialects for the Dena'ina language: Upper Inlet, Iliamna, Inland,
Outer Inlet and Seldovia.

The Kenaitze Indian Tribe is one of three Native organizations to
receive funding to work on revitalizing the Dena'ina language. The
Alaska Native Language Center in Fairbanks and the Alaska Native
Heritage Center in Anchorage both received grants from the Department
of Education as well.

The approach of the three programs varies in different ways, but all are
the same in that they attempt to maintain and perpetuate the language
by teaching it to younger generations.

"We want to reconnect with our tribal youth, and language is our
strongest tool for that," Lindgren said.

One of her initial objectives is to develop six curriculum units on
Dena'ina language to be implemented into the Kenaitze's Head Start and
Cultural Heritage programs.

Lindgren said the curriculums will be modeled after those currently used
by Pauline Hobson, a Dena'ina language instructor from Nondalton, and
Alan Boraas, a Kenai Peninsula College professor of anthropology who
co-taught the course "Dena'ina Language and Culture" with adjunct
professor of Native studies Donita Peter this past semester at KPC.

Both curriculums heavily use immersion techniques. Students are taught
conversation skills, such as how to introduce themselves in Dena'ina,
as well as several other topics such as numbers, colors, animal names,
days of the week, body parts, clothing, plants, household items and
food.

"We'll begin by teaching the teachers and grow from there," Lindgren
said.

She said she also hopes more age appropriate curriculums with strong
additional emphasis on culture can be developed to complement the
current curriculums.

To assist Lindgren in carrying out these tribal goals, two new positions
? language archivist and language developer ? have been created through
the grant and filled by qualified applicants.

Brett Encelewski of North Kenai was hired as the language archivist. His
primary duties include collecting, transcribing, digitizing and
archiving Dena'ina language materials.

"It's a huge task," he said, but added that it was a task he's wanted to
do for practically his whole life.

Encelewski explained that as a youth he felt estranged from his Native
heritage, until his mother encouraged him to attend the Kenaitze's
Susten Camp, which provides cultural heritage exploration for youths
during the summer. While there, Encelewski was exposed to Native words,
history and concepts.

"I just had never had that, and it created a lifelong passion and
interest in my culture," he said.

Now he said he hopes to inspire future generations through the Dena'ina
language in the same way he was inspired.

"My goal is, through cooperation and sharing, to make sure tribal
members and others in the community have access to what everyone else
has," Encelewski said in regard to archived language materials.

Wanda Reams of Soldotna was hired as the language developer. Her primary
duties include collecting materials related to the Dena'ina language
and preparing word lists, pronunciation keys and written and
audio-visual teaching materials, as well as assisting in language camps
and festivals.

Reams has over the past few years participated in several language
courses including the Denaqenaga Language Ladder, an Alaska Native
Language Center language mentor and apprenticeship program, and
received her teaching certificate through the tribe.

However, she has a story similar to Encelewski's when it comes to
finding her path in life.

"Growing up I was ashamed of being Native," Reams said. However, upon
learning of her shame, her grandmother sternly told her she should be
proud of who she was.

She said hearing her normally mild-mannered grandmother speak so
adamantly about their heritage had a profound affect on her and changed
how she felt about her Native roots.

"I see that shame in a lot of kids today, but being Dena'ina is a good
thing and our children need to know it," Reams said.

"Learning the language is a large part of strengthening their identity,
their value and their sense of place," she added.

Lindgren said in many ways Encelewski and Reams represent the Kenaitze
tribe's labor coming to fruition.

"The tribe gave to them and now they are giving back to the tribe," she
said.

Lindgren said it also proves that claims that the Dena'ina language is
dead or dying couldn't be more wrong.

"I prefer to think of our language like a flower," she said. "It was
lying dormant waiting to bloom again. Now it's alive and growing. It
just took time."


From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU  Fri Dec 31 19:16:36 2004
From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash)
Date: Fri, 31 Dec 2004 12:16:36 -0700
Subject: analog-to-digital devices
Message-ID: <FRI.31.DEC.2004.121636.0700.ILAT@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>

Nuuyee, Nuuyee!
(New Year! in Pidgin English)

A number of analog-to-digital devices came out recently that might be of
interest to our ILAT members, especially those working directly with
analog audio and video recordings on a daily basis.  With the prices
coming down, these devices will make it easier to transfer your analog
(cassette tapes and VHS tapes) recordings to digital format.

Audio (analog-to-digital)

PowerWave
USB Audio Interface & Amplifier (online 99$)
http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/powerwave/

Video (analog-to-digital)

Canopus ADVC-100
http://www.simplydv.co.uk/advc100.html

Pextor series
http://www.plextor.com/english/products/product_dvc.html

my mini-review: I recently acquired the PowerWave because of the price
(student budget) and I must say that it works great.  I am now able to
transfer all of my analog tape recordings directly into my computers,
both Mac and PC.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that
analog-to-digital audio capture works fine with Audacity (free audio
editor).

Phil Cash Cash
UofA, ILAT