From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Nov 1 16:21:26 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Mon, 1 Nov 2004 09:21:26 -0700 Subject: ILAT's 2nd yr... Message-ID: Dear ILAT, just a quick note, ILAT is now into the 2 yr of its existence! thanks to all of you for being an ILAT subscriber and committed to dialogue, sharing, and faithful lurking on issues concerning indigenous languages and technology. our total number of ILAT subscribers is at 159 (we tend to lose a few subscribers who have full mailboxes every now and then). please continue and feel free to post information, share, express & introduce yourself, and make inquiries of ILAT. life is short and our indigenous languages are dissappearing. qe'ciyéew'yew', phil cash cash (cayuse/nez perce) ph.d student in the joint program in anthropology and linguistics univesity of arizona ILAT list manager From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Nov 1 16:30:18 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Mon, 1 Nov 2004 09:30:18 -0700 Subject: LANGUAGE REVITALIZATION AND NEW TECHNOLOGIES (fwd abstract) Message-ID: Annual Review of Anthropology Vol. 33: 21-45 (Volume publication date October 2004) LANGUAGE REVITALIZATION AND NEW TECHNOLOGIES: Cultures of Electronic Mediation and the Refiguring of Communities Patrick Eisenlohr Department of Anthropology, Washington University, Saint Louis, Missouri 63130 Abstract  Recently, language activists and linguists have begun using new technologies in projects aimed at revitalizing the practice of lesser-used languages. This review explores related work, emphasizing how practices of electronic mediation enabled by such technologies both shape and are informed by linguistic ideologies, which in turn crucially influence the possible revived use or abandonment of linguistic varieties. New technologies are treated as part of cultures of electronic mediation, connecting sociocultural valuations to mediated discourse. Their use often has important political implications, given that projects of language revitalization are often linked to claims of ethnolinguistic recognition. Finally, because documentation of lesser-used languages using digital technologies also results in the production of new cultural objects to be stored, displayed, and circulated, attention is also focused on the forms of sociality sustained by the creation and exchange of such electronic artifacts. From mikinakn at SHAW.CA Mon Nov 1 16:30:48 2004 From: mikinakn at SHAW.CA (Rolland Nadjiwon) Date: Mon, 1 Nov 2004 11:30:48 -0500 Subject: ILAT's 2nd yr... Message-ID: Thanks Phil...great list. I forward al to of information to language programs I am aware of. ------- wahjeh rolland nadjiwon ----- Original Message ----- From: "phil cash cash" To: Sent: Monday, November 01, 2004 11:21 AM Subject: ILAT's 2nd yr... Dear ILAT, just a quick note, ILAT is now into the 2 yr of its existence! thanks to all of you for being an ILAT subscriber and committed to dialogue, sharing, and faithful lurking on issues concerning indigenous languages and technology. our total number of ILAT subscribers is at 159 (we tend to lose a few subscribers who have full mailboxes every now and then). please continue and feel free to post information, share, express & introduce yourself, and make inquiries of ILAT. life is short and our indigenous languages are dissappearing. qe'ciyéew'yew', phil cash cash (cayuse/nez perce) ph.d student in the joint program in anthropology and linguistics univesity of arizona ILAT list manager From CRANEM at MAIL.ECU.EDU Mon Nov 1 20:35:09 2004 From: CRANEM at MAIL.ECU.EDU (Bizzaro, Resa Crane) Date: Mon, 1 Nov 2004 15:35:09 -0500 Subject: ILAT's 2nd yr... Message-ID: Hi, Phil (and everyone else). Congratulations on your second year, and thanks for doing such a great job with keeping the list going. Thanks to everyone else for participating. I've learned so much from you all. Resa Cherokee/Meherrin -----Original Message----- From: Indigenous Languages and Technology on behalf of Rolland Nadjiwon Sent: Mon 11/1/2004 11:30 AM To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Cc: Subject: Re: ILAT's 2nd yr... Thanks Phil...great list. I forward al to of information to language programs I am aware of. ------- wahjeh rolland nadjiwon ----- Original Message ----- From: "phil cash cash" To: Sent: Monday, November 01, 2004 11:21 AM Subject: ILAT's 2nd yr... Dear ILAT, just a quick note, ILAT is now into the 2 yr of its existence! thanks to all of you for being an ILAT subscriber and committed to dialogue, sharing, and faithful lurking on issues concerning indigenous languages and technology. our total number of ILAT subscribers is at 159 (we tend to lose a few subscribers who have full mailboxes every now and then). please continue and feel free to post information, share, express & introduce yourself, and make inquiries of ILAT. life is short and our indigenous languages are dissappearing. qe'ciyéew'yew', phil cash cash (cayuse/nez perce) ph.d student in the joint program in anthropology and linguistics univesity of arizona ILAT list manager From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Nov 3 16:29:04 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 3 Nov 2004 09:29:04 -0700 Subject: Inuit language finds home on net (fwd) Message-ID: Inuit language finds home on net Inuktitut speakers will soon be able to have their say online as the Canadian aboriginal language goes on the web. Browser settings on normal computers have not supported the language to date, but attavik.net has changed that. It provides a content management system that allows native speakers to write, manage documents and offer online payments in the Inuit language. It could prove a vital tool to keep the language alive in one of the most remote communities on earth. Vital link Inuktitut is spoken by the Inuit people living in Nunavut, northern Canada, which is an area two to three times the size of France. An historic agreement signed with the Canadian government in 1999 allowed the communities living there independence to run their land how they chose. In this long-established society, the modern medium of the internet is proving a breath of fresh air. "There are 25 settlements, 30,000 people and no roads. It is a huge area of land and the internet is tailor-made for these groups," said Oliver Zielke, the chief executive of Web Networks, a non-profit organisation based in Canada which provides web services for socially committed groups. Web Networks worked with the Piruvik Centre of Iqualuit, the capital of Nunavut, to develop the system. Reaching goals "It was a big challenge to give the Inuit and Inuktitut speakers the ability to have web pages published in their native language," said Mr Zielke. "A lot of people have older computers and limited ability to use technology," he added. With high-speed satellite net access planned for the region and the website providing the easy-to-use tools to make publishing easy, that is about to change. "The worldwide web can seem like a foreign place to these people but now they can be players in that world. The internet will eventually be one of the basic tools that the Inuit people use," predicted Mr Zielke. The technology behind attavik.net can be used for other syllabic languages such as Cree, Oji-cree and Korean. The government of Nunavut is committed to making Inuktitut its working language. "This type of development puts that goal within reach," said Eva Aariak, Languages Commissioner for Nunavut. Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/technology/3975645.stm Published: 2004/11/03 09:08:49 GMT © BBC MMIV From andrekar at NCIDC.ORG Thu Nov 4 21:51:39 2004 From: andrekar at NCIDC.ORG (Andre Cramblit) Date: Thu, 4 Nov 2004 13:51:39 -0800 Subject: Conference (event) Message-ID: Dear Endangered Languages Folks: I would like to draw your attention to the following conference: Conference on Endangered Languages and Cultures of Native America Call for Papers         Call Deadline:  Jan 14, 2005 The CONFERENCE ON ENDANGERED LANGUAGES AND CULTURES OF NATIVE AMERICA (1st annual CELCNA meeting) will be held April 8-9, 2005, on the University of Utah campus in Salt Lake City, Utah. The sponsors of this conference are: (1) Center for American Indian Languages (CAIL), University of Utah, (2) Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, (3) Department of Linguistics, U of Utah and (4) College of Humanities, U of Utah.  The keynote speaker will be Dr. Leanne Hinton (Chair, Dept of Linguistics, University of California, Berkeley).  We invite papers dealing with any aspect of endangered Native American languages, in particular on documentation or revitalization.  Papers are 20 minutes each in length, with an additional 10 minutes for discussion. ABSTRACTS MUST BE RECEIVED by Jan 14, 2005. The program committee will attempt to provide notification of acceptance by Jan. 21 (by e-mail). Abstract submission guidelines: … The abstract should be no more than 500 words in length.  It should include the title of the paper and the name (or names) of the author/authors, together with the author's/authors' affiliation.  (If the paper is accepted, this abstract will be reproduced in conference materials to be distributed to other participants.) … Abstracts must be submitted electronically.  Submissions should be in Microsoft Word document, Rich Text Format (RTF), or Portable Document Format (PDF).  If possible, avoid special fonts (or arrange with the organizers so they can be read). … Please include in addition to your abstract appropriate contact details, which include: contact author's name, e-mail address for the period of time from January to April 2005, and a telephone contact number. … More than one abstract may be submitted per person; however, only one paper per person will be accepted for presentation.  (The only exception may be in instances where at least one of the papers has multiple authors.) … Address abstracts to:  lyle.campbell at linguistics.utah.edu (Lyle Campbell), no later than Jan. 14, 2005.  Additional information on CELCNA will be posted on www.hum.utah.edu/linguistics.  Address enquiries for further information to: Phatmandu7 at aol.com (Jen Mitchell), or julialice at yahoo.com (Julia Pratt) If you need further information not easily arranged via e-mail, please call: Tel. 801-581-8047 (Julia Pratt), or 801-585-9785 (Linguistics Dept.),  during business hours (Mountain Standard Time), or Fax 801-585-7351. Pre-conference event:  For those interested, the Fourth Annual University of Utah Student Conference in Linguistics takes place immediately before the CELCNA meeting, on April 7.  Leanne Hinton is the keynote speaker for this conference, also, which is a separate and independent meeting.  (Additional information will be posted on www.hum.utah.edu/linguistics.) Many thanks, Lyle -- Dr. Lyle Campbell, Professor of Linguistics, Director of the Center for American Indian Languages Dept. of Linguistics, University of Utah, 255 S. Central Campus Drive, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112-0492   Tel. 801-581-3441 (office), 801-585-9785 (Linguistics Dept.), Fax 801-585-7351 -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 4026 bytes Desc: not available URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Sat Nov 6 16:34:49 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Sat, 6 Nov 2004 09:34:49 -0700 Subject: Life stories of elders preserve oral tradition (fwd) Message-ID: Life stories of elders preserve oral tradition Amy Jo Ehman Special to The StarPhoenix Saturday, November 06, 2004 http://www.canada.com/saskatoon/starphoenix/news/story.html?id=dbc35a2b-9573-4e02-8be4-2e57cc876141 [photo insert - CREDIT: Gord Waldner, The StarPhoenix. Ted Whitecalf, co-author of Kiskisiwin, reads to his five-month-old son Elias Adam Asiniy.] Ted Whitecalf is quite sure his son Elias's first word is going to be "No" but he's also quite sure it will be in Cree, not English. Whitecalf is trying hard to pass his mother tongue to the next generation -- and his latest literary collaboration, Kiskisiwin, fits with that goal. Kiskisiwin is a collection of life stories as told by a group of elders from the Beardy's & Okemasis First Nation near Duck Lake. The stories are sometimes happy, sometimes sad, sometimes regretful but often insightful, as the elders talk about the hardships and joys of their long lives. "The purpose is the preservation of the language, the culture and the traditions of our people," said Whitecalf, owner of Sweet Grass Records/Productions in Saskatoon, which produced the book. "Times are changing, and the youth aren't going out to find these stories. A lot of the elders are taking that knowledge to the grave. It's not being passed down because no one is seeking it." In fact, he said two elders passed away during publication. Kiskisiwin is a Cree word meaning "I remember" and the act of remembering is laced throughout the book. The elders were asked to tell their life stories, especially those aspects they would like to be read some day by their grandchildren. Most of the stories were told in Cree and translated into English. Like the story of 79-year-old Marie Arcand, who attended residential school, and who remembers being so excited about going home at summer break that she couldn't sleep -- so she glued her eyelids together with chewing gum. ". . . we got into trouble for that and they had to use butter to unglue!" she recalls in her story. She left school after Grade 5. Near the end of her interview she said, "I would tell everybody to pursue education and to finish their education. I am so happy that my son is a policeman . . . I tell my grandchildren things but I have to speak in English and I am not the best with that language." The stories are accompanied by touching black-and-white photos of the elders, revealing much through their facial features and those personal touches that make a home. The recordings were done earlier this year by Whitecalf and John Smallchild, translated into English by Helen Tootoosis, and polished by a team of editors. "The editing was pretty minimal," said Marilyn Poitras, Elias's mother and one of the book's editors. "Every once in awhile there was something that was completely lost in translation and we took that out." While there is much about hardship due to poverty, alcoholism, abuse and racism, the stories are often about the ordinary and humorous aspects of growing up Cree in a changing world. "They have the most amazing sense of humour," said Poitras. "Even when they're sad about something, they can find humour. It's how the culture survived this long." But she laments the loss of the oral storytelling traditions of the Cree people. The very fact that these stories must be written down in order to be passed on reflects the loss of that traditional conversation between one generation and the next. "The residential school system, the legacy of criminal law, taking away aspects of the culture -- this has disintegrated the oral tradition so that may of the kids today don't know how to access those stories anymore," she said. "If every reserve in the province took on a project to educate in a very small way, showing some stepping stones to reconnecting that fragmented fabric, I think it would go a long way to putting things back together again and growing healthy communities." Kiskisiwin is the third collection of stories from elders at Beardy's & Okemasis, a project funded by the band. It is for sale at McNally Robinson's bookstore in Saskatoon. Whitecalf is now undertaking a project to record stories from aboriginal people across the province for use in an educational DVD for the school system. Those interviews will be in their original languages with subtitles, so young people will feel the rhythm of the language and see the facial expressions of the elders as they speak. "I'm just excited about this," said Whitecalf. "They're giving their stories to their grandchildren but they are giving them to the province as well." Ehman is a freelance writer. © The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2004 From dzo at BISHARAT.NET Sat Nov 6 17:22:03 2004 From: dzo at BISHARAT.NET (Donald Z. Osborn) Date: Sat, 6 Nov 2004 11:22:03 -0600 Subject: Heritage languages Message-ID: FYI, two resources on heritage language instruction (another area within the broader field encompassing multi/bilingual education and literacy, first language education, second/additional language teaching, and language preservation/revitalization). DZO Heritage Language Journal http://www.international.ucla.edu/lrc/hlj/index.asp Alliance for the Advancement of Heritage Languages http://www.cal.org/heritage/ From pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET Sat Nov 6 19:47:09 2004 From: pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET (phil cash cash) Date: Sat, 6 Nov 2004 12:47:09 -0700 Subject: Conference (event) In-Reply-To: Message-ID: thanks for the announcement Andre! phil UofA, ILAT On Nov 4, 2004, at 2:51 PM, Andre Cramblit wrote: > Conference on Endangered Languages and Cultures of Native America > > Call for Papers >         > Call Deadline:  Jan 14, 2005 -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 368 bytes Desc: not available URL: From pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET Sat Nov 6 19:52:21 2004 From: pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET (phil cash cash) Date: Sat, 6 Nov 2004 12:52:21 -0700 Subject: Heritage languages In-Reply-To: <1099761723.418d083bddd6b@webmail.kabissa.org> Message-ID: the article "Classroom Based Dialect Awareness in Heritage Language Instruction" is very, very interesting. thanks Don, phil UofA, ILAT On Nov 6, 2004, at 10:22 AM, Donald Z. Osborn wrote: > Heritage Language Journal > http://www.international.ucla.edu/lrc/hlj/index.asp > From dzo at BISHARAT.NET Sun Nov 7 00:00:22 2004 From: dzo at BISHARAT.NET (Donald Z. Osborn) Date: Sat, 6 Nov 2004 18:00:22 -0600 Subject: [DDN] DD projects in Yucatan? In-Reply-To: <200411061407.27568.drpoo@drpooville.org> Message-ID: Chris, Though your focus will be on the Spanish-speaking environment, it would be interesting to hear of any observations you may have the chance to make concerning use of indigenous languages in ICT (projects) in the parts of Mexico you will visit. My focus is Africa (though I try to follow multilingual ICT issues worldwide), but there are others focusing on Native American languages, notably on the ILAT list, to which I will cc this. Best of luck with your research. Don Osborn Bisharat.net Quoting Chris Ward : > My name is Chris Ward. I am a university student at the College of the > Atlantic in Bar Harbor Maine, studying for a degree in Human Ecology. > > This coming winter, December 7th-March 7th, i will be studying in the > Yucatan. > For two weeks while i am there, i am required to do a project of my choice. > The only two requirements are that it must be in a spanish speaking > environment (not hard...) and that it lasts two weeks. > > I am very interested in studying about technology in developing countries, > and > the digital divide issues are a great place to start. > > Do you know of any projects that are centered in or around Yucatan, in > Mexico, > that addresses this topic or any others in technology? > > I will be volunteering my time and skills. I have professional experience > with > technology, as well as some experience teaching technical skills to students > in a developing country, namely , Ghana. > > I also have a great interest in Linux deployment, advocacy, education. If > there are any known projects that relate to linux in one of those ways, or if > anyone is researching how linux fits into the DD problem, i am very > interested to learn more about those things as well. > > Please let me know if you know of anything, or even if you do not. And, > please > also forward my question to as many people as you can who might be able to > help me also. > > Thank you so very much! > > -Chris Ward > > drpoo at drpooville.org > _______________________________________________ > DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list > DIGITALDIVIDE at mailman.edc.org > http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide > To unsubscribe, send a message to digitaldivide-request at mailman.edc.org with > the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. > From dzo at BISHARAT.NET Sun Nov 7 00:44:10 2004 From: dzo at BISHARAT.NET (Donald Z. Osborn) Date: Sat, 6 Nov 2004 18:44:10 -0600 Subject: Heritage languages In-Reply-To: <5F54CF1A-302D-11D9-A9C4-0003936727C2@dakotacom.net> Message-ID: Phil, Glad you found the link useful. BTW, there are a couple of open archived lists you and others might find informative if you don't check them already (a few of the items you may recognize as reposts from ILAT): 1. AfricanLanguages http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AfricanLanguages/ - Kenyan author Mwangi wa Mutahi started this in 1999, but over the last couple of years I've been the one doing post of the posting. 2. A12n-forum http://lists.kabissa.org/lists/archives/public/a12n-forum/ - This is dedicated to African languages and ICT. Its sister list, A12n-collaboration has had a much narrower focus on characters (orthography) and keyboards. ("A12n" stands for "Africanization" in a tech & lang sense.) Don Don Osborn Bisharat.net Quoting phil cash cash : > the article "Classroom Based Dialect Awareness in Heritage Language > Instruction" is very, very interesting. thanks Don, > > phil > UofA, ILAT > > On Nov 6, 2004, at 10:22 AM, Donald Z. Osborn wrote: > > Heritage Language Journal > > http://www.international.ucla.edu/lrc/hlj/index.asp > > > From pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET Sun Nov 7 01:15:59 2004 From: pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET (phil cash cash) Date: Sat, 6 Nov 2004 18:15:59 -0700 Subject: [DDN] DD projects in Yucatan? In-Reply-To: <1099785622.418d659644152@webmail.kabissa.org> Message-ID: Chris & all, you might want to check out the open source software @ the link below. it also supports Linux. http://www.openoffice.org/ quoting from the their website... "OpenOffice.org is a free productivity suite compatible with all major office suites. Mission Statement To create, as a community, the leading international office suite that will run on all major platforms and provide access to all functionality and data through open-component based APIs and an XML-based file format." phil cash cash UofA, ILAT On Nov 6, 2004, at 5:00 PM, Donald Z. Osborn wrote: > Chris, Though your focus will be on the Spanish-speaking environment, > it would > be interesting to hear of any observations you may have the chance to > make > concerning use of indigenous languages in ICT (projects) in the parts > of Mexico > you will visit. My focus is Africa (though I try to follow > multilingual ICT > issues worldwide), but there are others focusing on Native American > languages, > notably on the ILAT list, to which I will cc this. Best of luck with > your > research. > > Don Osborn > Bisharat.net > > > Quoting Chris Ward : > >> My name is Chris Ward. I am a university student at the College of the >> Atlantic in Bar Harbor Maine, studying for a degree in Human Ecology. >> >> This coming winter, December 7th-March 7th, i will be studying in the >> Yucatan. >> For two weeks while i am there, i am required to do a project of my >> choice. >> The only two requirements are that it must be in a spanish speaking >> environment (not hard...) and that it lasts two weeks. >> >> I am very interested in studying about technology in developing >> countries, >> and >> the digital divide issues are a great place to start. >> >> Do you know of any projects that are centered in or around Yucatan, in >> Mexico, >> that addresses this topic or any others in technology? >> >> I will be volunteering my time and skills. I have professional >> experience >> with >> technology, as well as some experience teaching technical skills to >> students >> in a developing country, namely , Ghana. >> >> I also have a great interest in Linux deployment, advocacy, >> education. If >> there are any known projects that relate to linux in one of those >> ways, or if >> anyone is researching how linux fits into the DD problem, i am very >> interested to learn more about those things as well. >> >> Please let me know if you know of anything, or even if you do not. >> And, >> please >> also forward my question to as many people as you can who might be >> able to >> help me also. >> >> Thank you so very much! >> >> -Chris Ward >> >> drpoo at drpooville.org >> _______________________________________________ >> DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list >> DIGITALDIVIDE at mailman.edc.org >> http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide >> To unsubscribe, send a message to >> digitaldivide-request at mailman.edc.org with >> the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. >> > From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Sun Nov 7 02:23:37 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Sat, 6 Nov 2004 19:23:37 -0700 Subject: "Learning Algonquin" (fwd link) Message-ID: fyi, here is an interesting web link on modeling conversational dialogues using flash animation. "Learning Algonquin" Algonquin Dialogues Animated http://www.kza.qc.ca/html/alg/AlgFlsh1.asp later, phil cash cash UofA, ILAT From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US Mon Nov 8 16:42:03 2004 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP) Date: Mon, 8 Nov 2004 09:42:03 -0700 Subject: [DDN] DD projects in Yucatan? Message-ID: There are some people in Zacatecas. I met them at the Linguistics conference in Atlanta last year, although right now, my mind is elsewhere and I can't think of which one. They are trying to develop materials for the 3 languages and it is hard, because they don't have access to much of the technology. We have a problem right here, in New Mexico (on of the 50 US :-) Some people think we are foreign.) I build technology for heritage languages, we are across the border from Juarez, our tiny little airport is Las Cruces INTERNATIONAL Airport (yes, really), and there are people here who work in Mexico. If you would like, I would be happy to help you find something. I am from New Hampshire, originally, and once read a stunning paper by a lady who is now in Maine. Sincerely, Mia Kalish New Mexico State University 505.646.1500 ----- Original Message ----- From: "Donald Z. Osborn" To: Sent: Saturday, November 06, 2004 5:00 PM Subject: Re: [DDN] DD projects in Yucatan? > Chris, Though your focus will be on the Spanish-speaking environment, it would > be interesting to hear of any observations you may have the chance to make > concerning use of indigenous languages in ICT (projects) in the parts of Mexico > you will visit. My focus is Africa (though I try to follow multilingual ICT > issues worldwide), but there are others focusing on Native American languages, > notably on the ILAT list, to which I will cc this. Best of luck with your > research. > > Don Osborn > Bisharat.net > > > Quoting Chris Ward : > > > My name is Chris Ward. I am a university student at the College of the > > Atlantic in Bar Harbor Maine, studying for a degree in Human Ecology. > > > > This coming winter, December 7th-March 7th, i will be studying in the > > Yucatan. > > For two weeks while i am there, i am required to do a project of my choice. > > The only two requirements are that it must be in a spanish speaking > > environment (not hard...) and that it lasts two weeks. > > > > I am very interested in studying about technology in developing countries, > > and > > the digital divide issues are a great place to start. > > > > Do you know of any projects that are centered in or around Yucatan, in > > Mexico, > > that addresses this topic or any others in technology? > > > > I will be volunteering my time and skills. I have professional experience > > with > > technology, as well as some experience teaching technical skills to students > > in a developing country, namely , Ghana. > > > > I also have a great interest in Linux deployment, advocacy, education. If > > there are any known projects that relate to linux in one of those ways, or if > > anyone is researching how linux fits into the DD problem, i am very > > interested to learn more about those things as well. > > > > Please let me know if you know of anything, or even if you do not. And, > > please > > also forward my question to as many people as you can who might be able to > > help me also. > > > > Thank you so very much! > > > > -Chris Ward > > > > drpoo at drpooville.org > > _______________________________________________ > > DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list > > DIGITALDIVIDE at mailman.edc.org > > http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide > > To unsubscribe, send a message to digitaldivide-request at mailman.edc.org with > > the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. > > > > From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US Mon Nov 8 16:43:46 2004 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP) Date: Mon, 8 Nov 2004 09:43:46 -0700 Subject: "Learning Algonquin" (fwd link) Message-ID: I think this is just the cutest thing! It is wonderful for conversational sounds. What it needs is some way to learn what the people are saying, ie, what are the goal-pairs? (we need to know what the words are) Mia ----- Original Message ----- From: "phil cash cash" To: Sent: Saturday, November 06, 2004 7:23 PM Subject: "Learning Algonquin" (fwd link) > fyi, here is an interesting web link on modeling conversational > dialogues using flash animation. > > "Learning Algonquin" > Algonquin Dialogues Animated > http://www.kza.qc.ca/html/alg/AlgFlsh1.asp > > later, > phil cash cash > UofA, ILAT > > From mikinakn at SHAW.CA Mon Nov 8 16:45:05 2004 From: mikinakn at SHAW.CA (Rolland Nadjiwon) Date: Mon, 8 Nov 2004 11:45:05 -0500 Subject: [DDN] DD projects in Yucatan? Message-ID: Nothing to do with language, but.... Las Cruces...what great memories that name brings back. Our family, we used to love New Mexico, crossing over the mountains at White Sands and descending into Las Cruces...even in the winter we found it beautiful. I think we were also romantics. Great memories...thanks for mentioning it. ------- wahjeh rolland nadjiwon ----- Original Message ----- From: "MiaKalish at LFP" To: Sent: Monday, November 08, 2004 11:42 AM Subject: Re: [DDN] DD projects in Yucatan? > There are some people in Zacatecas. I met them at the Linguistics > conference > in Atlanta last year, although right now, my mind is elsewhere and I can't > think of which one. They are trying to develop materials for the 3 > languages > and it is hard, because they don't have access to much of the technology. > > We have a problem right here, in New Mexico (on of the 50 US :-) Some > people > think we are foreign.) I build technology for heritage languages, we are > across the border from Juarez, our tiny little airport is Las Cruces > INTERNATIONAL Airport (yes, really), and there are people here who work in > Mexico. If you would like, I would be happy to help you find something. I > am > from New Hampshire, originally, and once read a stunning paper by a lady > who > is now in Maine. > > Sincerely, > Mia Kalish > New Mexico State University > 505.646.1500 > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Donald Z. Osborn" > To: > Sent: Saturday, November 06, 2004 5:00 PM > Subject: Re: [DDN] DD projects in Yucatan? > > >> Chris, Though your focus will be on the Spanish-speaking environment, it > would >> be interesting to hear of any observations you may have the chance to >> make >> concerning use of indigenous languages in ICT (projects) in the parts of > Mexico >> you will visit. My focus is Africa (though I try to follow multilingual > ICT >> issues worldwide), but there are others focusing on Native American > languages, >> notably on the ILAT list, to which I will cc this. Best of luck with your >> research. >> >> Don Osborn >> Bisharat.net >> >> >> Quoting Chris Ward : >> >> > My name is Chris Ward. I am a university student at the College of the >> > Atlantic in Bar Harbor Maine, studying for a degree in Human Ecology. >> > >> > This coming winter, December 7th-March 7th, i will be studying in the >> > Yucatan. >> > For two weeks while i am there, i am required to do a project of my > choice. >> > The only two requirements are that it must be in a spanish speaking >> > environment (not hard...) and that it lasts two weeks. >> > >> > I am very interested in studying about technology in developing > countries, >> > and >> > the digital divide issues are a great place to start. >> > >> > Do you know of any projects that are centered in or around Yucatan, in >> > Mexico, >> > that addresses this topic or any others in technology? >> > >> > I will be volunteering my time and skills. I have professional > experience >> > with >> > technology, as well as some experience teaching technical skills to > students >> > in a developing country, namely , Ghana. >> > >> > I also have a great interest in Linux deployment, advocacy, education. > If >> > there are any known projects that relate to linux in one of those ways, > or if >> > anyone is researching how linux fits into the DD problem, i am very >> > interested to learn more about those things as well. >> > >> > Please let me know if you know of anything, or even if you do not. And, >> > please >> > also forward my question to as many people as you can who might be able > to >> > help me also. >> > >> > Thank you so very much! >> > >> > -Chris Ward >> > >> > drpoo at drpooville.org >> > _______________________________________________ >> > DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list >> > DIGITALDIVIDE at mailman.edc.org >> > http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide >> > To unsubscribe, send a message to digitaldivide-request at mailman.edc.org > with >> > the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. >> > >> >> > From ssupahan at HUMBOLDT.K12.CA.US Mon Nov 8 17:06:16 2004 From: ssupahan at HUMBOLDT.K12.CA.US (Sarah Supahan) Date: Mon, 8 Nov 2004 09:06:16 -0800 Subject: "Learning Algonquin" (fwd link) In-Reply-To: <005601c4c5b2$1e2f3f80$03ec7b80@red6bvg9btk> Message-ID: More specific animation ("body" language) as well as specific pictures/illustrations would do the trick in making this more comprehensible. But it was definitely cute. Sarah On Nov 8, 2004, at 8:43 AM, MiaKalish at LFP wrote: > I think this is just the cutest thing! It is wonderful for > conversational > sounds. What it needs is some way to learn what the people are saying, > ie, > what are the goal-pairs? (we need to know what the words are) > > Mia > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "phil cash cash" > To: > Sent: Saturday, November 06, 2004 7:23 PM > Subject: "Learning Algonquin" (fwd link) > > >> fyi, here is an interesting web link on modeling conversational >> dialogues using flash animation. >> >> "Learning Algonquin" >> Algonquin Dialogues Animated >> http://www.kza.qc.ca/html/alg/AlgFlsh1.asp >> >> later, >> phil cash cash >> UofA, ILAT >> >> > From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Nov 8 17:07:20 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Mon, 8 Nov 2004 10:07:20 -0700 Subject: SEALASKA Heritage Launches Language Resources Project (fwd) Message-ID: SEALASKA Heritage Launches Language Resources Project November 08, 2004 Monday http://www.sitnews.us/1104news/110804/110804_language_project.html Alaska - Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) has launched an online project to share Native language tools with language students and teachers. The language resources project so far includes the Tlingit alphabet, a Tlingit phrase of the week section and a children's book written in Tlingit called Salmon Boy, recently produced by SHI and posted in a printable form. The alphabet and Tlingit phrases may be read on the web and also heard by clicking on them. The alphabet section includes audio of sounds plus words that incorporate the sounds. "Because Tlingit sounds are complicated and difficult to make, students need to hear the sounds many times before they can produce them," said Dr. Rosita Worl, SHI president. "The institute's online Tlingit alphabet gives students easy access to the sounds as many times as they need to hear them." SHI plans to frequently add new materials to the site, which also includes links to the institute's three other language webs: www.tlingitlanguage.org; www.haidalanguage.org; and www.tsimshianlanguage.org. The institute encourages Native language teachers to also use the materials. "Our main goals are to assist Native language teachers by providing downloadable resources they can use in their classrooms and to make materials accessible to learners everywhere who do not have access to fluent speakers," Worl said. Sealaska Heritage Institute is a private, nonprofit founded in 1981 to administer cultural and educational programs for Sealaska Corp. The institute is governed by an all-Native board of trustees. Its mission is to perpetuate and enhance Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures of Southeast Alaska. SHI launched the language resources project to help perpetuate and revitalize Native languages, a top priority of the institute. Language Resources Project Source of News: Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI Web Site From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Nov 8 17:12:45 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Mon, 8 Nov 2004 10:12:45 -0700 Subject: Web site offers Tlingit language pronunciation (fwd) Message-ID: Web site offers Tlingit language pronunciation November 8, 2004 By TONY CARROLL JUNEAU EMPIRE http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/110804/loc_20041108014.shtml Hearing accurately spoken Tlingit is now just a matter of going to the Internet. On Thursday, Sealaska Heritage Institute launched a new audio language resource on its Web site to help people learn Tlingit sounds. "There are a lot of sounds in Tlingit that aren't present in English," said Rosita Worl, president of the institute. There are approximately 30,000 Tlingits across the U.S., and the institute often hears from people who want access to proper pronunciation, she said. At www.sealaskaheritage.org/programs/language_resources.htm, the page allows people to hear sounds from the Tlingit alphabet, and how they are used in words. Making the sounds may not seem natural for English speakers. The site gives information about where the speaker needs to place the tongue. The "kw" sound, for example comes from deep in the throat. It also has a phrase of the week. This week's is the Tlingit expression meaning "it's good to see you." "Our main goals are to assist Native language teachers by providing downloadable resources they can use in their classrooms and to make materials accessible to learners everywhere who do not have access to fluent speakers," Worl said. The resource was developed by the language department, headed by Language Director Keri Edwards. "This is only one aspect of our work on language materials, both in Tlingit and Haida," Worl said. Andy Hope, southeast regional coordinator of the Alaska Rural Systemic Initiative, said accurate access to spoken Tlingit is badly needed. "Making it accessible on the Web is the best media," he said, He also has been working on developing Internet resources for educators. Keeping Tlingit alive is important, Hope said. He believes it could help keep Native youths in school. "The Native kids need something to connect to," he said. "We're down to less than a handful of Haida speakers in Southeast Alaska. We're getting to that point in Tlingit, too." From sdp at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Nov 8 18:54:09 2004 From: sdp at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Susan Penfield) Date: Mon, 8 Nov 2004 11:54:09 -0700 Subject: Fwd: Conference on Technology, Knowledge and Society, Berkeley, February 2005 - Call for Papers Message-ID: ----- This might be of interest to some of you! >X-Spam-Level: > >Dear Colleague, > >I am writing to you on behalf of the Conference Organising Committee to >inform you of the call-for-papers for: > >THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON TECHNOLOGY, KNOWLEDGE AND SOCIETY >University of California, Berkeley, Friday 18 - Sunday 20 February 2005 >http://www.Technology-Conference.com > >This conference takes a broad and cross-disciplinary approach to >technology in society. With a particular focus on digital information and >communications technologies, the interests addressed by the conference >include: human usability, technologies for citizenship and community >participation, and learning technologies. Participants will include >researchers, teachers and practitioners whose interests are either >technical or humanistic, or whose work crosses over between the applied >technological and social sciences. > >As well as an impressive line up of international main speakers, the >conference will also include numerous paper, workshop and colloquium >presentations. We would particularly like to invite you to respond to the >conference call for papers. Papers submitted for the conference >proceedings will be fully peer-refereed and published in print and >electronic formats in the new International Journal of Technology, >Knowledge and Society. If you are unable to attend the conference in >person, virtual registrations are also available which allow you to submit >a paper for refereeing and possible publication in this fully refereed >academic journal, as well as access to the electronic version of the >conference proceedings. The deadline for the first round call for papers >is 30 November 2004. Proposals are reviewed within two weeks of submission. > >Full details of the conference, including an online call for papers form, >are to be found at the conference website. > >Yours Sincerely, > > >Dr Christopher Scanlon >The Globalism Institute >RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia > >*** >Note: Under new Australian Legislation, we want to ensure you are not >unhappy that we contact you by email about this conference. We have >identified you as an academic who works in the humanities or social >sciences and who may be interested in the themes of this conference. If >you wish to discontinue email communication in relation to this >conference, please inform us by reply. ----- 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 Tue Nov 9 18:09:15 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Tue, 9 Nov 2004 11:09:15 -0700 Subject: Alutiiq language study gets a helpful boost (fwd) Message-ID: Alutiiq language study gets a helpful boost Article published on Monday, Nov 08th, 2004 By DREW HERMAN Mirror Writer http://www.kodiakdailymirror.com/?pid=19&id=672 A wave of rejuvenation for the Alutiiq language brought more than 30 people to Kodiak for a Master-Apprentice training conference Nov. 5-7. “We are very very pleased with how it went,” said Alutiiq language coordinator April Laktonen Counceller of the Alutiiq Museum. With as few as 50 fluent speakers, most of them over 70 years old, Kodiak’s Native language is in danger of dying out. The master-apprentice program administered through the Alutiiq Museum seeks to preserve the language by creating a base of younger fluent speakers. A three-year grant from the Administration for Native Americans, part of the federal Department of Health and Human Services, provides funding for six learning teams. Elders who speak Alutiiq fluently serve as masters to apprentices willing to devote the years necessary to achieve fluency themselves. Although the grant conceived of teams having one master each, the Alutiiq language masters decided to double up and split the grant stipend. “Around here people really like to be together and spark each other’s memory,” Counceller explained. The Alutiiq teams consist of two masters and three apprentices. There are two teams in Old Harbor, one in Port Lions and three in Kodiak, but the program includes representatives of all the island’s Native villages. They began meeting in early October, but this weekend’s conference provided an opportunity to meet with all the program participants and some guests, discuss learning methods, and have some fun. The interested guests included Sally Ash, a driving force behind an immersion school for the closely related dialect of Nanwalek on the Kenai Peninsula, and her son Sperry Ash, a graduate student with the Alaska Native Language Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. During the conference the teams heard talks by Elders in Alutiiq, sang traditional songs, and even danced the “Hokey-Pokey” in Alutiiq. Counceller, herself an apprentice on one of the Kodiak teams, felt a burst of energy to “push through to the next level.” Another guest at the conference was language preservation expert Leanne Hinton of the University of California Berkeley. She developed the master-apprentice learning model to help preserve endangered Native languages in California. “Just the fact that she came here says a lot about our program,” Counceller said. Alutiiq program organizers read Hinton’s book “How to Keep Your Language Alive” and invited the author here. Impressed by the wide support from tribal councils and regional corporations, and the level of community involvement, Hinton agreed to visit. Hinton has visited Alaska before to work with other Native languages in the central Athabaskan area and Southeast. She praised the Alaska Native Language Center for its work with Alaska’s 20 Native Languages, all of which are endangered. “ANLC is real active both in documenting and in working with people trying to do revitalization,” she said. This weekend’s training sessions in Kodiak had two goals, Hinton explained: to get the teams better acquainted with each other and motivated for their work; and to explore the best methods for transmitting a language without formal classes or professional teachers. She called the master-apprentice method “an informal kind of immersion” where the teams “live their lives in the language together.” Conference participants practiced staying in Alutiiq despite strong temptation to switch to English. “Just to begin with we teach the learners how to ask questions in Alutiiq,” Hinton said, comparing the approach to the way a child learns their first language. Knowing how to ask, “What is this?” or “Please say that again” is helpful. The request “show me” can make learning a new word active, Hinton said. The effort surrounding Alutiiq is one of the “pioneering movements” to preserve the world’s endangered languages. During the 20th century hundreds of indigenous languages disappeared. Historically, it was almost never possible to turn around a dying language of such small groups, Hinton said. “That’s something that’s happening now for the first time,” she said. It helps to have a whole state or nation behind the attempt, as when Hebrew revived as a living language with the founding of Israel, and great progress has been made in reviving Hawaiian and the Maori language in New Zealand. But for Alutiiq and most Native American languages, the situation is critical. “When a language is as far gone as this, it’s always a question of what’s going to happen next,” she said. “California is in really sad shape as far as the languages go,” Hinton noted. In most cases there the population of Native speakers is too small and the remaining speakers too old. As in Alaska, whole generations have grown up without learning Native languages. Even with master-apprentice programs in place, languages lose speakers faster than they gain them. The best method to counter the attrition is with immersion schools, Hinton said. Counceller hopes that will come for Kodiak’s Alutiiq, so that young children will learn to use their Native language with each other. Meanwhile, the master-apprentice method takes root in Kodiak, giving the Alutiiq language a chance to find new generations of speakers. Susan Malutin of Kodiak is one of the new apprentices. She spends two hours per day, five days per week with her master teachers, Sophie Katelnikoff and Dennis Knagin. “This will be for the next three years,” Malutin said. Malutin believes the language will die out if people do not make the effort to revive it. She wants to pass it on to her own grandchildren and to the area schoolchildren she annually instructs in traditional fish skin sewing. “It’s certainly part of our culture,” she said. Hinton thinks Alutiiq’s chances are good, given the devotion of the masters and apprentices she met this weekend. “They really consider it a central part of their lives,” Hinton said. Mirror writer Drew Herman may be reached via e-mail at dherman at kodiakdailymirror.com. From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Tue Nov 9 18:17:38 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Tue, 9 Nov 2004 11:17:38 -0700 Subject: Ten of 25 native languages still spoken in Oklahoma...(fwd) Message-ID: Ten of 25 native languages still spoken in Oklahoma are just one aging generation away from extinction. November 8, 2004, 11:29 AM http://www.kfor.com/Global/story.asp?S=2536072 Intertribal Wordpath Society linguist Alice Anderton says in September, at least two native speakers of Caddo died. She says time is running out for some Indian languages. Although Oklahoma has more than 21,000 native speakers, ten tribes have ten or fewer fluent speakers left. And Anderton says 15 tribes have fewer than 100. Over the last decade, many tribes have initiated language classes. Choctaw now is offered in public high schools throughout the Choctaw Nation, at community centers or via the Internet. Comanche is taught at the Comanche Nation College in Lawton, and University of Oklahoma students can study Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek and Kiowa. At Oklahoma State University, students can learn Muskogee. From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Tue Nov 9 18:24:47 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Tue, 9 Nov 2004 11:24:47 -0700 Subject: Dictionary aims to preserve Indigenous language (fwd) Message-ID: Dictionary aims to preserve Indigenous language Tuesday, 9 November 2004 http://www.abc.net.au/northwestwa/news/200411/s1239184.htm Linguists in the Pilbara, in north-west Western Australia, have taken steps to preserve one of the rarest languages in the world. The Aboriginal language Putijarra originates in the Western Desert region and is spoken by just four people in communities such as Jigalong and Yandeyarra. The Wangka Maya Aboriginal Language Centre has now compiled a 100-page Putijarra dictionary and grammar guide, from stories told by local speakers. Language centre manager Fran Haintz says the year-long project is crucial to preserving local Indigenous knowledge. "Language is integral to culture, so if we record the language and try and keep the information strong and the stories, the generations that follow can continue to listen to those stories and through the use of dictionaries and so on understand what's going on and hopefully...[the] language and the culture is stronger," she said. ~~~ Related Audio Linguists in the Pilbara, in north-west Western Australia, have taken steps to preserve one of the rarest languages in the world - the Aboriginal language Putijarra. RealMedia 28k+ WinMedia 28k+ From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Thu Nov 11 18:46:28 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2004 11:46:28 -0700 Subject: Masuku Calls for Preservation of All Languages (fwd) Message-ID: Masuku Calls for Preservation of All Languages BuaNews (Pretoria) NEWS November 11, 2004 By Wilson Matsawela Barberton http://allafrica.com/stories/200411110221.html Mpumalanga MEC for Culture, Sport and Recreation Madala Masuku says the frequent use of English in schools and officially, may lead to the disappearance of African languages. MEC Masuku was speaking here today at Umjindi Community Hall during the provincial Language Awareness Day and Literature Exhibition. The aim of the event was to promote all the eleven official languages, particularly those predominant in Mpumalanga like Swati, Ndebele, English and Afrikaans, Tsonga and Sotho as well as displaying outstanding South African literature in all the official languages. The event also aims to encourage young and upcoming writers and linguists to write literature in their own languages, thus promote multilingualism in the country. The theme for the event is: "Celebrating multilingualism in the decade of freedom through exhibition of marginalised African literature". Mr Masuku said any nation promoted the learning; teaching and speaking of its languages could produce astute writers and language specialists. "There are definitely specific cultures that are closely related with our languages and we need to expose those today bearing in mind that we are today building one nation," he explained. He said it was possible to explore and express the broader human experience in indigenous African languages and literatures. The MEC said literature in African indigenous languages was previously limited to schools and severely censored, rendering the authors powerless in using their trade to reflect human experiences or encourage national unity. "This was deliberately planned under the apartheid state, thus we are saying today let us all work together to use the platform we have today to effectively use our present education system in helping us to actually develop our languages and be able to produce writers of our own languages," MEC Masuku said. He also encouraged people to preserve all languages and tap into the reach knowledge and cultures espoused in this regard. From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Thu Nov 11 18:49:39 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2004 11:49:39 -0700 Subject: Back to basics best for black kids (fwd) Message-ID: Back to basics best for black kids Dorothy Illing 12nov04 http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,11360822%255E2702,00.html A LEADING academic has reignited the debate around poor Aboriginal literacy, saying indigenous students "will fly" if they have the right teaching. Director of Macquarie University's Special Education Centre Kevin Wheldall said all children, including Aborigines, would benefit from fundamental changes to the way reading was taught in schools. "If they had an approach that included an emphasis on basic skills teaching ... it would lift everybody's game," he said yesterday. "Aboriginal kids won't be any different from anyone else." Education Minister Brendan Nelson reopened the reading wars this week when he announced a national inquiry into the way reading was taught in primary schools. And yesterday he was reminded that some of the worst cases of illiteracy occurred in indigenous communities. Chairman of the Shalom Christian College in Townsville, Reverend Shayne Blackman, urged Dr Nelson to extend the inquiry to focus on indigenous education. Professor Wheldall wants more emphasis on phonics when teaching reading. He was among the 26 leading educators who wrote a letter to Dr Nelson in April urging the inquiry. They argue that the whole-language approach used in many schools should give way to phonics, a system that relies on knowledge of the alphabet and decoding words into syllables and sounds. Professor Wheldall believes there is room for both systems but that the pendulum needs to swing back towards phonics. He recently went to the isolated town of Coen on Queensland's Cape York where he met indigenous leaders and visited the local school. "I have a bit of a problem with this idea that somehow Aboriginal kids are different and they need to be taught differently. They're kids," he said. But principal of the southern Queensland Aboriginal community of Cherbourg's state school, Chris Sarra, said you could not separate teaching from other learning-related issues such as attendance rates. Since 2000, the literacy rate at the Cherbourg school has risen by 83 per cent and attendance levels are now at 95 per cent. Mr Sarra said the improvements had little to do with phonics-based or whole-of-language approaches. "You can have the sexiest literacy program in the school, but if the culture of learning is not right then it just won't happen," he said. From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Thu Nov 11 18:54:33 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2004 11:54:33 -0700 Subject: Keeping a tongue alive (fwd) Message-ID: Keeping a tongue alive Presenter: Ngaire Ballard Thursday, 11 November 2004 http://www.abc.net.au/goldfields/stories/s1240636.htm [photo inset - Keeping a language alive. Nadgu speakers (L to R): Johnny Graham, William McKenzie and Sonny Graham] It is estimated that half of all languages currently spoken will disappear by the end of this century but there is an effort underway to prevent that happening in our region. The Wangkanyi Ngurra Tjurta language centre in Kalgoorlie-Boulder is taking steps to record local indigenous languages. As consultant Mary Chanda explains, "We were to record languages that had less than 20 speakers. That means the language is not being passed on to the younger generation and when the older ones that can speak it are not there anymore, there will be no more language being spoken in that dialect." Currently the languages being recorded are the four dialects of the Nadgu, "And one of them is the Norseman people," Mary points out. The way it is being done is through transcribing audio archives from the 1970s and through "A collective effort of all these speakers of the language, they could sit down and work out the meaning of the tapes," according to Mary. Helping with the process is University of Melbourne research fellow Dr. Nick Thieberger. He has "Developed some tools for working with digitised sound. You can get archival recordings, tapes made along time ago, and, if you digitise and work with them, you can present them to people in a way that's much easier than with analogue cassettes." If they lose their language they've lost themselves… But some may ask why we need to keep a language alive. Mary answers that, "All languages have different ways of looking at the world, (the) environment around them, and once you let a language die you actually cut off different views of explaining things around us. "(Also) people feel that language is their identity so if they lose their language they've lost themselves. There's a connection (between) people and the language so they have a feeling that they want to continue with their language and we just support them to do that." The importance of doing just that is not lost on the speakers themselves. "For me it's (an) opportunity of a lifetime because a lot of our old people have passed on and we want to try and record this process so we can pass it on to our young people," Pastor Sonny Graham says, "(It's) very important." Mary, Nick and Sonny, as well as William McKenzie and Johnny Graham, all spoke to Ngaire Ballard for the ABC Goldfields-Esperance breakfast program. ... Keeping Nadgu alive: Mary Chanda, Nick Teeberger, William McKenzie, Johnny Graham and Sonny Graham ( Audio in RealMedia format ) | Requires RealPlayer From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Fri Nov 12 17:22:12 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2004 10:22:12 -0700 Subject: Using the 'kompyuta' to save African languages (fwd) Message-ID: Using the 'kompyuta' to save African languages By Marc Lacey http://news.com.com/Using+the+kompyuta+to+save+African+languages/2100-7337_3-5449598.html Story last modified November 12, 2004, 6:10 AM PST NAIROBI, Kenya--Swahili speakers wishing to use a "kompyuta"--as computer is rendered in Swahili--have been out of luck when it comes to communicating in their tongue. Computers, no matter how bulky their hard drives or sophisticated their software packages, have not yet mastered Swahili or hundreds of other indigenous African languages. But that may soon change. Across the continent, linguists are working with experts in information technology to make computers more accessible to Africans who happen not to know English, French or the other major languages that have been programmed into the world's desktops. There are economic reasons for the outreach. Microsoft, which is working to incorporate Swahili into Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office and other popular programs, sees a market for its software among the roughly 100 million Swahili speakers in East Africa. The same goes for Google, which last month launched www.google.co.ke, offering a Kenyan version in Swahili of the popular search engine. But the campaign to Africanize cyberspace is not all about the bottom line. There are hundreds of languages in Africa--some spoken only by a few dozen elders--and they are dying out at an alarming rate. The continent's linguists see the computer as one important way of saving them. Unesco estimates that 90 percent of the world's 6,000 languages are not represented on the Internet, and that one language is disappearing somewhere around the world every two weeks. "Technology can overrun these languages and entrench Anglophone imperialism," said Tunde Adegbola, a Nigerian computer scientist and linguist who is working to preserve Yoruba, a West African language spoken by millions of people in western Nigeria as well as in Cameroon and Niger. "But if we act, we can use technology to preserve these so-called minority languages." Experts say that putting local languages on the screen will also lure more Africans to information technology, narrowing the digital divide between the world's rich and poor. As it is now, Internet cafes are becoming more and more common in even the smallest of African towns, but most of the people at the keyboards are the educated elite. Wireless computer networks are appearing--there is one at the Nairobi airport and another at the Intercontinental Hotel in Kigali, Rwanda's capital--but they are geared for the wealthy, not the working class. Extending the computer era to the remote reaches of Africa requires more than just wiring the villages. Experts say that software must be developed and computer keyboards adapted so that Swahili speakers and those who communicate in Amharic, Yoruba, Hausa, Sesotho and many other languages spoken in Africa feel at home. Adegbola, executive director of the African Languages Technology Initiative, has developed a keyboard able to deal with the complexities of Yoruba, a tonal language. Different Yoruba words are written the same way using the Latin alphabet--the tones that differentiate them are indicated by extra punctuation. It can take many different keystrokes to complete a Yoruba word. To accomplish the same result with fewer, more comfortable keystrokes, Adegbola made a keyboard without the letters Q, Z, X, C and V, which Yoruba does not use. He repositioned the vowels, which are high-frequency, to more prominent spots and added accent marks and other symbols, creating what he calls Africa's first indigenous language keyboard. Now, Adegbola is at work on voice recognition software that can convert spoken Yoruba into text. Related research is under way in Ethiopia. Amharic, the official language, has 345 letters and letter variations, which has made developing a coherent keyboard difficult. Further complicating the project, the country also has its own system of time and its own calendar. Still, computer experts at Addis Ababa University are making headway. Recently, they came up with a system that will allow Amharic speakers to send text messages, a relatively new phenomenon in the country. The researchers involved in the project envision it as more than a way for Amharic-speaking teenagers to gossip among themselves. Text messaging could be a development tool, they say, if farmers in remote areas of the country can get instant access to coffee prices or weather reports. The Ethiopian researchers hope a cell phone maker will see the country's millions of Amharic speakers as a big enough market to turn their concept into a commercial Amharic handset. Adegbola has similar dreams. He is distributing his keyboard free to influential Yoruba speakers, hoping to attract some deep-pocketed entrepreneur who could turn it into a business venture. In South Africa, researchers at the Unit for Language Facilitation and Empowerment at the University of the Free State are working on a computerized translation system between English and two local languages, Afrikaans and Southern Sotho. Cobus Snyman, who heads the project, said the goal is to extend the system to Xhosa, Venda, Tsonga and other South African languages. One of Microsoft's motivations in localizing its software is to try to head off the movement toward open-source operating systems like Linux, which are increasingly popular. South Africa has already adopted Linux, which it considers more cost efficient and more likely to stimulate local software development. Patrick Opiyo, the Microsoft official in charge of the Swahili program, portrays the effort as more about community outreach than business development. Besides Swahili, the company is looking at making its products more available to those who speak Amharic, Zulu and Yoruba and the other two widely used languages in Nigeria--Hausa and Igbo. In Kenya, Microsoft has rounded up some of the region's top Swahili scholars to come up with a glossary of 3,000 technical terms--the first step in the company's effort to make Microsoft products accessible to Swahili speakers. Sitting around a conference table recently in Microsoft's sleek offices in downtown Nairobi, the linguists discussed how to convey basic words from the computer age in Swahili, also known as Kiswahili, beginning with the most basic one of all. "When these modern machines arrived, Kiswahili came up with a quick word for something that didn't exist in our culture," said Clara Momanyi, a Swahili professor at Kenyatta University in Nairobi. "That was 'kompyuta.'" But scholars subsequently opted for a more local term to describe these amazing machines, she said. It is "tarakilishi," which is a combination of the word for "image" and the word for "represent." The Swahili experts grappled with a variety of other words. How does one say "folder"? Should it be "folda," which is commonly used, or "kifuko," a more formal term? Is a fax a "faksi," as the Tanzanians call it, or a "kipepesi"? Everyone seemed to agree that an e-mail message was a "barua pepe," which means a fast letter. Everyone also seemed to agree that the effort they were engaged in to bring Swahili to cyberspace was long overdue. "Every continent seems to have a language in the computer, and here we are with nothing," said Mwanashehe Saum Mohammed, a Swahili expert at the United States International University in Nairobi and one of the Microsoft consultants. "This will make Africans feel part of the world community. The fact that the continent is full of poor people doesn't mean we shouldn't be on the world map--or in the computer." Entire contents, Copyright © 2004 The New York Times. All rights reserved. Copyright ©1995-2004 CNET Networks, Inc. All rights reserved. From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Fri Nov 12 17:24:21 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2004 10:24:21 -0700 Subject: Microsoft to launch Windows in Inca (fwd) Message-ID: Microsoft to launch Windows in Inca http://www.bday.co.za/bday/content/direct/1,3523,1749606-6078-0,00.html   LIMA - Microsoft will translate its blockbuster computer software Windows and Office into Quechua, the language of the indigenous Inca, for Andean nations from Argentina to Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, where it is spoken, the company said on Thursday. Microsoft opted to bring today's high-tech software to speakers of Quechua as it is the most widely spoken indigenous language in Latin America, by almost 10 million people, said Marushka Chocobar, Microsoft's educational liaison in Lima. The Quechua-language version of Windows XP and Office 2003, being developed in Peru, will be available next year. Peru was the cradle of the Inca empire which in the 16th century stretched from modern-day Colombia down to northen Chile. Bolivia is the only majority indigenous country in South America. Its indigenous people speak Quechua and Aymara. This marks the first time Microsoft has translated its software to an indigenous language of Latin America, and is aimed at boosting literacy programs largely among the poor. Guatemala, in Central America, has millions of Maya language speakers and a high illiteracy rate. Paraguay, in South America, is the only country in Latin America to make bilingualism official. Students there learn both Spanish and Guarani. AFP From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Fri Nov 12 18:00:45 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2004 11:00:45 -0700 Subject: a thought on microsoft... Message-ID: Hi all, after today's news items, i can't help but conjour this image of "microsoft" roaming the world as some kind of [...] that devours languages and spits them out in code. phil cash cash UofA From sandra at ASU.EDU Fri Nov 12 18:11:09 2004 From: sandra at ASU.EDU (Sandra Andrews) Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2004 11:11:09 -0700 Subject: a thought on microsoft... Message-ID: Apple is also working with native speakers, in Arizona and in Hawaii that I know of, to create interfaces in specific languages. Sandy Sandra Sutton Andrews Digital Media and Instructional Technologies Arizona State University > ---------- > From: Indigenous Languages and Technology on behalf of phil cash cash > Reply To: Indigenous Languages and Technology > Sent: Friday, November 12, 2004 11:00 AM > To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU > Subject: a thought on microsoft... > > Hi all, after today's news items, i can't help but conjour this image of > "microsoft" roaming the world as some kind of [...] that devours > languages and spits them out in code. > > phil cash cash > UofA > From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US Fri Nov 12 18:19:25 2004 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP) Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2004 11:19:25 -0700 Subject: a thought on microsoft... Message-ID: It is really, really, really hard to build something as big as Windows in another language. I struggled for 3 years to get Mescalero to adopt some fonts that would work in Microsoft Office, which I had to design, build, and develop supporting tools for. To translate all the interfaces and error messages requires rebalancing all the spaces, double-checking all the "translations", making sure that the spelling and grammar-checking work right, resequencing the sort mechanism, and on a good day, redoing piles of graphics. I think it is a really good idea, and I would be happy if Microsoft had support for Athapascan, which is more difficult that Romance language derivatives because there are more characters, and there are those funny two-character letters, I don't remember what they are called. So in summary, I can tell you that each individual trying to bring technological support for each language is near impossible. I am a really, really good techie, and I can't make it happen by myself. So I am glad Microsoft is doing this. It is much better than having to have each individual pay $99-$125 per font, which is decorative, and which can't be printed using any other fonts. Producing materials for linguists is one thing. They don't need a lot of fonts. But People need to be able to have lots of fonts to do invitations, posters, love letters, business letters, graphical headings for various things like portfolios, and the fonts need to work on the Internet. Anything less is not supporting the revitalization efforts. So Yeah! Microsoft! But I am interested in what others think, It's Friday. . . . perhaps people have time to send along a thought. Mia ----- Original Message ----- From: "phil cash cash" To: Sent: Friday, November 12, 2004 11:00 AM Subject: a thought on microsoft... > Hi all, after today's news items, i can't help but conjour this image of > "microsoft" roaming the world as some kind of [...] that devours > languages and spits them out in code. > > phil cash cash > UofA > > From keola at LEOKI.UHH.HAWAII.EDU Fri Nov 12 18:17:08 2004 From: keola at LEOKI.UHH.HAWAII.EDU (Keola Donaghy) Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2004 08:17:08 -1000 Subject: a thought on microsoft... In-Reply-To: <715A4F1E66C5604AADECC24952F0F114069D46@ex4.asurite.ad.asu.edu> Message-ID: Indigenous Languages and Technology writes: >Apple is also working with native speakers, in Arizona and in Hawaii that >I know of, to create interfaces in specific languages. Apple has worked with us to make sure their fonts have the proper characters for Hawaiian, have included a Hawaiian keyboard, sorting routines and date formatting to OS X. There is also a Hawaiian locale that will allow us to create localized resources, and if it is selected, will display a Hawaiian user interface for those applications that have a Hawaiian resource. We haven't shipped any yet but are working on it. I've emailed a number of people within Microsoft over the years regarding strenthening Hawaiian support, with nothing to show for it. Those that have been supportive have had no actual authority to help. Among some of the more snide replies I've received from MS have included "Why would you want it in Hawaiian, don't you all speak English anyway?" :-/ Keola ======================================================================= 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 coyotez at DARKWING.UOREGON.EDU Fri Nov 12 18:39:21 2004 From: coyotez at DARKWING.UOREGON.EDU (David Gene Lewis) Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2004 10:39:21 -0800 Subject: microsoft Message-ID: I remember several discussion over the past 3-5 years, once on the KMA-L listserver of the U Hawaii and several times on the Chinook-L listserver about Microsoft and its "open source" browser. if I remember right there were some Native computer techies working on putting Hawaiian onto the Microsoft browser. I am not that good at computer technical stuff so I can't really describe it correctly. All of the Chinook-L messages are archived on the LinguistList archives database that are fully searchable. I am not sure how far programming into the Iexplorer browser went. I would think that the best luck might be had with the Linux system. They are completely open source and there is an army of computer guys creating programming for that system. maybe this is a direction that has some future for Native languages. Anyone here work with Linux??? I will try to fine the text of the discussion about Microsoft open source programming for the list. David >>It is really, really, really hard to build something as big as Windows in another language. I struggled for 3 years to get Mescalero to adopt some fonts that would work in Microsoft Office, which I had to design, build, and develop supporting tools for. David Lewis University of Oregon Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde From dzo at BISHARAT.NET Fri Nov 12 18:41:43 2004 From: dzo at BISHARAT.NET (Donald Z. Osborn) Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2004 12:41:43 -0600 Subject: a thought on microsoft... In-Reply-To: <009801c4c8e4$241d1180$03ec7b80@red6bvg9btk> Message-ID: Good points, Mia. Microsoft gets a lot of negative reactions, but without getting into that debate, I think that its multilingual efforts are very positive. And from the point of view of promoting localization of software in diverse languages it is ideal to have competition among MS, Apple (per Sandra's message) and the open source movement. Re the technical challenges in localizing for languages that have special character needs, this is a topic that is coming up for African languages. Most localization so far (at least open source) has involved languages of the south and east of the continent that use the simple Latin alphabet. Don Osborn Bisharat.net Quoting "MiaKalish at LFP" : > It is really, really, really hard to build something as big as Windows in > another language. > > I struggled for 3 years to get Mescalero to adopt some fonts that would work > in Microsoft Office, which I had to design, build, and develop supporting > tools for. > > To translate all the interfaces and error messages requires rebalancing all > the spaces, double-checking all the "translations", making sure that the > spelling and grammar-checking work right, resequencing the sort mechanism, > and on a good day, redoing piles of graphics. > > I think it is a really good idea, and I would be happy if Microsoft had > support for Athapascan, which is more difficult that Romance language > derivatives because there are more characters, and there are those funny > two-character letters, I don't remember what they are called. > > So in summary, I can tell you that each individual trying to bring > technological support for each language is near impossible. I am a really, > really good techie, and I can't make it happen by myself. So I am glad > Microsoft is doing this. It is much better than having to have each > individual pay $99-$125 per font, which is decorative, and which can't be > printed using any other fonts. > > Producing materials for linguists is one thing. They don't need a lot of > fonts. But People need to be able to have lots of fonts to do invitations, > posters, love letters, business letters, graphical headings for various > things like portfolios, and the fonts need to work on the Internet. Anything > less is not supporting the revitalization efforts. > > So Yeah! Microsoft! > But I am interested in what others think, It's Friday. . . . perhaps people > have time to send along a thought. > > Mia > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "phil cash cash" > To: > Sent: Friday, November 12, 2004 11:00 AM > Subject: a thought on microsoft... > > > > Hi all, after today's news items, i can't help but conjour this image of > > "microsoft" roaming the world as some kind of [...] that devours > > languages and spits them out in code. > > > > phil cash cash > > UofA > > > > > From coyotez at DARKWING.UOREGON.EDU Fri Nov 12 18:45:28 2004 From: coyotez at DARKWING.UOREGON.EDU (David Gene Lewis) Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2004 10:45:28 -0800 Subject: Fwd: microsoft-Chinook-l discussion Message-ID: Here it is. I intiated the discussion so I give permission to repost. I guess the actual discussion was about Netscape... D "This Hawaiian language browser demonstrates the viability of the Universal Localization Program and the value of our open source code concept," said Rick Elliott, ULP program manager, Netscape. "We believe this marks the On March 31st of 1998, Netscape Communications Corporation publicly released the source code for Netscape Communicator, and shortly thereafter contacted the Hale Kuamo'o to determine if there was interest in providing organizations. In addition, Hale Kuamo'o designed and maintains Kualono, the most complete and diverse source of information on Hawaiian language on the Internet. It uses a unique dual-language format, allowing users to view Item #191 (19 Nov 1998 16:16) - Re: Chinook browser development (was Fwd: Hawaiian language web browser released (fwd) Now that Netscape source code is "open", anyone can develop add-ons to it, including other language versions. To get this done, it would have to mean >"This Hawaiian language browser demonstrates the viability of the Universal >Localization Program and the value of our open source code concept," said >Rick Elliott, ULP program manager, Netscape. "We believe this marks the >On March 31st of 1998, Netscape Communications Corporation publicly >released the source code for Netscape Communicator, and shortly thereafter >contacted the Hale Kuamo'o to determine if there was interest in providing >organizations. In addition, Hale Kuamo'o designed and maintains Kualono, >the most complete and diverse source of information on Hawaiian language on >the Internet. It uses a unique dual-language format, allowing users to view Item #203 (24 Nov 1998 13:58) - Re: Chinook browser development (was Fwd: Hawaiian language web browser released (fwd) >Now that Netscape source code is "open", anyone can develop add-ons to = it, Universal >>Localization Program and the value of our open source code concept," = said >>On March 31st of 1998, Netscape Communications Corporation publicly >>released the source code for Netscape Communicator, and shortly = thereafter Kualono, >>the most complete and diverse source of information on Hawaiian = language on Item #208 (26 Nov 1998 13:11) - Re: Chinook browser development (was Fwd: Hawaiian language web browser released (fwd) Actually,it _would_ be hacking if Netscape's code weren't public, as it is now. "Open source" means just that; the code is freely available for alteration. Guess we could just go and create the Chinook version, once we addition that allows you to "Remove Bookmark"; either the one instance, or any repetitions; I hate having to open Edit Bookmarks and search for defunct ones; better to easily delete them when you run across Item #232 (3 Dec 1998 18:18) - Re: Chinook browser development > >>Now that Netscape source code is "open", anyone can develop add-ons to it, >>including other language versions. To get this done, it would have to mean From ssupahan at HUMBOLDT.K12.CA.US Fri Nov 12 18:46:05 2004 From: ssupahan at HUMBOLDT.K12.CA.US (Sarah Supahan) Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2004 10:46:05 -0800 Subject: a thought on microsoft... In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Whoa, still a lot of educating to do out there, apparently. (see below) On Nov 12, 2004, at 10:17 AM, Keola Donaghy wrote: > Indigenous Languages and Technology writes: >> Apple is also working with native speakers, in Arizona and in Hawaii >> that >> I know of, to create interfaces in specific languages. > > Apple has worked with us to make sure their fonts have the proper > characters for Hawaiian, have included a Hawaiian keyboard, sorting > routines and date formatting to OS X. There is also a Hawaiian locale > that > will allow us to create localized resources, and if it is selected, > will > display a Hawaiian user interface for those applications that have a > Hawaiian resource. We haven't shipped any yet but are working on it. > > I've emailed a number of people within Microsoft over the years > regarding > strenthening Hawaiian support, with nothing to show for it. Those that > have been supportive have had no actual authority to help. Among some > of > the more snide replies I've received from MS have included "Why would > you > want it in Hawaiian, don't you all speak English anyway?" :-/ > > Keola > > ======================================================================= > = > 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 sandra at ASU.EDU Fri Nov 12 19:00:15 2004 From: sandra at ASU.EDU (Sandra Andrews) Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2004 12:00:15 -0700 Subject: microsoft Message-ID: We have Linux people here (at ASU) who are really interested in this idea and have been discussing it for awhile. We would want partners of course, native speakers and others, and I think some sort of funding. OSX is an interface to Linux in a sense so we are thinking that one would be as good as the other. :-) Sandy Sandra Sutton Andrews Digital Media and Instructional Technologies Arizona State University > ---------- > From: Indigenous Languages and Technology on behalf of David Gene Lewis > Reply To: Indigenous Languages and Technology > Sent: Friday, November 12, 2004 11:39 AM > To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU > Subject: microsoft > > I remember several discussion over the past 3-5 years, once on the > KMA-L listserver of the U Hawaii and several times on the Chinook-L > listserver about Microsoft and its "open source" browser. if I > remember right there were some Native computer techies working on > putting Hawaiian onto the Microsoft browser. I am not that good at > computer technical stuff so I can't really describe it correctly. All > of the Chinook-L messages are archived on the LinguistList archives > database that are fully searchable. > > I am not sure how far programming into the Iexplorer browser went. I > would think that the best luck might be had with the Linux system. > They are completely open source and there is an army of computer guys > creating programming for that system. maybe this is a direction that > has some future for Native languages. Anyone here work with Linux??? > > I will try to fine the text of the discussion about Microsoft open > source programming for the list. > David > > > > >>It is really, really, really hard to build something as big as > Windows in > another language. > > I struggled for 3 years to get Mescalero to adopt some fonts that > would work > in Microsoft Office, which I had to design, build, and develop > supporting > tools for. > > > > > > David Lewis > University of Oregon > Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde > > From dzo at BISHARAT.NET Fri Nov 12 19:09:13 2004 From: dzo at BISHARAT.NET (Donald Z. Osborn) Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2004 13:09:13 -0600 Subject: a thought on microsoft... & "why would you want it in [language]" In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Keola, Some quick comments re part of your message... Quoting Keola Donaghy : > ... . Among some of > the more snide replies I've received from MS have included "Why would you > want it in Hawaiian, don't you all speak English anyway?" :-/ MS being so huge, there may be different tendencies within it, as it were. I'm aware of people at MS who are doing significant work re unicode and African languages whose operating assumptions are different. Regarding the phrase you quote, it is similar to the thinking in so many cases that limits the expansion of use of languages other than the dominant international ones. I've heard similar, though more innocent sounding, questions re French and African languages. The following quote from Kenneth Keniston (1999) re India puts this issue in a different light: "It can be argued that, given the fusion of language, wealth and power in India, there is simply no market (and perhaps no need) for software in any language other than English. Asked about localization to Indian languages, international software firms sometimes reply, ~QBut everyone speaks English in India,~R by which of course they mean that the present market consists of people who speak English." http://web.mit.edu/~kken/Public/papers1/Language%20Power%20Software.htm Coming full circle with this theme, MS's efforts with certain languages can be seen as representing their recognition of markets - which I guess can be as much a cause for concern as celebration. Don Osborn Bisharat.net From keola at LEOKI.UHH.HAWAII.EDU Fri Nov 12 19:16:28 2004 From: keola at LEOKI.UHH.HAWAII.EDU (Keola Donaghy) Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2004 09:16:28 -1000 Subject: microsoft In-Reply-To: <200411121839.iACIdPPq006753@darkwing.uoregon.edu> Message-ID: Aloha. We translated Netscape Communicator (v4.5) into Hawaiian back in 1998 under their Universal Localization Program (http://www.olelo.hawaii.edu/eng/resources/kahookele/). We'd considered continuing and translating Mozilla into Hawaiian, but I wasn't very happy with the tools provided for the localization and they took a long time fixing some bugs that dealt with rendering some characters properly, so I did not pursue it further. Someone at Microsoft told us that we could translate IE into Hawaiian for Mac OS if we like, but as we had already spent months translating communicator I didn't see the value of having two Hawaiian browsers for the same platform, so I didn't pursue it. I'm more concerned at this point with us getting system-level support and a keyboard in Windows, and can deal with localization in the future. Keola Penei ka ‘ölelo a Indigenous Languages and Technology : >I remember several discussion over the past 3-5 years, once on the >KMA-L listserver of the U Hawaii and several times on the Chinook-L >listserver about Microsoft and its "open source" browser. if I >remember right there were some Native computer techies working on >putting Hawaiian onto the Microsoft browser. I am not that good at >computer technical stuff so I can't really describe it correctly. All >of the Chinook-L messages are archived on the LinguistList archives >database that are fully searchable. > >I am not sure how far programming into the Iexplorer browser went. I >would think that the best luck might be had with the Linux system. >They are completely open source and there is an army of computer guys >creating programming for that system. maybe this is a direction that >has some future for Native languages. Anyone here work with Linux??? > >I will try to fine the text of the discussion about Microsoft open >source programming for the list. ======================================================================== 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 keola at LEOKI.UHH.HAWAII.EDU Fri Nov 12 19:17:21 2004 From: keola at LEOKI.UHH.HAWAII.EDU (Keola Donaghy) Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2004 09:17:21 -1000 Subject: Fwd: microsoft-Chinook-l discussion In-Reply-To: <200411121845.iACIjXYt020861@darkwing.uoregon.edu> Message-ID: Penei ka ‘ölelo a Indigenous Languages and Technology : >Here it is. I intiated the discussion so I give permission to repost. >I guess the actual discussion was about Netscape... Yes, I was the one that did the translation work. It was with Netscape, not MS. Keola ======================================================================== 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 keola at LEOKI.UHH.HAWAII.EDU Fri Nov 12 19:41:32 2004 From: keola at LEOKI.UHH.HAWAII.EDU (Keola Donaghy) Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2004 09:41:32 -1000 Subject: a thought on microsoft... & "why would you want it in [language]" In-Reply-To: <1100286552.41950a5903996@webmail.kabissa.org> Message-ID: Aloha Don, agreed. I've been faced with this kind of mentality many times the past 12 years or so that I've been focusing on Hawaiian and technology. You're right, there are people in many companies who understand are needs and are supportive in whatever way they can, even though there is hardly a huge market for Hawaiiann language versions of the programs. Apple has been incredibly supportive, and I'm sure there is someone within Microsoft that would be the same, I've simply been unable to identify him/her/them. In MS case, they've already done a Maori-enabled system, so we simply need one change of the keyboard to get Hawaiian included. If we could get date formatting, sorting routines and a locale in there as we have in Mac OS X I'd be happy with that. I will give MS credit for getting Office 2004 OS X Unicode compliant (http://www.olelo.hawaii.edu/eng/resources/osx/office2004.html). That was a huge step for us toward the day that we won't have to provide fonts, keyboards and other hacks to people simply to be able to type in Hawaiian. Keola Penei ka ‘ölelo a Indigenous Languages and Technology : >Keola, Some quick comments re part of your message... > >Quoting Keola Donaghy : >> ... . Among some of >> the more snide replies I've received from MS have included "Why would >you >> want it in Hawaiian, don't you all speak English anyway?" :-/ > >MS being so huge, there may be different tendencies within it, as it >were. I'm >aware of people at MS who are doing significant work re unicode and >African >languages whose operating assumptions are different. > >Regarding the phrase you quote, it is similar to the thinking in so many >cases >that limits the expansion of use of languages other than the dominant >international ones. I've heard similar, though more innocent sounding, >questions re French and African languages. The following quote from >Kenneth >Keniston (1999) re India puts this issue in a different light: >"It can be argued that, given the fusion of language, wealth and power in >India, >there is simply no market (and perhaps no need) for software in any >language >other than English. Asked about localization to Indian languages, >international >software firms sometimes reply, ‘But everyone speaks English in India,’ by >which of course they mean that the present market consists of people who >speak >English." >http://web.mit.edu/~kken/Public/papers1/Language%20Power%20Software.htm > >Coming full circle with this theme, MS's efforts with certain languages >can be >seen as representing their recognition of markets - which I guess can be >as >much a cause for concern as celebration. ======================================================================== 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 MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US Fri Nov 12 21:07:23 2004 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP) Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2004 14:07:23 -0700 Subject: microsoft Message-ID: Hi, Keola, For Athapascan, I made a toolbar. I did have to create the underlying fonts, but since you already have them, you merely need to code the characters. This is approximately how you do it: First, in Microsoft Word, you code shortcut key sequences for each of your special characters. Be wary of the embedded sequences; there are a lot of them in Word. I ended up using 3-key sequences, just to stay out of the way of the keyboarders. Then, still in Microsoft Word, you create a new template. This is an option under the document menu. Then, in that template, you record the key sequences as macros, and give them names that correspond to the characters (to keep from losing your mind). Finally, you create a custom toolbar (Tools/Customize/Toolbars/New). Search for "create a custom toolbar" in Microsoft Word Help, and follow the instructions. For each toolbar entry, you can make a little graphic that shows the character. Save the template under some useful name. Ours is Athapascan.dot. You might use Hawaiian.dot. You can share the template. You just have to be wary of security settings that will restrict macro execution. This can be a pain, but I'm sure you can work it out. This way, you are not dependent on waiting for someone else to make a keyboard for you. You can display the toolbar just like the other toolbars in the Word window. I can send it to you if you want to see it. Mia ----- Original Message ----- From: "Keola Donaghy" To: Sent: Friday, November 12, 2004 12:16 PM Subject: Re: microsoft Aloha. We translated Netscape Communicator (v4.5) into Hawaiian back in 1998 under their Universal Localization Program (http://www.olelo.hawaii.edu/eng/resources/kahookele/). We'd considered continuing and translating Mozilla into Hawaiian, but I wasn't very happy with the tools provided for the localization and they took a long time fixing some bugs that dealt with rendering some characters properly, so I did not pursue it further. Someone at Microsoft told us that we could translate IE into Hawaiian for Mac OS if we like, but as we had already spent months translating communicator I didn't see the value of having two Hawaiian browsers for the same platform, so I didn't pursue it. I'm more concerned at this point with us getting system-level support and a keyboard in Windows, and can deal with localization in the future. Keola Penei ka 'ölelo a Indigenous Languages and Technology : >I remember several discussion over the past 3-5 years, once on the >KMA-L listserver of the U Hawaii and several times on the Chinook-L >listserver about Microsoft and its "open source" browser. if I >remember right there were some Native computer techies working on >putting Hawaiian onto the Microsoft browser. I am not that good at >computer technical stuff so I can't really describe it correctly. All >of the Chinook-L messages are archived on the LinguistList archives >database that are fully searchable. > >I am not sure how far programming into the Iexplorer browser went. I >would think that the best luck might be had with the Linux system. >They are completely open source and there is an army of computer guys >creating programming for that system. maybe this is a direction that >has some future for Native languages. Anyone here work with Linux??? > >I will try to fine the text of the discussion about Microsoft open >source programming for the list. ======================================================================= 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 MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US Fri Nov 12 21:10:23 2004 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP) Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2004 14:10:23 -0700 Subject: microsoft Message-ID: There is an interesting issue with the language extension here, at least for Apache speakers. The majority of the Apache speakers are Elders, who don't know much about technology. The technologists are younger people who don't know Apache. The concepts fall in the cracks. We see this in English in places where companies hire English majors to write their documentation, and since the writers don't know technology, the documentation is seldom more than a polished version of the spec. Mia ----- Original Message ----- From: "Sandra Andrews" To: Sent: Friday, November 12, 2004 12:00 PM Subject: Re: microsoft We have Linux people here (at ASU) who are really interested in this idea and have been discussing it for awhile. We would want partners of course, native speakers and others, and I think some sort of funding. OSX is an interface to Linux in a sense so we are thinking that one would be as good as the other. :-) Sandy Sandra Sutton Andrews Digital Media and Instructional Technologies Arizona State University > ---------- > From: Indigenous Languages and Technology on behalf of David Gene Lewis > Reply To: Indigenous Languages and Technology > Sent: Friday, November 12, 2004 11:39 AM > To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU > Subject: microsoft > > I remember several discussion over the past 3-5 years, once on the > KMA-L listserver of the U Hawaii and several times on the Chinook-L > listserver about Microsoft and its "open source" browser. if I > remember right there were some Native computer techies working on > putting Hawaiian onto the Microsoft browser. I am not that good at > computer technical stuff so I can't really describe it correctly. All > of the Chinook-L messages are archived on the LinguistList archives > database that are fully searchable. > > I am not sure how far programming into the Iexplorer browser went. I > would think that the best luck might be had with the Linux system. > They are completely open source and there is an army of computer guys > creating programming for that system. maybe this is a direction that > has some future for Native languages. Anyone here work with Linux??? > > I will try to fine the text of the discussion about Microsoft open > source programming for the list. > David > > > > >>It is really, really, really hard to build something as big as > Windows in > another language. > > I struggled for 3 years to get Mescalero to adopt some fonts that > would work > in Microsoft Office, which I had to design, build, and develop > supporting > tools for. > > > > > > David Lewis > University of Oregon > Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde > > From sandra at ASU.EDU Fri Nov 12 21:26:28 2004 From: sandra at ASU.EDU (Sandra Andrews) Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2004 14:26:28 -0700 Subject: microsoft Message-ID: Oh, yes, exactly! So that having teens (who do understand technology) work on the project with the Elders would be the way to do this. That is the plan! The teenagers would learn about both the language, and technology in depth, at the same time. - sandy - > ---------- > From: Indigenous Languages and Technology on behalf of MiaKalish at LFP > Reply To: Indigenous Languages and Technology > Sent: Friday, November 12, 2004 2:10 PM > To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU > Subject: Re: microsoft > > There is an interesting issue with the language extension here, at least for > Apache speakers. The majority of the Apache speakers are Elders, who don't > know much about technology. The technologists are younger people who don't > know Apache. The concepts fall in the cracks. We see this in English in > places where companies hire English majors to write their documentation, and > since the writers don't know technology, the documentation is seldom more > than a polished version of the spec. > > Mia > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Sandra Andrews" > To: > Sent: Friday, November 12, 2004 12:00 PM > Subject: Re: microsoft > > > We have Linux people here (at ASU) who are really interested in this idea > and have been discussing it for awhile. We would want partners of course, > native speakers and others, and I think some sort of funding. OSX is an > interface to Linux in a sense so we are thinking that one would be as good > as the other. :-) > > Sandy > > Sandra Sutton Andrews > Digital Media and Instructional Technologies > Arizona State University > > > ---------- > > From: Indigenous Languages and Technology on behalf of David Gene > Lewis > > Reply To: Indigenous Languages and Technology > > Sent: Friday, November 12, 2004 11:39 AM > > To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU > > Subject: microsoft > > > > I remember several discussion over the past 3-5 years, once on the > > KMA-L listserver of the U Hawaii and several times on the Chinook-L > > listserver about Microsoft and its "open source" browser. if I > > remember right there were some Native computer techies working on > > putting Hawaiian onto the Microsoft browser. I am not that good at > > computer technical stuff so I can't really describe it correctly. All > > of the Chinook-L messages are archived on the LinguistList archives > > database that are fully searchable. > > > > I am not sure how far programming into the Iexplorer browser went. I > > would think that the best luck might be had with the Linux system. > > They are completely open source and there is an army of computer guys > > creating programming for that system. maybe this is a direction that > > has some future for Native languages. Anyone here work with Linux??? > > > > I will try to fine the text of the discussion about Microsoft open > > source programming for the list. > > David > > > > > > > > >>It is really, really, really hard to build something as big as > > Windows in > > another language. > > > > I struggled for 3 years to get Mescalero to adopt some fonts that > > would work > > in Microsoft Office, which I had to design, build, and develop > > supporting > > tools for. > > > > > > > > > > > > David Lewis > > University of Oregon > > Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde > > > > > > From pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET Fri Nov 12 23:12:58 2004 From: pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET (phil cash cash) Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2004 16:12:58 -0700 Subject: a thought on microsoft... In-Reply-To: <1100284903.419503e75c8fc@webmail.kabissa.org> Message-ID: I wonder if endangered language communities with small populations warrant the kinds of software localization like Quechua and Swahili. It would seem, in any given situation, one would need a strong developing literacy and stable orthography to support this kind of development, not to mention some long term heritage language benefits. Just curious, and thanks for all your messages as I am learning a lot from your discussions, phil cash cash UofA From mona at ALLIESMEDIAART.COM Fri Nov 12 21:38:25 2004 From: mona at ALLIESMEDIAART.COM (MM Smith) Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2004 15:38:25 -0600 Subject: Fit anyone? Message-ID: > 13) Nominations of Global Innovators Invited for Tech > Museum Awards > > Deadline: April 4, 2005 (Nominations) > > A program of the San Jose-based Tech Museum of Innovation > ( http://thetech.org/ ), the Tech Museum Awards honor > innovators and visionaries from around the world who are > applying technology to improve the human condition in the > categories of education, equality, environment, health, > and economic development. The program is designed to > inspire global engagement in applying technology to > humanity's most pressing problems by recognizing the best > of those who are utilizing innovative technology solutions > to address the most urgent critical issues facing the > world. > > Nominations are accepted in five categories: education, > equality, environment, health, and economic development. > Once a nomination is received and validated, nominees > will be contacted and invited to submit an application. > > At the program's awards gala each fall, five laureates > in each category are honored, and $250,000 in cash prizes > are awarded. > > Nominations may be made by anyone who can identify a > worthy candidate, including self-nominations, and are > accepted year round. The nomination deadline for the 2005 > awards is April 4, 2005. Applications must be submitted > by May 2, 2005. > > Nominations can be submitted online at the Tech Museum > Awards Web site. See the site for complete program > information and details on previous award recipients. > > RFP Link: http://techawards.thetech.org/about.cfm > > For additional RFPs in Science/Technology, visit: > http://fdncenter.org/pnd/rfp/cat_science.jhtml > From keola at LEOKI.UHH.HAWAII.EDU Sat Nov 13 00:29:21 2004 From: keola at LEOKI.UHH.HAWAII.EDU (Keola Donaghy) Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2004 14:29:21 -1000 Subject: a thought on microsoft... In-Reply-To: <642A6318-3500-11D9-832A-0003936727C2@dakotacom.net> Message-ID: Aloha Phil. In our case we do have a lexicon committee that has be creating the terminology necessary to do these kinds of localizations, and their work began well before we began localizations. We did begin the localization process on a few simple programs, and went to the lexicon commitee as we came across new vocabulary needs, and still do. A lot of the terminology is shared across many programs, so with each localization the job gets a bit easier. In the case of our immersion children, they gained much of their computer skill using our translations of AppleWorks, FirstClass, Navigator and others, and those skills easily transfered to the English versions of the program without any problems at all. It is getting people who can build the bridge across the chasm between the technological word and the language community that is the hard part. Once you get the tools to the younger generation, they will carry the torch for you. We have students who have gone through our K-12 programs using the localized applications and are now in college. One is a member of our technology team. I agree that for communities with smaller language populations, you need to weigh the amount of work with the benefits. Our translation of Netscape Navigator took two of us the better part of a summer to complete. I just finished the translation of another browser for Mac OS X, and it took several weeks of on and off work. I've done some apps in as little as a few hours. Keola Indigenous Languages and Technology writes: >I wonder if endangered language communities with small populations >warrant the kinds of software localization like Quechua and Swahili. >It would seem, in any given situation, one would need a strong >developing literacy and stable orthography to support this kind of >development, not to mention some long term heritage language benefits. > >Just curious, and thanks for all your messages as I am learning a lot >from your discussions, ======================================================================= 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 keola at LEOKI.UHH.HAWAII.EDU Sat Nov 13 00:37:23 2004 From: keola at LEOKI.UHH.HAWAII.EDU (Keola Donaghy) Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2004 14:37:23 -1000 Subject: microsoft In-Reply-To: <001101c4c8fb$9affd320$03ec7b80@red6bvg9btk> Message-ID: Aloha Mia, I did write up a set of instructions for users to customize the character map in Word, but didn't have time to create a custom toolbar. One problem is that our users need to type in Hawaiian within applications other than Word - we need a system-wide keyboard. There is a utility for creating custom keyboards on Microsoft's site, I just need to find the time to look at it. We currently have a program that was developed for us and we redistribute it freely on our website (along with the fonts), but again, we're simply trying to avoid making users download, install and configure software. It does work across most Windows apps. We've been doing that for too many years. It save us a lot of trouble if we could simply get MS to work with us like Apple did. Keola Indigenous Languages and Technology writes: >For Athapascan, I made a toolbar. I did have to create the underlying >fonts, >but since you already have them, you merely need to code the characters. >This is approximately how you do it: > > >First, in Microsoft Word, you code shortcut key sequences for each of your >special characters. Be wary of the embedded sequences; there are a lot of >them in Word. I ended up using 3-key sequences, just to stay out of the >way >of the keyboarders. Then, still in Microsoft Word, you create a new >template. This is an option under the document menu. Then, in that >template, >you record the key sequences as macros, and give them names that >correspond >to the characters (to keep from losing your mind). > >Finally, you create a custom toolbar (Tools/Customize/Toolbars/New). >Search >for "create a custom toolbar" in Microsoft Word Help, and follow the >instructions. For each toolbar entry, you can make a little graphic that >shows the character. > >Save the template under some useful name. Ours is Athapascan.dot. You >might >use Hawaiian.dot. You can share the template. You just have to be wary of >security settings that will restrict macro execution. This can be a pain, >but I'm sure you can work it out. This way, you are not dependent on >waiting >for someone else to make a keyboard for you. You can display the toolbar >just like the other toolbars in the Word window. > >I can send it to you if you want to see it. ======================================================================= 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 Paul_Lewis at SIL.ORG Sat Nov 13 00:42:01 2004 From: Paul_Lewis at SIL.ORG (Paul_Lewis at SIL.ORG) Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2004 18:42:01 -0600 Subject: a thought on microsoft... In-Reply-To: <642A6318-3500-11D9-832A-0003936727C2@dakotacom.net> Message-ID: Readers of this list and participants in this discussion thread might be interested in the progress so far of UNESCO's Initiative B at BEL. http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=16601&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html Paul Lewis Editor, Ethnologue SIL International 7500 W. Camp Wisdom Rd. Dallas, TX 75236 phil cash cash To Sent by: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Indigenous cc Languages and Technology Subject 11/12/2004 05:12 PM Please respond to Indigenous Languages and Technology I wonder if endangered language communities with small populations warrant the kinds of software localization like Quechua and Swahili. It would seem, in any given situation, one would need a strong developing literacy and stable orthography to support this kind of development, not to mention some long term heritage language benefits. Just curious, and thanks for all your messages as I am learning a lot from your discussions, phil cash cash UofA From keola at LEOKI.UHH.HAWAII.EDU Sat Nov 13 01:10:09 2004 From: keola at LEOKI.UHH.HAWAII.EDU (Keola Donaghy) Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2004 15:10:09 -1000 Subject: a thought on microsoft... In-Reply-To: Message-ID: I did locate MS' Keyboard Creator, if anyone else is interested. I'll be looking at it myself this weekend for our use. Works on Windows 2000, Windows XP, or Windows Server 2003. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=FB7B3DCD-D4C1-4943-9C74-D8DF57EF19D7&displaylang=en Keola ======================================================================= 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 dzo at BISHARAT.NET Sat Nov 13 09:35:52 2004 From: dzo at BISHARAT.NET (Donald Z. Osborn) Date: Sat, 13 Nov 2004 03:35:52 -0600 Subject: a thought on microsoft... In-Reply-To: <642A6318-3500-11D9-832A-0003936727C2@dakotacom.net> Message-ID: Phil, These are good points. It's hard to imagine that we'd see a full-blown software suite for every language including those with very few speakers, but how things play out in the vast middle ground of languages with, say, 50,000 to 1,000,000 speakers is the interesting question. One thing that I've been pushing, without a whole lot of success I'm afraid, is the idea of lesser localizations, meaning accommodation of needs for using various languages even if the operating environment is still in a more widely used language (a convenient acronym for which is LWC - language[s] of wider communication). These include the means for composition in minority languages - fonts and keyboards where orthographies require it, content (not necessarily limited to text), and better provision for use of audio (e.g., audio e-mail). In addition to the problem of attitudes in industry and development agencies that "everyone uses [insert LWC name]" there also seems to be an all or nothing mentality - why do anything if you can't do everything (so no lite or intermediate measures are seriously entertained). Such lesser localizations can be applied fairly quickly and cheaply in ICT4D and education projects. I think there is a need to expand thinking about localization and recognize that there may be various solutions for different situations, and perhaps even a vision of a sequence of progressively more technically complex solutions. Beyond that, the issues you raise about literacy and orthographies are centrally important. First-language literacy and pluriliteracy (multi/bilingual literacy) issues need to be addressed in more comprehensive plans for expanding access to ICT, and this in turn brings in language and educational policy considerations. At the same time it would seem necessary not to get trapped into thinking that literacy has to come first, in which case nothing will happen. Localized content and even software will (depending on the language situation) likely find people along a spectrum between those just learning to read anything for the first time, to those who are literate in an additional language but never learned to read their first one, to those who are literate in the first language and perhaps others. The issue of stable standard orthographies is important for progress in the written form of a language, of course, but it's pretty much essential for full utilization of the potential of basic software features like sorts and spell checks and advanced tools such as machine translation or text-to-speech. This is an issue that requires communication between linguists, educators, and technicians. Standardizing orthography is a concern that seems particularly urgent in Africa, even though there has already been significant work on this in past decades. We're not only talking about languages with few speakers, but even for some of the major ones there is still discussion on fundamentals of what are fairly well established orthographies. And then there is the issue of different countries' conventions for the many languages that cross borders. Nevertheless, it would seem advantageous to forge ahead however imperfectly (and a lot of the African language material that there is, from web content to localized Googles, not to mention e-mails, does not follow any strict rules). However, if it's worth doing (and it is), it's worth doing wrong ... at least at this point and for things that can be fixed. The last point may bring up a note of caution re software localization. While messy localized content can be fixed, the existence of language localized software that is somehow deficient, erroneous, or idiosyncratic in its usage of the language - for reasons of orthography or other - might be more problematic in the long term than to wait a little while in order to get it right. Sorry if these musings ramble a bit. I'm working on something in this topic area and this lets me run out some ideas that may be of interest to others. Don Osborn Bisharat.net Quoting phil cash cash : > I wonder if endangered language communities with small populations > warrant the kinds of software localization like Quechua and Swahili. > It would seem, in any given situation, one would need a strong > developing literacy and stable orthography to support this kind of > development, not to mention some long term heritage language benefits. > > Just curious, and thanks for all your messages as I am learning a lot > from your discussions, > > phil cash cash > UofA > From phonosemantics at EARTHLINK.NET Sat Nov 13 21:19:30 2004 From: phonosemantics at EARTHLINK.NET (jess tauber) Date: Sat, 13 Nov 2004 16:19:30 -0500 Subject: a thought on microsoft... Message-ID: In the situation with Yahgan, which only has two fluent speakers illiterate in the language, the issue of standardizing orthographies is a vital one, for teaching, document creation, and computerization. Five different systems, of 20 or so used historically, are "in play". Most of the existing documentation is in two very different versions of an ideosyncratic phonetic orthography developed in the first half of the 19th C. by a British phoneticist and modified twice by the missionary living with the Yahgans. In this century there is an officially recognized standard orthography (in Chile) developed on the basis of recent work with the last speakers by Chilean linguists, an ad hoc system used by the rest of the Yahgans to render words and phrases (since I'm told they don't like to use the official system), and the one I came up with, which is just a retranscription of the first missionary system into conventional alphabetical symbols all of which can be found on a standard keyboard. Because I'm working with documentation in all 20 systems, I've had to convert very often to the ones in play. These 5 are going to remain a problem- the heirs of the missionary insist his two systems be used in any publication (paper or electronic), the Chileans don't want multiple systems (which has been a problem for them in the case of Mapuche/Mapudungan), and the Yahgans themselves want to go their own way. I've only used my own system on-line at the Yahgan language discussion on Yahoo (since I haven't figured out how to get their system to take non-standard symbols, and they haven't answered my queries). This is also an issue for data storage, since without some sort of encoding the nonstandard symbols mean documents have to be stored as lumps, and not strings. The Yahoo discussion limits the storage space. I've been looking around for possibilities for font development to get around this problem, but that's way beyond my rudimentary abilities. The Yahgan population itself is in the very low hundreds, and with only two fluent speakers left it will be some time (if ever) enough of a base exists to warrent the kind of work it would take to do the kind of things being discussed in this thread. But danged if it doesn't sound interesting! Maybe by the time things are actually moving on the ground the technology/tools will have gotten to the point where much less effort is necessary to throw something usable together. Hope springs eternal. Jess Tauber phonosemantics at earthlink.net From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Sun Nov 14 18:02:39 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Sun, 14 Nov 2004 11:02:39 -0700 Subject: Initiative B@bel and Script Encoding Initiative Supporting Linguistic Diversity in Cyberspace (fwd) Message-ID: Initiative B at bel and Script Encoding Initiative Supporting Linguistic Diversity in Cyberspace 12-11-2004 (UNESCO) http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=17488&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html Efforts continue to add N'ko, a script used by the Manden people of West Africa, to the international character encoding standards Unicode and ISO/IEC 10646 through a project of the University of California Berkeley's Script Encoding Initiative that is supported by UNESCO's Initiative B at bel. Once included in the standard and after a standardized font is developed, users will be able to use N'ko in email, on webpages, in blogs, or on other electronic documents. Currently, electronic text communication in the N'ko script is very difficult, impeding publication of newspapers, magazines, school texts and other books. For a population of 20 million, this presents a significant barrier to literacy efforts. With the assistance of UNESCO's Initiative B at bel, a Unicode script proposal for N'ko was written by Irish script-expert Michael Everson, and has been approved for balloting by the relevant International Organization for Standardization working group. N'ko is on the path for inclusion in the next full release of Unicode (5.0). As part of stage two of the project, a font will be created and locale information identified. This project advances efforts to build knowledge societies by promoting linguistic diversity and survival of the world's languages in the digital world. It will provide a means for minority groups to preserve their cultural and literary heritage and promote literacy in their language. In partnership with UNESCO's Initiative B at bel, the Script Encoding Initiative will be able to continue in its quest to encode the scripts of the world still missing from the Unicode Standard. The N'Ko alphabet was invented by Soulemayne Kante of Kankan, Guinea, in 1949. It is mainly used by speakers of Malinke, Bambara, Dyula and their dialects, especially in Guinea, Mali and Ivory Coast. It was designed to accurately transcribe African tonal languages with special attention to tones that cannot be transcribed with the Latin alphabet. Link(s) University of California at Berkeley Department of Linguistics Script Encoding Initiative UNESCO and Multilingualism UNESCO’s Imitative B at bel Contact Paul Hector, UNESCO, Information Society Division Source UNESCO This item can be found in the following topics:       · Africa       · Multilingualism in Cyberspace From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US Mon Nov 15 15:14:11 2004 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP) Date: Mon, 15 Nov 2004 08:14:11 -0700 Subject: a thought on microsoft... Message-ID: Jess, If you want me to help you with the font development, let me know. We might also consider looking for some grant funding for this. I know how to do fonts and make them accessible to spell-check. Grammar checking is more work than I can handle at the moment, but I am working on solving that problem for my dissertation. Mia 505.646.2350 ----- Original Message ----- From: "jess tauber" To: Sent: Saturday, November 13, 2004 2:19 PM Subject: Re: a thought on microsoft... > In the situation with Yahgan, which only has two fluent speakers illiterate in the language, the issue of standardizing orthographies is a vital one, for teaching, document creation, and computerization. > > Five different systems, of 20 or so used historically, are "in play". Most of the existing documentation is in two very different versions of an ideosyncratic phonetic orthography developed in the first half of the 19th C. by a British phoneticist and modified twice by the missionary living with the Yahgans. In this century there is an officially recognized standard orthography (in Chile) developed on the basis of recent work with the last speakers by Chilean linguists, an ad hoc system used by the rest of the Yahgans to render words and phrases (since I'm told they don't like to use the official system), and the one I came up with, which is just a retranscription of the first missionary system into conventional alphabetical symbols all of which can be found on a standard keyboard. > > > Because I'm working with documentation in all 20 systems, I've had to convert very often to the ones in play. These 5 are going to remain a problem- the heirs of the missionary insist his two systems be used in any publication (paper or electronic), the Chileans don't want multiple systems (which has been a problem for them in the case of Mapuche/Mapudungan), and the Yahgans themselves want to go their own way. I've only used my own system on-line at the Yahgan language discussion on Yahoo (since I haven't figured out how to get their system to take non-standard symbols, and they haven't answered my queries). > > This is also an issue for data storage, since without some sort of encoding the nonstandard symbols mean documents have to be stored as lumps, and not strings. The Yahoo discussion limits the storage space. I've been looking around for possibilities for font development to get around this problem, but that's way beyond my rudimentary abilities. > > The Yahgan population itself is in the very low hundreds, and with only two fluent speakers left it will be some time (if ever) enough of a base exists to warrent the kind of work it would take to do the kind of things being discussed in this thread. But danged if it doesn't sound interesting! Maybe by the time things are actually moving on the ground the technology/tools will have gotten to the point where much less effort is necessary to throw something usable together. Hope springs eternal. > > Jess Tauber > phonosemantics at earthlink.net > > From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US Mon Nov 15 15:19:28 2004 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP) Date: Mon, 15 Nov 2004 08:19:28 -0700 Subject: microsoft Message-ID: Hi, Keola, I encountered this problem, but at least where I was looking at the time, most of the programs did not support the scripting necessary to build the internal keyboard. I am sure you have looked at Keyman, yes? $50 or so for a keyboard; I don't know what the customization charges are. How I do the exchange, since I do mostly graphics programs for learning materials, is I create the text in Word, and then copy via clipboard into the graphics programs. The place where the change needs to be made, by the way, is in the lowest levels of the operating system, where the language and country codes are set. To weigh in on localization, I think each place with an endangered language needs to have localization support! To say, Is it worth it? is to side with the monoliguists (English works for me! It should work for everyone. NOT) Mia ----- Original Message ----- From: "Keola Donaghy" To: Sent: Friday, November 12, 2004 5:37 PM Subject: Re: microsoft > Aloha Mia, I did write up a set of instructions for users to customize the > character map in Word, but didn't have time to create a custom toolbar. > One problem is that our users need to type in Hawaiian within applications > other than Word - we need a system-wide keyboard. There is a utility for > creating custom keyboards on Microsoft's site, I just need to find the > time to look at it. We currently have a program that was developed for us > and we redistribute it freely on our website (along with the fonts), but > again, we're simply trying to avoid making users download, install and > configure software. It does work across most Windows apps. We've been > doing that for too many years. It save us a lot of trouble if we could > simply get MS to work with us like Apple did. > > Keola > > > Indigenous Languages and Technology writes: > >For Athapascan, I made a toolbar. I did have to create the underlying > >fonts, > >but since you already have them, you merely need to code the characters. > >This is approximately how you do it: > > > > > >First, in Microsoft Word, you code shortcut key sequences for each of your > >special characters. Be wary of the embedded sequences; there are a lot of > >them in Word. I ended up using 3-key sequences, just to stay out of the > >way > >of the keyboarders. Then, still in Microsoft Word, you create a new > >template. This is an option under the document menu. Then, in that > >template, > >you record the key sequences as macros, and give them names that > >correspond > >to the characters (to keep from losing your mind). > > > >Finally, you create a custom toolbar (Tools/Customize/Toolbars/New). > >Search > >for "create a custom toolbar" in Microsoft Word Help, and follow the > >instructions. For each toolbar entry, you can make a little graphic that > >shows the character. > > > >Save the template under some useful name. Ours is Athapascan.dot. You > >might > >use Hawaiian.dot. You can share the template. You just have to be wary of > >security settings that will restrict macro execution. This can be a pain, > >but I'm sure you can work it out. This way, you are not dependent on > >waiting > >for someone else to make a keyboard for you. You can display the toolbar > >just like the other toolbars in the Word window. > > > >I can send it to you if you want to see it. > > > > ======================================================================== > 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 MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US Mon Nov 15 15:20:07 2004 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP) Date: Mon, 15 Nov 2004 08:20:07 -0700 Subject: a thought on microsoft... Message-ID: Jess, If you want me to help you with the font development, let me know. We might also consider looking for some grant funding for this. I know how to do fonts and make them accessible to spell-check. Grammar checking is more work than I can handle at the moment, but I am working on solving that problem for my dissertation. Mia ----- Original Message ----- From: "jess tauber" To: Sent: Saturday, November 13, 2004 2:19 PM Subject: Re: a thought on microsoft... > In the situation with Yahgan, which only has two fluent speakers illiterate in the language, the issue of standardizing orthographies is a vital one, for teaching, document creation, and computerization. > > Five different systems, of 20 or so used historically, are "in play". Most of the existing documentation is in two very different versions of an ideosyncratic phonetic orthography developed in the first half of the 19th C. by a British phoneticist and modified twice by the missionary living with the Yahgans. In this century there is an officially recognized standard orthography (in Chile) developed on the basis of recent work with the last speakers by Chilean linguists, an ad hoc system used by the rest of the Yahgans to render words and phrases (since I'm told they don't like to use the official system), and the one I came up with, which is just a retranscription of the first missionary system into conventional alphabetical symbols all of which can be found on a standard keyboard. > > > Because I'm working with documentation in all 20 systems, I've had to convert very often to the ones in play. These 5 are going to remain a problem- the heirs of the missionary insist his two systems be used in any publication (paper or electronic), the Chileans don't want multiple systems (which has been a problem for them in the case of Mapuche/Mapudungan), and the Yahgans themselves want to go their own way. I've only used my own system on-line at the Yahgan language discussion on Yahoo (since I haven't figured out how to get their system to take non-standard symbols, and they haven't answered my queries). > > This is also an issue for data storage, since without some sort of encoding the nonstandard symbols mean documents have to be stored as lumps, and not strings. The Yahoo discussion limits the storage space. I've been looking around for possibilities for font development to get around this problem, but that's way beyond my rudimentary abilities. > > The Yahgan population itself is in the very low hundreds, and with only two fluent speakers left it will be some time (if ever) enough of a base exists to warrent the kind of work it would take to do the kind of things being discussed in this thread. But danged if it doesn't sound interesting! Maybe by the time things are actually moving on the ground the technology/tools will have gotten to the point where much less effort is necessary to throw something usable together. Hope springs eternal. > > Jess Tauber > phonosemantics at earthlink.net > > From gmccone at NAL.USDA.GOV Mon Nov 15 15:22:05 2004 From: gmccone at NAL.USDA.GOV (Gary McCone) Date: Mon, 15 Nov 2004 10:22:05 -0500 Subject: Using a New Language in Africa to Save Dying Ones Message-ID: The article below from NYTimes.com has been sent to you by gmccone at nal.usda.gov. Using a New Language in Africa to Save Dying Ones November 12, 2004 By MARC LACEY NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov. 11 - Swahili speakers wishing to use a "kompyuta" - as computer is rendered in Swahili - have been out of luck when it comes to communicating in their tongue. Computers, no matter how bulky their hard drives or sophisticated their software packages, have not yet mastered Swahili or hundreds of other indigenous African languages. But that may soon change. Across the continent, linguists are working with experts in information technology to make computers more accessible to Africans who happen not to know English, French or the other major languages that have been programmed into the world's desktops. There are economic reasons for the outreach. Microsoft, which is working to incorporate Swahili into Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office and other popular programs, sees a market for its software among the roughly 100 million Swahili speakers in East Africa. The same goes for Google, which last month launched www.google.co.ke, offering a Kenyan version in Swahili of the popular search engine. But the campaign to Africanize cyberspace is not all about the bottom line. There are hundreds of languages in Africa - some spoken only by a few dozen elders - and they are dying out at an alarming rate. The continent's linguists see the computer as one important way of saving them. Unesco estimates that 90 percent of the world's 6,000 languages are not represented on the Internet, and that one language is disappearing somewhere around the world every two weeks. "Technology can overrun these languages and entrench Anglophone imperialism," said Tunde Adegbola, a Nigerian computer scientist and linguist who is working to preserve Yoruba, a West African language spoken by millions of people in western Nigeria as well as in Cameroon and Niger. "But if we act, we can use technology to preserve these so-called minority languages." Experts say that putting local languages on the screen will also lure more Africans to information technology, narrowing the digital divide between the world's rich and poor. As it is now, Internet cafes are becoming more and more common in even the smallest of African towns, but most of the people at the keyboards are the educated elite. Wireless computer networks are appearing - there is one at the Nairobi airport and another at the Intercontinental Hotel in Kigali, Rwanda's capital - but they are geared for the wealthy not the working class. Extending the computer era to the remote reaches of Africa requires more than just wiring the villages. Experts say that software must be developed and computer keyboards adapted so that Swahili speakers and those who communicate in Amharic, Yoruba, Hausa, Sesotho and many other languages spoken in Africa feel at home. Mr. Adegbola, executive director of the African Languages Technology Initiative, has developed a keyboard able to deal with the complexities of Yoruba, a tonal language. Different Yoruba words are written the same way using the Latin alphabet - the tones that differentiate them are indicated by extra punctuation. It can take many different keystrokes to complete a Yoruba word. To accomplish the same result with fewer, more comfortable keystrokes, Mr. Adegbola made a keyboard without the letters Q, Z, X, C and V, which Yoruba does not use. He repositioned the vowels, which are high-frequency, to more prominent spots and added accent marks and other symbols, creating what he calls Africa's first indigenous language keyboard. Now, Mr. Adegbola is at work on voice recognition software that can convert spoken Yoruba into text. Related research is under way in Ethiopia. Amharic, the official language, has 345 letters and letter variations, which has made developing a coherent keyboard difficult. Further complicating the project, the country also has its own system of time and its own calendar. Still, computer experts at Addis Ababa University are making headway. Recently, they came up with a system that will allow Amharic speakers to send text messages, a relatively new phenomenon in the country. The researchers involved in the project envision it as more than a way for Amharic-speaking teenagers to gossip among themselves. Text messaging could be a development tool, they say, if farmers in remote areas of the country can get instant access to coffee prices or weather reports. The Ethiopian researchers hope a cellphone maker will see the country's millions of Amharic speakers as a big enough market to turn their concept into a commercial Amharic handset. Mr. Adegbola has similar dreams. He is distributing his keyboard free to influential Yoruba speakers, hoping to attract some deep-pocketed entrepreneur who could turn it into a business venture. In South Africa, researchers at the Unit for Language Facilitation and Empowerment at the University of the Free State are working on a computerized translation system between English and two local languages, Afrikaans and Southern Sotho. Cobus Snyman, who heads the project, said the goal is to extend the system to Xhosa, Venda, Tsonga and other South African languages. One of Microsoft's motivations in localizing its software is to try to head off the movement toward open-source operating systems like Linux, which are increasingly popular. South Africa has already adopted Linux, which it considers more cost efficient and more likely to stimulate local software development. Patrick Opiyo, the Microsoft official in charge of the Swahili program, portrays the effort as more about community outreach than business development. Besides Swahili, the company is looking at making its products more available to those who speak Amharic, Zulu and Yoruba and the other two widely used languages in Nigeria - Hausa and Igbo. In Kenya, Microsoft has rounded up some of the region's top Swahili scholars to come up with a glossary of 3,000 technical terms - the first step in the company's effort to make Microsoft products accessible to Swahili speakers. Sitting around a conference table recently in Microsoft's sleek offices in downtown Nairobi, the linguists discussed how to convey basic words from the computer age in Swahili, also known as Kiswahili, beginning with the most basic one of all. "When these modern machines arrived, Kiswahili came up with a quick word for something that didn't exist in our culture," said Clara Momanyi, a Swahili professor at Kenyatta University in Nairobi. "That was 'kompyuta.' " But scholars subsequently opted for a more local term to describe these amazing machines, she said. It is tarakilishi, which is a combination of the word for "image" and the word for "represent." The Swahili experts grappled with a variety of other words. How does one say folder? Should it be folda, which is commonly used, or kifuko, a more formal term? Is a fax a faksi, as the Tanzanians call it, or a kipepesi? Everyone seemed to agree that an e-mail message was a barua pepe, which means a fast letter. Everyone also seemed to agree that the effort they were engaged in to bring Swahili to cyberspace was long overdue. "Every continent seems to have a language in the computer, and here we are with nothing," said Mwanashehe Saum Mohammed, a Swahili expert at the United States International University in Nairobi and one of the Microsoft consultants. "This will make Africans feel part of the world community. The fact that the continent is full of poor people doesn't mean we shouldn't be on the world map - or in the computer." http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/12/international/africa/12africa.html?ex= 1101531852&ei=1&en=1f262204b5ef0310 Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Nov 15 19:06:28 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Mon, 15 Nov 2004 12:06:28 -0700 Subject: Utopia colouring books (fwd) Message-ID: Utopia colouring books Reporter: Ian Jamieson Presenter: Annie Gastin Monday, 15 November  2004  http://www.abc.net.au/nt/stories/s1244071.htm Everyone likes to colour. That’s what Gail Woods told me about three new language books launched in Alice Springs recently. Gail is a lecturer with the Batchelor Institute of Tertiary Education. She lives in Alice Springs and conducts her workshops at Utopia, an Aboriginal community to the north-east of Alice Springs. The three books reflect the three languages spoken in the area. “Utopia is Anmatyerra and Alyawarr country and there is a small pocket of Kaytetye as well”, Gail told me. She will be using the books with her adult classes although they will be very useful for children . “The focus at Utopia is reading and writing those languages because that’s what the students want to do,” Gail says. Each page focuses on one word at the top, an illustration depicting the word which takes up most of the page and a sentence in language with an English translation. “We could use that sentence in a lot of different ways for quite a few different lessons”, Gail explained. The sounds, the sentence structure and grammar are analysed. The pictures include all sorts of fun things: kids swimming in waterholes and hunting for bush tucker, and there are dingoes and goannas, and kangaroos too. Jenny Taylor, Lecturer in Art & Craft at Batchelor Institute assisted with the illustrations. Gail told me the oral language is very strong at Utopia but when young children first arrive at school they are taught in English and learning to read and write in a foreign language is difficult. There are five schools in the area which means a fair amount of time is taken up with travelling for lecturers such as Gail. Maintaining and promoting an indigenous language is very important. “It is integral for maintaining culture for which it encodes,” she says. Words relating to ceremonies and kinship for which there are no English equivalents must be retained for the culture to thrive. IAD Press, which published the books, hopes they will be popular with children right around Australia. Gail Woods talks about the books ( Audio in RealMedia format ) From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Nov 15 19:10:02 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Mon, 15 Nov 2004 12:10:02 -0700 Subject: She's a voice of tradition (fwd) Message-ID: She's a voice of tradition Area Indian tribes work to save native languages By Dena Sloan Globe Staff Writer http://joplinglobe.joplinglobe.com/story.php?story_id=141236&c=87 MIAMI, Okla. - She doesn't have any textbooks. There aren't any dictionaries. The instructional tapes she uses are the ones she's made herself. Her workbooks are her own handiwork. There's an element of self-reliance and determination wrapped up in 73-year-old Ardina Moore's crusade to save a little-spoken language. The Miami woman said she's the last person in the area, and one of the very few last people in the country, who still speaks Quapaw fluently. And if the endangered language is to be saved, she's got to help do it. "I'm getting up there in years," she said. "It's imperative that I do what I can as soon as I can, and try to pass that on." Moore was raised by her Quapaw-speaking grandparents who lived in a Quapaw community along Spring River about three miles east of Miami. They encouraged her to speak English at home, but Moore couldn't help but learn to speak and understand the language. Though she no longer has other native speakers with whom to converse, reciting daily prayers in Quapaw helps her remember the language she heard growing up. Her grandparents' generation, as children, was disciplined for speaking the native language. Now Moore works with adult students who travel to Miami from as far away as Tulsa in the hopes that they'll pass the language along to their children. "They want to be who they are, they're Quapaw people. It's in the blood," she said of her students. "When we lose our language, we lose our culture. Our culture is very important to us." After past decades of government policies aimed at eliminating American Indian cultures and trying to wipe out native languages, organized efforts are under way to bring them back. Scholars say many of the indigenous languages are in danger of disappearing all together. Because these languages were traditionally taught orally and weren't written down, they were more vulnerable. >From volunteer programs at local American Indian cultural centers to university courses in native languages, scholars and grassroots groups offer a wide assortment of classes in tribal tongues. Many say it's an uphill battle and a race against time as those who grew up hearing native languages are dying. For those tribes whose members don't live in a concentrated area, the forces of assimilation can be hard to overcome. But for groups of local American Indians, preserving and revitalizing the languages of their ancestors have taken on both a special importance and a special urgency. "There's an incredible number of native languages that are just disappearing," said Gus Palmer, an associate professor of anthropology and director of the Native Language Program at the University of Oklahoma. "Among Indian communities, there's a crisis." Forbidden Before contact with European explorers, an estimated 400 to 600 indigenous languages were spoken in the United States and Canada, said Ine Slaughter, executive director of the Indigenous Language Institute in Santa Fe, N.M. An estimated 210 languages are spoken today, but only about 20 are being learned by children from parents and elders. Many more are spoken by older tribal members, but are not systematically being passed on to younger generations, she said. Government-run schools aimed at assimilating Indian children during the late 19th and early 20th centuries prohibited students from speaking their tribe's language in an effort to "kill the Indian, save the man." Several local tribal members who grew up with parents or grandparents who spoke the language said they were discouraged from learning it. As children, their grandparents would be punished for speaking tribal tongues in missionary and government-run schools, so they discouraged children from learning the languages that were formerly forbidden. Now representatives of a number of area tribes, including the Peoria, Modoc and Eastern Shawnee, said they don't know of any people fluent in their native languages. "Unfortunately, assimilation worked pretty well for a lot of tribes around here," said John Froman, chief of the Peoria Tribe in Miami, whose grandfather was the product of several Indian boarding schools. "One of the first things they did was cut your hair and (forbid children) to speak their native languages. As a youth, if you were shipped out of your climate, you didn't have the opportunity to speak (the language), you pretty much lost it. The assimilation of the Native American worked to some extent. A vital part of our culture is gone." 'Foreign' language Movements begun in the early 1990s have been trying to turn the trend around both in Northeastern Oklahoma, as well as in other parts of the country. Slaughter said legislation passed by Congress in the early 1990s called for preserving indigenous languages and began allocating money for language programs helped spark what had previously been a much smaller effort to preserve tribal vocabulary. Northeastern Oklahoma A&M University in Miami began offering courses in native languages about 10 years ago, and revitalization efforts have since gotten under way among local tribes, including the Miami, Ottawa, Seneca-Cayuga and Wyandotte. In addition to the Cherokee courses now offered at NEO, the school previously offered classes in the Ottawa, Quapaw, Seneca and Cayuga languages, said Te Nona Kuhn, director of the Native American Studies program. When she was involved in Quapaw classes at NEO, Moore said she found it ironic that it was listed under foreign language course offerings. "We want to think of the European languages as the native language (in the United States), but it's probably the tribal languages," Kuhn said. And while colleges and universities in Oklahoma, Arizona, New Mexico and other states have formal language programs, Paul Barton meets every Monday night with his class of 10 to 12 students to learn the Seneca and Cayuga languages. (Both are similar to the Iroquois language and are almost identical.) Barton, the cultural resource representative of the Seneca-Cayuga tribe, said outside forces like sports teams schedules and pow wow season sometimes causes a few weeks' break in the class where students learn words, greetings and how to introduce themselves and others. But even Barton, who has traveled to New York and Canada to learn the language and get resources from other tribal members, doesn't speak the language fluently, and he doesn't seem hopeful that others in the area will pick up that skill. Many of the tribe's ceremonies and prayers are still conducted in the native tongue, helping it to survive, he said. Many of the words can't be translated exactly into English, and even the simple greeting of "hello" carries with it deeper meanings. "At the same time, you're talking about culture, heritage and history, where we come from and who we are," Barton said. "They're the gifts from the Creator. In order to retain them, we must keep them in our mind. The language is a vital part of that." 'An obligation' A few members of the Ottawa tribe attend a yearly summer camp in Michigan to study the tribe's language, Anishinaabemowin, said Rhonda Dixon, the tribe's librarian, historian and archivist. All of the local tribal members who spoke it fluently have already died, so Dixon and a few others try to organize an annual class to teach the language. She said she's been studying it since college, and has some language books and an Ottawa-English dictionary written by one of the local chiefs in the early 1980s. Knowing the language is helpful in her job for the tribe, but there's also a more personal reason for her studies. "Without the language, there's really no history to the tribe," she said. Though her grandparents wouldn't formally teach it to her, Ardina Moore continues to try to get students together to learn the Quapaw language. It can be difficult to coordinate the schedules of so many people who are scattered around the area. But it's learning that must be done in person, she said. The sounds, inflections and pronunciations aren't native to English, and Moore said she sometimes has to physically show students how to make particular nasal or guttural sounds. It's a more difficult language to learn than French or Spanish, which have words and influences that are a part of everyday life. Native tongues are far less prevalent in everyday life, but Moore said it's necessary that she help her people know who they are and from where they come. "It's not something everyone can do," she said. "I feel an obligation."   2004 The Joplin Globe. From keola at LEOKI.UHH.HAWAII.EDU Tue Nov 16 18:14:46 2004 From: keola at LEOKI.UHH.HAWAII.EDU (Keola Donaghy) Date: Tue, 16 Nov 2004 08:14:46 -1000 Subject: microsoft In-Reply-To: <008001c4cb26$7ff73640$03ec7b80@red6bvg9btk> Message-ID: Aloha Mia. We did hire the developer of Keyman several years ago to create 2 Hawaiian keyboard layouts (both using our custom 8-bit fonts and Unicode), and were able to purchase a world-wide license from him so that we could distribute it freely (for use with the Hawaiian keyboards only) from our website. Has worked OK, but it's still an extra step for our users that I'd love to be able to avoid some day. Keola Indigenous Languages and Technology writes: >I encountered this problem, but at least where I was looking at the time, >most of the programs did not support the scripting necessary to build the >internal keyboard. I am sure you have looked at Keyman, yes? $50 or so >for a >keyboard; I don't know what the customization charges are. > >How I do the exchange, since I do mostly graphics programs for learning >materials, is I create the text in Word, and then copy via clipboard into >the graphics programs. > >The place where the change needs to be made, by the way, is in the lowest >levels of the operating system, where the language and country codes are >set. > >To weigh in on localization, I think each place with an endangered >language >needs to have localization support! To say, Is it worth it? is to side >with >the monoliguists (English works for me! It should work for everyone. NOT) ======================================================================= 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 mward at LUNA.CC.NM.US Tue Nov 16 18:21:33 2004 From: mward at LUNA.CC.NM.US (Matthew Ward) Date: Tue, 16 Nov 2004 11:21:33 -0700 Subject: a thought on microsoft... Message-ID: Keola Donaghy wrote: > Among some of >the more snide replies I've received from MS have included "Why would you >want it in Hawaiian, don't you all speak English anyway?" :-/ > > Grrrr.... From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Tue Nov 16 19:22:59 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Tue, 16 Nov 2004 12:22:59 -0700 Subject: Vanishing Voices: What Else is Lost (fwd) Message-ID: Vanishing Voices: What Else is Lost by K. David Harrison http://www.science-spirit.org/articles/Articledetail.cfm?article_ID=453 November December 2004 Dongur. It’s a powerful word. It means “male domesticated reindeer in its third year and first mating season, but not ready for mating,” and it allows a tribe of nomadic reindeer herders in Siberia to identify and describe with a single word what would otherwise require a complex construction. But the Tofa are giving up their ancestral tongue in favor of Russian—the dominant, national language that doesn’t have a remote equivalent to the word dongur. And the Tofa are just one of hundreds of small communities whose language is endangered. When working with such groups, it’s hard to keep from wondering not only how knowledge is encoded in language, but what exactly is lost when these small languages vanish. Some linguists, including Noam Chomsky and Steven Pinker, have spoken of language in the technical, cognitive sense as consisting mainly of words and rules. An English speaker, for example, has in her lexicon the word “hat,” which is simply an arbitrary string of sounds she has learned to associate with an object you wear on your head. She also has a rule of morphology that tells her the plural is “hats” and a rule of syntax that says when there’s an adjective, put it first—“red hat,” not “hat red.” And she has certain cognitive structures, not learned but thought to be genetic. The knowledge that nouns and adjectives are different types of things and that one modifies the other, for example, allows her to understand that red describes a type of hat, but hat does not describe a type of red. This cognitive view, while not incorrect, bypasses much of the knowledge that language actually contains. Languages abound in “cultural knowledge,” which is neither genetic nor explicitly learned, but comes to us in an information package—rich and hierarchical in its structure. Any English-speaking child may know the word “uncle,” but what does she store in her head as its meaning? An uncle may be a mother’s brother, or a mother’s sister’s husband, or perhaps just her parents’ adult male friend. The English-speaking child has no explicit linguistic information to indicate these are distinct positions in the kinship tree. Why not? We could speculate that since it was not culturally crucial to distinguish these positions, the language did not do so. While our mind readily grasps the various concepts of “uncle,” English provides no ready-made, unique labels to distinguish them. Conversely, in cultures with more socially important kinship relations, there exists no general word for “uncle.” Five different types of uncles would have five completely different labels. By simply learning these labels, the child implicitly learns that these are distinct kinship roles. Kinship systems are just the tip of the iceberg. By simply knowing the word dongur, the young Tofa reindeer herder has, at the tip of his tongue, the ability to pick out from the herd and identify a specific set of reindeer. Tofa reindeer herders who have switched to speaking Russian can still talk about and herd reindeer, but they lack the labels to do so efficiently. Knowledge their ancestors accumulated over centuries, knowledge that is very specifically adapted to the narrow ecological niche of reindeer herding in south Siberian mountain forests, has essentially been lost. At its core, human cognition may be the same—no matter what tongue one speaks. But languages package knowledge in radically different ways, facilitating certain means of conceptualizing, naming, and discussing the world. In the case of the young Tofa reindeer herder who no longer speaks his ancestral tongue, the human knowledge base—as manifested in very specific ways of describing the world of reindeer—has been impoverished. Arcane bits of knowledge vanish under the pressures of globalization. But so what? While this may seem like a minor loss in the face of modernity and progress, we cannot even fathom what the longterm effects will be. Science should strive to document this disappearing knowledge while it still exists, and find ways to support communities that wish to retain their endangered languages. K. David Harrison teaches linguistics at Swarthmore College. He regularly travels to Siberia and Mongolia to document endangered languages and learn from the people who speak them. He is writing a book called When Languages Die. Related story: Lost In Translation From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Tue Nov 16 19:27:00 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Tue, 16 Nov 2004 12:27:00 -0700 Subject: Peruvians to enjoy Windows in Quechua (fwd) Message-ID: Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/11/16/quechua_windows/ Peruvians to enjoy Windows in Quechua By Lester Haines (lester.haines at theregister.co.uk) Published Tuesday 16th November 2004 11:26 GMT The estimated three million Peruvian speakers of Quechua will soon be enjoying Microsoft products in their native tongue, according to a report (in Spanish) on Terra.com (http://www.terra.com.mx/tecnologia/articulo/146890/). MS Peru and the Peruvian Ministry of Education have inked a deal to develop Windows products in the ancient language of the Incas. The programmes will be distributed free to teachers and students as part of a nation-wide scheme to promote the language, and will also be installed in internet cafes. Peru's education minister, Javier Sota Nadal, said: "We're going to promote the use of the Quechua language, as well as contribute to its spread as a part of Peruvian culture... Quechua speakers have the right to learn their own language." MS Peru supremo Lieneke Schol added: "This programme offers the opportunity to give access to technology in native tongues with the end result that more people can work with computers in their own language and realise their full potential." Pre-conquest Quechua had no written form (messages were relayed using a system of knotted string, the exact nature of which remains uncertain), but was later transcribed by the Spanish into the Latin alphabet. This will greatly facilitate the efforts of linguists at the Universidad Nacional San Antonio in Cuzco and Universidad Nacional San Cristobal de Huamanga in Ayachucho who are assisting in the translation process. The nuts-and-bolts work will be carried out using MS's "Language Interface Pack Kit" and is expected to yield results by May 2005. ® From coyotez at DARKWING.UOREGON.EDU Tue Nov 16 22:43:25 2004 From: coyotez at DARKWING.UOREGON.EDU (David Lewis) Date: Tue, 16 Nov 2004 14:43:25 -0800 Subject: Call for Papers: AIQ In-Reply-To: <008c01c4cb26$97743e30$03ec7b80@red6bvg9btk> Message-ID: Call for Papers The American Indian Quarterly seeks submissions for its forthcoming Special Issue, "Indigenous Languages and Indigenous Literatures." Indigenous languages have reached a point of crisis; few of the five-hundred Indigenous languages of North America are expected to remain viable into the next century. The threat of language death has coincided with a rise in the use and presence of Indigenous languages in works of the imagination (novels, short stories, essays, poems, and autobiographical works). The urgency of language preservation and the newly emergent and as of yet relatively uninvestigated presence of Indigenous languages in works of the imagination calls for a special issue of AIQ. Topics can include, but are not limited to critical analyses and short commentaries of the following: The politics and protocol of Indigenous language use. Should writers of fiction be excused from responsibility for proper language use because they write creatively? The role of language preservation in the community and in the university. An analysis of how authors use Indigenous languages in their works of fiction. The role of Indigenous languages in the formation and continuation of identity. Cultural authenticity and Indigenous languages. The use and abuse of Indigenous languages. The rise of language preservation in Indigenous communities. The deadline for submissions is January 15, 2004. Please send all queries and submissions (as per AIQ submission guidelines at http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~mihesuah/aiq/guidelines.htm; also include a short author bio) to the Special Issue Guest Editor: David Treuer, Assistant Professor Department of English, University of Minnesota 110L Lind Hall, 207 Church St SE Minneapolis, MN 55418 e-mail: treue003 at umn.edu Devon A. Mihesuah Professor of Applied Indigenous Studies Editor, American Indian Quarterly (aiquarterly at nau.edu) http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~mihesuah Northern Arizona University P.O. Box 15020 Flagstaff, AZ 86011-5020 AIQ phone: 928-523-5159 From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US Wed Nov 17 21:06:16 2004 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP) Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 14:06:16 -0700 Subject: microsoft Message-ID: I don't know how we would do this since the KWERTY keyboard has the fixed keys, and everyone knows how to type on it. Voice recognition is not really sophisticated although there has been a lot of time and technology logged into it. I thought about this a lot when I built the template for Athapascan, and I couldn't think of a better solution than the soft toolbar. This problem really has several dimensions. First is the font itself, and making it portable and interchangeable. The Second is the localization issue, with the related application to generalized software packages. The third is the hardware. How long has the QWERY keyboard been around? . . . since 1868, (Cristopher Latham Sholes in 1868; http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=QWERTY+keyboard+invention) 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). People? Mia ----- Original Message ----- From: "Keola Donaghy" To: Sent: Tuesday, November 16, 2004 11:14 AM Subject: Re: microsoft > Aloha Mia. We did hire the developer of Keyman several years ago to create > 2 Hawaiian keyboard layouts (both using our custom 8-bit fonts and > Unicode), and were able to purchase a world-wide license from him so that > we could distribute it freely (for use with the Hawaiian keyboards only) > from our website. Has worked OK, but it's still an extra step for our > users that I'd love to be able to avoid some day. > > Keola > > Indigenous Languages and Technology writes: > >I encountered this problem, but at least where I was looking at the time, > >most of the programs did not support the scripting necessary to build the > >internal keyboard. I am sure you have looked at Keyman, yes? $50 or so > >for a > >keyboard; I don't know what the customization charges are. > > > >How I do the exchange, since I do mostly graphics programs for learning > >materials, is I create the text in Word, and then copy via clipboard into > >the graphics programs. > > > >The place where the change needs to be made, by the way, is in the lowest > >levels of the operating system, where the language and country codes are > >set. > > > >To weigh in on localization, I think each place with an endangered > >language > >needs to have localization support! To say, Is it worth it? is to side > >with > >the monoliguists (English works for me! It should work for everyone. NOT) > > > ======================================================================== > 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 sburke at CPAN.ORG Thu Nov 18 00:04:22 2004 From: sburke at CPAN.ORG (Sean M. Burke) Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 15:04:22 -0900 Subject: microsoft In-Reply-To: <013a01c4cce9$4778ec90$03ec7b80@red6bvg9btk> Message-ID: At 12:06 PM 2004-11-17, MiaKalish at LFP wrote: >I don't know how we would do this since the KWERTY keyboard has the fixed >keys, and everyone knows how to type on it. Qwerty has language-appropriate variants in every locale on Earth, to say nothing of the keymaps for non-Roman writing systems. Even Canadians have different keyboard layouts. Several in fact! Yea verily, even unto the Canadians. The natives I've worked with have had no trouble learning that what was the [ key is now the ogonek, or whatever keymap they and I agreed on. -- Sean M. Burke http://search.cpan.org/~sburke/ From keola at LEOKI.UHH.HAWAII.EDU Thu Nov 18 00:20:21 2004 From: keola at LEOKI.UHH.HAWAII.EDU (Keola Donaghy) Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 14:20:21 -1000 Subject: microsoft In-Reply-To: <013a01c4cce9$4778ec90$03ec7b80@red6bvg9btk> Message-ID: 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 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 phonosemantics at EARTHLINK.NET Thu Nov 18 04:57:46 2004 From: phonosemantics at EARTHLINK.NET (jess tauber) Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 23:57:46 -0500 Subject: microsoft Message-ID: Re the QWERTY keyboard- I don't know how relevant this is but this particular keyboard design was actually created to SLOW DOWN the typing speeds actually possible from trained users, in the days of mechanical typewriters that actually jammed up because the last striker didn't have enough time to settle back in before the next one went flying- this design problem was solved rather quickly, but by that time so many people were using the QWERTY behavioral "repair" that it was too late to get them to use more rationally designed layouts that had been suggested originally. Such keyboard layouts are out there in the computerized world- might it not be time for people to start fresh and be weaned away from QWERTY especially if we want to start to get them thinking linguistically about their native languages? Most of the nonalphabetic portion of a keyboard these days is more rationally laid out anyway. Just a thought. Jess Tauber phonosemantics at earthlink.net From pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET Thu Nov 18 05:23:37 2004 From: pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 22:23:37 -0700 Subject: Microsoft and UNESCO Announce Joint Education and Community Development Initiatives (fwd) Message-ID: Microsoft and UNESCO Announce Joint Education and Community Development Initiatives Wednesday, November 17, 2004 7:45:00 AM ET PRNewswire PARIS, November 17 /PRNewswire/ -- http://www.newratings.com/analyst_news/article_510792.html Global Collaboration Aims to Promote Digital Inclusion in Developing Countries To support their common goals of promoting socioeconomic development round the world, Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) today announced a cooperation agreement that will help increase access to information and communication technologies (ICT) and ICT skills training in underserved communities. At a formal signing ceremony in Paris, Koichiro Matsuura, UNESCO's director general, and Bill Gates, Microsoft's chairman and chief software architect, outlined details of the agreement. Under the alliance, UNESCO and Microsoft will collaborate on programmes that focus on the specific needs of developing countries round the globe. "We recognise the importance of harnessing ICT to help improve sustainable livelihoods in underserved communities," Matsuura said. "By working with global business leaders such as Microsoft that support our efforts to establish open and inclusive knowledge societies, we can accelerate the creation of social change and the expansion of economic opportunities throughout the developing world." "We are honoured to team with UNESCO on this important initiative," Gates said. "Our shared goal is to help remove barriers to digital inclusion and enable people around the world to realise the full potential of technology -- through education and skills development programmes, community access, and the preservation of cultural and language diversity. Technology is a crucial resource in today's world, but remains beyond the reach of millions of people. We hope to pplay a part in changing that. Under the cooperation agreement -- the result of six months of discussions between the parties -- Microsoft and the UN agency will focus on increasing the use of ICT through the following projects: Education and Learning -- Syllabus for integrating ICT curriculum into teaching. UNESCO and Microsoft believe that ICT can play a significant role in improving teaching and learning, provided that teachers have the training they need to effectively integrate ICT into instructional design, planning and other critical components of education. With assistance from Microsoft, UNESCO will create resource materials supporting the development of curricula and training courses on the use of ICT for teachers and classrooms. The materials will provide content guidance to curriculum authors and course providers, as well as tools to help teachers, education policy-makers and others evaluate the effectiveness of available courseware. This multistakeholder project will draw on Microsoft's expertise in designing ICT products and services for education; in conjunction with its Partners in Learning and Unlimited Potential initiatives, Microsoft recently announced the global availability of two ICT curriculum series for use in schools and community learning settings. -- UNESCO Knowledge Communities. Utilising the Microsoft(R) Solutions Sharing Network platform, UNESCO will develop multiple online communities that allow international and national experts and agencies to exchange content and best practices, share tools, mobilise interested parties, and suggest solutions and strategies to address critical issues in education. Initial community themes will include Technology Solutions in Education, Multilingualism in Cyberspace and Information for All. -- Teacher support and knowledge sharing. UNESCO and Microsoft will explore how Microsoft's Innovative Teachers programme and its online community, the Innovative Teachers Network, can further UNESCO's aims in education. The Innovative Teachers Network connects a global community of educators and provides forums in which teachers can share ideas, content and best practices with other teachers who share a common interest in using technology to enhance teaching and learning. -- ICT access and skills training for teachers and students. UNESCO and Microsoft will also explore how Microsoft's Partners in Learning initiative can help advance efforts to improve education in developing countries. Partners in Learning seeks to deliver teacher and student skills development, tailored curricula, technical support and research, and increased access to technology by working with governments, local schools and teachers. UNESCO and Microsoft will explore opportunities to collaborate under Partners in Learning in Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East and Africa, Eastern Europe, and Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States. Community Access and Development -- Youth technology and learning centres in the North African Arab states. Microsoft and UNESCO will establish a subregional technology centre that will provide North African youth with improved access to ICT and ICT skills development. The facility will share resources and expertise with other centres throughout the region, with the ultimate aim of helping develop North Africa's future work force. The project will draw on resources and best practices from UNESCO's international information and data exchange network INFOYOUTH, and Microsoft's Unlimited Potential initiative. INFOYOUTH organises national, regional and international consultations among a wide variety of stakeholders to facilitate exchanges of data, experiences and analysis on which national and international youth policies are based. Unlimited Potential focuses on improving lifelong learning for underserved young people and adults by providing technology skills through community technology centres. Under the alliance, UNESCO and Microsoft will also explore the potential to collaborate on additional Unlimited Potential projects. -- Computer refurbishment. UNESCO, in collaboration with Microsoft, will foster international cooperation and the sharing of best practices to support refurbishment efforts that can help developing countries increase access to cost-effective computer technology. Cultural and Linguistic Diversity Preservation -- Local language development. UNESCO and Microsoft will explore ways to provide access to technology that preserves language and culture. As part of this exploration, UNESCO will provide consultation to Microsoft and support the company's efforts with local governments to prioritise and expand the number of languages served by its Local Language Program. Launched in early 2004, the Local Language Program is a global initiative that provides desktop software and tools in local languages by collaborating with local experts including governments, universities, language authorities and other interested parties. Microsoft's alliance with UNESCO is an extension of the company's broader digital inclusion commitment to help individuals, communities and nations gain access to the technology, tools, skills and innovation they need to realise their full potential. Additional information is available on Microsoft's EMEA Press Centre website at http://www.microsoft.com/emea/presscentre/unescomicrosoft . -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 9301 bytes Desc: not available URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Thu Nov 18 05:32:19 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 22:32:19 -0700 Subject: Code Talker Was Voice of GI Joe Doll (fwd) Message-ID: Thursday, November 18, 2004 Code Talker Was Voice of GI Joe Doll http://www.abqjournal.com/obits/profiles/259662profiles11-18-04.htm note: did you ever wonder whose voice (in the Navajo language) was recorded for the Navajo GI Joe Doll, well here it is. and if you haven't seen or heard the doll yet, well your missing a chance to experience the many wonders of technology. btw, the dolls are hard to come by here is the SW. phil UofA, ILAT From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Thu Nov 18 05:42:31 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 22:42:31 -0700 Subject: Moms bring back the =?iso-8859-1?b?RGlu6Q==?= language (fwd) Message-ID: Moms bring back the Diné language Navajo-Hopi Observer - News http://www.navajohopiobserver.com/NAVAJOHOPIOBSERVER/myarticles.asp?P=1038668&S=392&PubID=13347 [the article had some unusual code that showed up when i went to cut and paste the text. so here is the link, phil] From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Thu Nov 18 05:45:19 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 22:45:19 -0700 Subject: Indian-owned business helping to save dying languages (fwd) Message-ID: Indian-owned business helping to save dying languages Original speakers are fast diminishing Sam Lewin 11/17/2004 http://nativetimes.com/index.asp?action=displayarticle&article_id=5525 With a new study showing that American Indian languages are being lost at an alarming rate, the work of an Indian-owned business has become even more relevant. Experts say that 25 Native languages are still spoken in Oklahoma, but 10 of them are only one generation from extinction. The reason is that elders who speak the languages are dying out. Swifteagle Enterprises may have the answer, marketing a product called TRAILS, an acronym for Teaching, Restoring and Archiving International Languages Software. Swfiteagle is co-owned by Hanoi Horton Crews, an enrolled member of the New York-based Shinnecock Indian Nation. Crews and her husband, Jim, developed TRAILS because the Shinnecock have lost all speakers of their native tongue. "I wanted to work with the Shinnecock because they have no speakers left and haven't since the 1800's," Jim Crews told the Native American Times from the company's headquarters in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. "We developed a language education program and we made our initial presentation to the Mashantucket Pequot. We did some improvements on it. It was originally a very rudimentary program comparing English and Native words and we improved it so we could teach any Native language in the world. This is an ideal program for tribes. We can archive words, do illustrations-the whole schmear." Swiftgeagle officials made a pitch to Shinnecock tribal officials earlier this year. The company has also attracted the interest of non-Indians, receiving request for information from as far away as Europe. According to the Intertribal Wordpath Society, Oklahoma has 21,359 Indian language speakers, but 10 tribes have 10 or fewer fluent speakers and another 15 have fewer than 200. From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Thu Nov 18 06:01:20 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 23:01:20 -0700 Subject: American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month: November 2004 (fwd) Message-ID: Sunday, November 07, 2004 American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month: November 2004 http://www.infozine.com/news/stories/op/storiesView/sid/4198/ In 1990, President George H.W. Bush signed a joint congressional resolution designating November 1990 as "National American Indian Heritage Month." Similar proclamations have been issued every year since 1994. American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month originated in 1915 when the president of the Congress of American Indian Associations issued a proclamation declaring the second Saturday in May of each year as American Indian Day. The first American Indian Day was celebrated in May 1916 in New York. 4.4 million The estimated number of people, as of July 1, 2003, who are American Indian and Alaska native or American Indian and Alaska native in combination with one or more other races. They make up 1.5 percent of the total population. 141,000 The estimated number of people who are American Indian and Alaska native alone or American Indian and Alaska native in combination with one or more other races added to the nation's population between Census Day, April 1, 2000, and July 1, 2003. This population increased at a rate of 3.3 percent over the period, roughly the same rate of increase as the overall population. American Indian tribal groups with more than 50,000 members are Apache, Cherokee, Chippewa, Choctaw, Lumbee, Navajo, Pueblo and Sioux. Cherokee and Navajo are easily the largest, with populations of 234,000 and 204,000, respectively. Eskimo is the largest Alaska native tribal group, with 37,000 members. Families and Children 484,000 The number of American Indian and Alaska native families. Of these: 294,000, or 61 percent, are married-couple families. 266,000, or 55 percent, are families with their own children under 18. And 141,000, or 29 percent, are married couples with their own children under 18. 48% The percentage of American Indians and Alaska natives who are married. 56% Among American Indians and Alaska natives age 30 and over who live with their grandchildren, the percentage who also provide care for them. Population Distribution Nation 538,300 The number of American Indians and Alaska natives alone or in combination with one or more other races living on reservations or other trust lands. Of this number, 175,200 reside on Navajo nation reservation and trust lands, which span portions of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. This is by far the most populous reservation or trust land. 57% The percentage of American Indians and Alaska natives who live in metropolitan areas, lowest of any race group. A majority of American Indians and Alaska natives lived outside metropolitan areas until about 1990. States 683,900 The American Indian and Alaska native population in California as of July 1, 2003, the highest total of any state in the nation. California is followed by Oklahoma (394,800) and Arizona (327,500). 29,400 The number of American Indians and Alaska natives added to Arizona's population between Census Day, April 1, 2000, and July 1, 2003. That is the largest numeric increase of any state in the nation. Florida and Texas added 13,700 and 11,800, respectively. 19% The percentage of Alaska's population identified as American Indian and Alaska native as of July 1, 2003, the highest rate for this race group of any state in the nation. Alaska was followed by Oklahoma and New Mexico (11 percent each). Counties 154,900 The number of American Indians and Alaska natives in Los Angeles County, Calif., as of July 1, 2003. Los Angeles led all the nation's counties in the number of people of this racial category. 10,800 The number of American Indians or Alaska natives added to the population of Maricopa County, Ariz., between April 1, 2000, and July 1, 2003. Maricopa led all the nation's counties in this category. Age Distribution 1.3 million The number of American Indian and Alaska native children under 18. Children comprise nearly one-third of this race group. 305,500 The number of American Indians and Alaska natives age 65 and over. This age group comprises 7 percent of the American Indian and Alaska native population. 8% The percentage of American Indians and Alaska natives who are high school-age children (14 to 17). Along with native Hawaiians and other Pacific islanders, American Indians and Alaska natives top all race and ethnic groups in this age category. Income and Poverty $34,740 The median income of households where the householder reported they were American Indian or Alaska native, either alone or in combination with other race groups. The median income is based on a three-year average (2001-2003). 20% The poverty rate of people who reported they were American Indians and Alaska natives, either alone or in combination with another race group, based on a three-year average (2001-2003). Education 14% The percentage of American Indians and Alaska natives age 25 and over who had at least a bachelor's degree. 75% The percentage of American Indians and Alaska natives age 25 and over who had at least a high school diploma. 50,500 The number of American Indians and Alaska natives age 25 and over who had an advanced degree (i.e., master's, Ph.D., medical or law). Homeownership 56% The percentage of American Indian and Alaska native households who own their own home. Proud to Serve 159,000 The number of American Indian and Alaska native veterans of the U.S. armed forces. Language 381,000 The number of people 5 years and over who speak a native North American language. Of these languages, the most commonly spoken is Navajo, with 178,014 speakers. Jobs 24% The percentage of American Indians and Alaska natives age 16 and over who work in management, professional and related occupations. Census Bureau Launches Revised Multimedia Page in Observance of American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month 2004 The U.S. Census Bureau recently released a new version of its American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month multimedia page, offering easy access to the latest data and related materials on this race group. The Web site highlights population characteristics from the American Community Survey, as well as the 2003 population estimates. Additional media tools, including hyperlinks to data tables, photos, maps, radio spots, tribal information and other useful resources also are provided. www.census.gov/pubinfo/www/multimedia/aian2004.html From sburke at CPAN.ORG Thu Nov 18 07:56:31 2004 From: sburke at CPAN.ORG (Sean M. Burke) Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 22:56:31 -0900 Subject: microsoft In-Reply-To: <2761317.1100753867044.JavaMail.root@donald.psp.pas.earthli nk.net> Message-ID: At 07:57 PM 2004-11-17, jess tauber wrote: >Such keyboard layouts are out there in the computerized world- might it >not be time for people to start fresh and be weaned away from QWERTY [...] I did... http://interglacial.com/~sburke/pub/learning_dvorak.html http://interglacial.com/~sburke/tpj/as_html/tpj20.html ...but I wouldn't want to force it on people. -- Sean M. Burke http://search.cpan.org/~sburke/ From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US Thu Nov 18 15:33:14 2004 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP) Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 08:33:14 -0700 Subject: microsoft Message-ID: I went there, and yes, the keyboard has been reformatted. The basic underlying Problem here is that the space for alpha characters is limited. For example, Apache has 36 characters if you count only the characters necessary to create the phonemes. However, things like "ch' " are really a separate character. People wh, o don't think it through can say, So what? You have the glyphs to create the sound. But, when you map it to teaching people to learn the sounds, if you use the typical 1-icon==1 glyph-sound approach, then it gets dicey when you say, This character is {made by typing these three characters together}. This also creates issues around sorting, because you don't want to sort c-h-' {that's a glottal there at the end, which is a sound made by closing the epiglottis}, you want to sort "ch'", all-one-character. To return to issues with the ubiquitous QWERTY: it is hard to redefine the non-letter keys, because they have special codings that are signals to different places in the software. So it is not a good technical idea to begin to redefine characters that could cause word processors, email, and web processing to go hoouey, because that really defeats the purpose. What we need is a bigger keyboard. The Chinese and Japanese had this problem. I don't remember how they solved it. Mia numbers of other things have been piled onto the ----- Original Message ----- From: "Sean M. Burke" To: Sent: Thursday, November 18, 2004 12:56 AM Subject: Re: microsoft > At 07:57 PM 2004-11-17, jess tauber wrote: > >Such keyboard layouts are out there in the computerized world- might it > >not be time for people to start fresh and be weaned away from QWERTY [...] > > I did... > http://interglacial.com/~sburke/pub/learning_dvorak.html > http://interglacial.com/~sburke/tpj/as_html/tpj20.html > ...but I wouldn't want to force it on people. > > -- > Sean M. Burke http://search.cpan.org/~sburke/ > > From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US Thu Nov 18 15:48:42 2004 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP) Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 08:48:42 -0700 Subject: microsoft Message-ID: Bokar Tov, Keola, It occurs to me to send you this link, because I did a learning object on fonts, and it is based (loosely because I didn't have much time), on Hawai'ian mele. http://learningforpeople.us/EDLT577%20Fonts/index.htm Here is the page where I talk specifically about mele. http://learningforpeople.us/EDLT577%20Fonts/mele.htm I hope I got it right :-) Mia ----- Original Message ----- From: "Keola Donaghy" To: 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 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 dzo at BISHARAT.NET Thu Nov 18 15:58:28 2004 From: dzo at BISHARAT.NET (Donald Z. Osborn) Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 09:58:28 -0600 Subject: Unicode FOSS primer & font guide Message-ID: The following resources may be of interest: "A Quick Primer On Unicode and Software Internationalization Under Linux and UNIX" http://eyegene.ophthy.med.umich.edu/unicode/ "Unicode Font Guide For Free/Libre Open Source Operating Systems" http://eyegene.ophthy.med.umich.edu/unicode/fontguide/ (seen at http://wiki.localizationdev.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?ShareALink ) Don Osborn Bisharat.net From sburke at CPAN.ORG Thu Nov 18 22:57:25 2004 From: sburke at CPAN.ORG (Sean M. Burke) Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 13:57:25 -0900 Subject: microsoft In-Reply-To: <000501c4cd83$ebb82420$03ec7b80@red6bvg9btk> Message-ID: At 06:33 AM 2004-11-18, MiaKalish at LFP wrote: >To return to issues with the ubiquitous QWERTY: it is hard to redefine the >non-letter keys, because they have special codings that are signals to >different places in the software. So it is not a good technical idea to >begin to redefine characters that could cause word processors, email, and >web processing to go hoouey, because that really defeats the purpose. I've used a Dvorak layout for years, which remaps lots of nonletter keys. It has never been a problem. That's the whole point of the keyboard layout abstraction layer in every OS. -- Sean M. Burke http://search.cpan.org/~sburke/ From sburke at CPAN.ORG Thu Nov 18 23:00:04 2004 From: sburke at CPAN.ORG (Sean M. Burke) Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 14:00:04 -0900 Subject: microsoft In-Reply-To: <000501c4cd83$ebb82420$03ec7b80@red6bvg9btk> Message-ID: At 06:33 AM 2004-11-18, MiaKalish at LFP wrote: >This also creates issues around sorting, because you don't want to sort >c-h-' [...] , you want to sort "ch'", all-one-character. To the contrary: my experience with making dictionaries of Native languages is that Natives find such sort orders to be unhelpful. So I use a sort order that discards apostrophes and ignores the accents (and treats l-bar as l, etc), and this had made Native users of the dictionaries quite happy. -- Sean M. Burke http://search.cpan.org/~sburke/ From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US Thu Nov 18 23:09:49 2004 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP) Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 16:09:49 -0700 Subject: microsoft Message-ID: Hmmm, here in Apache land we don't call them apostrophs. Also, people are very sensitive about the tonality. They don't want Apache to look like English (and quite frankly, I don't blame them. I would have made a bad twin.). Personally, I find the anglicization of Native langauges because people are rude and technologically lazy to be quite offensive. I don't mean you, of course, Sean. I know how much pressure you can be under trying to please everyone, and I have so! much! real! life! experience! trying to deal with all the levels. But can you tell me more about the keyboard abstraction layer? I must have missed that in my tours. thanks, Mia ----- Original Message ----- From: "Sean M. Burke" To: Sent: Thursday, November 18, 2004 4:00 PM Subject: Re: microsoft > At 06:33 AM 2004-11-18, MiaKalish at LFP wrote: > >This also creates issues around sorting, because you don't want to sort > >c-h-' [...] , you want to sort "ch'", all-one-character. > > To the contrary: my experience with making dictionaries of Native languages > is that Natives find such sort orders to be unhelpful. So I use a sort > order that discards apostrophes and ignores the accents (and treats l-bar > as l, etc), and this had made Native users of the dictionaries quite happy. > > -- > Sean M. Burke http://search.cpan.org/~sburke/ > > From keola at LEOKI.UHH.HAWAII.EDU Fri Nov 19 00:08:19 2004 From: keola at LEOKI.UHH.HAWAII.EDU (Keola Donaghy) Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 14:08:19 -1000 Subject: microsoft In-Reply-To: <002401c4cdc3$b4809920$03ec7b80@red6bvg9btk> Message-ID: Indigenous Languages and Technology writes: >Hmmm, here in Apache land we don't call them apostrophs. Also, people are >very sensitive about the tonality. They don't want Apache to look like >English (and quite frankly, I don't blame them. I would have made a bad >twin.). > >Personally, I find the anglicization of Native langauges because people >are >rude and technologically lazy to be quite offensive. I don't mean you, of >course, Sean. I know how much pressure you can be under trying to please >everyone, and I have so! much! real! life! experience! trying to deal with >all the levels. The Puku'i-Elbert Hawaiian Dictionary sorts everything by the English sort order. Our Mamakai Kaiao Dictionary (more recently coined terms from our lexicon committee) sorts the Hawaiian->English using the Hawaiian sort order - vowels (aeiou), Hawaiian consonants (hklmnpw and the glottal), then the rest of the latin consonants in their normal order. Macron-vowel combinations are considered a secondary sort, i.e., if works are idential except for the presence of a macron over a vowel, the word without the macron is placed first. This is how the sorting fuction works in Apple OS X's sort algorithm for Hawaiian. You can see how this works on our dictionary site: http://wehewehe.org/ - search for the word "maka" and you'll see the variations with macron and without. I occassionaly hear from people who feel that this makes it difficult to find words. They eventually get used to it, and realizing that in doing it this way we're freeing the language from the bonds of English in one more, subtle way. Keola ======================================================================= 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 keola at LEOKI.UHH.HAWAII.EDU Fri Nov 19 00:13:19 2004 From: keola at LEOKI.UHH.HAWAII.EDU (Keola Donaghy) Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 14:13:19 -1000 Subject: microsoft In-Reply-To: <000b01c4cd86$14bbcbe0$03ec7b80@red6bvg9btk> Message-ID: Aloha e Mia, very nice page. Kalena Silva and I work together here; he is director of our College. One little thing... We don't use "Hawai'ian" with the glottal in there. Hawaiian words cannot end with consonants so "Hawaiian" is an English word. Since English doesn't use a written glottal either the consensus is that it shouldn't be used in there. We consider it a "hypercorrection" - one that is frequently seen. Other than that - maka'i kau hana - good job ;-) Keola Indigenous Languages and Technology writes: >It occurs to me to send you this link, because I did a learning object on >fonts, and it is based (loosely because I didn't have much time), on >Hawai'ian mele. http://learningforpeople.us/EDLT577%20Fonts/index.htm > >Here is the page where I talk specifically about mele. >http://learningforpeople.us/EDLT577%20Fonts/mele.htm > >I hope I got it right :-) ======================================================================= 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 Fri Nov 19 00:28:30 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 17:28:30 -0700 Subject: ILAT cited in Annu. Rev. Anthropol. 2004 Message-ID: ILAT has been cited! read on... "Another advantage often stressed by proponents of the use of digital forms of mediation in situations of language revitalization is that their use facilitates networking and community building among people interested in the language. Computer technology is indeed a widely used means of interaction among language activists, whether in the form of email lists (http://www.u.arizona.edu/~cashcash/ILAT.html) or in the sharing of knowledge and concerns through Web pages across different groups...." LANGUAGE REVITALIZATION AND NEW TECHNOLOGIES: Cultures of Electronic Mediation and the Refiguring of Communities Patrick Eisenlohr Annu. Rev. Anthropol. 2004. 33:21–45 Abstract. Recently, language activists and linguists have begun using new technologies in projects aimed at revitalizing the practice of lesser-used languages. This review explores relatedwork, emphasizing howpractices of electronic mediation enabled by such technologies both shape and are informed by linguistic ideologies, which in turn crucially influence the possible revived use or abandonment of linguistic varieties. New technologies are treated as part of cultures of electronic mediation, connecting sociocultural valuations to mediated discourse. Their use often has important political implications, given that projects of language revitalization are often linked to claims of ethnolinguistic recognition. Finally, because documentation of lesser-used languages using digital technologies also results in the production of new cultural objects to be stored, displayed, and circulated, attention is also focused on the forms of sociality sustained by the creation and exchange of such electronic artifacts. From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US Fri Nov 19 01:41:43 2004 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP) Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 18:41:43 -0700 Subject: microsoft Message-ID: Thank you. I will fix that. :-) --> Glad you liked it. People here are very excited that we are able to do things like this. So long people have been talking about what it might look like, but no one seemed to know how to make it happen. I hope it will get very much better, especially as more people get involved and learn how. . . . a very happy Mia. . . . ----- Original Message ----- From: "Keola Donaghy" To: Sent: Thursday, November 18, 2004 5:13 PM Subject: Re: microsoft > Aloha e Mia, very nice page. Kalena Silva and I work together here; he is > director of our College. One little thing... > > We don't use "Hawai'ian" with the glottal in there. Hawaiian words cannot > end with consonants so "Hawaiian" is an English word. Since English > doesn't use a written glottal either the consensus is that it shouldn't be > used in there. We consider it a "hypercorrection" - one that is frequently > seen. > > Other than that - maka'i kau hana - good job ;-) > > Keola > > Indigenous Languages and Technology writes: > >It occurs to me to send you this link, because I did a learning object on > >fonts, and it is based (loosely because I didn't have much time), on > >Hawai'ian mele. http://learningforpeople.us/EDLT577%20Fonts/index.htm > > > >Here is the page where I talk specifically about mele. > >http://learningforpeople.us/EDLT577%20Fonts/mele.htm > > > >I hope I got it right :-) > > > ======================================================================== > 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 sburke at CPAN.ORG Fri Nov 19 03:07:05 2004 From: sburke at CPAN.ORG (Sean M. Burke) Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 18:07:05 -0900 Subject: Keyboard (re)mappings In-Reply-To: <002401c4cdc3$b4809920$03ec7b80@red6bvg9btk> Message-ID: At 02:09 PM 2004-11-18, MiaKalish at LFP wrote: >But can you tell me more about the keyboard abstraction layer? I must have >missed that in my tours. Think of it as a state machine construct (or series of them, some in hardware, some in BIOS, some as actual drivers) at the input/output layer of the OS. The input events to the system are the physical readings of keys being pressed or released, and the output events are ASCII/Unicode/etc characters. Inbetween you can think of there being a lookup table representing the keymap for the particular keyboard driver, such as you can change under the Keyboard or Language section in MSWin Control Panel. (Although even that layer can be extended by such a program as Keyman or 3DKeyboard.) Basically, this layer (as implemented in all modern operating systems) is made necessary by exactly the problems you've forseen, and solves them. It also makes it easy for application-level programs to deal with the keyboard -- programmers do not want to have to deal with scancodes and shift/control/alt modifiers and capslock/numlock state; they want characters -- e, w, X, control-F3, whatever. The only exceptions I've ever run into in my decades of using nonstandard keyboard layouts are three programs: 1) an old version of MSKermit for MSDOS. For various reasons, its programmers had to occasinoally bypass the normal OS-level keyboard API, and deal right with scancodes the case of keystrokes that had no representation as character, like shift-alt-numlock. This only affected terminal emulation of those very odd keys tho, and was easily fixable. 2) An Atari 2600 emulator that runs under MSWin. It used raw scancodes, so when its docs said that 'r' was mapped to the emulated Reset button, it actually meant whatever the fourth key on the first letterrow, which is where my 'p' key is. 3) a Commodore 64 emulator under MSWin. Basically the same situation as with the Atari. And there is another sort of problem, a lesser one, which I've run into only with MSWindows Winamp. When its docs say that the 'v' key means Stop, they're correct regardless of where the 'v' key happens to be in your particular keymap. But they lose their mnemonic value under non-QWERTY keymaps, because the z x c v b keys are supposed to correspond, in that order, to the |< > || [] >| buttons on the GUI. I haven't found this to be a big problem. In other words: don't worry. Unless you need to use that Commodore 64 emulator. -- Sean M. Burke http://search.cpan.org/~sburke/ From sburke at CPAN.ORG Fri Nov 19 03:16:02 2004 From: sburke at CPAN.ORG (Sean M. Burke) Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 18:16:02 -0900 Subject: microsoft In-Reply-To: <002401c4cdc3$b4809920$03ec7b80@red6bvg9btk> Message-ID: At 02:09 PM 2004-11-18, MiaKalish at LFP wrote: >Hmmm, here in Apache land we don't call them apostrophs. Also, people are >very sensitive about the tonality. That doesn't mean that it should necessarily manifest as sort order. (In fact, looking over the past few centuries of lexicons, accents and apostrophes being disregarded tends to be the way that nearly everyone settles on.) Your notion of anglicization is merely one of many possible. The Apaches I've dealt with do not view letter-based instead of grapheme-based sorting as anglicization, nor calling a ' an "apostrophe" to be anglicization, nor even the use of a Latin alphabet written with ink on paper to be anglicization. Calling something anglicization is an inevitably arbitrary application (ironically!) of a western simplification onto the intractably complex details of reality and experience. Or something. Personally, I find the overgeneralizations of conceptual categories onto Native linguistics because people are sophomorically essentialist and overbearing, to be quite offensive. I don't mean /you/, of course, Miah. I know how much pressure you can be under trying to please everyone, and I have so! much! real! life! experience! trying to deal with all the actualities. As Whitehead said, "seek simplicity, and distrust it" -- including any fixed notion of what simplicity is. -- Sean M. Burke http://search.cpan.org/~sburke/ From phonosemantics at EARTHLINK.NET Fri Nov 19 03:37:51 2004 From: phonosemantics at EARTHLINK.NET (jess tauber) Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 22:37:51 -0500 Subject: microsoft Message-ID: Sort order is another issue Yahgan documents will have to address- this had slipped my mind. Missionary Thomas Bridges' used modifications of a mid-19th century phonetic alphabet created by Alexander Ellis (who eventually became president of the British Phonetic Society). This system puts vowels first, then consonants. Within the vowels are secondary sorts by "length" (i.e. tenseness/laxness), front to back, and simple versus diphthong. Within consonants digraphs follow simples, mostly following English spelling order, with notable exceptions. The original Ellis system was never meant to be used on languages other than English (which caused this consonantal mis-ordering), and Ellis himself eventually threw it over (also decrying, in his Phonetic Society Presidential adress, Bridges' use and modifications of it, I guess much to the chagrin of the missionary). For me personally, the ordering used by languages in SEAsia, based on Indian alphabets, seems much more rational, as it is based on unit type and articulatory order, manner, etc. I've seen a number of Native American language dictionaries based on this type of ordering principle. It is very easy to get used to. The Chilean Standard alphabetization uses a conventional ordering, as do all the other systems used on Yahgan. Given the systemic layout differences, does anyone know if there are any "smart keyboards" in the works, where the actual graphy on the key itself can be changed at the touch of a button (versus just the layout on the screen)? Something akin to electronic paper? I just saw in Popular Science a laser projected "virtual" keyboard- where the feedback sensors keep track of your fingers on a flat surface- that obviously could be programmed for different systems. Alternatives such as these might prevent people being forced to have keyboard ordering choices fixed in stone. Jess Tauber phonosemantics at earthlink.net From bischoff at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Fri Nov 19 15:11:34 2004 From: bischoff at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (s.t. bischoff) Date: Fri, 19 Nov 2004 08:11:34 -0700 Subject: ILAT cited in Annu. Rev. Anthropol. 2004 In-Reply-To: <1100824110.619e8a8b069c1@www.email.arizona.edu> Message-ID: Nice work Phil! You've really done something very positive and useful by organizing and maintaining this. Quoting phil cash cash : > ILAT has been cited! read on... > > "Another advantage often stressed by proponents of the use of digital > forms of mediation in situations of language revitalization is that > their use facilitates networking and community building among people > interested in the language. Computer technology is indeed a widely used > means of interaction among language activists, whether in the form of > email lists (http://www.u.arizona.edu/~cashcash/ILAT.html) or in the > sharing of knowledge and concerns through Web pages across different > groups...." > > > LANGUAGE REVITALIZATION AND NEW TECHNOLOGIES: > Cultures of Electronic Mediation and the Refiguring of Communities > Patrick Eisenlohr > Annu. Rev. Anthropol. 2004. 33:21–45 > > Abstract. Recently, language activists and linguists have begun using > new technologies in projects aimed at revitalizing the practice of > lesser-used languages. This review explores relatedwork, emphasizing > howpractices of electronic mediation enabled by such technologies both > shape and are informed by linguistic ideologies, which in turn > crucially influence the possible revived use or abandonment of > linguistic varieties. New technologies are treated as part of cultures > of electronic mediation, connecting sociocultural valuations to > mediated discourse. Their use often has important political > implications, given that projects of language revitalization are often > linked to claims of ethnolinguistic recognition. Finally, because > documentation of lesser-used languages using digital technologies also > results in the production of new cultural objects to be > stored, displayed, and circulated, attention is also focused on the > forms of sociality sustained by the creation and exchange of such > electronic artifacts. > __________________________ S.T. Bischoff PhD Candidate Department of Linguistics 1100 E. University Blvd University of Arizona Tucson, AZ 85721 USA bischoff at email.arizona.edu From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US Fri Nov 19 15:51:59 2004 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP) Date: Fri, 19 Nov 2004 08:51:59 -0700 Subject: microsoft Message-ID: I just thought that with technology, we don't need to be quite as paper-dependent. We can have electronic "dictionaries" that provide several to many sort orders. They can run on cell phones. Yep. And EVERYONE has one these days. I already ported some of my games to my pda. :-) life is good, Mia ----- Original Message ----- From: "jess tauber" To: Sent: Thursday, November 18, 2004 8:37 PM Subject: Re: microsoft > Sort order is another issue Yahgan documents will have to address- this had slipped my mind. Missionary Thomas Bridges' used modifications of a mid-19th century phonetic alphabet created by Alexander Ellis (who eventually became president of the British Phonetic Society). This system puts vowels first, then consonants. Within the vowels are secondary sorts by "length" (i.e. tenseness/laxness), front to back, and simple versus diphthong. Within consonants digraphs follow simples, mostly following English spelling order, with notable exceptions. > > The original Ellis system was never meant to be used on languages other than English (which caused this consonantal mis-ordering), and Ellis himself eventually threw it over (also decrying, in his Phonetic Society Presidential adress, Bridges' use and modifications of it, I guess much to the chagrin of the missionary). > > For me personally, the ordering used by languages in SEAsia, based on Indian alphabets, seems much more rational, as it is based on unit type and articulatory order, manner, etc. I've seen a number of Native American language dictionaries based on this type of ordering principle. It is very easy to get used to. The Chilean Standard alphabetization uses a conventional ordering, as do all the other systems used on Yahgan. > > Given the systemic layout differences, does anyone know if there are any "smart keyboards" in the works, where the actual graphy on the key itself can be changed at the touch of a button (versus just the layout on the screen)? Something akin to electronic paper? I just saw in Popular Science a laser projected "virtual" keyboard- where the feedback sensors keep track of your fingers on a flat surface- that obviously could be programmed for different systems. Alternatives such as these might prevent people being forced to have keyboard ordering choices fixed in stone. > > Jess Tauber > phonosemantics at earthlink.net > > From pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET Fri Nov 19 17:34:37 2004 From: pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET (phil cash cash) Date: Fri, 19 Nov 2004 10:34:37 -0700 Subject: ILAT cited in Annu. Rev. Anthropol. 2004 In-Reply-To: <1100877094.0802bdb7f090b@www.email.arizona.edu> Message-ID: thanks Shannon, yes, i'm just glad that somebody is taking notice. pcc On Nov 19, 2004, at 8:11 AM, s.t. bischoff wrote: > Nice work Phil! You've really done something very positive and useful > by > organizing and maintaining this. > Quoting phil cash cash : > >> ILAT has been cited! read on... >> >> "Another advantage often stressed by proponents of the use of digital >> forms of mediation in situations of language revitalization is that >> their use facilitates networking and community building among people >> interested in the language. Computer technology is indeed a widely >> used >> means of interaction among language activists, whether in the form of >> email lists (http://www.u.arizona.edu/~cashcash/ILAT.html) or in the >> sharing of knowledge and concerns through Web pages across different >> groups...." >> >> >> LANGUAGE REVITALIZATION AND NEW TECHNOLOGIES: >> Cultures of Electronic Mediation and the Refiguring of Communities >> Patrick Eisenlohr >> Annu. Rev. Anthropol. 2004. 33:21–45 >> >> Abstract. Recently, language activists and linguists have begun using >> new technologies in projects aimed at revitalizing the practice of >> lesser-used languages. This review explores relatedwork, emphasizing >> howpractices of electronic mediation enabled by such technologies both >> shape and are informed by linguistic ideologies, which in turn >> crucially influence the possible revived use or abandonment of >> linguistic varieties. New technologies are treated as part of cultures >> of electronic mediation, connecting sociocultural valuations to >> mediated discourse. Their use often has important political >> implications, given that projects of language revitalization are often >> linked to claims of ethnolinguistic recognition. Finally, because >> documentation of lesser-used languages using digital technologies also >> results in the production of new cultural objects to be >> stored, displayed, and circulated, attention is also focused on the >> forms of sociality sustained by the creation and exchange of such >> electronic artifacts. >> > > > __________________________ > S.T. Bischoff > PhD Candidate > Department of Linguistics > 1100 E. University Blvd > University of Arizona > Tucson, AZ 85721 > USA > > bischoff at email.arizona.edu > From sdp at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Fri Nov 19 17:56:03 2004 From: sdp at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Susan Penfield) Date: Fri, 19 Nov 2004 10:56:03 -0700 Subject: microsoft In-Reply-To: <013e01c4ce4f$b4db84c0$03ec7b80@red6bvg9btk> Message-ID: Garry, So can we do electronic dictionaries for Mohave and Chemehuevi on Blackberry? S. Quoting "MiaKalish at LFP" : > I just thought that with technology, we don't need to be quite as > paper-dependent. We can have electronic "dictionaries" that provide several > to many sort orders. They can run on cell phones. Yep. And EVERYONE has one > these days. > > I already ported some of my games to my pda. :-) > > life is good, > Mia > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "jess tauber" > To: > Sent: Thursday, November 18, 2004 8:37 PM > Subject: Re: microsoft > > > > Sort order is another issue Yahgan documents will have to address- this > had slipped my mind. Missionary Thomas Bridges' used modifications of a > mid-19th century phonetic alphabet created by Alexander Ellis (who > eventually became president of the British Phonetic Society). This system > puts vowels first, then consonants. Within the vowels are secondary sorts by > "length" (i.e. tenseness/laxness), front to back, and simple versus > diphthong. Within consonants digraphs follow simples, mostly following > English spelling order, with notable exceptions. > > > > The original Ellis system was never meant to be used on languages other > than English (which caused this consonantal mis-ordering), and Ellis himself > eventually threw it over (also decrying, in his Phonetic Society > Presidential adress, Bridges' use and modifications of it, I guess much to > the chagrin of the missionary). > > > > For me personally, the ordering used by languages in SEAsia, based on > Indian alphabets, seems much more rational, as it is based on unit type and > articulatory order, manner, etc. I've seen a number of Native American > language dictionaries based on this type of ordering principle. It is very > easy to get used to. The Chilean Standard alphabetization uses a > conventional ordering, as do all the other systems used on Yahgan. > > > > Given the systemic layout differences, does anyone know if there are any > "smart keyboards" in the works, where the actual graphy on the key itself > can be changed at the touch of a button (versus just the layout on the > screen)? Something akin to electronic paper? I just saw in Popular Science a > laser projected "virtual" keyboard- where the feedback sensors keep track of > your fingers on a flat surface- that obviously could be programmed for > different systems. Alternatives such as these might prevent people being > forced to have keyboard ordering choices fixed in stone. > > > > Jess Tauber > > phonosemantics at earthlink.net > > > > > 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 sdp at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Fri Nov 19 19:15:31 2004 From: sdp at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Susan Penfield) Date: Fri, 19 Nov 2004 12:15:31 -0700 Subject: microsoft In-Reply-To: <1100886963.b65b081d2691b@www.email.arizona.edu> Message-ID: OOps, That wasn't meant to go out on the list, but still might be interesting to explore wireless potential... S. Quoting Susan Penfield : > Garry, > So can we do electronic dictionaries for Mohave and Chemehuevi on Blackberry? > > S. > Quoting "MiaKalish at LFP" : > > > I just thought that with technology, we don't need to be quite as > > paper-dependent. We can have electronic "dictionaries" that provide several > > to many sort orders. They can run on cell phones. Yep. And EVERYONE has one > > these days. > > > > I already ported some of my games to my pda. :-) > > > > life is good, > > Mia > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: "jess tauber" > > To: > > Sent: Thursday, November 18, 2004 8:37 PM > > Subject: Re: microsoft > > > > > > > Sort order is another issue Yahgan documents will have to address- this > > had slipped my mind. Missionary Thomas Bridges' used modifications of a > > mid-19th century phonetic alphabet created by Alexander Ellis (who > > eventually became president of the British Phonetic Society). This system > > puts vowels first, then consonants. Within the vowels are secondary sorts > by > > "length" (i.e. tenseness/laxness), front to back, and simple versus > > diphthong. Within consonants digraphs follow simples, mostly following > > English spelling order, with notable exceptions. > > > > > > The original Ellis system was never meant to be used on languages other > > than English (which caused this consonantal mis-ordering), and Ellis > himself > > eventually threw it over (also decrying, in his Phonetic Society > > Presidential adress, Bridges' use and modifications of it, I guess much to > > the chagrin of the missionary). > > > > > > For me personally, the ordering used by languages in SEAsia, based on > > Indian alphabets, seems much more rational, as it is based on unit type and > > articulatory order, manner, etc. I've seen a number of Native American > > language dictionaries based on this type of ordering principle. It is very > > easy to get used to. The Chilean Standard alphabetization uses a > > conventional ordering, as do all the other systems used on Yahgan. > > > > > > Given the systemic layout differences, does anyone know if there are any > > "smart keyboards" in the works, where the actual graphy on the key itself > > can be changed at the touch of a button (versus just the layout on the > > screen)? Something akin to electronic paper? I just saw in Popular Science > a > > laser projected "virtual" keyboard- where the feedback sensors keep track > of > > your fingers on a flat surface- that obviously could be programmed for > > different systems. Alternatives such as these might prevent people being > > forced to have keyboard ordering choices fixed in stone. > > > > > > Jess Tauber > > > phonosemantics at earthlink.net > > > > > > > > > > > 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 > 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 sburke at CPAN.ORG Fri Nov 19 21:22:10 2004 From: sburke at CPAN.ORG (Sean M. Burke) Date: Fri, 19 Nov 2004 12:22:10 -0900 Subject: microsoft In-Reply-To: <013e01c4ce4f$b4db84c0$03ec7b80@red6bvg9btk> Message-ID: At 06:51 AM 2004-11-19, MiaKalish at LFP wrote: >I just thought that with technology, we don't need to be quite as >paper-dependent. We can have electronic "dictionaries" that provide several >to many sort orders. Precisely the point of my thesis: http://interglacial.com/~sburke/ma/ -- Sean M. Burke http://search.cpan.org/~sburke/ From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Sun Nov 21 03:33:03 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Sat, 20 Nov 2004 20:33:03 -0700 Subject: Linguist, poet, professor encourages students (fwd) Message-ID: Linguist, poet, professor encourages students By SUSAN RANDALL, Staff Writer November 20, 2004 http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=13406877&BRD=1817&PAG=461&dept_id=68561&rfi=6 SIGNAL PEAK - Ofelia Zepeda, linguist, poet, professor and recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship "genius grant," shared her experience and poetry Wednesday at Central Arizona College. She was fortunate to go to a public school, she told the audience, which included many O'odham middle and high school students, college students and community members. There was a time when American Indian children were sent away to boarding schools and not allowed to use their native languages. "They were forced to use English," she said, "and for many of them, they lost their language." When Zepeda and her older brothers and sisters first went to school, they could speak no English, only O'odham. "In our family, our parents and their parents, none of them had English," she said, "and none of them had ever gone to school. So school for our family was a relatively new thing." Stanfield Elementary School was the first place they had to learn and use the English language. "It is kind of a strange thing," Zepeda said, "to put a child in a situation, in a classroom where they don't have access to any of the information that is going on. Back then it was called, 'sink or swim.'" And a lot of O'odham children in her classes sank and drowned, she said. They never learned much English and left school by seventh or eighth grade. Zepeda, however, learned to switch back and forth between English at school and O'odham at home. She was the first in her family to go to high school and attended Casa Grande Union High School with Billy Allen, who now teaches social sciences and Pima language there. After graduation, she went to CAC. "I'm not sure why I came here," she told the students. "None of my parents ever went to school, so there were no models, nobody to follow. "Actually what I wanted to do was join the military, but my mother wouldn't let me do that." Perhaps she went to college, she said, because some of her elementary school and high school teachers gave her a little more attention than she was used to. "When people do that to you as a child, you want to do better," she said. "And when I came here I had the same thing. I met some very nice professors here and I worked closely with them and they were very supportive. "So I think that was one of the reasons I continued to go on. And I just kept going and going and going until I was done." She earned her associate's degree at CAC and her bachelor's degree, master's degree and doctorate in linguistics at the University of Arizona, where she was hired. "But the whole time it was always connected back to what I started saying about language," she said. "I always had the O'odham language with me." Zepeda learned to read O'odham and published "A Papago Grammar," the first O'odham grammar. She also began teaching written O'odham to native speakers and teachers. Not much O'odham literature was available, so Zepeda had her students write little poems, plays and songs in O'odham. And she began writing with them. "That's how I got started writing in O'odham," she said, "for my students. And I continued writing. I still write in O'odham today." She found her subjects in the memories of things she had seen and heard when she was a child. Most of her poetry is about the desert, the rain, the people in her life. Some poetry she translates into English. One of those poems is "B 'o 'e-a:g mas 'ab him g ju:ki*" (It is going to rain) in "Earth Movements," a collection of poems in O'odham and English with a CD. Zepeda read it to the group in O'odham, then in English. Someone said it is going to rain. I think it is not so. Because I have not yet felt the earth and the way it holds still in anticipation. I think it is not so. Because I have not yet felt the sky become heavy with moisture of preparation. I think it is not so. Because I have not yet felt the winds move with their coolness. I think it is not so. Because I have not yet inhaled the sweet, wet dirt the winds bring. So, there is no truth that it will rain. She regrets, Zepeda said, that she never learned to sing. She admires O'odham people who are beautiful singers and some of her poems contain songs. A poem she wrote for daughter begins with the lyrics of a song from the movie "The Little Mermaid," and moves on to explain how O'odham people should behave when they visit the ocean. Tohono O'odham and Akimel O'odham people know the ocean, Zepeda said, even though they live in the desert. "Our summer rains come because of the ocean," she said. When O'odham people visit the ocean, they should greet it, she said. They should say goodbye when they leave and give the ocean a gift. "And if we want, we can ask for something." In the old days, people sometimes asked for and came back with special powers. The poem "Ocean Power," in the book "Ocean Power: Poems from the Desert," is about men from northern Mexico who had never seen the ocean until they were deported by way of San Diego. The end of the poem says: We are not ready. We have not put our minds to what it is we want to give to the ocean. We do not have cornmeal, feathers, nor do we have songs and prayers ready. We have not thought what gift we will ask from the ocean. Should we ask to be song chasers Should we ask to be rain makers Should we ask to be good runners or should we ask to be heartbreakers. No, we are not ready to be here at this ocean. We can still ask the ocean for a gift, Zepeda told the students. "I doesn't matter that it is 2004." During her career at the university, Zepeda became director of the American Indian Studies Program and co-founder of the American Indian Language Development Institute, a summer institute for American Indian teachers from the United States and Canada. She has won numerous awards, edited many collections by American Indian writers, taught countless classes and is considered the foremost authority on Tohono O'odham language and literature. But she said she still will not talk in a group unless someone asks her opinion, "then I have a lot to say." And she cannot always look at the faces of the people in an audience. "All these things that I come with," she said, "it's who I am, being O'odham. It is difficult to shed and there's no reason to shed it, if it works with everything else. "The background you come with can be such an asset in many ways. The thing that you must learn - and it's not an easy thing to learn - is how to use it, how to take advantage of it." Now she and others are working on an urgent problem. "It is a sad situation," she said. "And it is something that you guys are a part of and your parents and your grandparents." Very few young American Indians are learning their language, she said. "They are not learning it at home, because nobody speaks it at home." She and others have been teaching O'odham and trying to create situations where the O'odham language is heard and used by grandparents, parents and young people, especially young children. CAC student Dwayne Lopez, male youth commissioner for the National Congress of American Indians, said American Indian students in some tribes are required to know their native language before they can graduate from high school. Zepeda said that was a good idea. Only a few high schools and middle schools offer O'odham, and then only as an elective. She teaches O'odham at the UA and the new community college in Sells. Allen said O'odham also is taught at Scottsdale Community College on the Salt River Indian Reservation. One of the middle school students asked Zepeda how old she is. "I am very old," she said, "old enough to be a grandmother." She did not know if she was 49, 50 or 51 because her birth date was unknown when she started school. Because she is "so old," she added, she hopes to see more young O'odham going to the university and getting their doctorates, so she can retire in 10 or 15 years. ©Casa Grande Valley Newspapers Inc. 2004 From fmarmole at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Sun Nov 21 15:02:48 2004 From: fmarmole at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Francisco Marmolejo) Date: Sun, 21 Nov 2004 08:02:48 -0700 Subject: Innovate / Call for proposals Message-ID: Please forward to those interested. Regards, Francisco Francisco Marmolejo Executive Director Consortium for North American Higher Education Collaboration (CONAHEC) University of Arizona PO Box 210300 220 W. Sixth Street. Tucson, AZ 85721-0300 USA Tel. (520) 621-9080 / 621-7761 Fax (520) 626-2675 Email: fmarmole at email.arizona.edu http://conahec.org ++++++++++++++++++++ Innovate ( http://innovateonline.info), published by the Fischler School of Education and Human Services, Nova Southeastern University, is a leading online journal exploring the creative use of information technology (IT) to enhance educational processes in all sectors (K-12, college and university, corporate, government). It is the leading online journal exemplifying the use of IT tools to enhance professional communication about using IT in education. For example, if you want to comment on an article, you can do so using the discuss feature within the article. If you want to see articles related to the one you are reading, click on the "read related" feature. The Innovate-Live portal (http://www.uliveandlearn.com/innovate/), featuring webcasts and discussion forums, is the interactive centerpiece of the journal. Webcasts offer authors an opportunity to go into more detail on the topics of their papers with webcast participants. Forums enable participants to discuss special topics that will eventually become special journal issues focusing on those topics. Once manuscripts developing from this discussion or that are submitted in response to a call for manuscripts are posted to our "bullpen", forum participants will be encouraged to use the forum to comment on the manuscripts as well as on the topic. The current forum focuses on ePortfolios. We hope that you can join us in learning and sharing how we can use technology to increase access to education and to improve teaching and learning. If you are interested in submitting a manuscript for publication consideration, please contact the editor, James Morrison, at morrison at unc.edu -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Sun Nov 21 17:44:57 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Sun, 21 Nov 2004 10:44:57 -0700 Subject: As ice thaws, Arctic peoples at a loss for words (fwd) Message-ID: 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 “hornet”, “robin”, “elk”, “barn owl” or “salmon”? If you don’t know, you’re 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. “We can’t even describe what we’re seeing,” 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 “bird with the red breast”, 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. “I know about 1,200 words for reindeer- we classify them by age, sex, colour, antlers,” said Nils Isak Eira, who manages a herd of 2,000 reindeer in north Norway. “I know just one word for elk - ‘sarvva’,” said 50-year-old Eira. “But the animals are so unusual that many Saami use the Norwegian word ‘elg’. When I was a child it was like a mythical creature.” 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’s Hudson Bay, receding ice means polar bears are already struggling. The bears’ main trick is to pounce when seals surface to breathe through holes in the ice. The Arctic report says polar bears “are unlikely to survive as a species if there is a complete loss of summer-ice cover”. Restricted to land, polar bears would have to compete with better-adapted grizzly or brown bears. “The outlook for polar bears is stark. My grandson will lose the culture I had as a child,” 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. “Overall, forests are likely to move north and displace tundra,” said Terry Callaghan, a professor of Arctic ecology at the University of Lund, Sweden. “That will bring more species - birds that nest in trees, beetles that live in bark, fungi”. The lack of words to describe newcomers does not stop at animals and plants. “Words like ‘thunderstorm’ don’t exist because they are phenomena indigenous peoples have never known,” said Robert Corell, chair of the ACIA study. reuters From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Sun Nov 21 17:48:06 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Sun, 21 Nov 2004 10:48:06 -0700 Subject: Indigenous leader pushes for native language food labels (fwd) Message-ID: Indigenous leader pushes for native language food labels Friday, 19 November 2004 http://www.abc.net.au/central/news/200411/s1246867.htm Food manufacturers who sell heavily to remote Indigenous communities are being asked to write product labels in the local Aboriginal language. ATSIC's Alice Springs Regional Council Chair Des Rogers has raised the idea, saying it would embolden Indigenous consumers. He says labels written in someone's first language are a sign of respect and reduce confusion for people with english literacy problems. He says familiar items given a twist could also have a broader appeal. "I don't know whether it would become a collectors item, but it certainly could become a novelty for tourists as well," he said. "It gives Indigenous people the ability to tell the story about the logo, the language that's on there. "There's great possibilities and great positive outcomes in just that small area," he said. From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US Mon Nov 22 15:30:19 2004 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP) Date: Mon, 22 Nov 2004 08:30:19 -0700 Subject: As ice thaws, Arctic peoples at a loss for words (fwd) Message-ID: 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" To: 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 MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US Mon Nov 22 15:30:45 2004 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP) Date: Mon, 22 Nov 2004 08:30:45 -0700 Subject: Indigenous leader pushes for native language food labels (fwd) Message-ID: wow. yet one more dimension. Food labels. ----- Original Message ----- From: "phil cash cash" To: Sent: Sunday, November 21, 2004 10:48 AM Subject: Indigenous leader pushes for native language food labels (fwd) > Indigenous leader pushes for native language food labels > > Friday, 19 November 2004 > http://www.abc.net.au/central/news/200411/s1246867.htm > > Food manufacturers who sell heavily to remote Indigenous communities are > being asked to write product labels in the local Aboriginal language. > > ATSIC's Alice Springs Regional Council Chair Des Rogers has raised the > idea, saying it would embolden Indigenous consumers. > > He says labels written in someone's first language are a sign of respect > and reduce confusion for people with english literacy problems. > > He says familiar items given a twist could also have a broader appeal. > > "I don't know whether it would become a collectors item, but it > certainly could become a novelty for tourists as well," he said. > > "It gives Indigenous people the ability to tell the story about the > logo, the language that's on there. > > "There's great possibilities and great positive outcomes in just that > small area," he said. > > From sdp at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Nov 22 15:42:10 2004 From: sdp at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Susan Penfield) Date: Mon, 22 Nov 2004 08:42:10 -0700 Subject: As ice thaws, Arctic peoples at a loss for words (fwd) Message-ID: Mia, Your last comment was a sad, but possibly very true, footnote about the results of a predominantly English focus. This disscusion thread (including the 'food labels' one) reminds me of something my daughter mentioned recently. While studying Latin in Rome last summer, she learned that her teacher, one of the Pope's Latinists who is very committed to making Latin a living language again, changed all of the ATMs in Vatican City to Latin only -- hmm, another issue in language and technology? Food for thought ? S. Susan D. Penfield, Ph.D. Department of English Second Language Acquisition and Teaching Indigenous Languages and Technology Language, Reading and culture University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721 ----- Original Message ----- From: "MiaKalish at LFP" To: Sent: Monday, November 22, 2004 8:30 AM Subject: Re: As ice thaws, Arctic peoples at a loss for words (fwd) >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" > To: > 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 MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US Mon Nov 22 15:53:55 2004 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP) Date: Mon, 22 Nov 2004 08:53:55 -0700 Subject: As ice thaws, Arctic peoples at a loss for words (fwd) Message-ID: I saw that. I read that Latin is the 2nd language in Italy? Probably the first at the vatican. I thought that was So Cool. People don't think about this very much, like they take fonts for granted. By the way, since we all now know that Gary might be trying to port ( :-), if he uses Flash, there are sized templates, because the screen is smaller, but the pixel sizes haven't really changed. You need to squash the stuff, and so by using a template for the target device (yes, unfortunately for developers and happily for language diversity, they are all different sizes), you see what your workspace is. Works very nicely. Mia ----- Original Message ----- From: "Susan Penfield" To: Sent: Monday, November 22, 2004 8:42 AM Subject: Re: As ice thaws, Arctic peoples at a loss for words (fwd) > Mia, > Your last comment was a sad, but possibly very true, footnote about the > results of a predominantly English focus. This disscusion thread (including > the 'food labels' one) reminds me of something my daughter mentioned > recently. While studying Latin in Rome last summer, she learned that her > teacher, one of the Pope's Latinists who is very committed to making Latin a > living language again, changed all of the ATMs in Vatican City to Latin > only -- hmm, another issue in language and technology? Food for thought ? > S. > > Susan D. Penfield, Ph.D. > Department of English > Second Language Acquisition and Teaching > Indigenous Languages and Technology > Language, Reading and culture > University of Arizona, > Tucson, AZ 85721 > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "MiaKalish at LFP" > To: > Sent: Monday, November 22, 2004 8:30 AM > Subject: Re: As ice thaws, Arctic peoples at a loss for words (fwd) > > > >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" > > To: > > 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 cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Nov 22 22:27:58 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Mon, 22 Nov 2004 15:27:58 -0700 Subject: Safeguarding Spanish in the Age of the Internet (fwd) Message-ID: Safeguarding Spanish in the Age of the Internet Maricel Drazer http://www.ipsnews.net/new_nota.asp?idnews=26380 ROSARIO, Argentina, Nov 22 (IPS) - Does the fact that cyberspace is full of ignorant people mean that ignorance should be accepted as the new norm? If millions of people speak their own language poorly, and their writing is even worse, should we simply sit back and witness the ”downward democratisation” of a ”dumbing down” of society? ~~~ note: the above article might have parallels in a cyberspace future for indigenous languages. From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Tue Nov 23 15:45:05 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2004 08:45:05 -0700 Subject: Linguist Warns of Language Extinction (fwd) Message-ID: 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. From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Tue Nov 23 21:15:09 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2004 14:15:09 -0700 Subject: New Compendium on Yanomami Language (fwd) Message-ID: New Compendium on Yanomami Language Humberto Márquez http://www.ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=26404 CARACAS, Nov 23 (IPS) - When a Yanomami Indian dies, his or her name is not to be pronounced for some time, so as not to soil the memory of the deceased. This may be a problem if, for example, someone is called Shoco, which is also the term for Tamanduá, an anteater that is common in the jungles of southern Venezuela and northern Brazil, where the Yanomami live. However, the difficulty can easily be resolved thanks to the linguistic wealth of this indigenous group that has existed for over 25,000 years, a living testimony to the Neolithic era, the most recent period of the Stone Age. There are several synonyms for the names of animals, and also of some plants. Therefore, ”aroto” means exactly the same as ”shoco”, and the community can use that word without violating the tradition that protects the deceased. This explanation is provided by one of the 10,000 entries in the ”Compendio ilustrado de lengua y cultura yanomami” (”Illustrated Compendium of the Yanomami Language and Culture”), a book by French anthropologist and linguist Marie-Claude Mattéi that has just gone to print. It is more than a mere dictionary, instead serving as an encyclopaedic manual that can be used in Yanomami schools and for outsiders studying the Yanomami language and culture. After 15 years of research, ”we have concentrated our efforts on producing something more useful and rich in information than a simple dictionary -- a book that can support the didactic measures that the Venezuelan society and state have the obligation to undertake with respect to the indigenous communities,” Mattéi told IPS. Venezuela's new constitution, which was approved by voters in 1999, dedicates an entire chapter to the rights of indigenous peoples, including ”the right to an intercultural and bilingual educational system that takes into account their special social and cultural characteristics, values and traditions.” The Yanomami or ”children of the moon”, who number around 15,000 in Venezuela and 12,000 in Brazil, are among the 34 indigenous peoples who mainly live along Venezuela's borders with Colombia, Brazil and Guyana. According to the 2001 census, 300,000 of Venezuela's 25 million people belong to indigenous groups. The Yanomami comprise a majority of the population in the municipality of Alto Orinoco, which nevertheless tends to be governed by members of two smaller ethnic groups, the Ye'kuana and Piaroa. Like their other indigenous neighbours, the Yanomami sometimes incorporate the ways of mainstream society ”in an anarchistic manner. They want speed boats and other technologies that make their lives more comfortable. The contact may threaten their culture and language, but that should not lead to a falsely romantic attitude, such as asking them to live in a bubble,” said Mattéi. Yanomami and Sanima are the most widely spoken languages among the indigenous people of Venezuela, according to another anthropologist, María Eugenia Villalón. ”At least seven languages -- Mapoyo, Añú, Baré, Sáliva, Yabarana, Uruak and Sape -- are in a critical state,” Villalón, who has dedicated herself to collecting and preserving what remains of the Mapoyo tongue, told IPS. A language, Villalón warns, ”is not threatened nor does it become extinct because fewer individuals speak it, but because people stop using it and stop passing it on from parents to children. The extent to which it is at risk can be measured by the number of children who speak it.” In the case of Mapoyo, that means almost none, as even adults hardly ever use the language. Without an effort to support indigenous peoples, ”their languages, which have survived more than 500 years since the arrival of the Spanish and Portuguese in the Americas, will slowly disappear, they just won't survive,” warned another expert, Lyll Barceló, who has compiled the myths of the Guahibo ethnic group. Having similar concerns, Mattéi divided her Compendium into five parts, the first of which is a history and description of the Yanomami people, followed by a guide to comprehend and use the dictionary. ”I started with a table of references and conjugations in order to describe the verbal system of the language,” she explained. The Yanomami ”use various forms of the future and past tense, and the suffixes of verbs can vary greatly depending on the meaning,” she stated. ”I haven't only used the information that I gathered myself, but also utilised that of numerous books about the Yanomami,” said Mattéi. ”What I added was a description of the use of each word, set in the ecosystem where these people live.” A glossary of the flora and fauna follows, which is a compendium on its own, as well as a bilingual Spanish-Yanomami mini-dictionary ”aimed at providing help with the greatest difficulties. For example, there are many ways of saying 'to tie' or 'to open' in this language.” And linguists and taxonomists (the scientists who deal with the identification, naming, and classification of organisms) will be able to use a glossary of the taxonomy that the Yanomami themselves use for a number of animals, illustrated by Jacinto Serowe, a member of the ethnic group who worked closely with Mattéi. ”There are definitely threats to their language, just as there are threats anywhere,” she pointed out. ”But let's stop thinking that indigenous people will remain in a bubble. Changes are inevitable and they are not the problem. ”The problem is that they are being denied opportunities, rights regarding health care and the preservation of their beliefs, and the rights they have over their own territories. ”A high-speed globalisation process is taking place in the world, but at the same time there is a revival of interest in minority groups and a vindication of traditional ways, to keep ethnic groups from being lost. In Venezuela, under the new constitution and the government of Hugo Chávez, there is a desire to do something,” said Mattéi. In 1992 and 1996, the anthropologist wrote two books about the culture of the Panare, another ethnic group from southern Venezuela. The Compendium on the Yanomami has been published by government agencies in Venezuela in cooperation with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), the Spanish Agency of International Cooperation, and Spain's Santander bank. (END/2004) From deprees at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Nov 24 19:52:33 2004 From: deprees at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Depree ShadowWalker) Date: Wed, 24 Nov 2004 12:52:33 -0700 Subject: Clearance Sale Digital Recorder!!!!! Red Pony Special Message-ID: Hurry! Now you can own your own digital recorder which is on a clearance sale at Office Max. When I used this microphone I was able to accidentally capture an elk bugling in the valley where I was recording an elder, and we where in the house! It's a steal of a deal Normal price is $99 but its now $39. You have to call them to place an order with a credit card. See attachments for specs and product number! Order-By-Phone 1-800-283-7674 You get high quality for 22 mins recording and you can record for hours when you hook up the USB cable to your laptop or computer! Olympus has stopped manufacturing this high quality recorder. Story: http://www.olympusamerica.com/msg_section/msg_HeadlinesDetails.asp?pressNo=1 38 Olympus Announces First Low-Cost Digital Voice Recorder with PC Connection - Compact DW-90 Provides 1-1/2 Hours Recording Time and USB Connection to PC for Only $99 Melville, NY - Olympus America Inc., Consumer Products Group, a leading consumer electronics manufacturer, announced the DW-90, a digital voice recorder with PC connection for under $100. Made for students, journalists, and business users, the DW-90 is a compact and uniquely styled digital recorder with 90 minutes of recording time. It connects to the PC through a high-speed USB interface to easily transfer WAV files to the PC. The built-in uni-directional/telescoping microphone is perfect for journalists recording interviews or for students at lectures, since it allows the user to point the mike directly towards the voice for a clearer recording without background noise. The user can then easily email the lecture or interview as a WAV file attachment to others or listen and save the recording on a PC. Depree ShadowWalker, M.Ed. emphasis in Learning Technologies Doctoral Student, Language, Reading and Culture GA @ Native American Research and Training Center voice (520) 626-0348 fax (520) 621-9802 website: www.septa.arizona.edu Red Pony Heritage Language Team website : www.redpony.us From dzo at BISHARAT.NET Thu Nov 25 14:53:18 2004 From: dzo at BISHARAT.NET (Donald Z. Osborn) Date: Thu, 25 Nov 2004 08:53:18 -0600 Subject: After the "sprint": LocalisationDev.org invites your input Message-ID: I had the opportunity to participate in the recent Localisation Development workshop in Warsaw. This is to forward a brief explanation of the event and invitation to contribute to its wiki and mailing list (appended below). Don Osborn Bisharat.net ******************************************************************************* Announcing the LocalisationDev.org Wiki and Planet Localisation We Heartily Invite Your Participation and Contributions! http://localisationdev.org/ The first Localisation Developers Sprint took place in Warsaw, Poland from 20 to 22 November, 2004. The event brought together a diverse group of leaders and innovators in software and documentation localisation for the NGO sector to share experiences, compare projects and practices, and document the same. The Sprint was organised by Aspiration (http://www.aspirationtech.org) and Tactical Tech Collective (http://www.tacticaltech.org). The goals of the Localisation Sprint were three-fold: * Individuals working in the localisation field rarely enjoy the opportunity to convene, grow relationships and collaborate on applied projects; the sprint provided a venue for enhancing the social network of localisation practitioners while focusing on concrete outcomes. * Participants mapped out the localisation landscape, from tools to guides to practices; many exciting projects and initiatives are underway around the globe, but few top-down views exists into the range of projects. * Participants laid the foundation and initial groundwork for curricula designed to educate developers, technical intermediaries and funders in the best practices and sustainable processes for localisation in a broad scope of technology and documentation contexts around the globe. The curricula will see their first use at Asia Source in January 2005 (tacticaltech.org/asiasource), an event bringing together NGO technology activists and intermediaries from Southeast Asia to discuss free and open source software deployment for civil society organisations in the region. All materials generated at the sprint are being published under Creative Commons license to encourage the broadest use, adoption and ongoing enhancement of those resources. We invite anyone interested in these topics to visit http://localisationdev.org/ to survey the work to this point and to add their own knowledge, experience and comments to the mix. In particular, we invite you to: * View the wiki at http://wiki.localisationdev.org/ and add your knowledge. We've attempted to create pages aimed at different localisation audiences (including developers, eRiders, funders, and end users), but there is much to be done in completing and broadening these resources. * Visit Planet Localisation at http://planet.localisationdev.org/, check out the feeds and let us know of blogs we should be aggregating * Join the loc-dev mailing list and participate in discussions about creating software that's adaptable for a broader range of locales. To join, send email to: loc-dev-subscribe @lists.localisationdev.org or go to subscription page at http://lists.tacticaltech.org/mailman/listinfo/loc-dev We invite you to please forward this announcement to any appropriate lists, organisations and individuals. Thank you! The LocalisationDev Organisers ----- End forwarded message ----- From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Sat Nov 27 19:21:11 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Sat, 27 Nov 2004 12:21:11 -0700 Subject: NATIVE AMERICAN TRIBES: Keeping languages alive (fwd) Message-ID: NATIVE AMERICAN TRIBES: Keeping languages alive UA researchers work to save indigenous systems of communication, which have no written form PAUL L. ALLEN Tucson Citizen http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/index.php?page=local&story_id=112704a6_language&page_number=0 [photo inset - Tucson Citizen. Phillip Cash Cash, a University of Arizona doctoral candidate, and Susan Penfield, a UA professor, are using modern technology to help tribal members around the state preserve their languages.] With little fanfare, America's indigenous languages have dwindled to only about 150, flickering out one by one as aging tribal elders fluent in the languages complete the circle of life. Two University of Arizona English department researchers are focusing on tribal youths to save the remaining languages. By training American Indian teachers and librarians to use modern technology, professor Susan Penfield and her assistant Phillip Cash Cash hope to encourage younger generations to learn and preserve languages that are in danger of disappearing. [media inset - Video: Saving native languages] How serious is the problem? Only five people are fluent in Chemheuvi, a language spoken by Indians living on the Colorado River Indian tribes' reservation in west- central Arizona, Penfield said. The total Chemheuvi population has dwindled to about 150. North of them live the Mohave, with about 3,800 tribal members, whose fluent speakers number about 30. "By the year 2050, there are expected to be only about 30 indigenous languages in this country that are still spoken," said Penfield, a senior lecturer who spent nearly 30 years working with the Mohave language. Penfield and Cash Cash, a doctoral candidate pursuing a joint program in linguistics and anthropology, are working to help tribal members around the state use modern technology and computer software to preserve their languages. They also hope to revive younger tribal members' interest in their native language. Their work is funded by a $203,000 grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, with matching funds from UA. Penfield said the initial funding from the Gates foundation grant was intended to create a manual for beginners in computer technology to develop multimedia, slides, PowerPoint and other language development tools. That funding is nearly exhausted. Additional grants are being pursued to continue the project. Cash Cash is a member of the Cayuse tribal group on the Umatilla Reservation in Oregon. The Cayuse, known for their breeding of horses of the same name, originally had their own language, he said. But in the 19th century, taking political and practical considerations into account, they adopted the Nez Perce language. Cash Cash is fluent in the adopted language, thanks to his close relationships with his grandparents. The name Cayuse, he said, is an adaptation of the Spanish word "caballo" - horse. "In the native tongue, there usually is no "v" sound, so the name got borrowed into the language as 'cayuse.'" Penfield's and Cash Cash's work involves videotaping fluent speakers as they recount their own histories or tell other stories, speaking a few sentences at a time in the native language, then repeating themselves in English. Because of a concerted effort by federal officials to eliminate tribal languages, many tribal members in their 50s and younger may understand their native language, but not speak it. Penfield's and Cash Cash's program also is used to help teachers organize teaching aids. "The most successful way to revitalize native languages has been to adapt methodology called immersion language teaching," she said. "That means all instruction is done in the tribal language." Preserving languages is important, not only for a group's cultural identity, but as a "window" into individual perceptions of the world. Penfield noted, English verbs are based on time - I go today, I went yesterday. By contrast, Navajo verbs are based on weight and shape. The verb to "pick up" a piece of paper, for example, would differ from the verb to pick up a rock or a potato. Languages such as Chemhuevi and Mohave "should not be seen as artifacts," said Penfield, a senior lecturer who spent nearly 30 years working with the Mohave language. "The vocabulary is vast," she said. "They change and adapt, just like any other language." "When they're gone, they're gone," said Penfield, noting that Indigenous languages are more vulnerable to extinction because they have no written form. "There is nothing written, there is no preservation except in communities where there was early recording." Many tribes are trying to preserve their languages. "My understanding is that Hopi is now mandated as a second language in their schools," she said. "Apache is being taught at Whiteriver; you can take Apache I or Apache II. You can choose those instead of a 'foreign' language, and get the same credit." Joyce Bahe, an Apache-Navajo, teaches at Alchesay High School in Whiteriver. Fluent in Apache, she is learning and using some of the methods developed by Penfield and Cash Cash to teach her students. "I see a revival of interest in the language," she said. "Some of my students told me, 'I went home and spoke Apache to my Mom and Dad, and they were happy.'" From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Sun Nov 28 17:38:07 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Sun, 28 Nov 2004 10:38:07 -0700 Subject: Catawbas revive heritage in own words (fwd) Message-ID: Catawbas revive heritage in own words By Denyse Clark The Herald http://www.heraldonline.com/local/story/4246875p-4039913c.html [photo inset - Claudia Priest, linguist at the Catawba Cultural Center, paints a sign Friday in preparation for today's Yap Ye Iswa festival. The sign shows the Catawba word "wide-buye," which means live deer.] (Published November 27‚ 2004) CATAWBA INDIAN RESERVATION -- People know vaguely who the Catawbas are, tribal officials say. But now, there's a spoken language to teach the community how the Catawbas sound in their native tongue. The annual Yap Ye Iswa festival will be today from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the reservation's Catawba Cultural Center. This year's festival features the tribe's official language in words, phrases, stories and songs. People can learn to count, greet friends and talk about the weather, said Claudia Priest, the tribe's linguist. "We're doing this to make people aware of the Catawba language," Priest said. "It's a way to show what the language looked like and how it sounded." Priest painted a language sign Friday with the word "wide-buye," (pronounced weedah-bo-yae), meaning a live deer, and not the meat, she said. A display above the center's fireplace shows three ways to speak of "smoke" in the Catawba language, Priest said. It includes the Catawba word for chimney -- "suksuré" (pronounced sook-soor-ray), meaning "smoke there is." Displays throughout the cultural center show plants, animals, cooking utensils and everyday life ways of the tribe. The "At Home With The Catawba Language" display includes the words for mother, yaksu (pronounced yauk-soo), and father, nane (pronounced nah-nay). Catawba Cultural Center executive director Wenonah Haire said the tribe wants to get the language more in use rather than just in classes at the cultural center. "It's a language that hasn't been used," Haire said. "We've tried hard to get it into the community." Several Catawba language classes were held to help revive the use of the language among the tribe, Haire said. But only a few tribal members attended those sessions. The language now is available on compact disc with a companion text for $15, center officials say. The CD includes recordings of Catawba tribal members and the tribe's linguist sharing numbers, phrases, children's stories, poetry and much more. It is designed to teach ways to use the language and not just how to say the words, Priest said. Tribal officials also plan to apply for grants to expand the use of the Catawba language in distance learning projects, Haire said. "We want to take Catawbas out of a book and put their heritage into use in everyday language," Haire said. Denyse Clark • 329-4069 dclark at heraldonline.com From CRANEM at MAIL.ECU.EDU Mon Nov 29 15:55:39 2004 From: CRANEM at MAIL.ECU.EDU (Bizzaro, Resa Crane) Date: Mon, 29 Nov 2004 10:55:39 -0500 Subject: Catawbas revive heritage in own words (fwd) Message-ID: Hi, everyone. I find this note very interesting, as my husband did some work with the research Frank Speck collected on the Catawba language. Speck maintained that he was speaking with the last three Catawba speakers in the early 1920's, I believe. After their deaths, he presumed the language was dead. Do any of you know about this topic? Resa -----Original Message----- From: Indigenous Languages and Technology on behalf of phil cash cash Sent: Sun 11/28/2004 12:38 PM To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Cc: Subject: Catawbas revive heritage in own words (fwd) Catawbas revive heritage in own words By Denyse Clark The Herald http://www.heraldonline.com/local/story/4246875p-4039913c.html [photo inset - Claudia Priest, linguist at the Catawba Cultural Center, paints a sign Friday in preparation for today's Yap Ye Iswa festival. The sign shows the Catawba word "wide-buye," which means live deer.] (Published November 27‚ 2004) CATAWBA INDIAN RESERVATION -- People know vaguely who the Catawbas are, tribal officials say. But now, there's a spoken language to teach the community how the Catawbas sound in their native tongue. The annual Yap Ye Iswa festival will be today from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the reservation's Catawba Cultural Center. This year's festival features the tribe's official language in words, phrases, stories and songs. People can learn to count, greet friends and talk about the weather, said Claudia Priest, the tribe's linguist. "We're doing this to make people aware of the Catawba language," Priest said. "It's a way to show what the language looked like and how it sounded." Priest painted a language sign Friday with the word "wide-buye," (pronounced weedah-bo-yae), meaning a live deer, and not the meat, she said. A display above the center's fireplace shows three ways to speak of "smoke" in the Catawba language, Priest said. It includes the Catawba word for chimney -- "suksuré" (pronounced sook-soor-ray), meaning "smoke there is." Displays throughout the cultural center show plants, animals, cooking utensils and everyday life ways of the tribe. The "At Home With The Catawba Language" display includes the words for mother, yaksu (pronounced yauk-soo), and father, nane (pronounced nah-nay). Catawba Cultural Center executive director Wenonah Haire said the tribe wants to get the language more in use rather than just in classes at the cultural center. "It's a language that hasn't been used," Haire said. "We've tried hard to get it into the community." Several Catawba language classes were held to help revive the use of the language among the tribe, Haire said. But only a few tribal members attended those sessions. The language now is available on compact disc with a companion text for $15, center officials say. The CD includes recordings of Catawba tribal members and the tribe's linguist sharing numbers, phrases, children's stories, poetry and much more. It is designed to teach ways to use the language and not just how to say the words, Priest said. Tribal officials also plan to apply for grants to expand the use of the Catawba language in distance learning projects, Haire said. "We want to take Catawbas out of a book and put their heritage into use in everyday language," Haire said. Denyse Clark • 329-4069 dclark at heraldonline.com From sdp at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Nov 29 16:17:33 2004 From: sdp at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Susan Penfield) Date: Mon, 29 Nov 2004 09:17:33 -0700 Subject: Catawbas revive heritage in own words (fwd) Message-ID: Hi, I'm not 100% positive about the content, but I do know that there are some recordings done as part of the Doris Duke American Indian Oral History Project in the mid to late 1960's which supposedly contain some spoken Catawba. These should be on file at the University of Florida Library (Gainesville). S. Susan D. Penfield, Ph.D. Department of English Second Language Acquisition and Teaching Indigenous Languages and Technology Language, Reading and culture University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721 ----- Original Message ----- From: "Bizzaro, Resa Crane" To: Sent: Monday, November 29, 2004 8:55 AM Subject: Re: Catawbas revive heritage in own words (fwd) > Hi, everyone. I find this note very interesting, as my husband did some > work with the research Frank Speck collected on the Catawba language. > Speck maintained that he was speaking with the last three Catawba speakers > in the early 1920's, I believe. After their deaths, he presumed the > language was dead. > > Do any of you know about this topic? > > Resa > > -----Original Message----- > From: Indigenous Languages and Technology on behalf of phil cash cash > Sent: Sun 11/28/2004 12:38 PM > To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU > Cc: > Subject: Catawbas revive heritage in own words (fwd) > > > > Catawbas revive heritage in own words > > By Denyse Clark The Herald > http://www.heraldonline.com/local/story/4246875p-4039913c.html > > [photo inset - Claudia Priest, linguist at the Catawba Cultural Center, > paints a sign Friday in preparation for today's Yap Ye Iswa festival. > The sign shows the Catawba word "wide-buye," which means live deer.] > > (Published November 27�~B 2004) > > CATAWBA INDIAN RESERVATION -- People know vaguely who the Catawbas are, > tribal officials say. But now, there's a spoken language to teach the > community how the Catawbas sound in their native tongue. > > The annual Yap Ye Iswa festival will be today from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at > the reservation's Catawba Cultural Center. > > This year's festival features the tribe's official language in words, > phrases, stories and songs. People can learn to count, greet friends > and talk about the weather, said Claudia Priest, the tribe's linguist. > > "We're doing this to make people aware of the Catawba language," Priest > said. "It's a way to show what the language looked like and how it > sounded." > > Priest painted a language sign Friday with the word "wide-buye," > (pronounced weedah-bo-yae), meaning a live deer, and not the meat, she > said. > > A display above the center's fireplace shows three ways to speak of > "smoke" in the Catawba language, Priest said. It includes the Catawba > word for chimney -- "suksuré" (pronounced sook-soor-ray), meaning > "smoke there is." > > Displays throughout the cultural center show plants, animals, cooking > utensils and everyday life ways of the tribe. > > The "At Home With The Catawba Language" display includes the words for > mother, yaksu (pronounced yauk-soo), and father, nane (pronounced > nah-nay). > > Catawba Cultural Center executive director Wenonah Haire said the tribe > wants to get the language more in use rather than just in classes at > the cultural center. > > "It's a language that hasn't been used," Haire said. "We've tried hard > to get it into the community." > > Several Catawba language classes were held to help revive the use of the > language among the tribe, Haire said. But only a few tribal members > attended those sessions. > > The language now is available on compact disc with a companion text for > $15, center officials say. The CD includes recordings of Catawba tribal > members and the tribe's linguist sharing numbers, phrases, children's > stories, poetry and much more. It is designed to teach ways to use the > language and not just how to say the words, Priest said. > > Tribal officials also plan to apply for grants to expand the use of the > Catawba language in distance learning projects, Haire said. > > "We want to take Catawbas out of a book and put their heritage into use > in everyday language," Haire said. > > Denyse Clark �~U 329-4069 > dclark at heraldonline.com > > > From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US Mon Nov 29 16:28:02 2004 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP) Date: Mon, 29 Nov 2004 09:28:02 -0700 Subject: Catawbas revive heritage in own words (fwd) Message-ID: I don't think Claudia is on this list, but if there are actual recordings, she sure would like to know about them. I met her at a Linguistics conference in Atlanta, probably in January, 2003. Maybe 2002. Time flies. So if anyone knows how to contact her, she would really like this. best to all, Mia ----- Original Message ----- From: "Susan Penfield" To: Sent: Monday, November 29, 2004 9:17 AM Subject: Re: Catawbas revive heritage in own words (fwd) > Hi, > I'm not 100% positive about the content, but I do know that there are some > recordings done as part of the Doris Duke American Indian Oral History > Project in the mid to late 1960's which supposedly contain some spoken > Catawba. These should be on file at the University of Florida Library > (Gainesville). > S. > Susan D. Penfield, Ph.D. > Department of English > Second Language Acquisition and Teaching > Indigenous Languages and Technology > Language, Reading and culture > University of Arizona, > Tucson, AZ 85721 > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Bizzaro, Resa Crane" > To: > Sent: Monday, November 29, 2004 8:55 AM > Subject: Re: Catawbas revive heritage in own words (fwd) > > > > Hi, everyone. I find this note very interesting, as my husband did some > > work with the research Frank Speck collected on the Catawba language. > > Speck maintained that he was speaking with the last three Catawba speakers > > in the early 1920's, I believe. After their deaths, he presumed the > > language was dead. > > > > Do any of you know about this topic? > > > > Resa > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: Indigenous Languages and Technology on behalf of phil cash cash > > Sent: Sun 11/28/2004 12:38 PM > > To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU > > Cc: > > Subject: Catawbas revive heritage in own words (fwd) > > > > > > > > Catawbas revive heritage in own words > > > > By Denyse Clark The Herald > > http://www.heraldonline.com/local/story/4246875p-4039913c.html > > > > [photo inset - Claudia Priest, linguist at the Catawba Cultural Center, > > paints a sign Friday in preparation for today's Yap Ye Iswa festival. > > The sign shows the Catawba word "wide-buye," which means live deer.] > > > > (Published November 27�~B 2004) > > > > CATAWBA INDIAN RESERVATION -- People know vaguely who the Catawbas are, > > tribal officials say. But now, there's a spoken language to teach the > > community how the Catawbas sound in their native tongue. > > > > The annual Yap Ye Iswa festival will be today from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at > > the reservation's Catawba Cultural Center. > > > > This year's festival features the tribe's official language in words, > > phrases, stories and songs. People can learn to count, greet friends > > and talk about the weather, said Claudia Priest, the tribe's linguist. > > > > "We're doing this to make people aware of the Catawba language," Priest > > said. "It's a way to show what the language looked like and how it > > sounded." > > > > Priest painted a language sign Friday with the word "wide-buye," > > (pronounced weedah-bo-yae), meaning a live deer, and not the meat, she > > said. > > > > A display above the center's fireplace shows three ways to speak of > > "smoke" in the Catawba language, Priest said. It includes the Catawba > > word for chimney -- "suksuré" (pronounced sook-soor-ray), meaning > > "smoke there is." > > > > Displays throughout the cultural center show plants, animals, cooking > > utensils and everyday life ways of the tribe. > > > > The "At Home With The Catawba Language" display includes the words for > > mother, yaksu (pronounced yauk-soo), and father, nane (pronounced > > nah-nay). > > > > Catawba Cultural Center executive director Wenonah Haire said the tribe > > wants to get the language more in use rather than just in classes at > > the cultural center. > > > > "It's a language that hasn't been used," Haire said. "We've tried hard > > to get it into the community." > > > > Several Catawba language classes were held to help revive the use of the > > language among the tribe, Haire said. But only a few tribal members > > attended those sessions. > > > > The language now is available on compact disc with a companion text for > > $15, center officials say. The CD includes recordings of Catawba tribal > > members and the tribe's linguist sharing numbers, phrases, children's > > stories, poetry and much more. It is designed to teach ways to use the > > language and not just how to say the words, Priest said. > > > > Tribal officials also plan to apply for grants to expand the use of the > > Catawba language in distance learning projects, Haire said. > > > > "We want to take Catawbas out of a book and put their heritage into use > > in everyday language," Haire said. > > > > Denyse Clark �~U 329-4069 > > dclark at heraldonline.com > > > > > > > > From jtucker at STARBAND.NET Mon Nov 29 17:18:23 2004 From: jtucker at STARBAND.NET (Jan Tucker) Date: Mon, 29 Nov 2004 12:18:23 -0500 Subject: Catawbas revive heritage in own words (fwd) In-Reply-To: <013f01c4d630$65fab540$03ec7b80@red6bvg9btk> Message-ID: Claudia or Mia , I can check to see what they have for Catawba in terms of recordings. I am local to UF which is where I went to school. Let me know if I can help out. Claudia or you can email me off the list at jtucker at starband.net if necessary. jan tucker -----Original Message----- From: Indigenous Languages and Technology [mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU]On Behalf Of MiaKalish at LFP Sent: Monday, November 29, 2004 11:28 AM To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Subject: Re: Catawbas revive heritage in own words (fwd) I don't think Claudia is on this list, but if there are actual recordings, she sure would like to know about them. I met her at a Linguistics conference in Atlanta, probably in January, 2003. Maybe 2002. Time flies. So if anyone knows how to contact her, she would really like this. best to all, Mia ----- Original Message ----- From: "Susan Penfield" To: Sent: Monday, November 29, 2004 9:17 AM Subject: Re: Catawbas revive heritage in own words (fwd) > Hi, > I'm not 100% positive about the content, but I do know that there are some > recordings done as part of the Doris Duke American Indian Oral History > Project in the mid to late 1960's which supposedly contain some spoken > Catawba. These should be on file at the University of Florida Library > (Gainesville). > S. > Susan D. Penfield, Ph.D. > Department of English > Second Language Acquisition and Teaching > Indigenous Languages and Technology > Language, Reading and culture > University of Arizona, > Tucson, AZ 85721 > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Bizzaro, Resa Crane" > To: > Sent: Monday, November 29, 2004 8:55 AM > Subject: Re: Catawbas revive heritage in own words (fwd) > > > > Hi, everyone. I find this note very interesting, as my husband did some > > work with the research Frank Speck collected on the Catawba language. > > Speck maintained that he was speaking with the last three Catawba speakers > > in the early 1920's, I believe. After their deaths, he presumed the > > language was dead. > > > > Do any of you know about this topic? > > > > Resa > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: Indigenous Languages and Technology on behalf of phil cash cash > > Sent: Sun 11/28/2004 12:38 PM > > To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU > > Cc: > > Subject: Catawbas revive heritage in own words (fwd) > > > > > > > > Catawbas revive heritage in own words > > > > By Denyse Clark The Herald > > http://www.heraldonline.com/local/story/4246875p-4039913c.html > > > > [photo inset - Claudia Priest, linguist at the Catawba Cultural Center, > > paints a sign Friday in preparation for today's Yap Ye Iswa festival. > > The sign shows the Catawba word "wide-buye," which means live deer.] > > > > (Published November 27‚ 2004) > > > > CATAWBA INDIAN RESERVATION -- People know vaguely who the Catawbas are, > > tribal officials say. But now, there's a spoken language to teach the > > community how the Catawbas sound in their native tongue. > > > > The annual Yap Ye Iswa festival will be today from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at > > the reservation's Catawba Cultural Center. > > > > This year's festival features the tribe's official language in words, > > phrases, stories and songs. People can learn to count, greet friends > > and talk about the weather, said Claudia Priest, the tribe's linguist. > > > > "We're doing this to make people aware of the Catawba language," Priest > > said. "It's a way to show what the language looked like and how it > > sounded." > > > > Priest painted a language sign Friday with the word "wide-buye," > > (pronounced weedah-bo-yae), meaning a live deer, and not the meat, she > > said. > > > > A display above the center's fireplace shows three ways to speak of > > "smoke" in the Catawba language, Priest said. It includes the Catawba > > word for chimney -- "suksuré" (pronounced sook-soor-ray), meaning > > "smoke there is." > > > > Displays throughout the cultural center show plants, animals, cooking > > utensils and everyday life ways of the tribe. > > > > The "At Home With The Catawba Language" display includes the words for > > mother, yaksu (pronounced yauk-soo), and father, nane (pronounced > > nah-nay). > > > > Catawba Cultural Center executive director Wenonah Haire said the tribe > > wants to get the language more in use rather than just in classes at > > the cultural center. > > > > "It's a language that hasn't been used," Haire said. "We've tried hard > > to get it into the community." > > > > Several Catawba language classes were held to help revive the use of the > > language among the tribe, Haire said. But only a few tribal members > > attended those sessions. > > > > The language now is available on compact disc with a companion text for > > $15, center officials say. The CD includes recordings of Catawba tribal > > members and the tribe's linguist sharing numbers, phrases, children's > > stories, poetry and much more. It is designed to teach ways to use the > > language and not just how to say the words, Priest said. > > > > Tribal officials also plan to apply for grants to expand the use of the > > Catawba language in distance learning projects, Haire said. > > > > "We want to take Catawbas out of a book and put their heritage into use > > in everyday language," Haire said. > > > > Denyse Clark • 329-4069 > > dclark at heraldonline.com > > > > > > > > From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Nov 1 16:21:26 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Mon, 1 Nov 2004 09:21:26 -0700 Subject: ILAT's 2nd yr... Message-ID: Dear ILAT, just a quick note, ILAT is now into the 2 yr of its existence! thanks to all of you for being an ILAT subscriber and committed to dialogue, sharing, and faithful lurking on issues concerning indigenous languages and technology. our total number of ILAT subscribers is at 159 (we tend to lose a few subscribers who have full mailboxes every now and then). please continue and feel free to post information, share, express & introduce yourself, and make inquiries of ILAT. life is short and our indigenous languages are dissappearing. qe'ciy?ew'yew', phil cash cash (cayuse/nez perce) ph.d student in the joint program in anthropology and linguistics univesity of arizona ILAT list manager From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Nov 1 16:30:18 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Mon, 1 Nov 2004 09:30:18 -0700 Subject: LANGUAGE REVITALIZATION AND NEW TECHNOLOGIES (fwd abstract) Message-ID: Annual Review of Anthropology Vol. 33: 21-45 (Volume publication date October 2004) LANGUAGE REVITALIZATION AND NEW TECHNOLOGIES: Cultures of Electronic Mediation and the Refiguring of Communities Patrick Eisenlohr Department of Anthropology, Washington University, Saint Louis, Missouri 63130 Abstract? Recently, language activists and linguists have begun using new technologies in projects aimed at revitalizing the practice of lesser-used languages. This review explores related work, emphasizing how practices of electronic mediation enabled by such technologies both shape and are informed by linguistic ideologies, which in turn crucially influence the possible revived use or abandonment of linguistic varieties. New technologies are treated as part of cultures of electronic mediation, connecting sociocultural valuations to mediated discourse. Their use often has important political implications, given that projects of language revitalization are often linked to claims of ethnolinguistic recognition. Finally, because documentation of lesser-used languages using digital technologies also results in the production of new cultural objects to be stored, displayed, and circulated, attention is also focused on the forms of sociality sustained by the creation and exchange of such electronic artifacts. From mikinakn at SHAW.CA Mon Nov 1 16:30:48 2004 From: mikinakn at SHAW.CA (Rolland Nadjiwon) Date: Mon, 1 Nov 2004 11:30:48 -0500 Subject: ILAT's 2nd yr... Message-ID: Thanks Phil...great list. I forward al to of information to language programs I am aware of. ------- wahjeh rolland nadjiwon ----- Original Message ----- From: "phil cash cash" To: Sent: Monday, November 01, 2004 11:21 AM Subject: ILAT's 2nd yr... Dear ILAT, just a quick note, ILAT is now into the 2 yr of its existence! thanks to all of you for being an ILAT subscriber and committed to dialogue, sharing, and faithful lurking on issues concerning indigenous languages and technology. our total number of ILAT subscribers is at 159 (we tend to lose a few subscribers who have full mailboxes every now and then). please continue and feel free to post information, share, express & introduce yourself, and make inquiries of ILAT. life is short and our indigenous languages are dissappearing. qe'ciy?ew'yew', phil cash cash (cayuse/nez perce) ph.d student in the joint program in anthropology and linguistics univesity of arizona ILAT list manager From CRANEM at MAIL.ECU.EDU Mon Nov 1 20:35:09 2004 From: CRANEM at MAIL.ECU.EDU (Bizzaro, Resa Crane) Date: Mon, 1 Nov 2004 15:35:09 -0500 Subject: ILAT's 2nd yr... Message-ID: Hi, Phil (and everyone else). Congratulations on your second year, and thanks for doing such a great job with keeping the list going. Thanks to everyone else for participating. I've learned so much from you all. Resa Cherokee/Meherrin -----Original Message----- From: Indigenous Languages and Technology on behalf of Rolland Nadjiwon Sent: Mon 11/1/2004 11:30 AM To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Cc: Subject: Re: ILAT's 2nd yr... Thanks Phil...great list. I forward al to of information to language programs I am aware of. ------- wahjeh rolland nadjiwon ----- Original Message ----- From: "phil cash cash" To: Sent: Monday, November 01, 2004 11:21 AM Subject: ILAT's 2nd yr... Dear ILAT, just a quick note, ILAT is now into the 2 yr of its existence! thanks to all of you for being an ILAT subscriber and committed to dialogue, sharing, and faithful lurking on issues concerning indigenous languages and technology. our total number of ILAT subscribers is at 159 (we tend to lose a few subscribers who have full mailboxes every now and then). please continue and feel free to post information, share, express & introduce yourself, and make inquiries of ILAT. life is short and our indigenous languages are dissappearing. qe'ciy?ew'yew', phil cash cash (cayuse/nez perce) ph.d student in the joint program in anthropology and linguistics univesity of arizona ILAT list manager From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Nov 3 16:29:04 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 3 Nov 2004 09:29:04 -0700 Subject: Inuit language finds home on net (fwd) Message-ID: Inuit language finds home on net Inuktitut speakers will soon be able to have their say online as the Canadian aboriginal language goes on the web. Browser settings on normal computers have not supported the language to date, but attavik.net has changed that. It provides a content management system that allows native speakers to write, manage documents and offer online payments in the Inuit language. It could prove a vital tool to keep the language alive in one of the most remote communities on earth. Vital link Inuktitut is spoken by the Inuit people living in Nunavut, northern Canada, which is an area two to three times the size of France. An historic agreement signed with the Canadian government in 1999 allowed the communities living there independence to run their land how they chose. In this long-established society, the modern medium of the internet is proving a breath of fresh air. "There are 25 settlements, 30,000 people and no roads. It is a huge area of land and the internet is tailor-made for these groups," said Oliver Zielke, the chief executive of Web Networks, a non-profit organisation based in Canada which provides web services for socially committed groups. Web Networks worked with the Piruvik Centre of Iqualuit, the capital of Nunavut, to develop the system. Reaching goals "It was a big challenge to give the Inuit and Inuktitut speakers the ability to have web pages published in their native language," said Mr Zielke. "A lot of people have older computers and limited ability to use technology," he added. With high-speed satellite net access planned for the region and the website providing the easy-to-use tools to make publishing easy, that is about to change. "The worldwide web can seem like a foreign place to these people but now they can be players in that world. The internet will eventually be one of the basic tools that the Inuit people use," predicted Mr Zielke. The technology behind attavik.net can be used for other syllabic languages such as Cree, Oji-cree and Korean. The government of Nunavut is committed to making Inuktitut its working language. "This type of development puts that goal within reach," said Eva Aariak, Languages Commissioner for Nunavut. Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/technology/3975645.stm Published: 2004/11/03 09:08:49 GMT ? BBC MMIV From andrekar at NCIDC.ORG Thu Nov 4 21:51:39 2004 From: andrekar at NCIDC.ORG (Andre Cramblit) Date: Thu, 4 Nov 2004 13:51:39 -0800 Subject: Conference (event) Message-ID: Dear Endangered Languages Folks: I would like to draw your attention to the following conference: Conference on Endangered Languages and Cultures of Native America Call for Papers ??????? Call Deadline:? Jan 14, 2005 The CONFERENCE ON ENDANGERED LANGUAGES AND CULTURES OF NATIVE AMERICA (1st annual CELCNA meeting) will be held April 8-9, 2005, on the University of Utah campus in Salt Lake City, Utah. The sponsors of this conference are: (1) Center for American Indian Languages (CAIL), University of Utah, (2) Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, (3) Department of Linguistics, U of Utah and (4) College of Humanities, U of Utah.? The keynote speaker will be Dr. Leanne Hinton (Chair, Dept of Linguistics, University of California, Berkeley).? We invite papers dealing with any aspect of endangered Native American languages, in particular on documentation or revitalization.? Papers are 20 minutes each in length, with an additional 10 minutes for discussion. ABSTRACTS MUST BE RECEIVED by Jan 14, 2005. The program committee will attempt to provide notification of acceptance by Jan. 21 (by e-mail). Abstract submission guidelines: ? The abstract should be no more than 500 words in length.? It should include the title of the paper and the name (or names) of the author/authors, together with the author's/authors' affiliation.? (If the paper is accepted, this abstract will be reproduced in conference materials to be distributed to other participants.) ? Abstracts must be submitted electronically.? Submissions should be in Microsoft Word document, Rich Text Format (RTF), or Portable Document Format (PDF).? If possible, avoid special fonts (or arrange with the organizers so they can be read). ? Please include in addition to your abstract appropriate contact details, which include: contact author's name, e-mail address for the period of time from January to April 2005, and a telephone contact number. ? More than one abstract may be submitted per person; however, only one paper per person will be accepted for presentation.? (The only exception may be in instances where at least one of the papers has multiple authors.) ? Address abstracts to:? lyle.campbell at linguistics.utah.edu (Lyle Campbell), no later than Jan. 14, 2005.? Additional information on CELCNA will be posted on www.hum.utah.edu/linguistics.? Address enquiries for further information to: Phatmandu7 at aol.com (Jen Mitchell), or julialice at yahoo.com (Julia Pratt) If you need further information not easily arranged via e-mail, please call: Tel. 801-581-8047 (Julia Pratt), or 801-585-9785 (Linguistics Dept.),? during business hours (Mountain Standard Time), or Fax 801-585-7351. Pre-conference event:? For those interested, the Fourth Annual University of Utah Student Conference in Linguistics takes place immediately before the CELCNA meeting, on April 7.? Leanne Hinton is the keynote speaker for this conference, also, which is a separate and independent meeting.? (Additional information will be posted on www.hum.utah.edu/linguistics.) Many thanks, Lyle -- Dr. Lyle Campbell, Professor of Linguistics, Director of the Center for American Indian Languages Dept. of Linguistics, University of Utah, 255 S. Central Campus Drive, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112-0492?? Tel. 801-581-3441 (office), 801-585-9785 (Linguistics Dept.), Fax 801-585-7351 -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 4026 bytes Desc: not available URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Sat Nov 6 16:34:49 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Sat, 6 Nov 2004 09:34:49 -0700 Subject: Life stories of elders preserve oral tradition (fwd) Message-ID: Life stories of elders preserve oral tradition Amy Jo Ehman Special to The StarPhoenix Saturday, November 06, 2004 http://www.canada.com/saskatoon/starphoenix/news/story.html?id=dbc35a2b-9573-4e02-8be4-2e57cc876141 [photo insert - CREDIT: Gord Waldner, The StarPhoenix. Ted Whitecalf, co-author of Kiskisiwin, reads to his five-month-old son Elias Adam Asiniy.] Ted Whitecalf is quite sure his son Elias's first word is going to be "No" but he's also quite sure it will be in Cree, not English. Whitecalf is trying hard to pass his mother tongue to the next generation -- and his latest literary collaboration, Kiskisiwin, fits with that goal. Kiskisiwin is a collection of life stories as told by a group of elders from the Beardy's & Okemasis First Nation near Duck Lake. The stories are sometimes happy, sometimes sad, sometimes regretful but often insightful, as the elders talk about the hardships and joys of their long lives. "The purpose is the preservation of the language, the culture and the traditions of our people," said Whitecalf, owner of Sweet Grass Records/Productions in Saskatoon, which produced the book. "Times are changing, and the youth aren't going out to find these stories. A lot of the elders are taking that knowledge to the grave. It's not being passed down because no one is seeking it." In fact, he said two elders passed away during publication. Kiskisiwin is a Cree word meaning "I remember" and the act of remembering is laced throughout the book. The elders were asked to tell their life stories, especially those aspects they would like to be read some day by their grandchildren. Most of the stories were told in Cree and translated into English. Like the story of 79-year-old Marie Arcand, who attended residential school, and who remembers being so excited about going home at summer break that she couldn't sleep -- so she glued her eyelids together with chewing gum. ". . . we got into trouble for that and they had to use butter to unglue!" she recalls in her story. She left school after Grade 5. Near the end of her interview she said, "I would tell everybody to pursue education and to finish their education. I am so happy that my son is a policeman . . . I tell my grandchildren things but I have to speak in English and I am not the best with that language." The stories are accompanied by touching black-and-white photos of the elders, revealing much through their facial features and those personal touches that make a home. The recordings were done earlier this year by Whitecalf and John Smallchild, translated into English by Helen Tootoosis, and polished by a team of editors. "The editing was pretty minimal," said Marilyn Poitras, Elias's mother and one of the book's editors. "Every once in awhile there was something that was completely lost in translation and we took that out." While there is much about hardship due to poverty, alcoholism, abuse and racism, the stories are often about the ordinary and humorous aspects of growing up Cree in a changing world. "They have the most amazing sense of humour," said Poitras. "Even when they're sad about something, they can find humour. It's how the culture survived this long." But she laments the loss of the oral storytelling traditions of the Cree people. The very fact that these stories must be written down in order to be passed on reflects the loss of that traditional conversation between one generation and the next. "The residential school system, the legacy of criminal law, taking away aspects of the culture -- this has disintegrated the oral tradition so that may of the kids today don't know how to access those stories anymore," she said. "If every reserve in the province took on a project to educate in a very small way, showing some stepping stones to reconnecting that fragmented fabric, I think it would go a long way to putting things back together again and growing healthy communities." Kiskisiwin is the third collection of stories from elders at Beardy's & Okemasis, a project funded by the band. It is for sale at McNally Robinson's bookstore in Saskatoon. Whitecalf is now undertaking a project to record stories from aboriginal people across the province for use in an educational DVD for the school system. Those interviews will be in their original languages with subtitles, so young people will feel the rhythm of the language and see the facial expressions of the elders as they speak. "I'm just excited about this," said Whitecalf. "They're giving their stories to their grandchildren but they are giving them to the province as well." Ehman is a freelance writer. ??The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2004 From dzo at BISHARAT.NET Sat Nov 6 17:22:03 2004 From: dzo at BISHARAT.NET (Donald Z. Osborn) Date: Sat, 6 Nov 2004 11:22:03 -0600 Subject: Heritage languages Message-ID: FYI, two resources on heritage language instruction (another area within the broader field encompassing multi/bilingual education and literacy, first language education, second/additional language teaching, and language preservation/revitalization). DZO Heritage Language Journal http://www.international.ucla.edu/lrc/hlj/index.asp Alliance for the Advancement of Heritage Languages http://www.cal.org/heritage/ From pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET Sat Nov 6 19:47:09 2004 From: pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET (phil cash cash) Date: Sat, 6 Nov 2004 12:47:09 -0700 Subject: Conference (event) In-Reply-To: Message-ID: thanks for the announcement Andre! phil UofA, ILAT On Nov 4, 2004, at 2:51 PM, Andre Cramblit wrote: > Conference on Endangered Languages and Cultures of Native America > > Call for Papers > ??????? > Call Deadline:? Jan 14, 2005 -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 368 bytes Desc: not available URL: From pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET Sat Nov 6 19:52:21 2004 From: pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET (phil cash cash) Date: Sat, 6 Nov 2004 12:52:21 -0700 Subject: Heritage languages In-Reply-To: <1099761723.418d083bddd6b@webmail.kabissa.org> Message-ID: the article "Classroom Based Dialect Awareness in Heritage Language Instruction" is very, very interesting. thanks Don, phil UofA, ILAT On Nov 6, 2004, at 10:22 AM, Donald Z. Osborn wrote: > Heritage Language Journal > http://www.international.ucla.edu/lrc/hlj/index.asp > From dzo at BISHARAT.NET Sun Nov 7 00:00:22 2004 From: dzo at BISHARAT.NET (Donald Z. Osborn) Date: Sat, 6 Nov 2004 18:00:22 -0600 Subject: [DDN] DD projects in Yucatan? In-Reply-To: <200411061407.27568.drpoo@drpooville.org> Message-ID: Chris, Though your focus will be on the Spanish-speaking environment, it would be interesting to hear of any observations you may have the chance to make concerning use of indigenous languages in ICT (projects) in the parts of Mexico you will visit. My focus is Africa (though I try to follow multilingual ICT issues worldwide), but there are others focusing on Native American languages, notably on the ILAT list, to which I will cc this. Best of luck with your research. Don Osborn Bisharat.net Quoting Chris Ward : > My name is Chris Ward. I am a university student at the College of the > Atlantic in Bar Harbor Maine, studying for a degree in Human Ecology. > > This coming winter, December 7th-March 7th, i will be studying in the > Yucatan. > For two weeks while i am there, i am required to do a project of my choice. > The only two requirements are that it must be in a spanish speaking > environment (not hard...) and that it lasts two weeks. > > I am very interested in studying about technology in developing countries, > and > the digital divide issues are a great place to start. > > Do you know of any projects that are centered in or around Yucatan, in > Mexico, > that addresses this topic or any others in technology? > > I will be volunteering my time and skills. I have professional experience > with > technology, as well as some experience teaching technical skills to students > in a developing country, namely , Ghana. > > I also have a great interest in Linux deployment, advocacy, education. If > there are any known projects that relate to linux in one of those ways, or if > anyone is researching how linux fits into the DD problem, i am very > interested to learn more about those things as well. > > Please let me know if you know of anything, or even if you do not. And, > please > also forward my question to as many people as you can who might be able to > help me also. > > Thank you so very much! > > -Chris Ward > > drpoo at drpooville.org > _______________________________________________ > DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list > DIGITALDIVIDE at mailman.edc.org > http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide > To unsubscribe, send a message to digitaldivide-request at mailman.edc.org with > the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. > From dzo at BISHARAT.NET Sun Nov 7 00:44:10 2004 From: dzo at BISHARAT.NET (Donald Z. Osborn) Date: Sat, 6 Nov 2004 18:44:10 -0600 Subject: Heritage languages In-Reply-To: <5F54CF1A-302D-11D9-A9C4-0003936727C2@dakotacom.net> Message-ID: Phil, Glad you found the link useful. BTW, there are a couple of open archived lists you and others might find informative if you don't check them already (a few of the items you may recognize as reposts from ILAT): 1. AfricanLanguages http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AfricanLanguages/ - Kenyan author Mwangi wa Mutahi started this in 1999, but over the last couple of years I've been the one doing post of the posting. 2. A12n-forum http://lists.kabissa.org/lists/archives/public/a12n-forum/ - This is dedicated to African languages and ICT. Its sister list, A12n-collaboration has had a much narrower focus on characters (orthography) and keyboards. ("A12n" stands for "Africanization" in a tech & lang sense.) Don Don Osborn Bisharat.net Quoting phil cash cash : > the article "Classroom Based Dialect Awareness in Heritage Language > Instruction" is very, very interesting. thanks Don, > > phil > UofA, ILAT > > On Nov 6, 2004, at 10:22 AM, Donald Z. Osborn wrote: > > Heritage Language Journal > > http://www.international.ucla.edu/lrc/hlj/index.asp > > > From pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET Sun Nov 7 01:15:59 2004 From: pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET (phil cash cash) Date: Sat, 6 Nov 2004 18:15:59 -0700 Subject: [DDN] DD projects in Yucatan? In-Reply-To: <1099785622.418d659644152@webmail.kabissa.org> Message-ID: Chris & all, you might want to check out the open source software @ the link below. it also supports Linux. http://www.openoffice.org/ quoting from the their website... "OpenOffice.org is a free productivity suite compatible with all major office suites. Mission Statement To create, as a community, the leading international office suite that will run on all major platforms and provide access to all functionality and data through open-component based APIs and an XML-based file format." phil cash cash UofA, ILAT On Nov 6, 2004, at 5:00 PM, Donald Z. Osborn wrote: > Chris, Though your focus will be on the Spanish-speaking environment, > it would > be interesting to hear of any observations you may have the chance to > make > concerning use of indigenous languages in ICT (projects) in the parts > of Mexico > you will visit. My focus is Africa (though I try to follow > multilingual ICT > issues worldwide), but there are others focusing on Native American > languages, > notably on the ILAT list, to which I will cc this. Best of luck with > your > research. > > Don Osborn > Bisharat.net > > > Quoting Chris Ward : > >> My name is Chris Ward. I am a university student at the College of the >> Atlantic in Bar Harbor Maine, studying for a degree in Human Ecology. >> >> This coming winter, December 7th-March 7th, i will be studying in the >> Yucatan. >> For two weeks while i am there, i am required to do a project of my >> choice. >> The only two requirements are that it must be in a spanish speaking >> environment (not hard...) and that it lasts two weeks. >> >> I am very interested in studying about technology in developing >> countries, >> and >> the digital divide issues are a great place to start. >> >> Do you know of any projects that are centered in or around Yucatan, in >> Mexico, >> that addresses this topic or any others in technology? >> >> I will be volunteering my time and skills. I have professional >> experience >> with >> technology, as well as some experience teaching technical skills to >> students >> in a developing country, namely , Ghana. >> >> I also have a great interest in Linux deployment, advocacy, >> education. If >> there are any known projects that relate to linux in one of those >> ways, or if >> anyone is researching how linux fits into the DD problem, i am very >> interested to learn more about those things as well. >> >> Please let me know if you know of anything, or even if you do not. >> And, >> please >> also forward my question to as many people as you can who might be >> able to >> help me also. >> >> Thank you so very much! >> >> -Chris Ward >> >> drpoo at drpooville.org >> _______________________________________________ >> DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list >> DIGITALDIVIDE at mailman.edc.org >> http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide >> To unsubscribe, send a message to >> digitaldivide-request at mailman.edc.org with >> the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. >> > From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Sun Nov 7 02:23:37 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Sat, 6 Nov 2004 19:23:37 -0700 Subject: "Learning Algonquin" (fwd link) Message-ID: fyi, here is an interesting web link on modeling conversational dialogues using flash animation. "Learning Algonquin" Algonquin Dialogues Animated http://www.kza.qc.ca/html/alg/AlgFlsh1.asp later, phil cash cash UofA, ILAT From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US Mon Nov 8 16:42:03 2004 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP) Date: Mon, 8 Nov 2004 09:42:03 -0700 Subject: [DDN] DD projects in Yucatan? Message-ID: There are some people in Zacatecas. I met them at the Linguistics conference in Atlanta last year, although right now, my mind is elsewhere and I can't think of which one. They are trying to develop materials for the 3 languages and it is hard, because they don't have access to much of the technology. We have a problem right here, in New Mexico (on of the 50 US :-) Some people think we are foreign.) I build technology for heritage languages, we are across the border from Juarez, our tiny little airport is Las Cruces INTERNATIONAL Airport (yes, really), and there are people here who work in Mexico. If you would like, I would be happy to help you find something. I am from New Hampshire, originally, and once read a stunning paper by a lady who is now in Maine. Sincerely, Mia Kalish New Mexico State University 505.646.1500 ----- Original Message ----- From: "Donald Z. Osborn" To: Sent: Saturday, November 06, 2004 5:00 PM Subject: Re: [DDN] DD projects in Yucatan? > Chris, Though your focus will be on the Spanish-speaking environment, it would > be interesting to hear of any observations you may have the chance to make > concerning use of indigenous languages in ICT (projects) in the parts of Mexico > you will visit. My focus is Africa (though I try to follow multilingual ICT > issues worldwide), but there are others focusing on Native American languages, > notably on the ILAT list, to which I will cc this. Best of luck with your > research. > > Don Osborn > Bisharat.net > > > Quoting Chris Ward : > > > My name is Chris Ward. I am a university student at the College of the > > Atlantic in Bar Harbor Maine, studying for a degree in Human Ecology. > > > > This coming winter, December 7th-March 7th, i will be studying in the > > Yucatan. > > For two weeks while i am there, i am required to do a project of my choice. > > The only two requirements are that it must be in a spanish speaking > > environment (not hard...) and that it lasts two weeks. > > > > I am very interested in studying about technology in developing countries, > > and > > the digital divide issues are a great place to start. > > > > Do you know of any projects that are centered in or around Yucatan, in > > Mexico, > > that addresses this topic or any others in technology? > > > > I will be volunteering my time and skills. I have professional experience > > with > > technology, as well as some experience teaching technical skills to students > > in a developing country, namely , Ghana. > > > > I also have a great interest in Linux deployment, advocacy, education. If > > there are any known projects that relate to linux in one of those ways, or if > > anyone is researching how linux fits into the DD problem, i am very > > interested to learn more about those things as well. > > > > Please let me know if you know of anything, or even if you do not. And, > > please > > also forward my question to as many people as you can who might be able to > > help me also. > > > > Thank you so very much! > > > > -Chris Ward > > > > drpoo at drpooville.org > > _______________________________________________ > > DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list > > DIGITALDIVIDE at mailman.edc.org > > http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide > > To unsubscribe, send a message to digitaldivide-request at mailman.edc.org with > > the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. > > > > From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US Mon Nov 8 16:43:46 2004 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP) Date: Mon, 8 Nov 2004 09:43:46 -0700 Subject: "Learning Algonquin" (fwd link) Message-ID: I think this is just the cutest thing! It is wonderful for conversational sounds. What it needs is some way to learn what the people are saying, ie, what are the goal-pairs? (we need to know what the words are) Mia ----- Original Message ----- From: "phil cash cash" To: Sent: Saturday, November 06, 2004 7:23 PM Subject: "Learning Algonquin" (fwd link) > fyi, here is an interesting web link on modeling conversational > dialogues using flash animation. > > "Learning Algonquin" > Algonquin Dialogues Animated > http://www.kza.qc.ca/html/alg/AlgFlsh1.asp > > later, > phil cash cash > UofA, ILAT > > From mikinakn at SHAW.CA Mon Nov 8 16:45:05 2004 From: mikinakn at SHAW.CA (Rolland Nadjiwon) Date: Mon, 8 Nov 2004 11:45:05 -0500 Subject: [DDN] DD projects in Yucatan? Message-ID: Nothing to do with language, but.... Las Cruces...what great memories that name brings back. Our family, we used to love New Mexico, crossing over the mountains at White Sands and descending into Las Cruces...even in the winter we found it beautiful. I think we were also romantics. Great memories...thanks for mentioning it. ------- wahjeh rolland nadjiwon ----- Original Message ----- From: "MiaKalish at LFP" To: Sent: Monday, November 08, 2004 11:42 AM Subject: Re: [DDN] DD projects in Yucatan? > There are some people in Zacatecas. I met them at the Linguistics > conference > in Atlanta last year, although right now, my mind is elsewhere and I can't > think of which one. They are trying to develop materials for the 3 > languages > and it is hard, because they don't have access to much of the technology. > > We have a problem right here, in New Mexico (on of the 50 US :-) Some > people > think we are foreign.) I build technology for heritage languages, we are > across the border from Juarez, our tiny little airport is Las Cruces > INTERNATIONAL Airport (yes, really), and there are people here who work in > Mexico. If you would like, I would be happy to help you find something. I > am > from New Hampshire, originally, and once read a stunning paper by a lady > who > is now in Maine. > > Sincerely, > Mia Kalish > New Mexico State University > 505.646.1500 > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Donald Z. Osborn" > To: > Sent: Saturday, November 06, 2004 5:00 PM > Subject: Re: [DDN] DD projects in Yucatan? > > >> Chris, Though your focus will be on the Spanish-speaking environment, it > would >> be interesting to hear of any observations you may have the chance to >> make >> concerning use of indigenous languages in ICT (projects) in the parts of > Mexico >> you will visit. My focus is Africa (though I try to follow multilingual > ICT >> issues worldwide), but there are others focusing on Native American > languages, >> notably on the ILAT list, to which I will cc this. Best of luck with your >> research. >> >> Don Osborn >> Bisharat.net >> >> >> Quoting Chris Ward : >> >> > My name is Chris Ward. I am a university student at the College of the >> > Atlantic in Bar Harbor Maine, studying for a degree in Human Ecology. >> > >> > This coming winter, December 7th-March 7th, i will be studying in the >> > Yucatan. >> > For two weeks while i am there, i am required to do a project of my > choice. >> > The only two requirements are that it must be in a spanish speaking >> > environment (not hard...) and that it lasts two weeks. >> > >> > I am very interested in studying about technology in developing > countries, >> > and >> > the digital divide issues are a great place to start. >> > >> > Do you know of any projects that are centered in or around Yucatan, in >> > Mexico, >> > that addresses this topic or any others in technology? >> > >> > I will be volunteering my time and skills. I have professional > experience >> > with >> > technology, as well as some experience teaching technical skills to > students >> > in a developing country, namely , Ghana. >> > >> > I also have a great interest in Linux deployment, advocacy, education. > If >> > there are any known projects that relate to linux in one of those ways, > or if >> > anyone is researching how linux fits into the DD problem, i am very >> > interested to learn more about those things as well. >> > >> > Please let me know if you know of anything, or even if you do not. And, >> > please >> > also forward my question to as many people as you can who might be able > to >> > help me also. >> > >> > Thank you so very much! >> > >> > -Chris Ward >> > >> > drpoo at drpooville.org >> > _______________________________________________ >> > DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list >> > DIGITALDIVIDE at mailman.edc.org >> > http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide >> > To unsubscribe, send a message to digitaldivide-request at mailman.edc.org > with >> > the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. >> > >> >> > From ssupahan at HUMBOLDT.K12.CA.US Mon Nov 8 17:06:16 2004 From: ssupahan at HUMBOLDT.K12.CA.US (Sarah Supahan) Date: Mon, 8 Nov 2004 09:06:16 -0800 Subject: "Learning Algonquin" (fwd link) In-Reply-To: <005601c4c5b2$1e2f3f80$03ec7b80@red6bvg9btk> Message-ID: More specific animation ("body" language) as well as specific pictures/illustrations would do the trick in making this more comprehensible. But it was definitely cute. Sarah On Nov 8, 2004, at 8:43 AM, MiaKalish at LFP wrote: > I think this is just the cutest thing! It is wonderful for > conversational > sounds. What it needs is some way to learn what the people are saying, > ie, > what are the goal-pairs? (we need to know what the words are) > > Mia > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "phil cash cash" > To: > Sent: Saturday, November 06, 2004 7:23 PM > Subject: "Learning Algonquin" (fwd link) > > >> fyi, here is an interesting web link on modeling conversational >> dialogues using flash animation. >> >> "Learning Algonquin" >> Algonquin Dialogues Animated >> http://www.kza.qc.ca/html/alg/AlgFlsh1.asp >> >> later, >> phil cash cash >> UofA, ILAT >> >> > From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Nov 8 17:07:20 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Mon, 8 Nov 2004 10:07:20 -0700 Subject: SEALASKA Heritage Launches Language Resources Project (fwd) Message-ID: SEALASKA Heritage Launches Language Resources Project November 08, 2004 Monday http://www.sitnews.us/1104news/110804/110804_language_project.html Alaska - Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) has launched an online project to share Native language tools with language students and teachers. The language resources project so far includes the Tlingit alphabet, a Tlingit phrase of the week section and a children's book written in Tlingit called Salmon Boy, recently produced by SHI and posted in a printable form. The alphabet and Tlingit phrases may be read on the web and also heard by clicking on them. The alphabet section includes audio of sounds plus words that incorporate the sounds. "Because Tlingit sounds are complicated and difficult to make, students need to hear the sounds many times before they can produce them," said Dr. Rosita Worl, SHI president. "The institute's online Tlingit alphabet gives students easy access to the sounds as many times as they need to hear them." SHI plans to frequently add new materials to the site, which also includes links to the institute's three other language webs: www.tlingitlanguage.org; www.haidalanguage.org; and www.tsimshianlanguage.org. The institute encourages Native language teachers to also use the materials. "Our main goals are to assist Native language teachers by providing downloadable resources they can use in their classrooms and to make materials accessible to learners everywhere who do not have access to fluent speakers," Worl said. Sealaska Heritage Institute is a private, nonprofit founded in 1981 to administer cultural and educational programs for Sealaska Corp. The institute is governed by an all-Native board of trustees. Its mission is to perpetuate and enhance Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultures of Southeast Alaska. SHI launched the language resources project to help perpetuate and revitalize Native languages, a top priority of the institute. Language Resources Project Source of News: Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI Web Site From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Nov 8 17:12:45 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Mon, 8 Nov 2004 10:12:45 -0700 Subject: Web site offers Tlingit language pronunciation (fwd) Message-ID: Web site offers Tlingit language pronunciation November 8, 2004 By TONY CARROLL JUNEAU EMPIRE http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/110804/loc_20041108014.shtml Hearing accurately spoken Tlingit is now just a matter of going to the Internet. On Thursday, Sealaska Heritage Institute launched a new audio language resource on its Web site to help people learn Tlingit sounds. "There are a lot of sounds in Tlingit that aren't present in English," said Rosita Worl, president of the institute. There are approximately 30,000 Tlingits across the U.S., and the institute often hears from people who want access to proper pronunciation, she said. At www.sealaskaheritage.org/programs/language_resources.htm, the page allows people to hear sounds from the Tlingit alphabet, and how they are used in words. Making the sounds may not seem natural for English speakers. The site gives information about where the speaker needs to place the tongue. The "kw" sound, for example comes from deep in the throat. It also has a phrase of the week. This week's is the Tlingit expression meaning "it's good to see you." "Our main goals are to assist Native language teachers by providing downloadable resources they can use in their classrooms and to make materials accessible to learners everywhere who do not have access to fluent speakers," Worl said. The resource was developed by the language department, headed by Language Director Keri Edwards. "This is only one aspect of our work on language materials, both in Tlingit and Haida," Worl said. Andy Hope, southeast regional coordinator of the Alaska Rural Systemic Initiative, said accurate access to spoken Tlingit is badly needed. "Making it accessible on the Web is the best media," he said, He also has been working on developing Internet resources for educators. Keeping Tlingit alive is important, Hope said. He believes it could help keep Native youths in school. "The Native kids need something to connect to," he said. "We're down to less than a handful of Haida speakers in Southeast Alaska. We're getting to that point in Tlingit, too." From sdp at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Nov 8 18:54:09 2004 From: sdp at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Susan Penfield) Date: Mon, 8 Nov 2004 11:54:09 -0700 Subject: Fwd: Conference on Technology, Knowledge and Society, Berkeley, February 2005 - Call for Papers Message-ID: ----- This might be of interest to some of you! >X-Spam-Level: > >Dear Colleague, > >I am writing to you on behalf of the Conference Organising Committee to >inform you of the call-for-papers for: > >THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON TECHNOLOGY, KNOWLEDGE AND SOCIETY >University of California, Berkeley, Friday 18 - Sunday 20 February 2005 >http://www.Technology-Conference.com > >This conference takes a broad and cross-disciplinary approach to >technology in society. With a particular focus on digital information and >communications technologies, the interests addressed by the conference >include: human usability, technologies for citizenship and community >participation, and learning technologies. Participants will include >researchers, teachers and practitioners whose interests are either >technical or humanistic, or whose work crosses over between the applied >technological and social sciences. > >As well as an impressive line up of international main speakers, the >conference will also include numerous paper, workshop and colloquium >presentations. We would particularly like to invite you to respond to the >conference call for papers. Papers submitted for the conference >proceedings will be fully peer-refereed and published in print and >electronic formats in the new International Journal of Technology, >Knowledge and Society. If you are unable to attend the conference in >person, virtual registrations are also available which allow you to submit >a paper for refereeing and possible publication in this fully refereed >academic journal, as well as access to the electronic version of the >conference proceedings. The deadline for the first round call for papers >is 30 November 2004. Proposals are reviewed within two weeks of submission. > >Full details of the conference, including an online call for papers form, >are to be found at the conference website. > >Yours Sincerely, > > >Dr Christopher Scanlon >The Globalism Institute >RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia > >*** >Note: Under new Australian Legislation, we want to ensure you are not >unhappy that we contact you by email about this conference. We have >identified you as an academic who works in the humanities or social >sciences and who may be interested in the themes of this conference. If >you wish to discontinue email communication in relation to this >conference, please inform us by reply. ----- 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 Tue Nov 9 18:09:15 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Tue, 9 Nov 2004 11:09:15 -0700 Subject: Alutiiq language study gets a helpful boost (fwd) Message-ID: Alutiiq language study gets a helpful boost Article published on Monday, Nov 08th, 2004 By DREW HERMAN Mirror Writer http://www.kodiakdailymirror.com/?pid=19&id=672 A wave of rejuvenation for the Alutiiq language brought more than 30 people to Kodiak for a Master-Apprentice training conference Nov. 5-7. ?We are very very pleased with how it went,? said Alutiiq language coordinator April Laktonen Counceller of the Alutiiq Museum. With as few as 50 fluent speakers, most of them over 70 years old, Kodiak?s Native language is in danger of dying out. The master-apprentice program administered through the Alutiiq Museum seeks to preserve the language by creating a base of younger fluent speakers. A three-year grant from the Administration for Native Americans, part of the federal Department of Health and Human Services, provides funding for six learning teams. Elders who speak Alutiiq fluently serve as masters to apprentices willing to devote the years necessary to achieve fluency themselves. Although the grant conceived of teams having one master each, the Alutiiq language masters decided to double up and split the grant stipend. ?Around here people really like to be together and spark each other?s memory,? Counceller explained. The Alutiiq teams consist of two masters and three apprentices. There are two teams in Old Harbor, one in Port Lions and three in Kodiak, but the program includes representatives of all the island?s Native villages. They began meeting in early October, but this weekend?s conference provided an opportunity to meet with all the program participants and some guests, discuss learning methods, and have some fun. The interested guests included Sally Ash, a driving force behind an immersion school for the closely related dialect of Nanwalek on the Kenai Peninsula, and her son Sperry Ash, a graduate student with the Alaska Native Language Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. During the conference the teams heard talks by Elders in Alutiiq, sang traditional songs, and even danced the ?Hokey-Pokey? in Alutiiq. Counceller, herself an apprentice on one of the Kodiak teams, felt a burst of energy to ?push through to the next level.? Another guest at the conference was language preservation expert Leanne Hinton of the University of California Berkeley. She developed the master-apprentice learning model to help preserve endangered Native languages in California. ?Just the fact that she came here says a lot about our program,? Counceller said. Alutiiq program organizers read Hinton?s book ?How to Keep Your Language Alive? and invited the author here. Impressed by the wide support from tribal councils and regional corporations, and the level of community involvement, Hinton agreed to visit. Hinton has visited Alaska before to work with other Native languages in the central Athabaskan area and Southeast. She praised the Alaska Native Language Center for its work with Alaska?s 20 Native Languages, all of which are endangered. ?ANLC is real active both in documenting and in working with people trying to do revitalization,? she said. This weekend?s training sessions in Kodiak had two goals, Hinton explained: to get the teams better acquainted with each other and motivated for their work; and to explore the best methods for transmitting a language without formal classes or professional teachers. She called the master-apprentice method ?an informal kind of immersion? where the teams ?live their lives in the language together.? Conference participants practiced staying in Alutiiq despite strong temptation to switch to English. ?Just to begin with we teach the learners how to ask questions in Alutiiq,? Hinton said, comparing the approach to the way a child learns their first language. Knowing how to ask, ?What is this?? or ?Please say that again? is helpful. The request ?show me? can make learning a new word active, Hinton said. The effort surrounding Alutiiq is one of the ?pioneering movements? to preserve the world?s endangered languages. During the 20th century hundreds of indigenous languages disappeared. Historically, it was almost never possible to turn around a dying language of such small groups, Hinton said. ?That?s something that?s happening now for the first time,? she said. It helps to have a whole state or nation behind the attempt, as when Hebrew revived as a living language with the founding of Israel, and great progress has been made in reviving Hawaiian and the Maori language in New Zealand. But for Alutiiq and most Native American languages, the situation is critical. ?When a language is as far gone as this, it?s always a question of what?s going to happen next,? she said. ?California is in really sad shape as far as the languages go,? Hinton noted. In most cases there the population of Native speakers is too small and the remaining speakers too old. As in Alaska, whole generations have grown up without learning Native languages. Even with master-apprentice programs in place, languages lose speakers faster than they gain them. The best method to counter the attrition is with immersion schools, Hinton said. Counceller hopes that will come for Kodiak?s Alutiiq, so that young children will learn to use their Native language with each other. Meanwhile, the master-apprentice method takes root in Kodiak, giving the Alutiiq language a chance to find new generations of speakers. Susan Malutin of Kodiak is one of the new apprentices. She spends two hours per day, five days per week with her master teachers, Sophie Katelnikoff and Dennis Knagin. ?This will be for the next three years,? Malutin said. Malutin believes the language will die out if people do not make the effort to revive it. She wants to pass it on to her own grandchildren and to the area schoolchildren she annually instructs in traditional fish skin sewing. ?It?s certainly part of our culture,? she said. Hinton thinks Alutiiq?s chances are good, given the devotion of the masters and apprentices she met this weekend. ?They really consider it a central part of their lives,? Hinton said. Mirror writer Drew Herman may be reached via e-mail at dherman at kodiakdailymirror.com. From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Tue Nov 9 18:17:38 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Tue, 9 Nov 2004 11:17:38 -0700 Subject: Ten of 25 native languages still spoken in Oklahoma...(fwd) Message-ID: Ten of 25 native languages still spoken in Oklahoma are just one aging generation away from extinction. November 8, 2004, 11:29 AM http://www.kfor.com/Global/story.asp?S=2536072 Intertribal Wordpath Society linguist Alice Anderton says in September, at least two native speakers of Caddo died. She says time is running out for some Indian languages. Although Oklahoma has more than 21,000 native speakers, ten tribes have ten or fewer fluent speakers left. And Anderton says 15 tribes have fewer than 100. Over the last decade, many tribes have initiated language classes. Choctaw now is offered in public high schools throughout the Choctaw Nation, at community centers or via the Internet. Comanche is taught at the Comanche Nation College in Lawton, and University of Oklahoma students can study Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek and Kiowa. At Oklahoma State University, students can learn Muskogee. From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Tue Nov 9 18:24:47 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Tue, 9 Nov 2004 11:24:47 -0700 Subject: Dictionary aims to preserve Indigenous language (fwd) Message-ID: Dictionary aims to preserve Indigenous language Tuesday, 9 November 2004 http://www.abc.net.au/northwestwa/news/200411/s1239184.htm Linguists in the Pilbara, in north-west Western Australia, have taken steps to preserve one of the rarest languages in the world. The Aboriginal language Putijarra originates in the Western Desert region and is spoken by just four people in communities such as Jigalong and Yandeyarra. The Wangka Maya Aboriginal Language Centre has now compiled a 100-page Putijarra dictionary and grammar guide, from stories told by local speakers. Language centre manager Fran Haintz says the year-long project is crucial to preserving local Indigenous knowledge. "Language is integral to culture, so if we record the language and try and keep the information strong and the stories, the generations that follow can continue to listen to those stories and through the use of dictionaries and so on understand what's going on and hopefully...[the] language and the culture is stronger," she said. ~~~ Related Audio Linguists in the Pilbara, in north-west Western Australia, have taken steps to preserve one of the rarest languages in the world - the Aboriginal language Putijarra. RealMedia 28k+ WinMedia 28k+ From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Thu Nov 11 18:46:28 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2004 11:46:28 -0700 Subject: Masuku Calls for Preservation of All Languages (fwd) Message-ID: Masuku Calls for Preservation of All Languages BuaNews (Pretoria) NEWS November 11, 2004 By Wilson Matsawela Barberton http://allafrica.com/stories/200411110221.html Mpumalanga MEC for Culture, Sport and Recreation Madala Masuku says the frequent use of English in schools and officially, may lead to the disappearance of African languages. MEC Masuku was speaking here today at Umjindi Community Hall during the provincial Language Awareness Day and Literature Exhibition. The aim of the event was to promote all the eleven official languages, particularly those predominant in Mpumalanga like Swati, Ndebele, English and Afrikaans, Tsonga and Sotho as well as displaying outstanding South African literature in all the official languages. The event also aims to encourage young and upcoming writers and linguists to write literature in their own languages, thus promote multilingualism in the country. The theme for the event is: "Celebrating multilingualism in the decade of freedom through exhibition of marginalised African literature". Mr Masuku said any nation promoted the learning; teaching and speaking of its languages could produce astute writers and language specialists. "There are definitely specific cultures that are closely related with our languages and we need to expose those today bearing in mind that we are today building one nation," he explained. He said it was possible to explore and express the broader human experience in indigenous African languages and literatures. The MEC said literature in African indigenous languages was previously limited to schools and severely censored, rendering the authors powerless in using their trade to reflect human experiences or encourage national unity. "This was deliberately planned under the apartheid state, thus we are saying today let us all work together to use the platform we have today to effectively use our present education system in helping us to actually develop our languages and be able to produce writers of our own languages," MEC Masuku said. He also encouraged people to preserve all languages and tap into the reach knowledge and cultures espoused in this regard. From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Thu Nov 11 18:49:39 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2004 11:49:39 -0700 Subject: Back to basics best for black kids (fwd) Message-ID: Back to basics best for black kids Dorothy Illing 12nov04 http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,11360822%255E2702,00.html A LEADING academic has reignited the debate around poor Aboriginal literacy, saying indigenous students "will fly" if they have the right teaching. Director of Macquarie University's Special Education Centre Kevin Wheldall said all children, including Aborigines, would benefit from fundamental changes to the way reading was taught in schools. "If they had an approach that included an emphasis on basic skills teaching ... it would lift everybody's game," he said yesterday. "Aboriginal kids won't be any different from anyone else." Education Minister Brendan Nelson reopened the reading wars this week when he announced a national inquiry into the way reading was taught in primary schools. And yesterday he was reminded that some of the worst cases of illiteracy occurred in indigenous communities. Chairman of the Shalom Christian College in Townsville, Reverend Shayne Blackman, urged Dr Nelson to extend the inquiry to focus on indigenous education. Professor Wheldall wants more emphasis on phonics when teaching reading. He was among the 26 leading educators who wrote a letter to Dr Nelson in April urging the inquiry. They argue that the whole-language approach used in many schools should give way to phonics, a system that relies on knowledge of the alphabet and decoding words into syllables and sounds. Professor Wheldall believes there is room for both systems but that the pendulum needs to swing back towards phonics. He recently went to the isolated town of Coen on Queensland's Cape York where he met indigenous leaders and visited the local school. "I have a bit of a problem with this idea that somehow Aboriginal kids are different and they need to be taught differently. They're kids," he said. But principal of the southern Queensland Aboriginal community of Cherbourg's state school, Chris Sarra, said you could not separate teaching from other learning-related issues such as attendance rates. Since 2000, the literacy rate at the Cherbourg school has risen by 83 per cent and attendance levels are now at 95 per cent. Mr Sarra said the improvements had little to do with phonics-based or whole-of-language approaches. "You can have the sexiest literacy program in the school, but if the culture of learning is not right then it just won't happen," he said. From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Thu Nov 11 18:54:33 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2004 11:54:33 -0700 Subject: Keeping a tongue alive (fwd) Message-ID: Keeping a tongue alive Presenter: Ngaire Ballard Thursday, 11 November 2004 http://www.abc.net.au/goldfields/stories/s1240636.htm [photo inset - Keeping a language alive. Nadgu speakers (L to R): Johnny Graham, William McKenzie and Sonny Graham] It is estimated that half of all languages currently spoken will disappear by the end of this century but there is an effort underway to prevent that happening in our region. The Wangkanyi Ngurra Tjurta language centre in Kalgoorlie-Boulder is taking steps to record local indigenous languages. As consultant Mary Chanda explains, "We were to record languages that had less than 20 speakers. That means the language is not being passed on to the younger generation and when the older ones that can speak it are not there anymore, there will be no more language being spoken in that dialect." Currently the languages being recorded are the four dialects of the Nadgu, "And one of them is the Norseman people," Mary points out. The way it is being done is through transcribing audio archives from the 1970s and through "A collective effort of all these speakers of the language, they could sit down and work out the meaning of the tapes," according to Mary. Helping with the process is University of Melbourne research fellow Dr. Nick Thieberger. He has "Developed some tools for working with digitised sound. You can get archival recordings, tapes made along time ago, and, if you digitise and work with them, you can present them to people in a way that's much easier than with analogue cassettes." If they lose their language they've lost themselves But some may ask why we need to keep a language alive. Mary answers that, "All languages have different ways of looking at the world, (the) environment around them, and once you let a language die you actually cut off different views of explaining things around us. "(Also) people feel that language is their identity so if they lose their language they've lost themselves. There's a connection (between) people and the language so they have a feeling that they want to continue with their language and we just support them to do that." The importance of doing just that is not lost on the speakers themselves. "For me it's (an) opportunity of a lifetime because a lot of our old people have passed on and we want to try and record this process so we can pass it on to our young people," Pastor Sonny Graham says, "(It's) very important." Mary, Nick and Sonny, as well as William McKenzie and Johnny Graham, all spoke to Ngaire Ballard for the ABC Goldfields-Esperance breakfast program. ... Keeping Nadgu alive: Mary Chanda, Nick Teeberger, William McKenzie, Johnny Graham and Sonny Graham ( Audio in RealMedia format ) | Requires RealPlayer From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Fri Nov 12 17:22:12 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2004 10:22:12 -0700 Subject: Using the 'kompyuta' to save African languages (fwd) Message-ID: Using the 'kompyuta' to save African languages By Marc Lacey http://news.com.com/Using+the+kompyuta+to+save+African+languages/2100-7337_3-5449598.html Story last modified November 12, 2004, 6:10 AM PST NAIROBI, Kenya--Swahili speakers wishing to use a "kompyuta"--as computer is rendered in Swahili--have been out of luck when it comes to communicating in their tongue. Computers, no matter how bulky their hard drives or sophisticated their software packages, have not yet mastered Swahili or hundreds of other indigenous African languages. But that may soon change. Across the continent, linguists are working with experts in information technology to make computers more accessible to Africans who happen not to know English, French or the other major languages that have been programmed into the world's desktops. There are economic reasons for the outreach. Microsoft, which is working to incorporate Swahili into Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office and other popular programs, sees a market for its software among the roughly 100 million Swahili speakers in East Africa. The same goes for Google, which last month launched www.google.co.ke, offering a Kenyan version in Swahili of the popular search engine. But the campaign to Africanize cyberspace is not all about the bottom line. There are hundreds of languages in Africa--some spoken only by a few dozen elders--and they are dying out at an alarming rate. The continent's linguists see the computer as one important way of saving them. Unesco estimates that 90 percent of the world's 6,000 languages are not represented on the Internet, and that one language is disappearing somewhere around the world every two weeks. "Technology can overrun these languages and entrench Anglophone imperialism," said Tunde Adegbola, a Nigerian computer scientist and linguist who is working to preserve Yoruba, a West African language spoken by millions of people in western Nigeria as well as in Cameroon and Niger. "But if we act, we can use technology to preserve these so-called minority languages." Experts say that putting local languages on the screen will also lure more Africans to information technology, narrowing the digital divide between the world's rich and poor. As it is now, Internet cafes are becoming more and more common in even the smallest of African towns, but most of the people at the keyboards are the educated elite. Wireless computer networks are appearing--there is one at the Nairobi airport and another at the Intercontinental Hotel in Kigali, Rwanda's capital--but they are geared for the wealthy, not the working class. Extending the computer era to the remote reaches of Africa requires more than just wiring the villages. Experts say that software must be developed and computer keyboards adapted so that Swahili speakers and those who communicate in Amharic, Yoruba, Hausa, Sesotho and many other languages spoken in Africa feel at home. Adegbola, executive director of the African Languages Technology Initiative, has developed a keyboard able to deal with the complexities of Yoruba, a tonal language. Different Yoruba words are written the same way using the Latin alphabet--the tones that differentiate them are indicated by extra punctuation. It can take many different keystrokes to complete a Yoruba word. To accomplish the same result with fewer, more comfortable keystrokes, Adegbola made a keyboard without the letters Q, Z, X, C and V, which Yoruba does not use. He repositioned the vowels, which are high-frequency, to more prominent spots and added accent marks and other symbols, creating what he calls Africa's first indigenous language keyboard. Now, Adegbola is at work on voice recognition software that can convert spoken Yoruba into text. Related research is under way in Ethiopia. Amharic, the official language, has 345 letters and letter variations, which has made developing a coherent keyboard difficult. Further complicating the project, the country also has its own system of time and its own calendar. Still, computer experts at Addis Ababa University are making headway. Recently, they came up with a system that will allow Amharic speakers to send text messages, a relatively new phenomenon in the country. The researchers involved in the project envision it as more than a way for Amharic-speaking teenagers to gossip among themselves. Text messaging could be a development tool, they say, if farmers in remote areas of the country can get instant access to coffee prices or weather reports. The Ethiopian researchers hope a cell phone maker will see the country's millions of Amharic speakers as a big enough market to turn their concept into a commercial Amharic handset. Adegbola has similar dreams. He is distributing his keyboard free to influential Yoruba speakers, hoping to attract some deep-pocketed entrepreneur who could turn it into a business venture. In South Africa, researchers at the Unit for Language Facilitation and Empowerment at the University of the Free State are working on a computerized translation system between English and two local languages, Afrikaans and Southern Sotho. Cobus Snyman, who heads the project, said the goal is to extend the system to Xhosa, Venda, Tsonga and other South African languages. One of Microsoft's motivations in localizing its software is to try to head off the movement toward open-source operating systems like Linux, which are increasingly popular. South Africa has already adopted Linux, which it considers more cost efficient and more likely to stimulate local software development. Patrick Opiyo, the Microsoft official in charge of the Swahili program, portrays the effort as more about community outreach than business development. Besides Swahili, the company is looking at making its products more available to those who speak Amharic, Zulu and Yoruba and the other two widely used languages in Nigeria--Hausa and Igbo. In Kenya, Microsoft has rounded up some of the region's top Swahili scholars to come up with a glossary of 3,000 technical terms--the first step in the company's effort to make Microsoft products accessible to Swahili speakers. Sitting around a conference table recently in Microsoft's sleek offices in downtown Nairobi, the linguists discussed how to convey basic words from the computer age in Swahili, also known as Kiswahili, beginning with the most basic one of all. "When these modern machines arrived, Kiswahili came up with a quick word for something that didn't exist in our culture," said Clara Momanyi, a Swahili professor at Kenyatta University in Nairobi. "That was 'kompyuta.'" But scholars subsequently opted for a more local term to describe these amazing machines, she said. It is "tarakilishi," which is a combination of the word for "image" and the word for "represent." The Swahili experts grappled with a variety of other words. How does one say "folder"? Should it be "folda," which is commonly used, or "kifuko," a more formal term? Is a fax a "faksi," as the Tanzanians call it, or a "kipepesi"? Everyone seemed to agree that an e-mail message was a "barua pepe," which means a fast letter. Everyone also seemed to agree that the effort they were engaged in to bring Swahili to cyberspace was long overdue. "Every continent seems to have a language in the computer, and here we are with nothing," said Mwanashehe Saum Mohammed, a Swahili expert at the United States International University in Nairobi and one of the Microsoft consultants. "This will make Africans feel part of the world community. The fact that the continent is full of poor people doesn't mean we shouldn't be on the world map--or in the computer." Entire contents, Copyright ? 2004 The New York Times. All rights reserved. Copyright ?1995-2004 CNET Networks, Inc. All rights reserved. From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Fri Nov 12 17:24:21 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2004 10:24:21 -0700 Subject: Microsoft to launch Windows in Inca (fwd) Message-ID: Microsoft to launch Windows in Inca http://www.bday.co.za/bday/content/direct/1,3523,1749606-6078-0,00.html ? LIMA - Microsoft will translate its blockbuster computer software Windows and Office into Quechua, the language of the indigenous Inca, for Andean nations from Argentina to Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, where it is spoken, the company said on Thursday. Microsoft opted to bring today's high-tech software to speakers of Quechua as it is the most widely spoken indigenous language in Latin America, by almost 10 million people, said Marushka Chocobar, Microsoft's educational liaison in Lima. The Quechua-language version of Windows XP and Office 2003, being developed in Peru, will be available next year. Peru was the cradle of the Inca empire which in the 16th century stretched from modern-day Colombia down to northen Chile. Bolivia is the only majority indigenous country in South America. Its indigenous people speak Quechua and Aymara. This marks the first time Microsoft has translated its software to an indigenous language of Latin America, and is aimed at boosting literacy programs largely among the poor. Guatemala, in Central America, has millions of Maya language speakers and a high illiteracy rate. Paraguay, in South America, is the only country in Latin America to make bilingualism official. Students there learn both Spanish and Guarani. AFP From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Fri Nov 12 18:00:45 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2004 11:00:45 -0700 Subject: a thought on microsoft... Message-ID: Hi all, after today's news items, i can't help but conjour this image of "microsoft" roaming the world as some kind of [...] that devours languages and spits them out in code. phil cash cash UofA From sandra at ASU.EDU Fri Nov 12 18:11:09 2004 From: sandra at ASU.EDU (Sandra Andrews) Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2004 11:11:09 -0700 Subject: a thought on microsoft... Message-ID: Apple is also working with native speakers, in Arizona and in Hawaii that I know of, to create interfaces in specific languages. Sandy Sandra Sutton Andrews Digital Media and Instructional Technologies Arizona State University > ---------- > From: Indigenous Languages and Technology on behalf of phil cash cash > Reply To: Indigenous Languages and Technology > Sent: Friday, November 12, 2004 11:00 AM > To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU > Subject: a thought on microsoft... > > Hi all, after today's news items, i can't help but conjour this image of > "microsoft" roaming the world as some kind of [...] that devours > languages and spits them out in code. > > phil cash cash > UofA > From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US Fri Nov 12 18:19:25 2004 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP) Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2004 11:19:25 -0700 Subject: a thought on microsoft... Message-ID: It is really, really, really hard to build something as big as Windows in another language. I struggled for 3 years to get Mescalero to adopt some fonts that would work in Microsoft Office, which I had to design, build, and develop supporting tools for. To translate all the interfaces and error messages requires rebalancing all the spaces, double-checking all the "translations", making sure that the spelling and grammar-checking work right, resequencing the sort mechanism, and on a good day, redoing piles of graphics. I think it is a really good idea, and I would be happy if Microsoft had support for Athapascan, which is more difficult that Romance language derivatives because there are more characters, and there are those funny two-character letters, I don't remember what they are called. So in summary, I can tell you that each individual trying to bring technological support for each language is near impossible. I am a really, really good techie, and I can't make it happen by myself. So I am glad Microsoft is doing this. It is much better than having to have each individual pay $99-$125 per font, which is decorative, and which can't be printed using any other fonts. Producing materials for linguists is one thing. They don't need a lot of fonts. But People need to be able to have lots of fonts to do invitations, posters, love letters, business letters, graphical headings for various things like portfolios, and the fonts need to work on the Internet. Anything less is not supporting the revitalization efforts. So Yeah! Microsoft! But I am interested in what others think, It's Friday. . . . perhaps people have time to send along a thought. Mia ----- Original Message ----- From: "phil cash cash" To: Sent: Friday, November 12, 2004 11:00 AM Subject: a thought on microsoft... > Hi all, after today's news items, i can't help but conjour this image of > "microsoft" roaming the world as some kind of [...] that devours > languages and spits them out in code. > > phil cash cash > UofA > > From keola at LEOKI.UHH.HAWAII.EDU Fri Nov 12 18:17:08 2004 From: keola at LEOKI.UHH.HAWAII.EDU (Keola Donaghy) Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2004 08:17:08 -1000 Subject: a thought on microsoft... In-Reply-To: <715A4F1E66C5604AADECC24952F0F114069D46@ex4.asurite.ad.asu.edu> Message-ID: Indigenous Languages and Technology writes: >Apple is also working with native speakers, in Arizona and in Hawaii that >I know of, to create interfaces in specific languages. Apple has worked with us to make sure their fonts have the proper characters for Hawaiian, have included a Hawaiian keyboard, sorting routines and date formatting to OS X. There is also a Hawaiian locale that will allow us to create localized resources, and if it is selected, will display a Hawaiian user interface for those applications that have a Hawaiian resource. We haven't shipped any yet but are working on it. I've emailed a number of people within Microsoft over the years regarding strenthening Hawaiian support, with nothing to show for it. Those that have been supportive have had no actual authority to help. Among some of the more snide replies I've received from MS have included "Why would you want it in Hawaiian, don't you all speak English anyway?" :-/ Keola ======================================================================= 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 coyotez at DARKWING.UOREGON.EDU Fri Nov 12 18:39:21 2004 From: coyotez at DARKWING.UOREGON.EDU (David Gene Lewis) Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2004 10:39:21 -0800 Subject: microsoft Message-ID: I remember several discussion over the past 3-5 years, once on the KMA-L listserver of the U Hawaii and several times on the Chinook-L listserver about Microsoft and its "open source" browser. if I remember right there were some Native computer techies working on putting Hawaiian onto the Microsoft browser. I am not that good at computer technical stuff so I can't really describe it correctly. All of the Chinook-L messages are archived on the LinguistList archives database that are fully searchable. I am not sure how far programming into the Iexplorer browser went. I would think that the best luck might be had with the Linux system. They are completely open source and there is an army of computer guys creating programming for that system. maybe this is a direction that has some future for Native languages. Anyone here work with Linux??? I will try to fine the text of the discussion about Microsoft open source programming for the list. David >>It is really, really, really hard to build something as big as Windows in another language. I struggled for 3 years to get Mescalero to adopt some fonts that would work in Microsoft Office, which I had to design, build, and develop supporting tools for. David Lewis University of Oregon Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde From dzo at BISHARAT.NET Fri Nov 12 18:41:43 2004 From: dzo at BISHARAT.NET (Donald Z. Osborn) Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2004 12:41:43 -0600 Subject: a thought on microsoft... In-Reply-To: <009801c4c8e4$241d1180$03ec7b80@red6bvg9btk> Message-ID: Good points, Mia. Microsoft gets a lot of negative reactions, but without getting into that debate, I think that its multilingual efforts are very positive. And from the point of view of promoting localization of software in diverse languages it is ideal to have competition among MS, Apple (per Sandra's message) and the open source movement. Re the technical challenges in localizing for languages that have special character needs, this is a topic that is coming up for African languages. Most localization so far (at least open source) has involved languages of the south and east of the continent that use the simple Latin alphabet. Don Osborn Bisharat.net Quoting "MiaKalish at LFP" : > It is really, really, really hard to build something as big as Windows in > another language. > > I struggled for 3 years to get Mescalero to adopt some fonts that would work > in Microsoft Office, which I had to design, build, and develop supporting > tools for. > > To translate all the interfaces and error messages requires rebalancing all > the spaces, double-checking all the "translations", making sure that the > spelling and grammar-checking work right, resequencing the sort mechanism, > and on a good day, redoing piles of graphics. > > I think it is a really good idea, and I would be happy if Microsoft had > support for Athapascan, which is more difficult that Romance language > derivatives because there are more characters, and there are those funny > two-character letters, I don't remember what they are called. > > So in summary, I can tell you that each individual trying to bring > technological support for each language is near impossible. I am a really, > really good techie, and I can't make it happen by myself. So I am glad > Microsoft is doing this. It is much better than having to have each > individual pay $99-$125 per font, which is decorative, and which can't be > printed using any other fonts. > > Producing materials for linguists is one thing. They don't need a lot of > fonts. But People need to be able to have lots of fonts to do invitations, > posters, love letters, business letters, graphical headings for various > things like portfolios, and the fonts need to work on the Internet. Anything > less is not supporting the revitalization efforts. > > So Yeah! Microsoft! > But I am interested in what others think, It's Friday. . . . perhaps people > have time to send along a thought. > > Mia > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "phil cash cash" > To: > Sent: Friday, November 12, 2004 11:00 AM > Subject: a thought on microsoft... > > > > Hi all, after today's news items, i can't help but conjour this image of > > "microsoft" roaming the world as some kind of [...] that devours > > languages and spits them out in code. > > > > phil cash cash > > UofA > > > > > From coyotez at DARKWING.UOREGON.EDU Fri Nov 12 18:45:28 2004 From: coyotez at DARKWING.UOREGON.EDU (David Gene Lewis) Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2004 10:45:28 -0800 Subject: Fwd: microsoft-Chinook-l discussion Message-ID: Here it is. I intiated the discussion so I give permission to repost. I guess the actual discussion was about Netscape... D "This Hawaiian language browser demonstrates the viability of the Universal Localization Program and the value of our open source code concept," said Rick Elliott, ULP program manager, Netscape. "We believe this marks the On March 31st of 1998, Netscape Communications Corporation publicly released the source code for Netscape Communicator, and shortly thereafter contacted the Hale Kuamo'o to determine if there was interest in providing organizations. In addition, Hale Kuamo'o designed and maintains Kualono, the most complete and diverse source of information on Hawaiian language on the Internet. It uses a unique dual-language format, allowing users to view Item #191 (19 Nov 1998 16:16) - Re: Chinook browser development (was Fwd: Hawaiian language web browser released (fwd) Now that Netscape source code is "open", anyone can develop add-ons to it, including other language versions. To get this done, it would have to mean >"This Hawaiian language browser demonstrates the viability of the Universal >Localization Program and the value of our open source code concept," said >Rick Elliott, ULP program manager, Netscape. "We believe this marks the >On March 31st of 1998, Netscape Communications Corporation publicly >released the source code for Netscape Communicator, and shortly thereafter >contacted the Hale Kuamo'o to determine if there was interest in providing >organizations. In addition, Hale Kuamo'o designed and maintains Kualono, >the most complete and diverse source of information on Hawaiian language on >the Internet. It uses a unique dual-language format, allowing users to view Item #203 (24 Nov 1998 13:58) - Re: Chinook browser development (was Fwd: Hawaiian language web browser released (fwd) >Now that Netscape source code is "open", anyone can develop add-ons to = it, Universal >>Localization Program and the value of our open source code concept," = said >>On March 31st of 1998, Netscape Communications Corporation publicly >>released the source code for Netscape Communicator, and shortly = thereafter Kualono, >>the most complete and diverse source of information on Hawaiian = language on Item #208 (26 Nov 1998 13:11) - Re: Chinook browser development (was Fwd: Hawaiian language web browser released (fwd) Actually,it _would_ be hacking if Netscape's code weren't public, as it is now. "Open source" means just that; the code is freely available for alteration. Guess we could just go and create the Chinook version, once we addition that allows you to "Remove Bookmark"; either the one instance, or any repetitions; I hate having to open Edit Bookmarks and search for defunct ones; better to easily delete them when you run across Item #232 (3 Dec 1998 18:18) - Re: Chinook browser development > >>Now that Netscape source code is "open", anyone can develop add-ons to it, >>including other language versions. To get this done, it would have to mean From ssupahan at HUMBOLDT.K12.CA.US Fri Nov 12 18:46:05 2004 From: ssupahan at HUMBOLDT.K12.CA.US (Sarah Supahan) Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2004 10:46:05 -0800 Subject: a thought on microsoft... In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Whoa, still a lot of educating to do out there, apparently. (see below) On Nov 12, 2004, at 10:17 AM, Keola Donaghy wrote: > Indigenous Languages and Technology writes: >> Apple is also working with native speakers, in Arizona and in Hawaii >> that >> I know of, to create interfaces in specific languages. > > Apple has worked with us to make sure their fonts have the proper > characters for Hawaiian, have included a Hawaiian keyboard, sorting > routines and date formatting to OS X. There is also a Hawaiian locale > that > will allow us to create localized resources, and if it is selected, > will > display a Hawaiian user interface for those applications that have a > Hawaiian resource. We haven't shipped any yet but are working on it. > > I've emailed a number of people within Microsoft over the years > regarding > strenthening Hawaiian support, with nothing to show for it. Those that > have been supportive have had no actual authority to help. Among some > of > the more snide replies I've received from MS have included "Why would > you > want it in Hawaiian, don't you all speak English anyway?" :-/ > > Keola > > ======================================================================= > = > 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 sandra at ASU.EDU Fri Nov 12 19:00:15 2004 From: sandra at ASU.EDU (Sandra Andrews) Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2004 12:00:15 -0700 Subject: microsoft Message-ID: We have Linux people here (at ASU) who are really interested in this idea and have been discussing it for awhile. We would want partners of course, native speakers and others, and I think some sort of funding. OSX is an interface to Linux in a sense so we are thinking that one would be as good as the other. :-) Sandy Sandra Sutton Andrews Digital Media and Instructional Technologies Arizona State University > ---------- > From: Indigenous Languages and Technology on behalf of David Gene Lewis > Reply To: Indigenous Languages and Technology > Sent: Friday, November 12, 2004 11:39 AM > To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU > Subject: microsoft > > I remember several discussion over the past 3-5 years, once on the > KMA-L listserver of the U Hawaii and several times on the Chinook-L > listserver about Microsoft and its "open source" browser. if I > remember right there were some Native computer techies working on > putting Hawaiian onto the Microsoft browser. I am not that good at > computer technical stuff so I can't really describe it correctly. All > of the Chinook-L messages are archived on the LinguistList archives > database that are fully searchable. > > I am not sure how far programming into the Iexplorer browser went. I > would think that the best luck might be had with the Linux system. > They are completely open source and there is an army of computer guys > creating programming for that system. maybe this is a direction that > has some future for Native languages. Anyone here work with Linux??? > > I will try to fine the text of the discussion about Microsoft open > source programming for the list. > David > > > > >>It is really, really, really hard to build something as big as > Windows in > another language. > > I struggled for 3 years to get Mescalero to adopt some fonts that > would work > in Microsoft Office, which I had to design, build, and develop > supporting > tools for. > > > > > > David Lewis > University of Oregon > Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde > > From dzo at BISHARAT.NET Fri Nov 12 19:09:13 2004 From: dzo at BISHARAT.NET (Donald Z. Osborn) Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2004 13:09:13 -0600 Subject: a thought on microsoft... & "why would you want it in [language]" In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Keola, Some quick comments re part of your message... Quoting Keola Donaghy : > ... . Among some of > the more snide replies I've received from MS have included "Why would you > want it in Hawaiian, don't you all speak English anyway?" :-/ MS being so huge, there may be different tendencies within it, as it were. I'm aware of people at MS who are doing significant work re unicode and African languages whose operating assumptions are different. Regarding the phrase you quote, it is similar to the thinking in so many cases that limits the expansion of use of languages other than the dominant international ones. I've heard similar, though more innocent sounding, questions re French and African languages. The following quote from Kenneth Keniston (1999) re India puts this issue in a different light: "It can be argued that, given the fusion of language, wealth and power in India, there is simply no market (and perhaps no need) for software in any language other than English. Asked about localization to Indian languages, international software firms sometimes reply, ~QBut everyone speaks English in India,~R by which of course they mean that the present market consists of people who speak English." http://web.mit.edu/~kken/Public/papers1/Language%20Power%20Software.htm Coming full circle with this theme, MS's efforts with certain languages can be seen as representing their recognition of markets - which I guess can be as much a cause for concern as celebration. Don Osborn Bisharat.net From keola at LEOKI.UHH.HAWAII.EDU Fri Nov 12 19:16:28 2004 From: keola at LEOKI.UHH.HAWAII.EDU (Keola Donaghy) Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2004 09:16:28 -1000 Subject: microsoft In-Reply-To: <200411121839.iACIdPPq006753@darkwing.uoregon.edu> Message-ID: Aloha. We translated Netscape Communicator (v4.5) into Hawaiian back in 1998 under their Universal Localization Program (http://www.olelo.hawaii.edu/eng/resources/kahookele/). We'd considered continuing and translating Mozilla into Hawaiian, but I wasn't very happy with the tools provided for the localization and they took a long time fixing some bugs that dealt with rendering some characters properly, so I did not pursue it further. Someone at Microsoft told us that we could translate IE into Hawaiian for Mac OS if we like, but as we had already spent months translating communicator I didn't see the value of having two Hawaiian browsers for the same platform, so I didn't pursue it. I'm more concerned at this point with us getting system-level support and a keyboard in Windows, and can deal with localization in the future. Keola Penei ka ??lelo a Indigenous Languages and Technology : >I remember several discussion over the past 3-5 years, once on the >KMA-L listserver of the U Hawaii and several times on the Chinook-L >listserver about Microsoft and its "open source" browser. if I >remember right there were some Native computer techies working on >putting Hawaiian onto the Microsoft browser. I am not that good at >computer technical stuff so I can't really describe it correctly. All >of the Chinook-L messages are archived on the LinguistList archives >database that are fully searchable. > >I am not sure how far programming into the Iexplorer browser went. I >would think that the best luck might be had with the Linux system. >They are completely open source and there is an army of computer guys >creating programming for that system. maybe this is a direction that >has some future for Native languages. Anyone here work with Linux??? > >I will try to fine the text of the discussion about Microsoft open >source programming for the list. ======================================================================== 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 keola at LEOKI.UHH.HAWAII.EDU Fri Nov 12 19:17:21 2004 From: keola at LEOKI.UHH.HAWAII.EDU (Keola Donaghy) Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2004 09:17:21 -1000 Subject: Fwd: microsoft-Chinook-l discussion In-Reply-To: <200411121845.iACIjXYt020861@darkwing.uoregon.edu> Message-ID: Penei ka ??lelo a Indigenous Languages and Technology : >Here it is. I intiated the discussion so I give permission to repost. >I guess the actual discussion was about Netscape... Yes, I was the one that did the translation work. It was with Netscape, not MS. Keola ======================================================================== 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 keola at LEOKI.UHH.HAWAII.EDU Fri Nov 12 19:41:32 2004 From: keola at LEOKI.UHH.HAWAII.EDU (Keola Donaghy) Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2004 09:41:32 -1000 Subject: a thought on microsoft... & "why would you want it in [language]" In-Reply-To: <1100286552.41950a5903996@webmail.kabissa.org> Message-ID: Aloha Don, agreed. I've been faced with this kind of mentality many times the past 12 years or so that I've been focusing on Hawaiian and technology. You're right, there are people in many companies who understand are needs and are supportive in whatever way they can, even though there is hardly a huge market for Hawaiiann language versions of the programs. Apple has been incredibly supportive, and I'm sure there is someone within Microsoft that would be the same, I've simply been unable to identify him/her/them. In MS case, they've already done a Maori-enabled system, so we simply need one change of the keyboard to get Hawaiian included. If we could get date formatting, sorting routines and a locale in there as we have in Mac OS X I'd be happy with that. I will give MS credit for getting Office 2004 OS X Unicode compliant (http://www.olelo.hawaii.edu/eng/resources/osx/office2004.html). That was a huge step for us toward the day that we won't have to provide fonts, keyboards and other hacks to people simply to be able to type in Hawaiian. Keola Penei ka ??lelo a Indigenous Languages and Technology : >Keola, Some quick comments re part of your message... > >Quoting Keola Donaghy : >> ... . Among some of >> the more snide replies I've received from MS have included "Why would >you >> want it in Hawaiian, don't you all speak English anyway?" :-/ > >MS being so huge, there may be different tendencies within it, as it >were. I'm >aware of people at MS who are doing significant work re unicode and >African >languages whose operating assumptions are different. > >Regarding the phrase you quote, it is similar to the thinking in so many >cases >that limits the expansion of use of languages other than the dominant >international ones. I've heard similar, though more innocent sounding, >questions re French and African languages. The following quote from >Kenneth >Keniston (1999) re India puts this issue in a different light: >"It can be argued that, given the fusion of language, wealth and power in >India, >there is simply no market (and perhaps no need) for software in any >language >other than English. Asked about localization to Indian languages, >international >software firms sometimes reply, ?But everyone speaks English in India,? by >which of course they mean that the present market consists of people who >speak >English." >http://web.mit.edu/~kken/Public/papers1/Language%20Power%20Software.htm > >Coming full circle with this theme, MS's efforts with certain languages >can be >seen as representing their recognition of markets - which I guess can be >as >much a cause for concern as celebration. ======================================================================== 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 MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US Fri Nov 12 21:07:23 2004 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP) Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2004 14:07:23 -0700 Subject: microsoft Message-ID: Hi, Keola, For Athapascan, I made a toolbar. I did have to create the underlying fonts, but since you already have them, you merely need to code the characters. This is approximately how you do it: First, in Microsoft Word, you code shortcut key sequences for each of your special characters. Be wary of the embedded sequences; there are a lot of them in Word. I ended up using 3-key sequences, just to stay out of the way of the keyboarders. Then, still in Microsoft Word, you create a new template. This is an option under the document menu. Then, in that template, you record the key sequences as macros, and give them names that correspond to the characters (to keep from losing your mind). Finally, you create a custom toolbar (Tools/Customize/Toolbars/New). Search for "create a custom toolbar" in Microsoft Word Help, and follow the instructions. For each toolbar entry, you can make a little graphic that shows the character. Save the template under some useful name. Ours is Athapascan.dot. You might use Hawaiian.dot. You can share the template. You just have to be wary of security settings that will restrict macro execution. This can be a pain, but I'm sure you can work it out. This way, you are not dependent on waiting for someone else to make a keyboard for you. You can display the toolbar just like the other toolbars in the Word window. I can send it to you if you want to see it. Mia ----- Original Message ----- From: "Keola Donaghy" To: Sent: Friday, November 12, 2004 12:16 PM Subject: Re: microsoft Aloha. We translated Netscape Communicator (v4.5) into Hawaiian back in 1998 under their Universal Localization Program (http://www.olelo.hawaii.edu/eng/resources/kahookele/). We'd considered continuing and translating Mozilla into Hawaiian, but I wasn't very happy with the tools provided for the localization and they took a long time fixing some bugs that dealt with rendering some characters properly, so I did not pursue it further. Someone at Microsoft told us that we could translate IE into Hawaiian for Mac OS if we like, but as we had already spent months translating communicator I didn't see the value of having two Hawaiian browsers for the same platform, so I didn't pursue it. I'm more concerned at this point with us getting system-level support and a keyboard in Windows, and can deal with localization in the future. Keola Penei ka '?lelo a Indigenous Languages and Technology : >I remember several discussion over the past 3-5 years, once on the >KMA-L listserver of the U Hawaii and several times on the Chinook-L >listserver about Microsoft and its "open source" browser. if I >remember right there were some Native computer techies working on >putting Hawaiian onto the Microsoft browser. I am not that good at >computer technical stuff so I can't really describe it correctly. All >of the Chinook-L messages are archived on the LinguistList archives >database that are fully searchable. > >I am not sure how far programming into the Iexplorer browser went. I >would think that the best luck might be had with the Linux system. >They are completely open source and there is an army of computer guys >creating programming for that system. maybe this is a direction that >has some future for Native languages. Anyone here work with Linux??? > >I will try to fine the text of the discussion about Microsoft open >source programming for the list. ======================================================================= 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 MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US Fri Nov 12 21:10:23 2004 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP) Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2004 14:10:23 -0700 Subject: microsoft Message-ID: There is an interesting issue with the language extension here, at least for Apache speakers. The majority of the Apache speakers are Elders, who don't know much about technology. The technologists are younger people who don't know Apache. The concepts fall in the cracks. We see this in English in places where companies hire English majors to write their documentation, and since the writers don't know technology, the documentation is seldom more than a polished version of the spec. Mia ----- Original Message ----- From: "Sandra Andrews" To: Sent: Friday, November 12, 2004 12:00 PM Subject: Re: microsoft We have Linux people here (at ASU) who are really interested in this idea and have been discussing it for awhile. We would want partners of course, native speakers and others, and I think some sort of funding. OSX is an interface to Linux in a sense so we are thinking that one would be as good as the other. :-) Sandy Sandra Sutton Andrews Digital Media and Instructional Technologies Arizona State University > ---------- > From: Indigenous Languages and Technology on behalf of David Gene Lewis > Reply To: Indigenous Languages and Technology > Sent: Friday, November 12, 2004 11:39 AM > To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU > Subject: microsoft > > I remember several discussion over the past 3-5 years, once on the > KMA-L listserver of the U Hawaii and several times on the Chinook-L > listserver about Microsoft and its "open source" browser. if I > remember right there were some Native computer techies working on > putting Hawaiian onto the Microsoft browser. I am not that good at > computer technical stuff so I can't really describe it correctly. All > of the Chinook-L messages are archived on the LinguistList archives > database that are fully searchable. > > I am not sure how far programming into the Iexplorer browser went. I > would think that the best luck might be had with the Linux system. > They are completely open source and there is an army of computer guys > creating programming for that system. maybe this is a direction that > has some future for Native languages. Anyone here work with Linux??? > > I will try to fine the text of the discussion about Microsoft open > source programming for the list. > David > > > > >>It is really, really, really hard to build something as big as > Windows in > another language. > > I struggled for 3 years to get Mescalero to adopt some fonts that > would work > in Microsoft Office, which I had to design, build, and develop > supporting > tools for. > > > > > > David Lewis > University of Oregon > Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde > > From sandra at ASU.EDU Fri Nov 12 21:26:28 2004 From: sandra at ASU.EDU (Sandra Andrews) Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2004 14:26:28 -0700 Subject: microsoft Message-ID: Oh, yes, exactly! So that having teens (who do understand technology) work on the project with the Elders would be the way to do this. That is the plan! The teenagers would learn about both the language, and technology in depth, at the same time. - sandy - > ---------- > From: Indigenous Languages and Technology on behalf of MiaKalish at LFP > Reply To: Indigenous Languages and Technology > Sent: Friday, November 12, 2004 2:10 PM > To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU > Subject: Re: microsoft > > There is an interesting issue with the language extension here, at least for > Apache speakers. The majority of the Apache speakers are Elders, who don't > know much about technology. The technologists are younger people who don't > know Apache. The concepts fall in the cracks. We see this in English in > places where companies hire English majors to write their documentation, and > since the writers don't know technology, the documentation is seldom more > than a polished version of the spec. > > Mia > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Sandra Andrews" > To: > Sent: Friday, November 12, 2004 12:00 PM > Subject: Re: microsoft > > > We have Linux people here (at ASU) who are really interested in this idea > and have been discussing it for awhile. We would want partners of course, > native speakers and others, and I think some sort of funding. OSX is an > interface to Linux in a sense so we are thinking that one would be as good > as the other. :-) > > Sandy > > Sandra Sutton Andrews > Digital Media and Instructional Technologies > Arizona State University > > > ---------- > > From: Indigenous Languages and Technology on behalf of David Gene > Lewis > > Reply To: Indigenous Languages and Technology > > Sent: Friday, November 12, 2004 11:39 AM > > To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU > > Subject: microsoft > > > > I remember several discussion over the past 3-5 years, once on the > > KMA-L listserver of the U Hawaii and several times on the Chinook-L > > listserver about Microsoft and its "open source" browser. if I > > remember right there were some Native computer techies working on > > putting Hawaiian onto the Microsoft browser. I am not that good at > > computer technical stuff so I can't really describe it correctly. All > > of the Chinook-L messages are archived on the LinguistList archives > > database that are fully searchable. > > > > I am not sure how far programming into the Iexplorer browser went. I > > would think that the best luck might be had with the Linux system. > > They are completely open source and there is an army of computer guys > > creating programming for that system. maybe this is a direction that > > has some future for Native languages. Anyone here work with Linux??? > > > > I will try to fine the text of the discussion about Microsoft open > > source programming for the list. > > David > > > > > > > > >>It is really, really, really hard to build something as big as > > Windows in > > another language. > > > > I struggled for 3 years to get Mescalero to adopt some fonts that > > would work > > in Microsoft Office, which I had to design, build, and develop > > supporting > > tools for. > > > > > > > > > > > > David Lewis > > University of Oregon > > Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde > > > > > > From pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET Fri Nov 12 23:12:58 2004 From: pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET (phil cash cash) Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2004 16:12:58 -0700 Subject: a thought on microsoft... In-Reply-To: <1100284903.419503e75c8fc@webmail.kabissa.org> Message-ID: I wonder if endangered language communities with small populations warrant the kinds of software localization like Quechua and Swahili. It would seem, in any given situation, one would need a strong developing literacy and stable orthography to support this kind of development, not to mention some long term heritage language benefits. Just curious, and thanks for all your messages as I am learning a lot from your discussions, phil cash cash UofA From mona at ALLIESMEDIAART.COM Fri Nov 12 21:38:25 2004 From: mona at ALLIESMEDIAART.COM (MM Smith) Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2004 15:38:25 -0600 Subject: Fit anyone? Message-ID: > 13) Nominations of Global Innovators Invited for Tech > Museum Awards > > Deadline: April 4, 2005 (Nominations) > > A program of the San Jose-based Tech Museum of Innovation > ( http://thetech.org/ ), the Tech Museum Awards honor > innovators and visionaries from around the world who are > applying technology to improve the human condition in the > categories of education, equality, environment, health, > and economic development. The program is designed to > inspire global engagement in applying technology to > humanity's most pressing problems by recognizing the best > of those who are utilizing innovative technology solutions > to address the most urgent critical issues facing the > world. > > Nominations are accepted in five categories: education, > equality, environment, health, and economic development. > Once a nomination is received and validated, nominees > will be contacted and invited to submit an application. > > At the program's awards gala each fall, five laureates > in each category are honored, and $250,000 in cash prizes > are awarded. > > Nominations may be made by anyone who can identify a > worthy candidate, including self-nominations, and are > accepted year round. The nomination deadline for the 2005 > awards is April 4, 2005. Applications must be submitted > by May 2, 2005. > > Nominations can be submitted online at the Tech Museum > Awards Web site. See the site for complete program > information and details on previous award recipients. > > RFP Link: http://techawards.thetech.org/about.cfm > > For additional RFPs in Science/Technology, visit: > http://fdncenter.org/pnd/rfp/cat_science.jhtml > From keola at LEOKI.UHH.HAWAII.EDU Sat Nov 13 00:29:21 2004 From: keola at LEOKI.UHH.HAWAII.EDU (Keola Donaghy) Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2004 14:29:21 -1000 Subject: a thought on microsoft... In-Reply-To: <642A6318-3500-11D9-832A-0003936727C2@dakotacom.net> Message-ID: Aloha Phil. In our case we do have a lexicon committee that has be creating the terminology necessary to do these kinds of localizations, and their work began well before we began localizations. We did begin the localization process on a few simple programs, and went to the lexicon commitee as we came across new vocabulary needs, and still do. A lot of the terminology is shared across many programs, so with each localization the job gets a bit easier. In the case of our immersion children, they gained much of their computer skill using our translations of AppleWorks, FirstClass, Navigator and others, and those skills easily transfered to the English versions of the program without any problems at all. It is getting people who can build the bridge across the chasm between the technological word and the language community that is the hard part. Once you get the tools to the younger generation, they will carry the torch for you. We have students who have gone through our K-12 programs using the localized applications and are now in college. One is a member of our technology team. I agree that for communities with smaller language populations, you need to weigh the amount of work with the benefits. Our translation of Netscape Navigator took two of us the better part of a summer to complete. I just finished the translation of another browser for Mac OS X, and it took several weeks of on and off work. I've done some apps in as little as a few hours. Keola Indigenous Languages and Technology writes: >I wonder if endangered language communities with small populations >warrant the kinds of software localization like Quechua and Swahili. >It would seem, in any given situation, one would need a strong >developing literacy and stable orthography to support this kind of >development, not to mention some long term heritage language benefits. > >Just curious, and thanks for all your messages as I am learning a lot >from your discussions, ======================================================================= 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 keola at LEOKI.UHH.HAWAII.EDU Sat Nov 13 00:37:23 2004 From: keola at LEOKI.UHH.HAWAII.EDU (Keola Donaghy) Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2004 14:37:23 -1000 Subject: microsoft In-Reply-To: <001101c4c8fb$9affd320$03ec7b80@red6bvg9btk> Message-ID: Aloha Mia, I did write up a set of instructions for users to customize the character map in Word, but didn't have time to create a custom toolbar. One problem is that our users need to type in Hawaiian within applications other than Word - we need a system-wide keyboard. There is a utility for creating custom keyboards on Microsoft's site, I just need to find the time to look at it. We currently have a program that was developed for us and we redistribute it freely on our website (along with the fonts), but again, we're simply trying to avoid making users download, install and configure software. It does work across most Windows apps. We've been doing that for too many years. It save us a lot of trouble if we could simply get MS to work with us like Apple did. Keola Indigenous Languages and Technology writes: >For Athapascan, I made a toolbar. I did have to create the underlying >fonts, >but since you already have them, you merely need to code the characters. >This is approximately how you do it: > > >First, in Microsoft Word, you code shortcut key sequences for each of your >special characters. Be wary of the embedded sequences; there are a lot of >them in Word. I ended up using 3-key sequences, just to stay out of the >way >of the keyboarders. Then, still in Microsoft Word, you create a new >template. This is an option under the document menu. Then, in that >template, >you record the key sequences as macros, and give them names that >correspond >to the characters (to keep from losing your mind). > >Finally, you create a custom toolbar (Tools/Customize/Toolbars/New). >Search >for "create a custom toolbar" in Microsoft Word Help, and follow the >instructions. For each toolbar entry, you can make a little graphic that >shows the character. > >Save the template under some useful name. Ours is Athapascan.dot. You >might >use Hawaiian.dot. You can share the template. You just have to be wary of >security settings that will restrict macro execution. This can be a pain, >but I'm sure you can work it out. This way, you are not dependent on >waiting >for someone else to make a keyboard for you. You can display the toolbar >just like the other toolbars in the Word window. > >I can send it to you if you want to see it. ======================================================================= 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 Paul_Lewis at SIL.ORG Sat Nov 13 00:42:01 2004 From: Paul_Lewis at SIL.ORG (Paul_Lewis at SIL.ORG) Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2004 18:42:01 -0600 Subject: a thought on microsoft... In-Reply-To: <642A6318-3500-11D9-832A-0003936727C2@dakotacom.net> Message-ID: Readers of this list and participants in this discussion thread might be interested in the progress so far of UNESCO's Initiative B at BEL. http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=16601&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html Paul Lewis Editor, Ethnologue SIL International 7500 W. Camp Wisdom Rd. Dallas, TX 75236 phil cash cash To Sent by: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Indigenous cc Languages and Technology Subject 11/12/2004 05:12 PM Please respond to Indigenous Languages and Technology I wonder if endangered language communities with small populations warrant the kinds of software localization like Quechua and Swahili. It would seem, in any given situation, one would need a strong developing literacy and stable orthography to support this kind of development, not to mention some long term heritage language benefits. Just curious, and thanks for all your messages as I am learning a lot from your discussions, phil cash cash UofA From keola at LEOKI.UHH.HAWAII.EDU Sat Nov 13 01:10:09 2004 From: keola at LEOKI.UHH.HAWAII.EDU (Keola Donaghy) Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2004 15:10:09 -1000 Subject: a thought on microsoft... In-Reply-To: Message-ID: I did locate MS' Keyboard Creator, if anyone else is interested. I'll be looking at it myself this weekend for our use. Works on Windows 2000, Windows XP, or Windows Server 2003. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=FB7B3DCD-D4C1-4943-9C74-D8DF57EF19D7&displaylang=en Keola ======================================================================= 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 dzo at BISHARAT.NET Sat Nov 13 09:35:52 2004 From: dzo at BISHARAT.NET (Donald Z. Osborn) Date: Sat, 13 Nov 2004 03:35:52 -0600 Subject: a thought on microsoft... In-Reply-To: <642A6318-3500-11D9-832A-0003936727C2@dakotacom.net> Message-ID: Phil, These are good points. It's hard to imagine that we'd see a full-blown software suite for every language including those with very few speakers, but how things play out in the vast middle ground of languages with, say, 50,000 to 1,000,000 speakers is the interesting question. One thing that I've been pushing, without a whole lot of success I'm afraid, is the idea of lesser localizations, meaning accommodation of needs for using various languages even if the operating environment is still in a more widely used language (a convenient acronym for which is LWC - language[s] of wider communication). These include the means for composition in minority languages - fonts and keyboards where orthographies require it, content (not necessarily limited to text), and better provision for use of audio (e.g., audio e-mail). In addition to the problem of attitudes in industry and development agencies that "everyone uses [insert LWC name]" there also seems to be an all or nothing mentality - why do anything if you can't do everything (so no lite or intermediate measures are seriously entertained). Such lesser localizations can be applied fairly quickly and cheaply in ICT4D and education projects. I think there is a need to expand thinking about localization and recognize that there may be various solutions for different situations, and perhaps even a vision of a sequence of progressively more technically complex solutions. Beyond that, the issues you raise about literacy and orthographies are centrally important. First-language literacy and pluriliteracy (multi/bilingual literacy) issues need to be addressed in more comprehensive plans for expanding access to ICT, and this in turn brings in language and educational policy considerations. At the same time it would seem necessary not to get trapped into thinking that literacy has to come first, in which case nothing will happen. Localized content and even software will (depending on the language situation) likely find people along a spectrum between those just learning to read anything for the first time, to those who are literate in an additional language but never learned to read their first one, to those who are literate in the first language and perhaps others. The issue of stable standard orthographies is important for progress in the written form of a language, of course, but it's pretty much essential for full utilization of the potential of basic software features like sorts and spell checks and advanced tools such as machine translation or text-to-speech. This is an issue that requires communication between linguists, educators, and technicians. Standardizing orthography is a concern that seems particularly urgent in Africa, even though there has already been significant work on this in past decades. We're not only talking about languages with few speakers, but even for some of the major ones there is still discussion on fundamentals of what are fairly well established orthographies. And then there is the issue of different countries' conventions for the many languages that cross borders. Nevertheless, it would seem advantageous to forge ahead however imperfectly (and a lot of the African language material that there is, from web content to localized Googles, not to mention e-mails, does not follow any strict rules). However, if it's worth doing (and it is), it's worth doing wrong ... at least at this point and for things that can be fixed. The last point may bring up a note of caution re software localization. While messy localized content can be fixed, the existence of language localized software that is somehow deficient, erroneous, or idiosyncratic in its usage of the language - for reasons of orthography or other - might be more problematic in the long term than to wait a little while in order to get it right. Sorry if these musings ramble a bit. I'm working on something in this topic area and this lets me run out some ideas that may be of interest to others. Don Osborn Bisharat.net Quoting phil cash cash : > I wonder if endangered language communities with small populations > warrant the kinds of software localization like Quechua and Swahili. > It would seem, in any given situation, one would need a strong > developing literacy and stable orthography to support this kind of > development, not to mention some long term heritage language benefits. > > Just curious, and thanks for all your messages as I am learning a lot > from your discussions, > > phil cash cash > UofA > From phonosemantics at EARTHLINK.NET Sat Nov 13 21:19:30 2004 From: phonosemantics at EARTHLINK.NET (jess tauber) Date: Sat, 13 Nov 2004 16:19:30 -0500 Subject: a thought on microsoft... Message-ID: In the situation with Yahgan, which only has two fluent speakers illiterate in the language, the issue of standardizing orthographies is a vital one, for teaching, document creation, and computerization. Five different systems, of 20 or so used historically, are "in play". Most of the existing documentation is in two very different versions of an ideosyncratic phonetic orthography developed in the first half of the 19th C. by a British phoneticist and modified twice by the missionary living with the Yahgans. In this century there is an officially recognized standard orthography (in Chile) developed on the basis of recent work with the last speakers by Chilean linguists, an ad hoc system used by the rest of the Yahgans to render words and phrases (since I'm told they don't like to use the official system), and the one I came up with, which is just a retranscription of the first missionary system into conventional alphabetical symbols all of which can be found on a standard keyboard. Because I'm working with documentation in all 20 systems, I've had to convert very often to the ones in play. These 5 are going to remain a problem- the heirs of the missionary insist his two systems be used in any publication (paper or electronic), the Chileans don't want multiple systems (which has been a problem for them in the case of Mapuche/Mapudungan), and the Yahgans themselves want to go their own way. I've only used my own system on-line at the Yahgan language discussion on Yahoo (since I haven't figured out how to get their system to take non-standard symbols, and they haven't answered my queries). This is also an issue for data storage, since without some sort of encoding the nonstandard symbols mean documents have to be stored as lumps, and not strings. The Yahoo discussion limits the storage space. I've been looking around for possibilities for font development to get around this problem, but that's way beyond my rudimentary abilities. The Yahgan population itself is in the very low hundreds, and with only two fluent speakers left it will be some time (if ever) enough of a base exists to warrent the kind of work it would take to do the kind of things being discussed in this thread. But danged if it doesn't sound interesting! Maybe by the time things are actually moving on the ground the technology/tools will have gotten to the point where much less effort is necessary to throw something usable together. Hope springs eternal. Jess Tauber phonosemantics at earthlink.net From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Sun Nov 14 18:02:39 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Sun, 14 Nov 2004 11:02:39 -0700 Subject: Initiative B@bel and Script Encoding Initiative Supporting Linguistic Diversity in Cyberspace (fwd) Message-ID: Initiative B at bel and Script Encoding Initiative Supporting Linguistic Diversity in Cyberspace 12-11-2004 (UNESCO) http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=17488&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html Efforts continue to add N'ko, a script used by the Manden people of West Africa, to the international character encoding standards Unicode and ISO/IEC 10646 through a project of the University of California Berkeley's Script Encoding Initiative that is supported by UNESCO's Initiative B at bel. Once included in the standard and after a standardized font is developed, users will be able to use N'ko in email, on webpages, in blogs, or on other electronic documents. Currently, electronic text communication in the N'ko script is very difficult, impeding publication of newspapers, magazines, school texts and other books. For a population of 20 million, this presents a significant barrier to literacy efforts. With the assistance of UNESCO's Initiative B at bel, a Unicode script proposal for N'ko was written by Irish script-expert Michael Everson, and has been approved for balloting by the relevant International Organization for Standardization working group. N'ko is on the path for inclusion in the next full release of Unicode (5.0). As part of stage two of the project, a font will be created and locale information identified. This project advances efforts to build knowledge societies by promoting linguistic diversity and survival of the world's languages in the digital world. It will provide a means for minority groups to preserve their cultural and literary heritage and promote literacy in their language. In partnership with UNESCO's Initiative B at bel, the Script Encoding Initiative will be able to continue in its quest to encode the scripts of the world still missing from the Unicode Standard. The N'Ko alphabet was invented by Soulemayne Kante of Kankan, Guinea, in 1949. It is mainly used by speakers of Malinke, Bambara, Dyula and their dialects, especially in Guinea, Mali and Ivory Coast. It was designed to accurately transcribe African tonal languages with special attention to tones that cannot be transcribed with the Latin alphabet. Link(s) University of California at Berkeley Department of Linguistics Script Encoding Initiative UNESCO and Multilingualism UNESCO?s Imitative B at bel Contact Paul Hector, UNESCO, Information Society Division Source UNESCO This item can be found in the following topics: ? ? ? ? Africa ? ? ? ? Multilingualism in Cyberspace From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US Mon Nov 15 15:14:11 2004 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP) Date: Mon, 15 Nov 2004 08:14:11 -0700 Subject: a thought on microsoft... Message-ID: Jess, If you want me to help you with the font development, let me know. We might also consider looking for some grant funding for this. I know how to do fonts and make them accessible to spell-check. Grammar checking is more work than I can handle at the moment, but I am working on solving that problem for my dissertation. Mia 505.646.2350 ----- Original Message ----- From: "jess tauber" To: Sent: Saturday, November 13, 2004 2:19 PM Subject: Re: a thought on microsoft... > In the situation with Yahgan, which only has two fluent speakers illiterate in the language, the issue of standardizing orthographies is a vital one, for teaching, document creation, and computerization. > > Five different systems, of 20 or so used historically, are "in play". Most of the existing documentation is in two very different versions of an ideosyncratic phonetic orthography developed in the first half of the 19th C. by a British phoneticist and modified twice by the missionary living with the Yahgans. In this century there is an officially recognized standard orthography (in Chile) developed on the basis of recent work with the last speakers by Chilean linguists, an ad hoc system used by the rest of the Yahgans to render words and phrases (since I'm told they don't like to use the official system), and the one I came up with, which is just a retranscription of the first missionary system into conventional alphabetical symbols all of which can be found on a standard keyboard. > > > Because I'm working with documentation in all 20 systems, I've had to convert very often to the ones in play. These 5 are going to remain a problem- the heirs of the missionary insist his two systems be used in any publication (paper or electronic), the Chileans don't want multiple systems (which has been a problem for them in the case of Mapuche/Mapudungan), and the Yahgans themselves want to go their own way. I've only used my own system on-line at the Yahgan language discussion on Yahoo (since I haven't figured out how to get their system to take non-standard symbols, and they haven't answered my queries). > > This is also an issue for data storage, since without some sort of encoding the nonstandard symbols mean documents have to be stored as lumps, and not strings. The Yahoo discussion limits the storage space. I've been looking around for possibilities for font development to get around this problem, but that's way beyond my rudimentary abilities. > > The Yahgan population itself is in the very low hundreds, and with only two fluent speakers left it will be some time (if ever) enough of a base exists to warrent the kind of work it would take to do the kind of things being discussed in this thread. But danged if it doesn't sound interesting! Maybe by the time things are actually moving on the ground the technology/tools will have gotten to the point where much less effort is necessary to throw something usable together. Hope springs eternal. > > Jess Tauber > phonosemantics at earthlink.net > > From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US Mon Nov 15 15:19:28 2004 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP) Date: Mon, 15 Nov 2004 08:19:28 -0700 Subject: microsoft Message-ID: Hi, Keola, I encountered this problem, but at least where I was looking at the time, most of the programs did not support the scripting necessary to build the internal keyboard. I am sure you have looked at Keyman, yes? $50 or so for a keyboard; I don't know what the customization charges are. How I do the exchange, since I do mostly graphics programs for learning materials, is I create the text in Word, and then copy via clipboard into the graphics programs. The place where the change needs to be made, by the way, is in the lowest levels of the operating system, where the language and country codes are set. To weigh in on localization, I think each place with an endangered language needs to have localization support! To say, Is it worth it? is to side with the monoliguists (English works for me! It should work for everyone. NOT) Mia ----- Original Message ----- From: "Keola Donaghy" To: Sent: Friday, November 12, 2004 5:37 PM Subject: Re: microsoft > Aloha Mia, I did write up a set of instructions for users to customize the > character map in Word, but didn't have time to create a custom toolbar. > One problem is that our users need to type in Hawaiian within applications > other than Word - we need a system-wide keyboard. There is a utility for > creating custom keyboards on Microsoft's site, I just need to find the > time to look at it. We currently have a program that was developed for us > and we redistribute it freely on our website (along with the fonts), but > again, we're simply trying to avoid making users download, install and > configure software. It does work across most Windows apps. We've been > doing that for too many years. It save us a lot of trouble if we could > simply get MS to work with us like Apple did. > > Keola > > > Indigenous Languages and Technology writes: > >For Athapascan, I made a toolbar. I did have to create the underlying > >fonts, > >but since you already have them, you merely need to code the characters. > >This is approximately how you do it: > > > > > >First, in Microsoft Word, you code shortcut key sequences for each of your > >special characters. Be wary of the embedded sequences; there are a lot of > >them in Word. I ended up using 3-key sequences, just to stay out of the > >way > >of the keyboarders. Then, still in Microsoft Word, you create a new > >template. This is an option under the document menu. Then, in that > >template, > >you record the key sequences as macros, and give them names that > >correspond > >to the characters (to keep from losing your mind). > > > >Finally, you create a custom toolbar (Tools/Customize/Toolbars/New). > >Search > >for "create a custom toolbar" in Microsoft Word Help, and follow the > >instructions. For each toolbar entry, you can make a little graphic that > >shows the character. > > > >Save the template under some useful name. Ours is Athapascan.dot. You > >might > >use Hawaiian.dot. You can share the template. You just have to be wary of > >security settings that will restrict macro execution. This can be a pain, > >but I'm sure you can work it out. This way, you are not dependent on > >waiting > >for someone else to make a keyboard for you. You can display the toolbar > >just like the other toolbars in the Word window. > > > >I can send it to you if you want to see it. > > > > ======================================================================== > 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 MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US Mon Nov 15 15:20:07 2004 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP) Date: Mon, 15 Nov 2004 08:20:07 -0700 Subject: a thought on microsoft... Message-ID: Jess, If you want me to help you with the font development, let me know. We might also consider looking for some grant funding for this. I know how to do fonts and make them accessible to spell-check. Grammar checking is more work than I can handle at the moment, but I am working on solving that problem for my dissertation. Mia ----- Original Message ----- From: "jess tauber" To: Sent: Saturday, November 13, 2004 2:19 PM Subject: Re: a thought on microsoft... > In the situation with Yahgan, which only has two fluent speakers illiterate in the language, the issue of standardizing orthographies is a vital one, for teaching, document creation, and computerization. > > Five different systems, of 20 or so used historically, are "in play". Most of the existing documentation is in two very different versions of an ideosyncratic phonetic orthography developed in the first half of the 19th C. by a British phoneticist and modified twice by the missionary living with the Yahgans. In this century there is an officially recognized standard orthography (in Chile) developed on the basis of recent work with the last speakers by Chilean linguists, an ad hoc system used by the rest of the Yahgans to render words and phrases (since I'm told they don't like to use the official system), and the one I came up with, which is just a retranscription of the first missionary system into conventional alphabetical symbols all of which can be found on a standard keyboard. > > > Because I'm working with documentation in all 20 systems, I've had to convert very often to the ones in play. These 5 are going to remain a problem- the heirs of the missionary insist his two systems be used in any publication (paper or electronic), the Chileans don't want multiple systems (which has been a problem for them in the case of Mapuche/Mapudungan), and the Yahgans themselves want to go their own way. I've only used my own system on-line at the Yahgan language discussion on Yahoo (since I haven't figured out how to get their system to take non-standard symbols, and they haven't answered my queries). > > This is also an issue for data storage, since without some sort of encoding the nonstandard symbols mean documents have to be stored as lumps, and not strings. The Yahoo discussion limits the storage space. I've been looking around for possibilities for font development to get around this problem, but that's way beyond my rudimentary abilities. > > The Yahgan population itself is in the very low hundreds, and with only two fluent speakers left it will be some time (if ever) enough of a base exists to warrent the kind of work it would take to do the kind of things being discussed in this thread. But danged if it doesn't sound interesting! Maybe by the time things are actually moving on the ground the technology/tools will have gotten to the point where much less effort is necessary to throw something usable together. Hope springs eternal. > > Jess Tauber > phonosemantics at earthlink.net > > From gmccone at NAL.USDA.GOV Mon Nov 15 15:22:05 2004 From: gmccone at NAL.USDA.GOV (Gary McCone) Date: Mon, 15 Nov 2004 10:22:05 -0500 Subject: Using a New Language in Africa to Save Dying Ones Message-ID: The article below from NYTimes.com has been sent to you by gmccone at nal.usda.gov. Using a New Language in Africa to Save Dying Ones November 12, 2004 By MARC LACEY NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov. 11 - Swahili speakers wishing to use a "kompyuta" - as computer is rendered in Swahili - have been out of luck when it comes to communicating in their tongue. Computers, no matter how bulky their hard drives or sophisticated their software packages, have not yet mastered Swahili or hundreds of other indigenous African languages. But that may soon change. Across the continent, linguists are working with experts in information technology to make computers more accessible to Africans who happen not to know English, French or the other major languages that have been programmed into the world's desktops. There are economic reasons for the outreach. Microsoft, which is working to incorporate Swahili into Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office and other popular programs, sees a market for its software among the roughly 100 million Swahili speakers in East Africa. The same goes for Google, which last month launched www.google.co.ke, offering a Kenyan version in Swahili of the popular search engine. But the campaign to Africanize cyberspace is not all about the bottom line. There are hundreds of languages in Africa - some spoken only by a few dozen elders - and they are dying out at an alarming rate. The continent's linguists see the computer as one important way of saving them. Unesco estimates that 90 percent of the world's 6,000 languages are not represented on the Internet, and that one language is disappearing somewhere around the world every two weeks. "Technology can overrun these languages and entrench Anglophone imperialism," said Tunde Adegbola, a Nigerian computer scientist and linguist who is working to preserve Yoruba, a West African language spoken by millions of people in western Nigeria as well as in Cameroon and Niger. "But if we act, we can use technology to preserve these so-called minority languages." Experts say that putting local languages on the screen will also lure more Africans to information technology, narrowing the digital divide between the world's rich and poor. As it is now, Internet cafes are becoming more and more common in even the smallest of African towns, but most of the people at the keyboards are the educated elite. Wireless computer networks are appearing - there is one at the Nairobi airport and another at the Intercontinental Hotel in Kigali, Rwanda's capital - but they are geared for the wealthy not the working class. Extending the computer era to the remote reaches of Africa requires more than just wiring the villages. Experts say that software must be developed and computer keyboards adapted so that Swahili speakers and those who communicate in Amharic, Yoruba, Hausa, Sesotho and many other languages spoken in Africa feel at home. Mr. Adegbola, executive director of the African Languages Technology Initiative, has developed a keyboard able to deal with the complexities of Yoruba, a tonal language. Different Yoruba words are written the same way using the Latin alphabet - the tones that differentiate them are indicated by extra punctuation. It can take many different keystrokes to complete a Yoruba word. To accomplish the same result with fewer, more comfortable keystrokes, Mr. Adegbola made a keyboard without the letters Q, Z, X, C and V, which Yoruba does not use. He repositioned the vowels, which are high-frequency, to more prominent spots and added accent marks and other symbols, creating what he calls Africa's first indigenous language keyboard. Now, Mr. Adegbola is at work on voice recognition software that can convert spoken Yoruba into text. Related research is under way in Ethiopia. Amharic, the official language, has 345 letters and letter variations, which has made developing a coherent keyboard difficult. Further complicating the project, the country also has its own system of time and its own calendar. Still, computer experts at Addis Ababa University are making headway. Recently, they came up with a system that will allow Amharic speakers to send text messages, a relatively new phenomenon in the country. The researchers involved in the project envision it as more than a way for Amharic-speaking teenagers to gossip among themselves. Text messaging could be a development tool, they say, if farmers in remote areas of the country can get instant access to coffee prices or weather reports. The Ethiopian researchers hope a cellphone maker will see the country's millions of Amharic speakers as a big enough market to turn their concept into a commercial Amharic handset. Mr. Adegbola has similar dreams. He is distributing his keyboard free to influential Yoruba speakers, hoping to attract some deep-pocketed entrepreneur who could turn it into a business venture. In South Africa, researchers at the Unit for Language Facilitation and Empowerment at the University of the Free State are working on a computerized translation system between English and two local languages, Afrikaans and Southern Sotho. Cobus Snyman, who heads the project, said the goal is to extend the system to Xhosa, Venda, Tsonga and other South African languages. One of Microsoft's motivations in localizing its software is to try to head off the movement toward open-source operating systems like Linux, which are increasingly popular. South Africa has already adopted Linux, which it considers more cost efficient and more likely to stimulate local software development. Patrick Opiyo, the Microsoft official in charge of the Swahili program, portrays the effort as more about community outreach than business development. Besides Swahili, the company is looking at making its products more available to those who speak Amharic, Zulu and Yoruba and the other two widely used languages in Nigeria - Hausa and Igbo. In Kenya, Microsoft has rounded up some of the region's top Swahili scholars to come up with a glossary of 3,000 technical terms - the first step in the company's effort to make Microsoft products accessible to Swahili speakers. Sitting around a conference table recently in Microsoft's sleek offices in downtown Nairobi, the linguists discussed how to convey basic words from the computer age in Swahili, also known as Kiswahili, beginning with the most basic one of all. "When these modern machines arrived, Kiswahili came up with a quick word for something that didn't exist in our culture," said Clara Momanyi, a Swahili professor at Kenyatta University in Nairobi. "That was 'kompyuta.' " But scholars subsequently opted for a more local term to describe these amazing machines, she said. It is tarakilishi, which is a combination of the word for "image" and the word for "represent." The Swahili experts grappled with a variety of other words. How does one say folder? Should it be folda, which is commonly used, or kifuko, a more formal term? Is a fax a faksi, as the Tanzanians call it, or a kipepesi? Everyone seemed to agree that an e-mail message was a barua pepe, which means a fast letter. Everyone also seemed to agree that the effort they were engaged in to bring Swahili to cyberspace was long overdue. "Every continent seems to have a language in the computer, and here we are with nothing," said Mwanashehe Saum Mohammed, a Swahili expert at the United States International University in Nairobi and one of the Microsoft consultants. "This will make Africans feel part of the world community. The fact that the continent is full of poor people doesn't mean we shouldn't be on the world map - or in the computer." http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/12/international/africa/12africa.html?ex= 1101531852&ei=1&en=1f262204b5ef0310 Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Nov 15 19:06:28 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Mon, 15 Nov 2004 12:06:28 -0700 Subject: Utopia colouring books (fwd) Message-ID: Utopia colouring books Reporter: Ian Jamieson Presenter: Annie Gastin Monday, 15 November? 2004? http://www.abc.net.au/nt/stories/s1244071.htm Everyone likes to colour. That?s what Gail Woods told me about three new language books launched in Alice Springs recently. Gail is a lecturer with the Batchelor Institute of Tertiary Education. She lives in Alice Springs and conducts her workshops at Utopia, an Aboriginal community to the north-east of Alice Springs. The three books reflect the three languages spoken in the area. ?Utopia is Anmatyerra and Alyawarr country and there is a small pocket of Kaytetye as well?, Gail told me. She will be using the books with her adult classes although they will be very useful for children . ?The focus at Utopia is reading and writing those languages because that?s what the students want to do,? Gail says. Each page focuses on one word at the top, an illustration depicting the word which takes up most of the page and a sentence in language with an English translation. ?We could use that sentence in a lot of different ways for quite a few different lessons?, Gail explained. The sounds, the sentence structure and grammar are analysed. The pictures include all sorts of fun things: kids swimming in waterholes and hunting for bush tucker, and there are dingoes and goannas, and kangaroos too. Jenny Taylor, Lecturer in Art & Craft at Batchelor Institute assisted with the illustrations. Gail told me the oral language is very strong at Utopia but when young children first arrive at school they are taught in English and learning to read and write in a foreign language is difficult. There are five schools in the area which means a fair amount of time is taken up with travelling for lecturers such as Gail. Maintaining and promoting an indigenous language is very important. ?It is integral for maintaining culture for which it encodes,? she says. Words relating to ceremonies and kinship for which there are no English equivalents must be retained for the culture to thrive. IAD Press, which published the books, hopes they will be popular with children right around Australia. Gail Woods talks about the books (?Audio in RealMedia format?) From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Nov 15 19:10:02 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Mon, 15 Nov 2004 12:10:02 -0700 Subject: She's a voice of tradition (fwd) Message-ID: She's a voice of tradition Area Indian tribes work to save native languages By Dena Sloan Globe Staff Writer http://joplinglobe.joplinglobe.com/story.php?story_id=141236&c=87 MIAMI, Okla. - She doesn't have any textbooks. There aren't any dictionaries. The instructional tapes she uses are the ones she's made herself. Her workbooks are her own handiwork. There's an element of self-reliance and determination wrapped up in 73-year-old Ardina Moore's crusade to save a little-spoken language. The Miami woman said she's the last person in the area, and one of the very few last people in the country, who still speaks Quapaw fluently. And if the endangered language is to be saved, she's got to help do it. "I'm getting up there in years," she said. "It's imperative that I do what I can as soon as I can, and try to pass that on." Moore was raised by her Quapaw-speaking grandparents who lived in a Quapaw community along Spring River about three miles east of Miami. They encouraged her to speak English at home, but Moore couldn't help but learn to speak and understand the language. Though she no longer has other native speakers with whom to converse, reciting daily prayers in Quapaw helps her remember the language she heard growing up. Her grandparents' generation, as children, was disciplined for speaking the native language. Now Moore works with adult students who travel to Miami from as far away as Tulsa in the hopes that they'll pass the language along to their children. "They want to be who they are, they're Quapaw people. It's in the blood," she said of her students. "When we lose our language, we lose our culture. Our culture is very important to us." After past decades of government policies aimed at eliminating American Indian cultures and trying to wipe out native languages, organized efforts are under way to bring them back. Scholars say many of the indigenous languages are in danger of disappearing all together. Because these languages were traditionally taught orally and weren't written down, they were more vulnerable. >From volunteer programs at local American Indian cultural centers to university courses in native languages, scholars and grassroots groups offer a wide assortment of classes in tribal tongues. Many say it's an uphill battle and a race against time as those who grew up hearing native languages are dying. For those tribes whose members don't live in a concentrated area, the forces of assimilation can be hard to overcome. But for groups of local American Indians, preserving and revitalizing the languages of their ancestors have taken on both a special importance and a special urgency. "There's an incredible number of native languages that are just disappearing," said Gus Palmer, an associate professor of anthropology and director of the Native Language Program at the University of Oklahoma. "Among Indian communities, there's a crisis." Forbidden Before contact with European explorers, an estimated 400 to 600 indigenous languages were spoken in the United States and Canada, said Ine Slaughter, executive director of the Indigenous Language Institute in Santa Fe, N.M. An estimated 210 languages are spoken today, but only about 20 are being learned by children from parents and elders. Many more are spoken by older tribal members, but are not systematically being passed on to younger generations, she said. Government-run schools aimed at assimilating Indian children during the late 19th and early 20th centuries prohibited students from speaking their tribe's language in an effort to "kill the Indian, save the man." Several local tribal members who grew up with parents or grandparents who spoke the language said they were discouraged from learning it. As children, their grandparents would be punished for speaking tribal tongues in missionary and government-run schools, so they discouraged children from learning the languages that were formerly forbidden. Now representatives of a number of area tribes, including the Peoria, Modoc and Eastern Shawnee, said they don't know of any people fluent in their native languages. "Unfortunately, assimilation worked pretty well for a lot of tribes around here," said John Froman, chief of the Peoria Tribe in Miami, whose grandfather was the product of several Indian boarding schools. "One of the first things they did was cut your hair and (forbid children) to speak their native languages. As a youth, if you were shipped out of your climate, you didn't have the opportunity to speak (the language), you pretty much lost it. The assimilation of the Native American worked to some extent. A vital part of our culture is gone." 'Foreign' language Movements begun in the early 1990s have been trying to turn the trend around both in Northeastern Oklahoma, as well as in other parts of the country. Slaughter said legislation passed by Congress in the early 1990s called for preserving indigenous languages and began allocating money for language programs helped spark what had previously been a much smaller effort to preserve tribal vocabulary. Northeastern Oklahoma A&M University in Miami began offering courses in native languages about 10 years ago, and revitalization efforts have since gotten under way among local tribes, including the Miami, Ottawa, Seneca-Cayuga and Wyandotte. In addition to the Cherokee courses now offered at NEO, the school previously offered classes in the Ottawa, Quapaw, Seneca and Cayuga languages, said Te Nona Kuhn, director of the Native American Studies program. When she was involved in Quapaw classes at NEO, Moore said she found it ironic that it was listed under foreign language course offerings. "We want to think of the European languages as the native language (in the United States), but it's probably the tribal languages," Kuhn said. And while colleges and universities in Oklahoma, Arizona, New Mexico and other states have formal language programs, Paul Barton meets every Monday night with his class of 10 to 12 students to learn the Seneca and Cayuga languages. (Both are similar to the Iroquois language and are almost identical.) Barton, the cultural resource representative of the Seneca-Cayuga tribe, said outside forces like sports teams schedules and pow wow season sometimes causes a few weeks' break in the class where students learn words, greetings and how to introduce themselves and others. But even Barton, who has traveled to New York and Canada to learn the language and get resources from other tribal members, doesn't speak the language fluently, and he doesn't seem hopeful that others in the area will pick up that skill. Many of the tribe's ceremonies and prayers are still conducted in the native tongue, helping it to survive, he said. Many of the words can't be translated exactly into English, and even the simple greeting of "hello" carries with it deeper meanings. "At the same time, you're talking about culture, heritage and history, where we come from and who we are," Barton said. "They're the gifts from the Creator. In order to retain them, we must keep them in our mind. The language is a vital part of that." 'An obligation' A few members of the Ottawa tribe attend a yearly summer camp in Michigan to study the tribe's language, Anishinaabemowin, said Rhonda Dixon, the tribe's librarian, historian and archivist. All of the local tribal members who spoke it fluently have already died, so Dixon and a few others try to organize an annual class to teach the language. She said she's been studying it since college, and has some language books and an Ottawa-English dictionary written by one of the local chiefs in the early 1980s. Knowing the language is helpful in her job for the tribe, but there's also a more personal reason for her studies. "Without the language, there's really no history to the tribe," she said. Though her grandparents wouldn't formally teach it to her, Ardina Moore continues to try to get students together to learn the Quapaw language. It can be difficult to coordinate the schedules of so many people who are scattered around the area. But it's learning that must be done in person, she said. The sounds, inflections and pronunciations aren't native to English, and Moore said she sometimes has to physically show students how to make particular nasal or guttural sounds. It's a more difficult language to learn than French or Spanish, which have words and influences that are a part of everyday life. Native tongues are far less prevalent in everyday life, but Moore said it's necessary that she help her people know who they are and from where they come. "It's not something everyone can do," she said. "I feel an obligation." ? 2004 The Joplin Globe. From keola at LEOKI.UHH.HAWAII.EDU Tue Nov 16 18:14:46 2004 From: keola at LEOKI.UHH.HAWAII.EDU (Keola Donaghy) Date: Tue, 16 Nov 2004 08:14:46 -1000 Subject: microsoft In-Reply-To: <008001c4cb26$7ff73640$03ec7b80@red6bvg9btk> Message-ID: Aloha Mia. We did hire the developer of Keyman several years ago to create 2 Hawaiian keyboard layouts (both using our custom 8-bit fonts and Unicode), and were able to purchase a world-wide license from him so that we could distribute it freely (for use with the Hawaiian keyboards only) from our website. Has worked OK, but it's still an extra step for our users that I'd love to be able to avoid some day. Keola Indigenous Languages and Technology writes: >I encountered this problem, but at least where I was looking at the time, >most of the programs did not support the scripting necessary to build the >internal keyboard. I am sure you have looked at Keyman, yes? $50 or so >for a >keyboard; I don't know what the customization charges are. > >How I do the exchange, since I do mostly graphics programs for learning >materials, is I create the text in Word, and then copy via clipboard into >the graphics programs. > >The place where the change needs to be made, by the way, is in the lowest >levels of the operating system, where the language and country codes are >set. > >To weigh in on localization, I think each place with an endangered >language >needs to have localization support! To say, Is it worth it? is to side >with >the monoliguists (English works for me! It should work for everyone. NOT) ======================================================================= 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 mward at LUNA.CC.NM.US Tue Nov 16 18:21:33 2004 From: mward at LUNA.CC.NM.US (Matthew Ward) Date: Tue, 16 Nov 2004 11:21:33 -0700 Subject: a thought on microsoft... Message-ID: Keola Donaghy wrote: > Among some of >the more snide replies I've received from MS have included "Why would you >want it in Hawaiian, don't you all speak English anyway?" :-/ > > Grrrr.... From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Tue Nov 16 19:22:59 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Tue, 16 Nov 2004 12:22:59 -0700 Subject: Vanishing Voices: What Else is Lost (fwd) Message-ID: Vanishing Voices: What Else is Lost by K. David Harrison http://www.science-spirit.org/articles/Articledetail.cfm?article_ID=453 November December 2004 Dongur. It?s a powerful word. It means ?male domesticated reindeer in its third year and first mating season, but not ready for mating,? and it allows a tribe of nomadic reindeer herders in Siberia to identify and describe with a single word what would otherwise require a complex construction. But the Tofa are giving up their ancestral tongue in favor of Russian?the dominant, national language that doesn?t have a remote equivalent to the word dongur. And the Tofa are just one of hundreds of small communities whose language is endangered. When working with such groups, it?s hard to keep from wondering not only how knowledge is encoded in language, but what exactly is lost when these small languages vanish. Some linguists, including Noam Chomsky and Steven Pinker, have spoken of language in the technical, cognitive sense as consisting mainly of words and rules. An English speaker, for example, has in her lexicon the word ?hat,? which is simply an arbitrary string of sounds she has learned to associate with an object you wear on your head. She also has a rule of morphology that tells her the plural is ?hats? and a rule of syntax that says when there?s an adjective, put it first??red hat,? not ?hat red.? And she has certain cognitive structures, not learned but thought to be genetic. The knowledge that nouns and adjectives are different types of things and that one modifies the other, for example, allows her to understand that red describes a type of hat, but hat does not describe a type of red. This cognitive view, while not incorrect, bypasses much of the knowledge that language actually contains. Languages abound in ?cultural knowledge,? which is neither genetic nor explicitly learned, but comes to us in an information package?rich and hierarchical in its structure. Any English-speaking child may know the word ?uncle,? but what does she store in her head as its meaning? An uncle may be a mother?s brother, or a mother?s sister?s husband, or perhaps just her parents? adult male friend. The English-speaking child has no explicit linguistic information to indicate these are distinct positions in the kinship tree. Why not? We could speculate that since it was not culturally crucial to distinguish these positions, the language did not do so. While our mind readily grasps the various concepts of ?uncle,? English provides no ready-made, unique labels to distinguish them. Conversely, in cultures with more socially important kinship relations, there exists no general word for ?uncle.? Five different types of uncles would have five completely different labels. By simply learning these labels, the child implicitly learns that these are distinct kinship roles. Kinship systems are just the tip of the iceberg. By simply knowing the word dongur, the young Tofa reindeer herder has, at the tip of his tongue, the ability to pick out from the herd and identify a specific set of reindeer. Tofa reindeer herders who have switched to speaking Russian can still talk about and herd reindeer, but they lack the labels to do so efficiently. Knowledge their ancestors accumulated over centuries, knowledge that is very specifically adapted to the narrow ecological niche of reindeer herding in south Siberian mountain forests, has essentially been lost. At its core, human cognition may be the same?no matter what tongue one speaks. But languages package knowledge in radically different ways, facilitating certain means of conceptualizing, naming, and discussing the world. In the case of the young Tofa reindeer herder who no longer speaks his ancestral tongue, the human knowledge base?as manifested in very specific ways of describing the world of reindeer?has been impoverished. Arcane bits of knowledge vanish under the pressures of globalization. But so what? While this may seem like a minor loss in the face of modernity and progress, we cannot even fathom what the longterm effects will be. Science should strive to document this disappearing knowledge while it still exists, and find ways to support communities that wish to retain their endangered languages. K. David Harrison teaches linguistics at Swarthmore College. He regularly travels to Siberia and Mongolia to document endangered languages and learn from the people who speak them. He is writing a book called When Languages Die. Related story: Lost In Translation From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Tue Nov 16 19:27:00 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Tue, 16 Nov 2004 12:27:00 -0700 Subject: Peruvians to enjoy Windows in Quechua (fwd) Message-ID: Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/11/16/quechua_windows/ Peruvians to enjoy Windows in Quechua By Lester Haines (lester.haines at theregister.co.uk) Published Tuesday 16th November 2004 11:26?GMT The estimated three million Peruvian speakers of Quechua will soon be enjoying Microsoft products in their native tongue, according to a report (in Spanish) on Terra.com (http://www.terra.com.mx/tecnologia/articulo/146890/). MS Peru and the Peruvian Ministry of Education have inked a deal to develop Windows products in the ancient language of the Incas. The programmes will be distributed free to teachers and students as part of a nation-wide scheme to promote the language, and will also be installed in internet cafes. Peru's education minister, Javier Sota Nadal, said: "We're going to promote the use of the Quechua language, as well as contribute to its spread as a part of Peruvian culture... Quechua speakers have the right to learn their own language." MS Peru supremo Lieneke Schol added: "This programme offers the opportunity to give access to technology in native tongues with the end result that more people can work with computers in their own language and realise their full potential." Pre-conquest Quechua had no written form (messages were relayed using a system of knotted string, the exact nature of which remains uncertain), but was later transcribed by the Spanish into the Latin alphabet. This will greatly facilitate the efforts of linguists at the Universidad Nacional San Antonio in Cuzco and Universidad Nacional San Cristobal de Huamanga in Ayachucho who are assisting in the translation process. The nuts-and-bolts work will be carried out using MS's "Language Interface Pack Kit" and is expected to yield results by May 2005. ? From coyotez at DARKWING.UOREGON.EDU Tue Nov 16 22:43:25 2004 From: coyotez at DARKWING.UOREGON.EDU (David Lewis) Date: Tue, 16 Nov 2004 14:43:25 -0800 Subject: Call for Papers: AIQ In-Reply-To: <008c01c4cb26$97743e30$03ec7b80@red6bvg9btk> Message-ID: Call for Papers The American Indian Quarterly seeks submissions for its forthcoming Special Issue, "Indigenous Languages and Indigenous Literatures." Indigenous languages have reached a point of crisis; few of the five-hundred Indigenous languages of North America are expected to remain viable into the next century. The threat of language death has coincided with a rise in the use and presence of Indigenous languages in works of the imagination (novels, short stories, essays, poems, and autobiographical works). The urgency of language preservation and the newly emergent and as of yet relatively uninvestigated presence of Indigenous languages in works of the imagination calls for a special issue of AIQ. Topics can include, but are not limited to critical analyses and short commentaries of the following: The politics and protocol of Indigenous language use. Should writers of fiction be excused from responsibility for proper language use because they write creatively? The role of language preservation in the community and in the university. An analysis of how authors use Indigenous languages in their works of fiction. The role of Indigenous languages in the formation and continuation of identity. Cultural authenticity and Indigenous languages. The use and abuse of Indigenous languages. The rise of language preservation in Indigenous communities. The deadline for submissions is January 15, 2004. Please send all queries and submissions (as per AIQ submission guidelines at http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~mihesuah/aiq/guidelines.htm; also include a short author bio) to the Special Issue Guest Editor: David Treuer, Assistant Professor Department of English, University of Minnesota 110L Lind Hall, 207 Church St SE Minneapolis, MN 55418 e-mail: treue003 at umn.edu Devon A. Mihesuah Professor of Applied Indigenous Studies Editor, American Indian Quarterly (aiquarterly at nau.edu) http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~mihesuah Northern Arizona University P.O. Box 15020 Flagstaff, AZ 86011-5020 AIQ phone: 928-523-5159 From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US Wed Nov 17 21:06:16 2004 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP) Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 14:06:16 -0700 Subject: microsoft Message-ID: I don't know how we would do this since the KWERTY keyboard has the fixed keys, and everyone knows how to type on it. Voice recognition is not really sophisticated although there has been a lot of time and technology logged into it. I thought about this a lot when I built the template for Athapascan, and I couldn't think of a better solution than the soft toolbar. This problem really has several dimensions. First is the font itself, and making it portable and interchangeable. The Second is the localization issue, with the related application to generalized software packages. The third is the hardware. How long has the QWERY keyboard been around? . . . since 1868, (Cristopher Latham Sholes in 1868; http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=QWERTY+keyboard+invention) 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). People? Mia ----- Original Message ----- From: "Keola Donaghy" To: Sent: Tuesday, November 16, 2004 11:14 AM Subject: Re: microsoft > Aloha Mia. We did hire the developer of Keyman several years ago to create > 2 Hawaiian keyboard layouts (both using our custom 8-bit fonts and > Unicode), and were able to purchase a world-wide license from him so that > we could distribute it freely (for use with the Hawaiian keyboards only) > from our website. Has worked OK, but it's still an extra step for our > users that I'd love to be able to avoid some day. > > Keola > > Indigenous Languages and Technology writes: > >I encountered this problem, but at least where I was looking at the time, > >most of the programs did not support the scripting necessary to build the > >internal keyboard. I am sure you have looked at Keyman, yes? $50 or so > >for a > >keyboard; I don't know what the customization charges are. > > > >How I do the exchange, since I do mostly graphics programs for learning > >materials, is I create the text in Word, and then copy via clipboard into > >the graphics programs. > > > >The place where the change needs to be made, by the way, is in the lowest > >levels of the operating system, where the language and country codes are > >set. > > > >To weigh in on localization, I think each place with an endangered > >language > >needs to have localization support! To say, Is it worth it? is to side > >with > >the monoliguists (English works for me! It should work for everyone. NOT) > > > ======================================================================== > 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 sburke at CPAN.ORG Thu Nov 18 00:04:22 2004 From: sburke at CPAN.ORG (Sean M. Burke) Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 15:04:22 -0900 Subject: microsoft In-Reply-To: <013a01c4cce9$4778ec90$03ec7b80@red6bvg9btk> Message-ID: At 12:06 PM 2004-11-17, MiaKalish at LFP wrote: >I don't know how we would do this since the KWERTY keyboard has the fixed >keys, and everyone knows how to type on it. Qwerty has language-appropriate variants in every locale on Earth, to say nothing of the keymaps for non-Roman writing systems. Even Canadians have different keyboard layouts. Several in fact! Yea verily, even unto the Canadians. The natives I've worked with have had no trouble learning that what was the [ key is now the ogonek, or whatever keymap they and I agreed on. -- Sean M. Burke http://search.cpan.org/~sburke/ From keola at LEOKI.UHH.HAWAII.EDU Thu Nov 18 00:20:21 2004 From: keola at LEOKI.UHH.HAWAII.EDU (Keola Donaghy) Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 14:20:21 -1000 Subject: microsoft In-Reply-To: <013a01c4cce9$4778ec90$03ec7b80@red6bvg9btk> Message-ID: 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 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 phonosemantics at EARTHLINK.NET Thu Nov 18 04:57:46 2004 From: phonosemantics at EARTHLINK.NET (jess tauber) Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 23:57:46 -0500 Subject: microsoft Message-ID: Re the QWERTY keyboard- I don't know how relevant this is but this particular keyboard design was actually created to SLOW DOWN the typing speeds actually possible from trained users, in the days of mechanical typewriters that actually jammed up because the last striker didn't have enough time to settle back in before the next one went flying- this design problem was solved rather quickly, but by that time so many people were using the QWERTY behavioral "repair" that it was too late to get them to use more rationally designed layouts that had been suggested originally. Such keyboard layouts are out there in the computerized world- might it not be time for people to start fresh and be weaned away from QWERTY especially if we want to start to get them thinking linguistically about their native languages? Most of the nonalphabetic portion of a keyboard these days is more rationally laid out anyway. Just a thought. Jess Tauber phonosemantics at earthlink.net From pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET Thu Nov 18 05:23:37 2004 From: pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 22:23:37 -0700 Subject: Microsoft and UNESCO Announce Joint Education and Community Development Initiatives (fwd) Message-ID: Microsoft and UNESCO Announce Joint Education and Community Development Initiatives Wednesday, November 17, 2004 7:45:00 AM ET PRNewswire PARIS, November 17 /PRNewswire/ -- http://www.newratings.com/analyst_news/article_510792.html Global Collaboration Aims to Promote Digital Inclusion in Developing Countries To support their common goals of promoting socioeconomic development round the world, Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) today announced a cooperation agreement that will help increase access to information and communication technologies (ICT) and ICT skills training in underserved communities. At a formal signing ceremony in Paris, Koichiro Matsuura, UNESCO's director general, and Bill Gates, Microsoft's chairman and chief software architect, outlined details of the agreement. Under the alliance, UNESCO and Microsoft will collaborate on programmes that focus on the specific needs of developing countries round the globe. "We recognise the importance of harnessing ICT to help improve sustainable livelihoods in underserved communities," Matsuura said. "By working with global business leaders such as Microsoft that support our efforts to establish open and inclusive knowledge societies, we can accelerate the creation of social change and the expansion of economic opportunities throughout the developing world." "We are honoured to team with UNESCO on this important initiative," Gates said. "Our shared goal is to help remove barriers to digital inclusion and enable people around the world to realise the full potential of technology -- through education and skills development programmes, community access, and the preservation of cultural and language diversity. Technology is a crucial resource in today's world, but remains beyond the reach of millions of people. We hope to pplay a part in changing that. Under the cooperation agreement -- the result of six months of discussions between the parties -- Microsoft and the UN agency will focus on increasing the use of ICT through the following projects: Education and Learning -- Syllabus for integrating ICT curriculum into teaching. UNESCO and Microsoft believe that ICT can play a significant role in improving teaching and learning, provided that teachers have the training they need to effectively integrate ICT into instructional design, planning and other critical components of education. With assistance from Microsoft, UNESCO will create resource materials supporting the development of curricula and training courses on the use of ICT for teachers and classrooms. The materials will provide content guidance to curriculum authors and course providers, as well as tools to help teachers, education policy-makers and others evaluate the effectiveness of available courseware. This multistakeholder project will draw on Microsoft's expertise in designing ICT products and services for education; in conjunction with its Partners in Learning and Unlimited Potential initiatives, Microsoft recently announced the global availability of two ICT curriculum series for use in schools and community learning settings. -- UNESCO Knowledge Communities. Utilising the Microsoft(R) Solutions Sharing Network platform, UNESCO will develop multiple online communities that allow international and national experts and agencies to exchange content and best practices, share tools, mobilise interested parties, and suggest solutions and strategies to address critical issues in education. Initial community themes will include Technology Solutions in Education, Multilingualism in Cyberspace and Information for All. -- Teacher support and knowledge sharing. UNESCO and Microsoft will explore how Microsoft's Innovative Teachers programme and its online community, the Innovative Teachers Network, can further UNESCO's aims in education. The Innovative Teachers Network connects a global community of educators and provides forums in which teachers can share ideas, content and best practices with other teachers who share a common interest in using technology to enhance teaching and learning. -- ICT access and skills training for teachers and students. UNESCO and Microsoft will also explore how Microsoft's Partners in Learning initiative can help advance efforts to improve education in developing countries. Partners in Learning seeks to deliver teacher and student skills development, tailored curricula, technical support and research, and increased access to technology by working with governments, local schools and teachers. UNESCO and Microsoft will explore opportunities to collaborate under Partners in Learning in Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East and Africa, Eastern Europe, and Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States. Community Access and Development -- Youth technology and learning centres in the North African Arab states. Microsoft and UNESCO will establish a subregional technology centre that will provide North African youth with improved access to ICT and ICT skills development. The facility will share resources and expertise with other centres throughout the region, with the ultimate aim of helping develop North Africa's future work force. The project will draw on resources and best practices from UNESCO's international information and data exchange network INFOYOUTH, and Microsoft's Unlimited Potential initiative. INFOYOUTH organises national, regional and international consultations among a wide variety of stakeholders to facilitate exchanges of data, experiences and analysis on which national and international youth policies are based. Unlimited Potential focuses on improving lifelong learning for underserved young people and adults by providing technology skills through community technology centres. Under the alliance, UNESCO and Microsoft will also explore the potential to collaborate on additional Unlimited Potential projects. -- Computer refurbishment. UNESCO, in collaboration with Microsoft, will foster international cooperation and the sharing of best practices to support refurbishment efforts that can help developing countries increase access to cost-effective computer technology. Cultural and Linguistic Diversity Preservation -- Local language development. UNESCO and Microsoft will explore ways to provide access to technology that preserves language and culture. As part of this exploration, UNESCO will provide consultation to Microsoft and support the company's efforts with local governments to prioritise and expand the number of languages served by its Local Language Program. Launched in early 2004, the Local Language Program is a global initiative that provides desktop software and tools in local languages by collaborating with local experts including governments, universities, language authorities and other interested parties. Microsoft's alliance with UNESCO is an extension of the company's broader digital inclusion commitment to help individuals, communities and nations gain access to the technology, tools, skills and innovation they need to realise their full potential. Additional information is available on Microsoft's EMEA Press Centre website at http://www.microsoft.com/emea/presscentre/unescomicrosoft . -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 9301 bytes Desc: not available URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Thu Nov 18 05:32:19 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 22:32:19 -0700 Subject: Code Talker Was Voice of GI Joe Doll (fwd) Message-ID: Thursday, November 18, 2004 Code Talker Was Voice of GI Joe Doll http://www.abqjournal.com/obits/profiles/259662profiles11-18-04.htm note: did you ever wonder whose voice (in the Navajo language) was recorded for the Navajo GI Joe Doll, well here it is. and if you haven't seen or heard the doll yet, well your missing a chance to experience the many wonders of technology. btw, the dolls are hard to come by here is the SW. phil UofA, ILAT From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Thu Nov 18 05:42:31 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 22:42:31 -0700 Subject: Moms bring back the =?iso-8859-1?b?RGlu6Q==?= language (fwd) Message-ID: Moms bring back the Din? language Navajo-Hopi Observer - News http://www.navajohopiobserver.com/NAVAJOHOPIOBSERVER/myarticles.asp?P=1038668&S=392&PubID=13347 [the article had some unusual code that showed up when i went to cut and paste the text. so here is the link, phil] From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Thu Nov 18 05:45:19 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 22:45:19 -0700 Subject: Indian-owned business helping to save dying languages (fwd) Message-ID: Indian-owned business helping to save dying languages Original speakers are fast diminishing Sam Lewin 11/17/2004 http://nativetimes.com/index.asp?action=displayarticle&article_id=5525 With a new study showing that American Indian languages are being lost at an alarming rate, the work of an Indian-owned business has become even more relevant. Experts say that 25 Native languages are still spoken in Oklahoma, but 10 of them are only one generation from extinction. The reason is that elders who speak the languages are dying out. Swifteagle Enterprises may have the answer, marketing a product called TRAILS, an acronym for Teaching, Restoring and Archiving International Languages Software. Swfiteagle is co-owned by Hanoi Horton Crews, an enrolled member of the New York-based Shinnecock Indian Nation. Crews and her husband, Jim, developed TRAILS because the Shinnecock have lost all speakers of their native tongue. "I wanted to work with the Shinnecock because they have no speakers left and haven't since the 1800's," Jim Crews told the Native American Times from the company's headquarters in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. "We developed a language education program and we made our initial presentation to the Mashantucket Pequot. We did some improvements on it. It was originally a very rudimentary program comparing English and Native words and we improved it so we could teach any Native language in the world. This is an ideal program for tribes. We can archive words, do illustrations-the whole schmear." Swiftgeagle officials made a pitch to Shinnecock tribal officials earlier this year. The company has also attracted the interest of non-Indians, receiving request for information from as far away as Europe. According to the Intertribal Wordpath Society, Oklahoma has 21,359 Indian language speakers, but 10 tribes have 10 or fewer fluent speakers and another 15 have fewer than 200. From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Thu Nov 18 06:01:20 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 23:01:20 -0700 Subject: American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month: November 2004 (fwd) Message-ID: Sunday, November 07, 2004 American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month: November 2004 http://www.infozine.com/news/stories/op/storiesView/sid/4198/ In 1990, President George H.W. Bush signed a joint congressional resolution designating November 1990 as "National American Indian Heritage Month." Similar proclamations have been issued every year since 1994. American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month originated in 1915 when the president of the Congress of American Indian Associations issued a proclamation declaring the second Saturday in May of each year as American Indian Day. The first American Indian Day was celebrated in May 1916 in New York. 4.4 million The estimated number of people, as of July 1, 2003, who are American Indian and Alaska native or American Indian and Alaska native in combination with one or more other races. They make up 1.5 percent of the total population. 141,000 The estimated number of people who are American Indian and Alaska native alone or American Indian and Alaska native in combination with one or more other races added to the nation's population between Census Day, April 1, 2000, and July 1, 2003. This population increased at a rate of 3.3 percent over the period, roughly the same rate of increase as the overall population. American Indian tribal groups with more than 50,000 members are Apache, Cherokee, Chippewa, Choctaw, Lumbee, Navajo, Pueblo and Sioux. Cherokee and Navajo are easily the largest, with populations of 234,000 and 204,000, respectively. Eskimo is the largest Alaska native tribal group, with 37,000 members. Families and Children 484,000 The number of American Indian and Alaska native families. Of these: 294,000, or 61 percent, are married-couple families. 266,000, or 55 percent, are families with their own children under 18. And 141,000, or 29 percent, are married couples with their own children under 18. 48% The percentage of American Indians and Alaska natives who are married. 56% Among American Indians and Alaska natives age 30 and over who live with their grandchildren, the percentage who also provide care for them. Population Distribution Nation 538,300 The number of American Indians and Alaska natives alone or in combination with one or more other races living on reservations or other trust lands. Of this number, 175,200 reside on Navajo nation reservation and trust lands, which span portions of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. This is by far the most populous reservation or trust land. 57% The percentage of American Indians and Alaska natives who live in metropolitan areas, lowest of any race group. A majority of American Indians and Alaska natives lived outside metropolitan areas until about 1990. States 683,900 The American Indian and Alaska native population in California as of July 1, 2003, the highest total of any state in the nation. California is followed by Oklahoma (394,800) and Arizona (327,500). 29,400 The number of American Indians and Alaska natives added to Arizona's population between Census Day, April 1, 2000, and July 1, 2003. That is the largest numeric increase of any state in the nation. Florida and Texas added 13,700 and 11,800, respectively. 19% The percentage of Alaska's population identified as American Indian and Alaska native as of July 1, 2003, the highest rate for this race group of any state in the nation. Alaska was followed by Oklahoma and New Mexico (11 percent each). Counties 154,900 The number of American Indians and Alaska natives in Los Angeles County, Calif., as of July 1, 2003. Los Angeles led all the nation's counties in the number of people of this racial category. 10,800 The number of American Indians or Alaska natives added to the population of Maricopa County, Ariz., between April 1, 2000, and July 1, 2003. Maricopa led all the nation's counties in this category. Age Distribution 1.3 million The number of American Indian and Alaska native children under 18. Children comprise nearly one-third of this race group. 305,500 The number of American Indians and Alaska natives age 65 and over. This age group comprises 7 percent of the American Indian and Alaska native population. 8% The percentage of American Indians and Alaska natives who are high school-age children (14 to 17). Along with native Hawaiians and other Pacific islanders, American Indians and Alaska natives top all race and ethnic groups in this age category. Income and Poverty $34,740 The median income of households where the householder reported they were American Indian or Alaska native, either alone or in combination with other race groups. The median income is based on a three-year average (2001-2003). 20% The poverty rate of people who reported they were American Indians and Alaska natives, either alone or in combination with another race group, based on a three-year average (2001-2003). Education 14% The percentage of American Indians and Alaska natives age 25 and over who had at least a bachelor's degree. 75% The percentage of American Indians and Alaska natives age 25 and over who had at least a high school diploma. 50,500 The number of American Indians and Alaska natives age 25 and over who had an advanced degree (i.e., master's, Ph.D., medical or law). Homeownership 56% The percentage of American Indian and Alaska native households who own their own home. Proud to Serve 159,000 The number of American Indian and Alaska native veterans of the U.S. armed forces. Language 381,000 The number of people 5 years and over who speak a native North American language. Of these languages, the most commonly spoken is Navajo, with 178,014 speakers. Jobs 24% The percentage of American Indians and Alaska natives age 16 and over who work in management, professional and related occupations. Census Bureau Launches Revised Multimedia Page in Observance of American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month 2004 The U.S. Census Bureau recently released a new version of its American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month multimedia page, offering easy access to the latest data and related materials on this race group. The Web site highlights population characteristics from the American Community Survey, as well as the 2003 population estimates. Additional media tools, including hyperlinks to data tables, photos, maps, radio spots, tribal information and other useful resources also are provided. www.census.gov/pubinfo/www/multimedia/aian2004.html From sburke at CPAN.ORG Thu Nov 18 07:56:31 2004 From: sburke at CPAN.ORG (Sean M. Burke) Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 22:56:31 -0900 Subject: microsoft In-Reply-To: <2761317.1100753867044.JavaMail.root@donald.psp.pas.earthli nk.net> Message-ID: At 07:57 PM 2004-11-17, jess tauber wrote: >Such keyboard layouts are out there in the computerized world- might it >not be time for people to start fresh and be weaned away from QWERTY [...] I did... http://interglacial.com/~sburke/pub/learning_dvorak.html http://interglacial.com/~sburke/tpj/as_html/tpj20.html ...but I wouldn't want to force it on people. -- Sean M. Burke http://search.cpan.org/~sburke/ From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US Thu Nov 18 15:33:14 2004 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP) Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 08:33:14 -0700 Subject: microsoft Message-ID: I went there, and yes, the keyboard has been reformatted. The basic underlying Problem here is that the space for alpha characters is limited. For example, Apache has 36 characters if you count only the characters necessary to create the phonemes. However, things like "ch' " are really a separate character. People wh, o don't think it through can say, So what? You have the glyphs to create the sound. But, when you map it to teaching people to learn the sounds, if you use the typical 1-icon==1 glyph-sound approach, then it gets dicey when you say, This character is {made by typing these three characters together}. This also creates issues around sorting, because you don't want to sort c-h-' {that's a glottal there at the end, which is a sound made by closing the epiglottis}, you want to sort "ch'", all-one-character. To return to issues with the ubiquitous QWERTY: it is hard to redefine the non-letter keys, because they have special codings that are signals to different places in the software. So it is not a good technical idea to begin to redefine characters that could cause word processors, email, and web processing to go hoouey, because that really defeats the purpose. What we need is a bigger keyboard. The Chinese and Japanese had this problem. I don't remember how they solved it. Mia numbers of other things have been piled onto the ----- Original Message ----- From: "Sean M. Burke" To: Sent: Thursday, November 18, 2004 12:56 AM Subject: Re: microsoft > At 07:57 PM 2004-11-17, jess tauber wrote: > >Such keyboard layouts are out there in the computerized world- might it > >not be time for people to start fresh and be weaned away from QWERTY [...] > > I did... > http://interglacial.com/~sburke/pub/learning_dvorak.html > http://interglacial.com/~sburke/tpj/as_html/tpj20.html > ...but I wouldn't want to force it on people. > > -- > Sean M. Burke http://search.cpan.org/~sburke/ > > From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US Thu Nov 18 15:48:42 2004 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP) Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 08:48:42 -0700 Subject: microsoft Message-ID: Bokar Tov, Keola, It occurs to me to send you this link, because I did a learning object on fonts, and it is based (loosely because I didn't have much time), on Hawai'ian mele. http://learningforpeople.us/EDLT577%20Fonts/index.htm Here is the page where I talk specifically about mele. http://learningforpeople.us/EDLT577%20Fonts/mele.htm I hope I got it right :-) Mia ----- Original Message ----- From: "Keola Donaghy" To: 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 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 dzo at BISHARAT.NET Thu Nov 18 15:58:28 2004 From: dzo at BISHARAT.NET (Donald Z. Osborn) Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 09:58:28 -0600 Subject: Unicode FOSS primer & font guide Message-ID: The following resources may be of interest: "A Quick Primer On Unicode and Software Internationalization Under Linux and UNIX" http://eyegene.ophthy.med.umich.edu/unicode/ "Unicode Font Guide For Free/Libre Open Source Operating Systems" http://eyegene.ophthy.med.umich.edu/unicode/fontguide/ (seen at http://wiki.localizationdev.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?ShareALink ) Don Osborn Bisharat.net From sburke at CPAN.ORG Thu Nov 18 22:57:25 2004 From: sburke at CPAN.ORG (Sean M. Burke) Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 13:57:25 -0900 Subject: microsoft In-Reply-To: <000501c4cd83$ebb82420$03ec7b80@red6bvg9btk> Message-ID: At 06:33 AM 2004-11-18, MiaKalish at LFP wrote: >To return to issues with the ubiquitous QWERTY: it is hard to redefine the >non-letter keys, because they have special codings that are signals to >different places in the software. So it is not a good technical idea to >begin to redefine characters that could cause word processors, email, and >web processing to go hoouey, because that really defeats the purpose. I've used a Dvorak layout for years, which remaps lots of nonletter keys. It has never been a problem. That's the whole point of the keyboard layout abstraction layer in every OS. -- Sean M. Burke http://search.cpan.org/~sburke/ From sburke at CPAN.ORG Thu Nov 18 23:00:04 2004 From: sburke at CPAN.ORG (Sean M. Burke) Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 14:00:04 -0900 Subject: microsoft In-Reply-To: <000501c4cd83$ebb82420$03ec7b80@red6bvg9btk> Message-ID: At 06:33 AM 2004-11-18, MiaKalish at LFP wrote: >This also creates issues around sorting, because you don't want to sort >c-h-' [...] , you want to sort "ch'", all-one-character. To the contrary: my experience with making dictionaries of Native languages is that Natives find such sort orders to be unhelpful. So I use a sort order that discards apostrophes and ignores the accents (and treats l-bar as l, etc), and this had made Native users of the dictionaries quite happy. -- Sean M. Burke http://search.cpan.org/~sburke/ From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US Thu Nov 18 23:09:49 2004 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP) Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 16:09:49 -0700 Subject: microsoft Message-ID: Hmmm, here in Apache land we don't call them apostrophs. Also, people are very sensitive about the tonality. They don't want Apache to look like English (and quite frankly, I don't blame them. I would have made a bad twin.). Personally, I find the anglicization of Native langauges because people are rude and technologically lazy to be quite offensive. I don't mean you, of course, Sean. I know how much pressure you can be under trying to please everyone, and I have so! much! real! life! experience! trying to deal with all the levels. But can you tell me more about the keyboard abstraction layer? I must have missed that in my tours. thanks, Mia ----- Original Message ----- From: "Sean M. Burke" To: Sent: Thursday, November 18, 2004 4:00 PM Subject: Re: microsoft > At 06:33 AM 2004-11-18, MiaKalish at LFP wrote: > >This also creates issues around sorting, because you don't want to sort > >c-h-' [...] , you want to sort "ch'", all-one-character. > > To the contrary: my experience with making dictionaries of Native languages > is that Natives find such sort orders to be unhelpful. So I use a sort > order that discards apostrophes and ignores the accents (and treats l-bar > as l, etc), and this had made Native users of the dictionaries quite happy. > > -- > Sean M. Burke http://search.cpan.org/~sburke/ > > From keola at LEOKI.UHH.HAWAII.EDU Fri Nov 19 00:08:19 2004 From: keola at LEOKI.UHH.HAWAII.EDU (Keola Donaghy) Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 14:08:19 -1000 Subject: microsoft In-Reply-To: <002401c4cdc3$b4809920$03ec7b80@red6bvg9btk> Message-ID: Indigenous Languages and Technology writes: >Hmmm, here in Apache land we don't call them apostrophs. Also, people are >very sensitive about the tonality. They don't want Apache to look like >English (and quite frankly, I don't blame them. I would have made a bad >twin.). > >Personally, I find the anglicization of Native langauges because people >are >rude and technologically lazy to be quite offensive. I don't mean you, of >course, Sean. I know how much pressure you can be under trying to please >everyone, and I have so! much! real! life! experience! trying to deal with >all the levels. The Puku'i-Elbert Hawaiian Dictionary sorts everything by the English sort order. Our Mamakai Kaiao Dictionary (more recently coined terms from our lexicon committee) sorts the Hawaiian->English using the Hawaiian sort order - vowels (aeiou), Hawaiian consonants (hklmnpw and the glottal), then the rest of the latin consonants in their normal order. Macron-vowel combinations are considered a secondary sort, i.e., if works are idential except for the presence of a macron over a vowel, the word without the macron is placed first. This is how the sorting fuction works in Apple OS X's sort algorithm for Hawaiian. You can see how this works on our dictionary site: http://wehewehe.org/ - search for the word "maka" and you'll see the variations with macron and without. I occassionaly hear from people who feel that this makes it difficult to find words. They eventually get used to it, and realizing that in doing it this way we're freeing the language from the bonds of English in one more, subtle way. Keola ======================================================================= 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 keola at LEOKI.UHH.HAWAII.EDU Fri Nov 19 00:13:19 2004 From: keola at LEOKI.UHH.HAWAII.EDU (Keola Donaghy) Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 14:13:19 -1000 Subject: microsoft In-Reply-To: <000b01c4cd86$14bbcbe0$03ec7b80@red6bvg9btk> Message-ID: Aloha e Mia, very nice page. Kalena Silva and I work together here; he is director of our College. One little thing... We don't use "Hawai'ian" with the glottal in there. Hawaiian words cannot end with consonants so "Hawaiian" is an English word. Since English doesn't use a written glottal either the consensus is that it shouldn't be used in there. We consider it a "hypercorrection" - one that is frequently seen. Other than that - maka'i kau hana - good job ;-) Keola Indigenous Languages and Technology writes: >It occurs to me to send you this link, because I did a learning object on >fonts, and it is based (loosely because I didn't have much time), on >Hawai'ian mele. http://learningforpeople.us/EDLT577%20Fonts/index.htm > >Here is the page where I talk specifically about mele. >http://learningforpeople.us/EDLT577%20Fonts/mele.htm > >I hope I got it right :-) ======================================================================= 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 Fri Nov 19 00:28:30 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 17:28:30 -0700 Subject: ILAT cited in Annu. Rev. Anthropol. 2004 Message-ID: ILAT has been cited! read on... "Another advantage often stressed by proponents of the use of digital forms of mediation in situations of language revitalization is that their use facilitates networking and community building among people interested in the language. Computer technology is indeed a widely used means of interaction among language activists, whether in the form of email lists (http://www.u.arizona.edu/~cashcash/ILAT.html) or in the sharing of knowledge and concerns through Web pages across different groups...." LANGUAGE REVITALIZATION AND NEW TECHNOLOGIES: Cultures of Electronic Mediation and the Refiguring of Communities Patrick Eisenlohr Annu. Rev. Anthropol. 2004. 33:21?45 Abstract. Recently, language activists and linguists have begun using new technologies in projects aimed at revitalizing the practice of lesser-used languages. This review explores relatedwork, emphasizing howpractices of electronic mediation enabled by such technologies both shape and are informed by linguistic ideologies, which in turn crucially influence the possible revived use or abandonment of linguistic varieties. New technologies are treated as part of cultures of electronic mediation, connecting sociocultural valuations to mediated discourse. Their use often has important political implications, given that projects of language revitalization are often linked to claims of ethnolinguistic recognition. Finally, because documentation of lesser-used languages using digital technologies also results in the production of new cultural objects to be stored, displayed, and circulated, attention is also focused on the forms of sociality sustained by the creation and exchange of such electronic artifacts. From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US Fri Nov 19 01:41:43 2004 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP) Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 18:41:43 -0700 Subject: microsoft Message-ID: Thank you. I will fix that. :-) --> Glad you liked it. People here are very excited that we are able to do things like this. So long people have been talking about what it might look like, but no one seemed to know how to make it happen. I hope it will get very much better, especially as more people get involved and learn how. . . . a very happy Mia. . . . ----- Original Message ----- From: "Keola Donaghy" To: Sent: Thursday, November 18, 2004 5:13 PM Subject: Re: microsoft > Aloha e Mia, very nice page. Kalena Silva and I work together here; he is > director of our College. One little thing... > > We don't use "Hawai'ian" with the glottal in there. Hawaiian words cannot > end with consonants so "Hawaiian" is an English word. Since English > doesn't use a written glottal either the consensus is that it shouldn't be > used in there. We consider it a "hypercorrection" - one that is frequently > seen. > > Other than that - maka'i kau hana - good job ;-) > > Keola > > Indigenous Languages and Technology writes: > >It occurs to me to send you this link, because I did a learning object on > >fonts, and it is based (loosely because I didn't have much time), on > >Hawai'ian mele. http://learningforpeople.us/EDLT577%20Fonts/index.htm > > > >Here is the page where I talk specifically about mele. > >http://learningforpeople.us/EDLT577%20Fonts/mele.htm > > > >I hope I got it right :-) > > > ======================================================================== > 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 sburke at CPAN.ORG Fri Nov 19 03:07:05 2004 From: sburke at CPAN.ORG (Sean M. Burke) Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 18:07:05 -0900 Subject: Keyboard (re)mappings In-Reply-To: <002401c4cdc3$b4809920$03ec7b80@red6bvg9btk> Message-ID: At 02:09 PM 2004-11-18, MiaKalish at LFP wrote: >But can you tell me more about the keyboard abstraction layer? I must have >missed that in my tours. Think of it as a state machine construct (or series of them, some in hardware, some in BIOS, some as actual drivers) at the input/output layer of the OS. The input events to the system are the physical readings of keys being pressed or released, and the output events are ASCII/Unicode/etc characters. Inbetween you can think of there being a lookup table representing the keymap for the particular keyboard driver, such as you can change under the Keyboard or Language section in MSWin Control Panel. (Although even that layer can be extended by such a program as Keyman or 3DKeyboard.) Basically, this layer (as implemented in all modern operating systems) is made necessary by exactly the problems you've forseen, and solves them. It also makes it easy for application-level programs to deal with the keyboard -- programmers do not want to have to deal with scancodes and shift/control/alt modifiers and capslock/numlock state; they want characters -- e, w, X, control-F3, whatever. The only exceptions I've ever run into in my decades of using nonstandard keyboard layouts are three programs: 1) an old version of MSKermit for MSDOS. For various reasons, its programmers had to occasinoally bypass the normal OS-level keyboard API, and deal right with scancodes the case of keystrokes that had no representation as character, like shift-alt-numlock. This only affected terminal emulation of those very odd keys tho, and was easily fixable. 2) An Atari 2600 emulator that runs under MSWin. It used raw scancodes, so when its docs said that 'r' was mapped to the emulated Reset button, it actually meant whatever the fourth key on the first letterrow, which is where my 'p' key is. 3) a Commodore 64 emulator under MSWin. Basically the same situation as with the Atari. And there is another sort of problem, a lesser one, which I've run into only with MSWindows Winamp. When its docs say that the 'v' key means Stop, they're correct regardless of where the 'v' key happens to be in your particular keymap. But they lose their mnemonic value under non-QWERTY keymaps, because the z x c v b keys are supposed to correspond, in that order, to the |< > || [] >| buttons on the GUI. I haven't found this to be a big problem. In other words: don't worry. Unless you need to use that Commodore 64 emulator. -- Sean M. Burke http://search.cpan.org/~sburke/ From sburke at CPAN.ORG Fri Nov 19 03:16:02 2004 From: sburke at CPAN.ORG (Sean M. Burke) Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 18:16:02 -0900 Subject: microsoft In-Reply-To: <002401c4cdc3$b4809920$03ec7b80@red6bvg9btk> Message-ID: At 02:09 PM 2004-11-18, MiaKalish at LFP wrote: >Hmmm, here in Apache land we don't call them apostrophs. Also, people are >very sensitive about the tonality. That doesn't mean that it should necessarily manifest as sort order. (In fact, looking over the past few centuries of lexicons, accents and apostrophes being disregarded tends to be the way that nearly everyone settles on.) Your notion of anglicization is merely one of many possible. The Apaches I've dealt with do not view letter-based instead of grapheme-based sorting as anglicization, nor calling a ' an "apostrophe" to be anglicization, nor even the use of a Latin alphabet written with ink on paper to be anglicization. Calling something anglicization is an inevitably arbitrary application (ironically!) of a western simplification onto the intractably complex details of reality and experience. Or something. Personally, I find the overgeneralizations of conceptual categories onto Native linguistics because people are sophomorically essentialist and overbearing, to be quite offensive. I don't mean /you/, of course, Miah. I know how much pressure you can be under trying to please everyone, and I have so! much! real! life! experience! trying to deal with all the actualities. As Whitehead said, "seek simplicity, and distrust it" -- including any fixed notion of what simplicity is. -- Sean M. Burke http://search.cpan.org/~sburke/ From phonosemantics at EARTHLINK.NET Fri Nov 19 03:37:51 2004 From: phonosemantics at EARTHLINK.NET (jess tauber) Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 22:37:51 -0500 Subject: microsoft Message-ID: Sort order is another issue Yahgan documents will have to address- this had slipped my mind. Missionary Thomas Bridges' used modifications of a mid-19th century phonetic alphabet created by Alexander Ellis (who eventually became president of the British Phonetic Society). This system puts vowels first, then consonants. Within the vowels are secondary sorts by "length" (i.e. tenseness/laxness), front to back, and simple versus diphthong. Within consonants digraphs follow simples, mostly following English spelling order, with notable exceptions. The original Ellis system was never meant to be used on languages other than English (which caused this consonantal mis-ordering), and Ellis himself eventually threw it over (also decrying, in his Phonetic Society Presidential adress, Bridges' use and modifications of it, I guess much to the chagrin of the missionary). For me personally, the ordering used by languages in SEAsia, based on Indian alphabets, seems much more rational, as it is based on unit type and articulatory order, manner, etc. I've seen a number of Native American language dictionaries based on this type of ordering principle. It is very easy to get used to. The Chilean Standard alphabetization uses a conventional ordering, as do all the other systems used on Yahgan. Given the systemic layout differences, does anyone know if there are any "smart keyboards" in the works, where the actual graphy on the key itself can be changed at the touch of a button (versus just the layout on the screen)? Something akin to electronic paper? I just saw in Popular Science a laser projected "virtual" keyboard- where the feedback sensors keep track of your fingers on a flat surface- that obviously could be programmed for different systems. Alternatives such as these might prevent people being forced to have keyboard ordering choices fixed in stone. Jess Tauber phonosemantics at earthlink.net From bischoff at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Fri Nov 19 15:11:34 2004 From: bischoff at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (s.t. bischoff) Date: Fri, 19 Nov 2004 08:11:34 -0700 Subject: ILAT cited in Annu. Rev. Anthropol. 2004 In-Reply-To: <1100824110.619e8a8b069c1@www.email.arizona.edu> Message-ID: Nice work Phil! You've really done something very positive and useful by organizing and maintaining this. Quoting phil cash cash : > ILAT has been cited! read on... > > "Another advantage often stressed by proponents of the use of digital > forms of mediation in situations of language revitalization is that > their use facilitates networking and community building among people > interested in the language. Computer technology is indeed a widely used > means of interaction among language activists, whether in the form of > email lists (http://www.u.arizona.edu/~cashcash/ILAT.html) or in the > sharing of knowledge and concerns through Web pages across different > groups...." > > > LANGUAGE REVITALIZATION AND NEW TECHNOLOGIES: > Cultures of Electronic Mediation and the Refiguring of Communities > Patrick Eisenlohr > Annu. Rev. Anthropol. 2004. 33:21?45 > > Abstract. Recently, language activists and linguists have begun using > new technologies in projects aimed at revitalizing the practice of > lesser-used languages. This review explores relatedwork, emphasizing > howpractices of electronic mediation enabled by such technologies both > shape and are informed by linguistic ideologies, which in turn > crucially influence the possible revived use or abandonment of > linguistic varieties. New technologies are treated as part of cultures > of electronic mediation, connecting sociocultural valuations to > mediated discourse. Their use often has important political > implications, given that projects of language revitalization are often > linked to claims of ethnolinguistic recognition. Finally, because > documentation of lesser-used languages using digital technologies also > results in the production of new cultural objects to be > stored, displayed, and circulated, attention is also focused on the > forms of sociality sustained by the creation and exchange of such > electronic artifacts. > __________________________ S.T. Bischoff PhD Candidate Department of Linguistics 1100 E. University Blvd University of Arizona Tucson, AZ 85721 USA bischoff at email.arizona.edu From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US Fri Nov 19 15:51:59 2004 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP) Date: Fri, 19 Nov 2004 08:51:59 -0700 Subject: microsoft Message-ID: I just thought that with technology, we don't need to be quite as paper-dependent. We can have electronic "dictionaries" that provide several to many sort orders. They can run on cell phones. Yep. And EVERYONE has one these days. I already ported some of my games to my pda. :-) life is good, Mia ----- Original Message ----- From: "jess tauber" To: Sent: Thursday, November 18, 2004 8:37 PM Subject: Re: microsoft > Sort order is another issue Yahgan documents will have to address- this had slipped my mind. Missionary Thomas Bridges' used modifications of a mid-19th century phonetic alphabet created by Alexander Ellis (who eventually became president of the British Phonetic Society). This system puts vowels first, then consonants. Within the vowels are secondary sorts by "length" (i.e. tenseness/laxness), front to back, and simple versus diphthong. Within consonants digraphs follow simples, mostly following English spelling order, with notable exceptions. > > The original Ellis system was never meant to be used on languages other than English (which caused this consonantal mis-ordering), and Ellis himself eventually threw it over (also decrying, in his Phonetic Society Presidential adress, Bridges' use and modifications of it, I guess much to the chagrin of the missionary). > > For me personally, the ordering used by languages in SEAsia, based on Indian alphabets, seems much more rational, as it is based on unit type and articulatory order, manner, etc. I've seen a number of Native American language dictionaries based on this type of ordering principle. It is very easy to get used to. The Chilean Standard alphabetization uses a conventional ordering, as do all the other systems used on Yahgan. > > Given the systemic layout differences, does anyone know if there are any "smart keyboards" in the works, where the actual graphy on the key itself can be changed at the touch of a button (versus just the layout on the screen)? Something akin to electronic paper? I just saw in Popular Science a laser projected "virtual" keyboard- where the feedback sensors keep track of your fingers on a flat surface- that obviously could be programmed for different systems. Alternatives such as these might prevent people being forced to have keyboard ordering choices fixed in stone. > > Jess Tauber > phonosemantics at earthlink.net > > From pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET Fri Nov 19 17:34:37 2004 From: pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET (phil cash cash) Date: Fri, 19 Nov 2004 10:34:37 -0700 Subject: ILAT cited in Annu. Rev. Anthropol. 2004 In-Reply-To: <1100877094.0802bdb7f090b@www.email.arizona.edu> Message-ID: thanks Shannon, yes, i'm just glad that somebody is taking notice. pcc On Nov 19, 2004, at 8:11 AM, s.t. bischoff wrote: > Nice work Phil! You've really done something very positive and useful > by > organizing and maintaining this. > Quoting phil cash cash : > >> ILAT has been cited! read on... >> >> "Another advantage often stressed by proponents of the use of digital >> forms of mediation in situations of language revitalization is that >> their use facilitates networking and community building among people >> interested in the language. Computer technology is indeed a widely >> used >> means of interaction among language activists, whether in the form of >> email lists (http://www.u.arizona.edu/~cashcash/ILAT.html) or in the >> sharing of knowledge and concerns through Web pages across different >> groups...." >> >> >> LANGUAGE REVITALIZATION AND NEW TECHNOLOGIES: >> Cultures of Electronic Mediation and the Refiguring of Communities >> Patrick Eisenlohr >> Annu. Rev. Anthropol. 2004. 33:21?45 >> >> Abstract. Recently, language activists and linguists have begun using >> new technologies in projects aimed at revitalizing the practice of >> lesser-used languages. This review explores relatedwork, emphasizing >> howpractices of electronic mediation enabled by such technologies both >> shape and are informed by linguistic ideologies, which in turn >> crucially influence the possible revived use or abandonment of >> linguistic varieties. New technologies are treated as part of cultures >> of electronic mediation, connecting sociocultural valuations to >> mediated discourse. Their use often has important political >> implications, given that projects of language revitalization are often >> linked to claims of ethnolinguistic recognition. Finally, because >> documentation of lesser-used languages using digital technologies also >> results in the production of new cultural objects to be >> stored, displayed, and circulated, attention is also focused on the >> forms of sociality sustained by the creation and exchange of such >> electronic artifacts. >> > > > __________________________ > S.T. Bischoff > PhD Candidate > Department of Linguistics > 1100 E. University Blvd > University of Arizona > Tucson, AZ 85721 > USA > > bischoff at email.arizona.edu > From sdp at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Fri Nov 19 17:56:03 2004 From: sdp at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Susan Penfield) Date: Fri, 19 Nov 2004 10:56:03 -0700 Subject: microsoft In-Reply-To: <013e01c4ce4f$b4db84c0$03ec7b80@red6bvg9btk> Message-ID: Garry, So can we do electronic dictionaries for Mohave and Chemehuevi on Blackberry? S. Quoting "MiaKalish at LFP" : > I just thought that with technology, we don't need to be quite as > paper-dependent. We can have electronic "dictionaries" that provide several > to many sort orders. They can run on cell phones. Yep. And EVERYONE has one > these days. > > I already ported some of my games to my pda. :-) > > life is good, > Mia > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "jess tauber" > To: > Sent: Thursday, November 18, 2004 8:37 PM > Subject: Re: microsoft > > > > Sort order is another issue Yahgan documents will have to address- this > had slipped my mind. Missionary Thomas Bridges' used modifications of a > mid-19th century phonetic alphabet created by Alexander Ellis (who > eventually became president of the British Phonetic Society). This system > puts vowels first, then consonants. Within the vowels are secondary sorts by > "length" (i.e. tenseness/laxness), front to back, and simple versus > diphthong. Within consonants digraphs follow simples, mostly following > English spelling order, with notable exceptions. > > > > The original Ellis system was never meant to be used on languages other > than English (which caused this consonantal mis-ordering), and Ellis himself > eventually threw it over (also decrying, in his Phonetic Society > Presidential adress, Bridges' use and modifications of it, I guess much to > the chagrin of the missionary). > > > > For me personally, the ordering used by languages in SEAsia, based on > Indian alphabets, seems much more rational, as it is based on unit type and > articulatory order, manner, etc. I've seen a number of Native American > language dictionaries based on this type of ordering principle. It is very > easy to get used to. The Chilean Standard alphabetization uses a > conventional ordering, as do all the other systems used on Yahgan. > > > > Given the systemic layout differences, does anyone know if there are any > "smart keyboards" in the works, where the actual graphy on the key itself > can be changed at the touch of a button (versus just the layout on the > screen)? Something akin to electronic paper? I just saw in Popular Science a > laser projected "virtual" keyboard- where the feedback sensors keep track of > your fingers on a flat surface- that obviously could be programmed for > different systems. Alternatives such as these might prevent people being > forced to have keyboard ordering choices fixed in stone. > > > > Jess Tauber > > phonosemantics at earthlink.net > > > > > 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 sdp at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Fri Nov 19 19:15:31 2004 From: sdp at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Susan Penfield) Date: Fri, 19 Nov 2004 12:15:31 -0700 Subject: microsoft In-Reply-To: <1100886963.b65b081d2691b@www.email.arizona.edu> Message-ID: OOps, That wasn't meant to go out on the list, but still might be interesting to explore wireless potential... S. Quoting Susan Penfield : > Garry, > So can we do electronic dictionaries for Mohave and Chemehuevi on Blackberry? > > S. > Quoting "MiaKalish at LFP" : > > > I just thought that with technology, we don't need to be quite as > > paper-dependent. We can have electronic "dictionaries" that provide several > > to many sort orders. They can run on cell phones. Yep. And EVERYONE has one > > these days. > > > > I already ported some of my games to my pda. :-) > > > > life is good, > > Mia > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: "jess tauber" > > To: > > Sent: Thursday, November 18, 2004 8:37 PM > > Subject: Re: microsoft > > > > > > > Sort order is another issue Yahgan documents will have to address- this > > had slipped my mind. Missionary Thomas Bridges' used modifications of a > > mid-19th century phonetic alphabet created by Alexander Ellis (who > > eventually became president of the British Phonetic Society). This system > > puts vowels first, then consonants. Within the vowels are secondary sorts > by > > "length" (i.e. tenseness/laxness), front to back, and simple versus > > diphthong. Within consonants digraphs follow simples, mostly following > > English spelling order, with notable exceptions. > > > > > > The original Ellis system was never meant to be used on languages other > > than English (which caused this consonantal mis-ordering), and Ellis > himself > > eventually threw it over (also decrying, in his Phonetic Society > > Presidential adress, Bridges' use and modifications of it, I guess much to > > the chagrin of the missionary). > > > > > > For me personally, the ordering used by languages in SEAsia, based on > > Indian alphabets, seems much more rational, as it is based on unit type and > > articulatory order, manner, etc. I've seen a number of Native American > > language dictionaries based on this type of ordering principle. It is very > > easy to get used to. The Chilean Standard alphabetization uses a > > conventional ordering, as do all the other systems used on Yahgan. > > > > > > Given the systemic layout differences, does anyone know if there are any > > "smart keyboards" in the works, where the actual graphy on the key itself > > can be changed at the touch of a button (versus just the layout on the > > screen)? Something akin to electronic paper? I just saw in Popular Science > a > > laser projected "virtual" keyboard- where the feedback sensors keep track > of > > your fingers on a flat surface- that obviously could be programmed for > > different systems. Alternatives such as these might prevent people being > > forced to have keyboard ordering choices fixed in stone. > > > > > > Jess Tauber > > > phonosemantics at earthlink.net > > > > > > > > > > > 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 > 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 sburke at CPAN.ORG Fri Nov 19 21:22:10 2004 From: sburke at CPAN.ORG (Sean M. Burke) Date: Fri, 19 Nov 2004 12:22:10 -0900 Subject: microsoft In-Reply-To: <013e01c4ce4f$b4db84c0$03ec7b80@red6bvg9btk> Message-ID: At 06:51 AM 2004-11-19, MiaKalish at LFP wrote: >I just thought that with technology, we don't need to be quite as >paper-dependent. We can have electronic "dictionaries" that provide several >to many sort orders. Precisely the point of my thesis: http://interglacial.com/~sburke/ma/ -- Sean M. Burke http://search.cpan.org/~sburke/ From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Sun Nov 21 03:33:03 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Sat, 20 Nov 2004 20:33:03 -0700 Subject: Linguist, poet, professor encourages students (fwd) Message-ID: Linguist, poet, professor encourages students By SUSAN RANDALL, Staff Writer November 20, 2004 http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=13406877&BRD=1817&PAG=461&dept_id=68561&rfi=6 SIGNAL PEAK - Ofelia Zepeda, linguist, poet, professor and recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship "genius grant," shared her experience and poetry Wednesday at Central Arizona College. She was fortunate to go to a public school, she told the audience, which included many O'odham middle and high school students, college students and community members. There was a time when American Indian children were sent away to boarding schools and not allowed to use their native languages. "They were forced to use English," she said, "and for many of them, they lost their language." When Zepeda and her older brothers and sisters first went to school, they could speak no English, only O'odham. "In our family, our parents and their parents, none of them had English," she said, "and none of them had ever gone to school. So school for our family was a relatively new thing." Stanfield Elementary School was the first place they had to learn and use the English language. "It is kind of a strange thing," Zepeda said, "to put a child in a situation, in a classroom where they don't have access to any of the information that is going on. Back then it was called, 'sink or swim.'" And a lot of O'odham children in her classes sank and drowned, she said. They never learned much English and left school by seventh or eighth grade. Zepeda, however, learned to switch back and forth between English at school and O'odham at home. She was the first in her family to go to high school and attended Casa Grande Union High School with Billy Allen, who now teaches social sciences and Pima language there. After graduation, she went to CAC. "I'm not sure why I came here," she told the students. "None of my parents ever went to school, so there were no models, nobody to follow. "Actually what I wanted to do was join the military, but my mother wouldn't let me do that." Perhaps she went to college, she said, because some of her elementary school and high school teachers gave her a little more attention than she was used to. "When people do that to you as a child, you want to do better," she said. "And when I came here I had the same thing. I met some very nice professors here and I worked closely with them and they were very supportive. "So I think that was one of the reasons I continued to go on. And I just kept going and going and going until I was done." She earned her associate's degree at CAC and her bachelor's degree, master's degree and doctorate in linguistics at the University of Arizona, where she was hired. "But the whole time it was always connected back to what I started saying about language," she said. "I always had the O'odham language with me." Zepeda learned to read O'odham and published "A Papago Grammar," the first O'odham grammar. She also began teaching written O'odham to native speakers and teachers. Not much O'odham literature was available, so Zepeda had her students write little poems, plays and songs in O'odham. And she began writing with them. "That's how I got started writing in O'odham," she said, "for my students. And I continued writing. I still write in O'odham today." She found her subjects in the memories of things she had seen and heard when she was a child. Most of her poetry is about the desert, the rain, the people in her life. Some poetry she translates into English. One of those poems is "B 'o 'e-a:g mas 'ab him g ju:ki*" (It is going to rain) in "Earth Movements," a collection of poems in O'odham and English with a CD. Zepeda read it to the group in O'odham, then in English. Someone said it is going to rain. I think it is not so. Because I have not yet felt the earth and the way it holds still in anticipation. I think it is not so. Because I have not yet felt the sky become heavy with moisture of preparation. I think it is not so. Because I have not yet felt the winds move with their coolness. I think it is not so. Because I have not yet inhaled the sweet, wet dirt the winds bring. So, there is no truth that it will rain. She regrets, Zepeda said, that she never learned to sing. She admires O'odham people who are beautiful singers and some of her poems contain songs. A poem she wrote for daughter begins with the lyrics of a song from the movie "The Little Mermaid," and moves on to explain how O'odham people should behave when they visit the ocean. Tohono O'odham and Akimel O'odham people know the ocean, Zepeda said, even though they live in the desert. "Our summer rains come because of the ocean," she said. When O'odham people visit the ocean, they should greet it, she said. They should say goodbye when they leave and give the ocean a gift. "And if we want, we can ask for something." In the old days, people sometimes asked for and came back with special powers. The poem "Ocean Power," in the book "Ocean Power: Poems from the Desert," is about men from northern Mexico who had never seen the ocean until they were deported by way of San Diego. The end of the poem says: We are not ready. We have not put our minds to what it is we want to give to the ocean. We do not have cornmeal, feathers, nor do we have songs and prayers ready. We have not thought what gift we will ask from the ocean. Should we ask to be song chasers Should we ask to be rain makers Should we ask to be good runners or should we ask to be heartbreakers. No, we are not ready to be here at this ocean. We can still ask the ocean for a gift, Zepeda told the students. "I doesn't matter that it is 2004." During her career at the university, Zepeda became director of the American Indian Studies Program and co-founder of the American Indian Language Development Institute, a summer institute for American Indian teachers from the United States and Canada. She has won numerous awards, edited many collections by American Indian writers, taught countless classes and is considered the foremost authority on Tohono O'odham language and literature. But she said she still will not talk in a group unless someone asks her opinion, "then I have a lot to say." And she cannot always look at the faces of the people in an audience. "All these things that I come with," she said, "it's who I am, being O'odham. It is difficult to shed and there's no reason to shed it, if it works with everything else. "The background you come with can be such an asset in many ways. The thing that you must learn - and it's not an easy thing to learn - is how to use it, how to take advantage of it." Now she and others are working on an urgent problem. "It is a sad situation," she said. "And it is something that you guys are a part of and your parents and your grandparents." Very few young American Indians are learning their language, she said. "They are not learning it at home, because nobody speaks it at home." She and others have been teaching O'odham and trying to create situations where the O'odham language is heard and used by grandparents, parents and young people, especially young children. CAC student Dwayne Lopez, male youth commissioner for the National Congress of American Indians, said American Indian students in some tribes are required to know their native language before they can graduate from high school. Zepeda said that was a good idea. Only a few high schools and middle schools offer O'odham, and then only as an elective. She teaches O'odham at the UA and the new community college in Sells. Allen said O'odham also is taught at Scottsdale Community College on the Salt River Indian Reservation. One of the middle school students asked Zepeda how old she is. "I am very old," she said, "old enough to be a grandmother." She did not know if she was 49, 50 or 51 because her birth date was unknown when she started school. Because she is "so old," she added, she hopes to see more young O'odham going to the university and getting their doctorates, so she can retire in 10 or 15 years. ?Casa Grande Valley Newspapers Inc.?2004 From fmarmole at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Sun Nov 21 15:02:48 2004 From: fmarmole at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Francisco Marmolejo) Date: Sun, 21 Nov 2004 08:02:48 -0700 Subject: Innovate / Call for proposals Message-ID: Please forward to those interested. Regards, Francisco Francisco Marmolejo Executive Director Consortium for North American Higher Education Collaboration (CONAHEC) University of Arizona PO Box 210300 220 W. Sixth Street. Tucson, AZ 85721-0300 USA Tel. (520) 621-9080 / 621-7761 Fax (520) 626-2675 Email: fmarmole at email.arizona.edu http://conahec.org ++++++++++++++++++++ Innovate ( http://innovateonline.info), published by the Fischler School of Education and Human Services, Nova Southeastern University, is a leading online journal exploring the creative use of information technology (IT) to enhance educational processes in all sectors (K-12, college and university, corporate, government). It is the leading online journal exemplifying the use of IT tools to enhance professional communication about using IT in education. For example, if you want to comment on an article, you can do so using the discuss feature within the article. If you want to see articles related to the one you are reading, click on the "read related" feature. The Innovate-Live portal (http://www.uliveandlearn.com/innovate/), featuring webcasts and discussion forums, is the interactive centerpiece of the journal. Webcasts offer authors an opportunity to go into more detail on the topics of their papers with webcast participants. Forums enable participants to discuss special topics that will eventually become special journal issues focusing on those topics. Once manuscripts developing from this discussion or that are submitted in response to a call for manuscripts are posted to our "bullpen", forum participants will be encouraged to use the forum to comment on the manuscripts as well as on the topic. The current forum focuses on ePortfolios. We hope that you can join us in learning and sharing how we can use technology to increase access to education and to improve teaching and learning. If you are interested in submitting a manuscript for publication consideration, please contact the editor, James Morrison, at morrison at unc.edu -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Sun Nov 21 17:44:57 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Sun, 21 Nov 2004 10:44:57 -0700 Subject: As ice thaws, Arctic peoples at a loss for words (fwd) Message-ID: 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 ?hornet?, ?robin?, ?elk?, ?barn owl? or ?salmon?? If you don?t know, you?re 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. ?We can?t even describe what we?re seeing,? 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 ?bird with the red breast?, 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. ?I know about 1,200 words for reindeer- we classify them by age, sex, colour, antlers,? said Nils Isak Eira, who manages a herd of 2,000 reindeer in north Norway. ?I know just one word for elk - ?sarvva?,? said 50-year-old Eira. ?But the animals are so unusual that many Saami use the Norwegian word ?elg?. When I was a child it was like a mythical creature.? 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?s Hudson Bay, receding ice means polar bears are already struggling. The bears? main trick is to pounce when seals surface to breathe through holes in the ice. The Arctic report says polar bears ?are unlikely to survive as a species if there is a complete loss of summer-ice cover?. Restricted to land, polar bears would have to compete with better-adapted grizzly or brown bears. ?The outlook for polar bears is stark. My grandson will lose the culture I had as a child,? 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. ?Overall, forests are likely to move north and displace tundra,? said Terry Callaghan, a professor of Arctic ecology at the University of Lund, Sweden. ?That will bring more species - birds that nest in trees, beetles that live in bark, fungi?. The lack of words to describe newcomers does not stop at animals and plants. ?Words like ?thunderstorm? don?t exist because they are phenomena indigenous peoples have never known,? said Robert Corell, chair of the ACIA study. reuters From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Sun Nov 21 17:48:06 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Sun, 21 Nov 2004 10:48:06 -0700 Subject: Indigenous leader pushes for native language food labels (fwd) Message-ID: Indigenous leader pushes for native language food labels Friday, 19 November 2004 http://www.abc.net.au/central/news/200411/s1246867.htm Food manufacturers who sell heavily to remote Indigenous communities are being asked to write product labels in the local Aboriginal language. ATSIC's Alice Springs Regional Council Chair Des Rogers has raised the idea, saying it would embolden Indigenous consumers. He says labels written in someone's first language are a sign of respect and reduce confusion for people with english literacy problems. He says familiar items given a twist could also have a broader appeal. "I don't know whether it would become a collectors item, but it certainly could become a novelty for tourists as well," he said. "It gives Indigenous people the ability to tell the story about the logo, the language that's on there. "There's great possibilities and great positive outcomes in just that small area," he said. From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US Mon Nov 22 15:30:19 2004 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP) Date: Mon, 22 Nov 2004 08:30:19 -0700 Subject: As ice thaws, Arctic peoples at a loss for words (fwd) Message-ID: 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" To: 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 MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US Mon Nov 22 15:30:45 2004 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP) Date: Mon, 22 Nov 2004 08:30:45 -0700 Subject: Indigenous leader pushes for native language food labels (fwd) Message-ID: wow. yet one more dimension. Food labels. ----- Original Message ----- From: "phil cash cash" To: Sent: Sunday, November 21, 2004 10:48 AM Subject: Indigenous leader pushes for native language food labels (fwd) > Indigenous leader pushes for native language food labels > > Friday, 19 November 2004 > http://www.abc.net.au/central/news/200411/s1246867.htm > > Food manufacturers who sell heavily to remote Indigenous communities are > being asked to write product labels in the local Aboriginal language. > > ATSIC's Alice Springs Regional Council Chair Des Rogers has raised the > idea, saying it would embolden Indigenous consumers. > > He says labels written in someone's first language are a sign of respect > and reduce confusion for people with english literacy problems. > > He says familiar items given a twist could also have a broader appeal. > > "I don't know whether it would become a collectors item, but it > certainly could become a novelty for tourists as well," he said. > > "It gives Indigenous people the ability to tell the story about the > logo, the language that's on there. > > "There's great possibilities and great positive outcomes in just that > small area," he said. > > From sdp at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Nov 22 15:42:10 2004 From: sdp at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Susan Penfield) Date: Mon, 22 Nov 2004 08:42:10 -0700 Subject: As ice thaws, Arctic peoples at a loss for words (fwd) Message-ID: Mia, Your last comment was a sad, but possibly very true, footnote about the results of a predominantly English focus. This disscusion thread (including the 'food labels' one) reminds me of something my daughter mentioned recently. While studying Latin in Rome last summer, she learned that her teacher, one of the Pope's Latinists who is very committed to making Latin a living language again, changed all of the ATMs in Vatican City to Latin only -- hmm, another issue in language and technology? Food for thought ? S. Susan D. Penfield, Ph.D. Department of English Second Language Acquisition and Teaching Indigenous Languages and Technology Language, Reading and culture University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721 ----- Original Message ----- From: "MiaKalish at LFP" To: Sent: Monday, November 22, 2004 8:30 AM Subject: Re: As ice thaws, Arctic peoples at a loss for words (fwd) >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" > To: > 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 MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US Mon Nov 22 15:53:55 2004 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP) Date: Mon, 22 Nov 2004 08:53:55 -0700 Subject: As ice thaws, Arctic peoples at a loss for words (fwd) Message-ID: I saw that. I read that Latin is the 2nd language in Italy? Probably the first at the vatican. I thought that was So Cool. People don't think about this very much, like they take fonts for granted. By the way, since we all now know that Gary might be trying to port ( :-), if he uses Flash, there are sized templates, because the screen is smaller, but the pixel sizes haven't really changed. You need to squash the stuff, and so by using a template for the target device (yes, unfortunately for developers and happily for language diversity, they are all different sizes), you see what your workspace is. Works very nicely. Mia ----- Original Message ----- From: "Susan Penfield" To: Sent: Monday, November 22, 2004 8:42 AM Subject: Re: As ice thaws, Arctic peoples at a loss for words (fwd) > Mia, > Your last comment was a sad, but possibly very true, footnote about the > results of a predominantly English focus. This disscusion thread (including > the 'food labels' one) reminds me of something my daughter mentioned > recently. While studying Latin in Rome last summer, she learned that her > teacher, one of the Pope's Latinists who is very committed to making Latin a > living language again, changed all of the ATMs in Vatican City to Latin > only -- hmm, another issue in language and technology? Food for thought ? > S. > > Susan D. Penfield, Ph.D. > Department of English > Second Language Acquisition and Teaching > Indigenous Languages and Technology > Language, Reading and culture > University of Arizona, > Tucson, AZ 85721 > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "MiaKalish at LFP" > To: > Sent: Monday, November 22, 2004 8:30 AM > Subject: Re: As ice thaws, Arctic peoples at a loss for words (fwd) > > > >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" > > To: > > 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 cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Nov 22 22:27:58 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Mon, 22 Nov 2004 15:27:58 -0700 Subject: Safeguarding Spanish in the Age of the Internet (fwd) Message-ID: Safeguarding Spanish in the Age of the Internet Maricel Drazer http://www.ipsnews.net/new_nota.asp?idnews=26380 ROSARIO, Argentina, Nov 22 (IPS) - Does the fact that cyberspace is full of ignorant people mean that ignorance should be accepted as the new norm? If millions of people speak their own language poorly, and their writing is even worse, should we simply sit back and witness the ?downward democratisation? of a ?dumbing down? of society? ~~~ note: the above article might have parallels in a cyberspace future for indigenous languages. From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Tue Nov 23 15:45:05 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2004 08:45:05 -0700 Subject: Linguist Warns of Language Extinction (fwd) Message-ID: 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. From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Tue Nov 23 21:15:09 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2004 14:15:09 -0700 Subject: New Compendium on Yanomami Language (fwd) Message-ID: New Compendium on Yanomami Language Humberto M?rquez http://www.ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=26404 CARACAS, Nov 23 (IPS) - When a Yanomami Indian dies, his or her name is not to be pronounced for some time, so as not to soil the memory of the deceased. This may be a problem if, for example, someone is called Shoco, which is also the term for Tamandu?, an anteater that is common in the jungles of southern Venezuela and northern Brazil, where the Yanomami live. However, the difficulty can easily be resolved thanks to the linguistic wealth of this indigenous group that has existed for over 25,000 years, a living testimony to the Neolithic era, the most recent period of the Stone Age. There are several synonyms for the names of animals, and also of some plants. Therefore, ?aroto? means exactly the same as ?shoco?, and the community can use that word without violating the tradition that protects the deceased. This explanation is provided by one of the 10,000 entries in the ?Compendio ilustrado de lengua y cultura yanomami? (?Illustrated Compendium of the Yanomami Language and Culture?), a book by French anthropologist and linguist Marie-Claude Matt?i that has just gone to print. It is more than a mere dictionary, instead serving as an encyclopaedic manual that can be used in Yanomami schools and for outsiders studying the Yanomami language and culture. After 15 years of research, ?we have concentrated our efforts on producing something more useful and rich in information than a simple dictionary -- a book that can support the didactic measures that the Venezuelan society and state have the obligation to undertake with respect to the indigenous communities,? Matt?i told IPS. Venezuela's new constitution, which was approved by voters in 1999, dedicates an entire chapter to the rights of indigenous peoples, including ?the right to an intercultural and bilingual educational system that takes into account their special social and cultural characteristics, values and traditions.? The Yanomami or ?children of the moon?, who number around 15,000 in Venezuela and 12,000 in Brazil, are among the 34 indigenous peoples who mainly live along Venezuela's borders with Colombia, Brazil and Guyana. According to the 2001 census, 300,000 of Venezuela's 25 million people belong to indigenous groups. The Yanomami comprise a majority of the population in the municipality of Alto Orinoco, which nevertheless tends to be governed by members of two smaller ethnic groups, the Ye'kuana and Piaroa. Like their other indigenous neighbours, the Yanomami sometimes incorporate the ways of mainstream society ?in an anarchistic manner. They want speed boats and other technologies that make their lives more comfortable. The contact may threaten their culture and language, but that should not lead to a falsely romantic attitude, such as asking them to live in a bubble,? said Matt?i. Yanomami and Sanima are the most widely spoken languages among the indigenous people of Venezuela, according to another anthropologist, Mar?a Eugenia Villal?n. ?At least seven languages -- Mapoyo, A??, Bar?, S?liva, Yabarana, Uruak and Sape -- are in a critical state,? Villal?n, who has dedicated herself to collecting and preserving what remains of the Mapoyo tongue, told IPS. A language, Villal?n warns, ?is not threatened nor does it become extinct because fewer individuals speak it, but because people stop using it and stop passing it on from parents to children. The extent to which it is at risk can be measured by the number of children who speak it.? In the case of Mapoyo, that means almost none, as even adults hardly ever use the language. Without an effort to support indigenous peoples, ?their languages, which have survived more than 500 years since the arrival of the Spanish and Portuguese in the Americas, will slowly disappear, they just won't survive,? warned another expert, Lyll Barcel?, who has compiled the myths of the Guahibo ethnic group. Having similar concerns, Matt?i divided her Compendium into five parts, the first of which is a history and description of the Yanomami people, followed by a guide to comprehend and use the dictionary. ?I started with a table of references and conjugations in order to describe the verbal system of the language,? she explained. The Yanomami ?use various forms of the future and past tense, and the suffixes of verbs can vary greatly depending on the meaning,? she stated. ?I haven't only used the information that I gathered myself, but also utilised that of numerous books about the Yanomami,? said Matt?i. ?What I added was a description of the use of each word, set in the ecosystem where these people live.? A glossary of the flora and fauna follows, which is a compendium on its own, as well as a bilingual Spanish-Yanomami mini-dictionary ?aimed at providing help with the greatest difficulties. For example, there are many ways of saying 'to tie' or 'to open' in this language.? And linguists and taxonomists (the scientists who deal with the identification, naming, and classification of organisms) will be able to use a glossary of the taxonomy that the Yanomami themselves use for a number of animals, illustrated by Jacinto Serowe, a member of the ethnic group who worked closely with Matt?i. ?There are definitely threats to their language, just as there are threats anywhere,? she pointed out. ?But let's stop thinking that indigenous people will remain in a bubble. Changes are inevitable and they are not the problem. ?The problem is that they are being denied opportunities, rights regarding health care and the preservation of their beliefs, and the rights they have over their own territories. ?A high-speed globalisation process is taking place in the world, but at the same time there is a revival of interest in minority groups and a vindication of traditional ways, to keep ethnic groups from being lost. In Venezuela, under the new constitution and the government of Hugo Ch?vez, there is a desire to do something,? said Matt?i. In 1992 and 1996, the anthropologist wrote two books about the culture of the Panare, another ethnic group from southern Venezuela. The Compendium on the Yanomami has been published by government agencies in Venezuela in cooperation with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), the Spanish Agency of International Cooperation, and Spain's Santander bank. (END/2004) From deprees at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Nov 24 19:52:33 2004 From: deprees at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Depree ShadowWalker) Date: Wed, 24 Nov 2004 12:52:33 -0700 Subject: Clearance Sale Digital Recorder!!!!! Red Pony Special Message-ID: Hurry! Now you can own your own digital recorder which is on a clearance sale at Office Max. When I used this microphone I was able to accidentally capture an elk bugling in the valley where I was recording an elder, and we where in the house! It's a steal of a deal Normal price is $99 but its now $39. You have to call them to place an order with a credit card. See attachments for specs and product number! Order-By-Phone 1-800-283-7674 You get high quality for 22 mins recording and you can record for hours when you hook up the USB cable to your laptop or computer! Olympus has stopped manufacturing this high quality recorder. Story: http://www.olympusamerica.com/msg_section/msg_HeadlinesDetails.asp?pressNo=1 38 Olympus Announces First Low-Cost Digital Voice Recorder with PC Connection - Compact DW-90 Provides 1-1/2 Hours Recording Time and USB Connection to PC for Only $99 Melville, NY - Olympus America Inc., Consumer Products Group, a leading consumer electronics manufacturer, announced the DW-90, a digital voice recorder with PC connection for under $100. Made for students, journalists, and business users, the DW-90 is a compact and uniquely styled digital recorder with 90 minutes of recording time. It connects to the PC through a high-speed USB interface to easily transfer WAV files to the PC. The built-in uni-directional/telescoping microphone is perfect for journalists recording interviews or for students at lectures, since it allows the user to point the mike directly towards the voice for a clearer recording without background noise. The user can then easily email the lecture or interview as a WAV file attachment to others or listen and save the recording on a PC. Depree ShadowWalker, M.Ed. emphasis in Learning Technologies Doctoral Student, Language, Reading and Culture GA @ Native American Research and Training Center voice (520) 626-0348 fax (520) 621-9802 website: www.septa.arizona.edu Red Pony Heritage Language Team website : www.redpony.us From dzo at BISHARAT.NET Thu Nov 25 14:53:18 2004 From: dzo at BISHARAT.NET (Donald Z. Osborn) Date: Thu, 25 Nov 2004 08:53:18 -0600 Subject: After the "sprint": LocalisationDev.org invites your input Message-ID: I had the opportunity to participate in the recent Localisation Development workshop in Warsaw. This is to forward a brief explanation of the event and invitation to contribute to its wiki and mailing list (appended below). Don Osborn Bisharat.net ******************************************************************************* Announcing the LocalisationDev.org Wiki and Planet Localisation We Heartily Invite Your Participation and Contributions! http://localisationdev.org/ The first Localisation Developers Sprint took place in Warsaw, Poland from 20 to 22 November, 2004. The event brought together a diverse group of leaders and innovators in software and documentation localisation for the NGO sector to share experiences, compare projects and practices, and document the same. The Sprint was organised by Aspiration (http://www.aspirationtech.org) and Tactical Tech Collective (http://www.tacticaltech.org). The goals of the Localisation Sprint were three-fold: * Individuals working in the localisation field rarely enjoy the opportunity to convene, grow relationships and collaborate on applied projects; the sprint provided a venue for enhancing the social network of localisation practitioners while focusing on concrete outcomes. * Participants mapped out the localisation landscape, from tools to guides to practices; many exciting projects and initiatives are underway around the globe, but few top-down views exists into the range of projects. * Participants laid the foundation and initial groundwork for curricula designed to educate developers, technical intermediaries and funders in the best practices and sustainable processes for localisation in a broad scope of technology and documentation contexts around the globe. The curricula will see their first use at Asia Source in January 2005 (tacticaltech.org/asiasource), an event bringing together NGO technology activists and intermediaries from Southeast Asia to discuss free and open source software deployment for civil society organisations in the region. All materials generated at the sprint are being published under Creative Commons license to encourage the broadest use, adoption and ongoing enhancement of those resources. We invite anyone interested in these topics to visit http://localisationdev.org/ to survey the work to this point and to add their own knowledge, experience and comments to the mix. In particular, we invite you to: * View the wiki at http://wiki.localisationdev.org/ and add your knowledge. We've attempted to create pages aimed at different localisation audiences (including developers, eRiders, funders, and end users), but there is much to be done in completing and broadening these resources. * Visit Planet Localisation at http://planet.localisationdev.org/, check out the feeds and let us know of blogs we should be aggregating * Join the loc-dev mailing list and participate in discussions about creating software that's adaptable for a broader range of locales. To join, send email to: loc-dev-subscribe @lists.localisationdev.org or go to subscription page at http://lists.tacticaltech.org/mailman/listinfo/loc-dev We invite you to please forward this announcement to any appropriate lists, organisations and individuals. Thank you! The LocalisationDev Organisers ----- End forwarded message ----- From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Sat Nov 27 19:21:11 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Sat, 27 Nov 2004 12:21:11 -0700 Subject: NATIVE AMERICAN TRIBES: Keeping languages alive (fwd) Message-ID: NATIVE AMERICAN TRIBES: Keeping languages alive UA researchers work to save indigenous systems of communication, which have no written form PAUL L. ALLEN Tucson Citizen http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/index.php?page=local&story_id=112704a6_language&page_number=0 [photo inset - Tucson Citizen. Phillip Cash Cash, a University of Arizona doctoral candidate, and Susan Penfield, a UA professor, are using modern technology to help tribal members around the state preserve their languages.] With little fanfare, America's indigenous languages have dwindled to only about 150, flickering out one by one as aging tribal elders fluent in the languages complete the circle of life. Two University of Arizona English department researchers are focusing on tribal youths to save the remaining languages. By training American Indian teachers and librarians to use modern technology, professor Susan Penfield and her assistant Phillip Cash Cash hope to encourage younger generations to learn and preserve languages that are in danger of disappearing. [media inset - Video: Saving native languages] How serious is the problem? Only five people are fluent in Chemheuvi, a language spoken by Indians living on the Colorado River Indian tribes' reservation in west- central Arizona, Penfield said. The total Chemheuvi population has dwindled to about 150. North of them live the Mohave, with about 3,800 tribal members, whose fluent speakers number about 30. "By the year 2050, there are expected to be only about 30 indigenous languages in this country that are still spoken," said Penfield, a senior lecturer who spent nearly 30 years working with the Mohave language. Penfield and Cash Cash, a doctoral candidate pursuing a joint program in linguistics and anthropology, are working to help tribal members around the state use modern technology and computer software to preserve their languages. They also hope to revive younger tribal members' interest in their native language. Their work is funded by a $203,000 grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, with matching funds from UA. Penfield said the initial funding from the Gates foundation grant was intended to create a manual for beginners in computer technology to develop multimedia, slides, PowerPoint and other language development tools. That funding is nearly exhausted. Additional grants are being pursued to continue the project. Cash Cash is a member of the Cayuse tribal group on the Umatilla Reservation in Oregon. The Cayuse, known for their breeding of horses of the same name, originally had their own language, he said. But in the 19th century, taking political and practical considerations into account, they adopted the Nez Perce language. Cash Cash is fluent in the adopted language, thanks to his close relationships with his grandparents. The name Cayuse, he said, is an adaptation of the Spanish word "caballo" - horse. "In the native tongue, there usually is no "v" sound, so the name got borrowed into the language as 'cayuse.'" Penfield's and Cash Cash's work involves videotaping fluent speakers as they recount their own histories or tell other stories, speaking a few sentences at a time in the native language, then repeating themselves in English. Because of a concerted effort by federal officials to eliminate tribal languages, many tribal members in their 50s and younger may understand their native language, but not speak it. Penfield's and Cash Cash's program also is used to help teachers organize teaching aids. "The most successful way to revitalize native languages has been to adapt methodology called immersion language teaching," she said. "That means all instruction is done in the tribal language." Preserving languages is important, not only for a group's cultural identity, but as a "window" into individual perceptions of the world. Penfield noted, English verbs are based on time - I go today, I went yesterday. By contrast, Navajo verbs are based on weight and shape. The verb to "pick up" a piece of paper, for example, would differ from the verb to pick up a rock or a potato. Languages such as Chemhuevi and Mohave "should not be seen as artifacts," said Penfield, a senior lecturer who spent nearly 30 years working with the Mohave language. "The vocabulary is vast," she said. "They change and adapt, just like any other language." "When they're gone, they're gone," said Penfield, noting that Indigenous languages are more vulnerable to extinction because they have no written form. "There is nothing written, there is no preservation except in communities where there was early recording." Many tribes are trying to preserve their languages. "My understanding is that Hopi is now mandated as a second language in their schools," she said. "Apache is being taught at Whiteriver; you can take Apache I or Apache II. You can choose those instead of a 'foreign' language, and get the same credit." Joyce Bahe, an Apache-Navajo, teaches at Alchesay High School in Whiteriver. Fluent in Apache, she is learning and using some of the methods developed by Penfield and Cash Cash to teach her students. "I see a revival of interest in the language," she said. "Some of my students told me, 'I went home and spoke Apache to my Mom and Dad, and they were happy.'" From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Sun Nov 28 17:38:07 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Sun, 28 Nov 2004 10:38:07 -0700 Subject: Catawbas revive heritage in own words (fwd) Message-ID: Catawbas revive heritage in own words By Denyse Clark The Herald http://www.heraldonline.com/local/story/4246875p-4039913c.html [photo inset - Claudia Priest, linguist at the Catawba Cultural Center, paints a sign Friday in preparation for today's Yap Ye Iswa festival. The sign shows the Catawba word "wide-buye," which means live deer.] (Published November 27? 2004) CATAWBA INDIAN RESERVATION -- People know vaguely who the Catawbas are, tribal officials say. But now, there's a spoken language to teach the community how the Catawbas sound in their native tongue. The annual Yap Ye Iswa festival will be today from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the reservation's Catawba Cultural Center. This year's festival features the tribe's official language in words, phrases, stories and songs. People can learn to count, greet friends and talk about the weather, said Claudia Priest, the tribe's linguist. "We're doing this to make people aware of the Catawba language," Priest said. "It's a way to show what the language looked like and how it sounded." Priest painted a language sign Friday with the word "wide-buye," (pronounced weedah-bo-yae), meaning a live deer, and not the meat, she said. A display above the center's fireplace shows three ways to speak of "smoke" in the Catawba language, Priest said. It includes the Catawba word for chimney -- "suksur?" (pronounced sook-soor-ray), meaning "smoke there is." Displays throughout the cultural center show plants, animals, cooking utensils and everyday life ways of the tribe. The "At Home With The Catawba Language" display includes the words for mother, yaksu (pronounced yauk-soo), and father, nane (pronounced nah-nay). Catawba Cultural Center executive director Wenonah Haire said the tribe wants to get the language more in use rather than just in classes at the cultural center. "It's a language that hasn't been used," Haire said. "We've tried hard to get it into the community." Several Catawba language classes were held to help revive the use of the language among the tribe, Haire said. But only a few tribal members attended those sessions. The language now is available on compact disc with a companion text for $15, center officials say. The CD includes recordings of Catawba tribal members and the tribe's linguist sharing numbers, phrases, children's stories, poetry and much more. It is designed to teach ways to use the language and not just how to say the words, Priest said. Tribal officials also plan to apply for grants to expand the use of the Catawba language in distance learning projects, Haire said. "We want to take Catawbas out of a book and put their heritage into use in everyday language," Haire said. Denyse Clark ? 329-4069 dclark at heraldonline.com From CRANEM at MAIL.ECU.EDU Mon Nov 29 15:55:39 2004 From: CRANEM at MAIL.ECU.EDU (Bizzaro, Resa Crane) Date: Mon, 29 Nov 2004 10:55:39 -0500 Subject: Catawbas revive heritage in own words (fwd) Message-ID: Hi, everyone. I find this note very interesting, as my husband did some work with the research Frank Speck collected on the Catawba language. Speck maintained that he was speaking with the last three Catawba speakers in the early 1920's, I believe. After their deaths, he presumed the language was dead. Do any of you know about this topic? Resa -----Original Message----- From: Indigenous Languages and Technology on behalf of phil cash cash Sent: Sun 11/28/2004 12:38 PM To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Cc: Subject: Catawbas revive heritage in own words (fwd) Catawbas revive heritage in own words By Denyse Clark The Herald http://www.heraldonline.com/local/story/4246875p-4039913c.html [photo inset - Claudia Priest, linguist at the Catawba Cultural Center, paints a sign Friday in preparation for today's Yap Ye Iswa festival. The sign shows the Catawba word "wide-buye," which means live deer.] (Published November 27? 2004) CATAWBA INDIAN RESERVATION -- People know vaguely who the Catawbas are, tribal officials say. But now, there's a spoken language to teach the community how the Catawbas sound in their native tongue. The annual Yap Ye Iswa festival will be today from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the reservation's Catawba Cultural Center. This year's festival features the tribe's official language in words, phrases, stories and songs. People can learn to count, greet friends and talk about the weather, said Claudia Priest, the tribe's linguist. "We're doing this to make people aware of the Catawba language," Priest said. "It's a way to show what the language looked like and how it sounded." Priest painted a language sign Friday with the word "wide-buye," (pronounced weedah-bo-yae), meaning a live deer, and not the meat, she said. A display above the center's fireplace shows three ways to speak of "smoke" in the Catawba language, Priest said. It includes the Catawba word for chimney -- "suksur?" (pronounced sook-soor-ray), meaning "smoke there is." Displays throughout the cultural center show plants, animals, cooking utensils and everyday life ways of the tribe. The "At Home With The Catawba Language" display includes the words for mother, yaksu (pronounced yauk-soo), and father, nane (pronounced nah-nay). Catawba Cultural Center executive director Wenonah Haire said the tribe wants to get the language more in use rather than just in classes at the cultural center. "It's a language that hasn't been used," Haire said. "We've tried hard to get it into the community." Several Catawba language classes were held to help revive the use of the language among the tribe, Haire said. But only a few tribal members attended those sessions. The language now is available on compact disc with a companion text for $15, center officials say. The CD includes recordings of Catawba tribal members and the tribe's linguist sharing numbers, phrases, children's stories, poetry and much more. It is designed to teach ways to use the language and not just how to say the words, Priest said. Tribal officials also plan to apply for grants to expand the use of the Catawba language in distance learning projects, Haire said. "We want to take Catawbas out of a book and put their heritage into use in everyday language," Haire said. Denyse Clark ? 329-4069 dclark at heraldonline.com From sdp at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Nov 29 16:17:33 2004 From: sdp at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Susan Penfield) Date: Mon, 29 Nov 2004 09:17:33 -0700 Subject: Catawbas revive heritage in own words (fwd) Message-ID: Hi, I'm not 100% positive about the content, but I do know that there are some recordings done as part of the Doris Duke American Indian Oral History Project in the mid to late 1960's which supposedly contain some spoken Catawba. These should be on file at the University of Florida Library (Gainesville). S. Susan D. Penfield, Ph.D. Department of English Second Language Acquisition and Teaching Indigenous Languages and Technology Language, Reading and culture University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721 ----- Original Message ----- From: "Bizzaro, Resa Crane" To: Sent: Monday, November 29, 2004 8:55 AM Subject: Re: Catawbas revive heritage in own words (fwd) > Hi, everyone. I find this note very interesting, as my husband did some > work with the research Frank Speck collected on the Catawba language. > Speck maintained that he was speaking with the last three Catawba speakers > in the early 1920's, I believe. After their deaths, he presumed the > language was dead. > > Do any of you know about this topic? > > Resa > > -----Original Message----- > From: Indigenous Languages and Technology on behalf of phil cash cash > Sent: Sun 11/28/2004 12:38 PM > To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU > Cc: > Subject: Catawbas revive heritage in own words (fwd) > > > > Catawbas revive heritage in own words > > By Denyse Clark The Herald > http://www.heraldonline.com/local/story/4246875p-4039913c.html > > [photo inset - Claudia Priest, linguist at the Catawba Cultural Center, > paints a sign Friday in preparation for today's Yap Ye Iswa festival. > The sign shows the Catawba word "wide-buye," which means live deer.] > > (Published November 27?~B 2004) > > CATAWBA INDIAN RESERVATION -- People know vaguely who the Catawbas are, > tribal officials say. But now, there's a spoken language to teach the > community how the Catawbas sound in their native tongue. > > The annual Yap Ye Iswa festival will be today from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at > the reservation's Catawba Cultural Center. > > This year's festival features the tribe's official language in words, > phrases, stories and songs. People can learn to count, greet friends > and talk about the weather, said Claudia Priest, the tribe's linguist. > > "We're doing this to make people aware of the Catawba language," Priest > said. "It's a way to show what the language looked like and how it > sounded." > > Priest painted a language sign Friday with the word "wide-buye," > (pronounced weedah-bo-yae), meaning a live deer, and not the meat, she > said. > > A display above the center's fireplace shows three ways to speak of > "smoke" in the Catawba language, Priest said. It includes the Catawba > word for chimney -- "suksur??" (pronounced sook-soor-ray), meaning > "smoke there is." > > Displays throughout the cultural center show plants, animals, cooking > utensils and everyday life ways of the tribe. > > The "At Home With The Catawba Language" display includes the words for > mother, yaksu (pronounced yauk-soo), and father, nane (pronounced > nah-nay). > > Catawba Cultural Center executive director Wenonah Haire said the tribe > wants to get the language more in use rather than just in classes at > the cultural center. > > "It's a language that hasn't been used," Haire said. "We've tried hard > to get it into the community." > > Several Catawba language classes were held to help revive the use of the > language among the tribe, Haire said. But only a few tribal members > attended those sessions. > > The language now is available on compact disc with a companion text for > $15, center officials say. The CD includes recordings of Catawba tribal > members and the tribe's linguist sharing numbers, phrases, children's > stories, poetry and much more. It is designed to teach ways to use the > language and not just how to say the words, Priest said. > > Tribal officials also plan to apply for grants to expand the use of the > Catawba language in distance learning projects, Haire said. > > "We want to take Catawbas out of a book and put their heritage into use > in everyday language," Haire said. > > Denyse Clark ?~U 329-4069 > dclark at heraldonline.com > > > From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US Mon Nov 29 16:28:02 2004 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP) Date: Mon, 29 Nov 2004 09:28:02 -0700 Subject: Catawbas revive heritage in own words (fwd) Message-ID: I don't think Claudia is on this list, but if there are actual recordings, she sure would like to know about them. I met her at a Linguistics conference in Atlanta, probably in January, 2003. Maybe 2002. Time flies. So if anyone knows how to contact her, she would really like this. best to all, Mia ----- Original Message ----- From: "Susan Penfield" To: Sent: Monday, November 29, 2004 9:17 AM Subject: Re: Catawbas revive heritage in own words (fwd) > Hi, > I'm not 100% positive about the content, but I do know that there are some > recordings done as part of the Doris Duke American Indian Oral History > Project in the mid to late 1960's which supposedly contain some spoken > Catawba. These should be on file at the University of Florida Library > (Gainesville). > S. > Susan D. Penfield, Ph.D. > Department of English > Second Language Acquisition and Teaching > Indigenous Languages and Technology > Language, Reading and culture > University of Arizona, > Tucson, AZ 85721 > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Bizzaro, Resa Crane" > To: > Sent: Monday, November 29, 2004 8:55 AM > Subject: Re: Catawbas revive heritage in own words (fwd) > > > > Hi, everyone. I find this note very interesting, as my husband did some > > work with the research Frank Speck collected on the Catawba language. > > Speck maintained that he was speaking with the last three Catawba speakers > > in the early 1920's, I believe. After their deaths, he presumed the > > language was dead. > > > > Do any of you know about this topic? > > > > Resa > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: Indigenous Languages and Technology on behalf of phil cash cash > > Sent: Sun 11/28/2004 12:38 PM > > To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU > > Cc: > > Subject: Catawbas revive heritage in own words (fwd) > > > > > > > > Catawbas revive heritage in own words > > > > By Denyse Clark The Herald > > http://www.heraldonline.com/local/story/4246875p-4039913c.html > > > > [photo inset - Claudia Priest, linguist at the Catawba Cultural Center, > > paints a sign Friday in preparation for today's Yap Ye Iswa festival. > > The sign shows the Catawba word "wide-buye," which means live deer.] > > > > (Published November 27?~B 2004) > > > > CATAWBA INDIAN RESERVATION -- People know vaguely who the Catawbas are, > > tribal officials say. But now, there's a spoken language to teach the > > community how the Catawbas sound in their native tongue. > > > > The annual Yap Ye Iswa festival will be today from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at > > the reservation's Catawba Cultural Center. > > > > This year's festival features the tribe's official language in words, > > phrases, stories and songs. People can learn to count, greet friends > > and talk about the weather, said Claudia Priest, the tribe's linguist. > > > > "We're doing this to make people aware of the Catawba language," Priest > > said. "It's a way to show what the language looked like and how it > > sounded." > > > > Priest painted a language sign Friday with the word "wide-buye," > > (pronounced weedah-bo-yae), meaning a live deer, and not the meat, she > > said. > > > > A display above the center's fireplace shows three ways to speak of > > "smoke" in the Catawba language, Priest said. It includes the Catawba > > word for chimney -- "suksur??" (pronounced sook-soor-ray), meaning > > "smoke there is." > > > > Displays throughout the cultural center show plants, animals, cooking > > utensils and everyday life ways of the tribe. > > > > The "At Home With The Catawba Language" display includes the words for > > mother, yaksu (pronounced yauk-soo), and father, nane (pronounced > > nah-nay). > > > > Catawba Cultural Center executive director Wenonah Haire said the tribe > > wants to get the language more in use rather than just in classes at > > the cultural center. > > > > "It's a language that hasn't been used," Haire said. "We've tried hard > > to get it into the community." > > > > Several Catawba language classes were held to help revive the use of the > > language among the tribe, Haire said. But only a few tribal members > > attended those sessions. > > > > The language now is available on compact disc with a companion text for > > $15, center officials say. The CD includes recordings of Catawba tribal > > members and the tribe's linguist sharing numbers, phrases, children's > > stories, poetry and much more. It is designed to teach ways to use the > > language and not just how to say the words, Priest said. > > > > Tribal officials also plan to apply for grants to expand the use of the > > Catawba language in distance learning projects, Haire said. > > > > "We want to take Catawbas out of a book and put their heritage into use > > in everyday language," Haire said. > > > > Denyse Clark ?~U 329-4069 > > dclark at heraldonline.com > > > > > > > > From jtucker at STARBAND.NET Mon Nov 29 17:18:23 2004 From: jtucker at STARBAND.NET (Jan Tucker) Date: Mon, 29 Nov 2004 12:18:23 -0500 Subject: Catawbas revive heritage in own words (fwd) In-Reply-To: <013f01c4d630$65fab540$03ec7b80@red6bvg9btk> Message-ID: Claudia or Mia , I can check to see what they have for Catawba in terms of recordings. I am local to UF which is where I went to school. Let me know if I can help out. Claudia or you can email me off the list at jtucker at starband.net if necessary. jan tucker -----Original Message----- From: Indigenous Languages and Technology [mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU]On Behalf Of MiaKalish at LFP Sent: Monday, November 29, 2004 11:28 AM To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Subject: Re: Catawbas revive heritage in own words (fwd) I don't think Claudia is on this list, but if there are actual recordings, she sure would like to know about them. I met her at a Linguistics conference in Atlanta, probably in January, 2003. Maybe 2002. Time flies. So if anyone knows how to contact her, she would really like this. best to all, Mia ----- Original Message ----- From: "Susan Penfield" To: Sent: Monday, November 29, 2004 9:17 AM Subject: Re: Catawbas revive heritage in own words (fwd) > Hi, > I'm not 100% positive about the content, but I do know that there are some > recordings done as part of the Doris Duke American Indian Oral History > Project in the mid to late 1960's which supposedly contain some spoken > Catawba. These should be on file at the University of Florida Library > (Gainesville). > S. > Susan D. Penfield, Ph.D. > Department of English > Second Language Acquisition and Teaching > Indigenous Languages and Technology > Language, Reading and culture > University of Arizona, > Tucson, AZ 85721 > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Bizzaro, Resa Crane" > To: > Sent: Monday, November 29, 2004 8:55 AM > Subject: Re: Catawbas revive heritage in own words (fwd) > > > > Hi, everyone. I find this note very interesting, as my husband did some > > work with the research Frank Speck collected on the Catawba language. > > Speck maintained that he was speaking with the last three Catawba speakers > > in the early 1920's, I believe. After their deaths, he presumed the > > language was dead. > > > > Do any of you know about this topic? > > > > Resa > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: Indigenous Languages and Technology on behalf of phil cash cash > > Sent: Sun 11/28/2004 12:38 PM > > To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU > > Cc: > > Subject: Catawbas revive heritage in own words (fwd) > > > > > > > > Catawbas revive heritage in own words > > > > By Denyse Clark The Herald > > http://www.heraldonline.com/local/story/4246875p-4039913c.html > > > > [photo inset - Claudia Priest, linguist at the Catawba Cultural Center, > > paints a sign Friday in preparation for today's Yap Ye Iswa festival. > > The sign shows the Catawba word "wide-buye," which means live deer.] > > > > (Published November 27? 2004) > > > > CATAWBA INDIAN RESERVATION -- People know vaguely who the Catawbas are, > > tribal officials say. But now, there's a spoken language to teach the > > community how the Catawbas sound in their native tongue. > > > > The annual Yap Ye Iswa festival will be today from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at > > the reservation's Catawba Cultural Center. > > > > This year's festival features the tribe's official language in words, > > phrases, stories and songs. People can learn to count, greet friends > > and talk about the weather, said Claudia Priest, the tribe's linguist. > > > > "We're doing this to make people aware of the Catawba language," Priest > > said. "It's a way to show what the language looked like and how it > > sounded." > > > > Priest painted a language sign Friday with the word "wide-buye," > > (pronounced weedah-bo-yae), meaning a live deer, and not the meat, she > > said. > > > > A display above the center's fireplace shows three ways to speak of > > "smoke" in the Catawba language, Priest said. It includes the Catawba > > word for chimney -- "suksur?" (pronounced sook-soor-ray), meaning > > "smoke there is." > > > > Displays throughout the cultural center show plants, animals, cooking > > utensils and everyday life ways of the tribe. > > > > The "At Home With The Catawba Language" display includes the words for > > mother, yaksu (pronounced yauk-soo), and father, nane (pronounced > > nah-nay). > > > > Catawba Cultural Center executive director Wenonah Haire said the tribe > > wants to get the language more in use rather than just in classes at > > the cultural center. > > > > "It's a language that hasn't been used," Haire said. "We've tried hard > > to get it into the community." > > > > Several Catawba language classes were held to help revive the use of the > > language among the tribe, Haire said. But only a few tribal members > > attended those sessions. > > > > The language now is available on compact disc with a companion text for > > $15, center officials say. The CD includes recordings of Catawba tribal > > members and the tribe's linguist sharing numbers, phrases, children's > > stories, poetry and much more. It is designed to teach ways to use the > > language and not just how to say the words, Priest said. > > > > Tribal officials also plan to apply for grants to expand the use of the > > Catawba language in distance learning projects, Haire said. > > > > "We want to take Catawbas out of a book and put their heritage into use > > in everyday language," Haire said. > > > > Denyse Clark ? 329-4069 > > dclark at heraldonline.com > > > > > > > >