From andrekar at NCIDC.ORG Mon Oct 4 16:33:14 2004 From: andrekar at NCIDC.ORG (Andre Cramblit) Date: Mon, 4 Oct 2004 09:33:14 -0700 Subject: Language conference (event) Message-ID: there will be a conference on indigenous languages in nearby St-Sauveur, Québec  on Oct. 24th-26th. It's the 2nd conference on aboriginal languages organized by the First Nation Education Council (www.cepn-fnec.com) and the title is "Paroles d'Avenir". You can find information at www.cepn-fnec.com The FNEC is pleased to invite communities in Quebec and Canada to its second Conference on Aboriginal Languages, which is being held October 24-26, 2004 at the Manoir Saint-Sauveur. The conference will give participants the opportunity to learn about the situation of Aboriginal languages at the national and international levels. It will also present various projects that a number of communities have undertaken to preserve their languages. Participants will be able to discuss the possibilities for carrying out similar actions. The FNEC is planning to conclude the event with the formulation of recommendations and an action plan for preserving and revitalizing the languages of the Aboriginal communities in Quebec. To make sure the issues are approached from a broader perspective, the FNEC is inviting experts from other countries to take part in the conference. Indeed, preserving Aboriginal languages is a matter of international concern. The FNEC will also be inviting artists and craftspersons from the communities to present their work at the conference. A room will be reserved for them. For more information on the conference, please call Eve Bastien, at (418) 842-7672. -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 1899 bytes Desc: not available URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Oct 6 17:33:46 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 6 Oct 2004 10:33:46 -0700 Subject: Memory Module Explains Super Language Learners (fwd) Message-ID: Memory Module Explains Super Language Learners More active in people with greater proficiency in foreign tongues By Gabe Romain Betterhumans Staff 10/4/2004 4:12 PM http://www.betterhumans.com/News/news.aspx?articleID=2004-10-04-2 The ease at which some people adopt a second language may stem from a highly proficient short-term memory module. Researcher Michael Chee and colleagues at Singapore General Hospital have found that the activity of brain regions controlling phonological working memory (PWM)—the type of short-term memory used to remember letters, words and digits—is greater in people who are highly adept at learning a new language. "The key finding in the present study relates to people who have excellent first-language attainment and who despite having comparable impetus to be bilingual differ in second-language proficiency," say the researchers. "We found that these individuals show differences in cortical activation that suggest an important contribution of PWM to language attainment." Sound memory Research has shown that PWM is crucial for learning a new language. Specifically, it has been proposed that something called the phonological loop exists to facilitate language acquisition. The phonological loop consists of the phonological store and the articulatory control process. The phonological store can retain speech-based information for a short period—unless rehearsed, the memories fade within seconds. The articulatory control process involves subvocal rehearsal aimed at offsetting the decay of recently acquired memories. A number of behavioral studies have shown that measures of PWM predict the outcome of native language acquisition in children and foreign language acquisition in both children and adults, say the researchers. Moreover, studies on people with short-term memory deficits, language impairment and low scholastic achievement have revealed that PWM appears to be crucial for language acquisition. Brain differences To determine what PWM-related brain regions contribute to language learning, Chee and colleagues investigated the correlation between PWM in people termed "equal bilinguals" and people labeled "unequal bilinguals." English was the first language of both groups, however, equal bilinguals were also highly proficient in Chinese, whereas unequal bilinguals were less adept in Chinese. To evaluate the brain regions involved in PWM, participants were scanned with magnetic resonance imaging while performing an auditory test. Successful performance of the test required continuous updating and temporal reordering of phonological information. Equal and unequal bilinguals performed the task equally well. Equal bilinguals, however, showed greater activation in cortical areas that participate in PWM, whereas unequal bilinguals showed greater activation in brain areas that are engaged in goal directed processing. "Taken together, these observations support the overall construct that unequal bilinguals show differences in neural activation patterns that may belie a less efficient processing strategy that correlates with poorer second-language attainment," say the researchers. "The extent to which such processing differences are the cause or consequence of impaired second-language attainment remains to be explored." The research is reported in the Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences (read abstract). From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Fri Oct 8 16:54:40 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Fri, 8 Oct 2004 09:54:40 -0700 Subject: New technology improves syllabics on the web (fwd) Message-ID: Nunatsiaq News October 8, 2004 New technology improves syllabics on the web "We want to make sure people using older computers aren't missed" SARA MINOGUE http://www.nunatsiaq.com/news/nunavut/41008_11.html A small Iqaluit company has found a hassle-free way to put Inuktitut syllabics online. "Up until now you always had to download fonts, and if you didn't have the right font, you couldn't access the information," says Gavin Nesbitt of Attavik.net. "Most people would just ignore the Inuktitut text and they wouldn't access it at all." Now, he says, it's possible to guarantee that anybody with a computer and Internet access can read and print syllabics from Inuktitut web sites. A prime example of the new technology can be at the new website of the Office of the Languages Commissioner of Nunavut, at www.langcom.nu.ca. Visitors to the site are no longer prompted repeatedly to download a special font to view the Inuktitut. Instead, new technology on the Attavik web server takes care of the font problem, with no extra effort by the user required. It works like this: Every time someone visits a web page hosted by Attavik, it is filtered through a piece of software called Glyphgate, created by Swedish company em2 Solutions. Glyphgate automatically performs a check of the user's browser, and then decides what it needs to do to make Inuktitut syllabics visible on that particular computer. If the computer cannot already display Inuktitut syllabics, Glyphgate will create a quick fix. One fix is to create a temporary font specifically for that user. "If you're on a Mac," Nesbitt says, "you can see this visibly. It will actually show a bunch of random characters and then switch them to syllabics." The other fix — if your computer technology is really ancient — is for Glyphgate to convert all of the Inuktitut words to tiny images that are displayed as one big picture. Current efforts designed to help people use Inuktitut online generally rely on brand new technical standards, governed by obscure international bodies, which means that people working in Inuktitut generally need to have the latest equipment and fonts on their computers. This allows people to type and print syllabics, and copy and paste syllabics from different programs. "To people working in Inuktitut, that's fine," Nesbitt says. "But if you're somebody in Pond Inlet using Mac OS 8 with Internet Explorer 4 or something, you probably aren't going to be able to read most of the web sites that are online right now. "We want to make sure that people who are using older computers aren't missed." Attavik.net was founded about a year ago, as a partnership between the Pirurvik Centre, a language and cultural consultancy Nesbitt runs with Leena Evic, and a Toronto-based non-profit web hosting service called Web Community Resource Networks. The Pirurvik Centre's interest was mainly driven by the desire to give Inuktitut "the same options that other languages have online," Nesbitt says. However, the Attavik.net system has also proved to be a flexible, easy-to-use mechanism for companies or groups to create and maintain web sites in multiple languages, as many Nunavut organizations do. With just 10 minutes of training, Nesbitt says, Languages Commissioner Eva Aariak can update Inuktitut text online, a major change from most Inuktitut web sites. "Right now, it's pretty much the norm that web sites are out of date," Nesbitt says. The word "Attavik" translates roughly to mean "foundation," and is a short version of "Inuttitut Qarasaujalirinirmut Attavik," which means, "setting a base for Inuktitut computing." A number of other groups are already using the technology, including the Municipal Training Organization, which has won rave reviews. The Languages Commissioners' Office, appropriately, is the first to actively promote the technology with the launch of their site. "The easier it is to put Inuktitut on the web, and the easier it is for users to get Inuktitut on the web, the better it is for the language," says Jonathan Dewar, public affairs officer for the OLC. Attavik.net is now open for business. Prospective customers should visit www.attavik.net for more information. From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Fri Oct 8 16:57:50 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Fri, 8 Oct 2004 09:57:50 -0700 Subject: Labels promote Inuktitut vocabulary (fwd) Message-ID: Nunatsiaq News October 8, 2004 Labels promote Inuktitut vocabulary For English and Inuktitut speakers, things have two names JANE GEORGE http://www.nunatsiaq.com/news/nunavut/41008_17.html [photo inset- Labels like these are designed to help people recognize letters, syllabics, and the meaning of words.] The Nunavut Literacy Council has developed a simple and eye-catching way to improve literacy in Nunavut: sets of labels that show an object's name in English, Inuktitut syllabics and Roman orthography. "Somebody had done up some labels and put them in the drugstore and other places in town. Elders had said how great that was for them so that they knew what they were looking at. People thought it was a really great idea, and the labels stayed around for absolute ages," said Kim Crockatt, from the Nunavut Literacy Council. The labels show the names in their singular and plural forms. There's a set for tools and hardware labels, as well as sets for common objects in homes, stores and offices. "It's really important for kids and other people who are learning Inuktitut to see things and connect them to the objects. So, it's a great way to promote literacy and language skills," Crockatt said. There was not enough money to produce the labels in Innuinaqtun and French. "When people see Inuktitut print everywhere it helps them learn to recognize the letters and the meaning of the words. It's good for kids too. We didn't create labels for absolutely everything but this will give people a good start," said Quluaq Pilakapsi, the council's Inuktitut Resource Coordinator in Rankin Inlet. Shortly before Literacy Week, Oct. 3 to 9, schools, libraries and learning centres received a sample of the printed labels as well the CDs with templates for the labels. "The CDs have PDF files so they can print them up with the nice borders. They can also take the labels and make changes to them," Crockatt said. The council also has instructions for making a calendar as a way to promote Inuktitut and lots of information sheets on how parents can help their children's literacy skills. The labels are available through the Nunavut Literacy Council at 867-983-2678 or by sending an email to kimcr at polarnet.ca. From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US Fri Oct 8 17:14:18 2004 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP) Date: Fri, 8 Oct 2004 11:14:18 -0600 Subject: New technology improves syllabics on the web (fwd) Message-ID: This sounds Veri Cool. I wonder how much it costs. Off to the referenced site to Check It OUT!!!!!!! Happy Friday, Mia ----- Original Message ----- From: "phil cash cash" To: Sent: Friday, October 08, 2004 10:54 AM Subject: New technology improves syllabics on the web (fwd) Nunatsiaq News October 8, 2004 New technology improves syllabics on the web "We want to make sure people using older computers aren't missed" SARA MINOGUE http://www.nunatsiaq.com/news/nunavut/41008_11.html A small Iqaluit company has found a hassle-free way to put Inuktitut syllabics online. "Up until now you always had to download fonts, and if you didn't have the right font, you couldn't access the information," says Gavin Nesbitt of Attavik.net. "Most people would just ignore the Inuktitut text and they wouldn't access it at all." Now, he says, it's possible to guarantee that anybody with a computer and Internet access can read and print syllabics from Inuktitut web sites. A prime example of the new technology can be at the new website of the Office of the Languages Commissioner of Nunavut, at www.langcom.nu.ca. Visitors to the site are no longer prompted repeatedly to download a special font to view the Inuktitut. Instead, new technology on the Attavik web server takes care of the font problem, with no extra effort by the user required. It works like this: Every time someone visits a web page hosted by Attavik, it is filtered through a piece of software called Glyphgate, created by Swedish company em2 Solutions. Glyphgate automatically performs a check of the user's browser, and then decides what it needs to do to make Inuktitut syllabics visible on that particular computer. If the computer cannot already display Inuktitut syllabics, Glyphgate will create a quick fix. One fix is to create a temporary font specifically for that user. "If you're on a Mac," Nesbitt says, "you can see this visibly. It will actually show a bunch of random characters and then switch them to syllabics." The other fix �~W if your computer technology is really ancient �~W is for Glyphgate to convert all of the Inuktitut words to tiny images that are displayed as one big picture. Current efforts designed to help people use Inuktitut online generally rely on brand new technical standards, governed by obscure international bodies, which means that people working in Inuktitut generally need to have the latest equipment and fonts on their computers. This allows people to type and print syllabics, and copy and paste syllabics from different programs. "To people working in Inuktitut, that's fine," Nesbitt says. "But if you're somebody in Pond Inlet using Mac OS 8 with Internet Explorer 4 or something, you probably aren't going to be able to read most of the web sites that are online right now. "We want to make sure that people who are using older computers aren't missed." Attavik.net was founded about a year ago, as a partnership between the Pirurvik Centre, a language and cultural consultancy Nesbitt runs with Leena Evic, and a Toronto-based non-profit web hosting service called Web Community Resource Networks. The Pirurvik Centre's interest was mainly driven by the desire to give Inuktitut "the same options that other languages have online," Nesbitt says. However, the Attavik.net system has also proved to be a flexible, easy-to-use mechanism for companies or groups to create and maintain web sites in multiple languages, as many Nunavut organizations do. With just 10 minutes of training, Nesbitt says, Languages Commissioner Eva Aariak can update Inuktitut text online, a major change from most Inuktitut web sites. "Right now, it's pretty much the norm that web sites are out of date," Nesbitt says. The word "Attavik" translates roughly to mean "foundation," and is a short version of "Inuttitut Qarasaujalirinirmut Attavik," which means, "setting a base for Inuktitut computing." A number of other groups are already using the technology, including the Municipal Training Organization, which has won rave reviews. The Languages Commissioners' Office, appropriately, is the first to actively promote the technology with the launch of their site. "The easier it is to put Inuktitut on the web, and the easier it is for users to get Inuktitut on the web, the better it is for the language," says Jonathan Dewar, public affairs officer for the OLC. Attavik.net is now open for business. Prospective customers should visit www.attavik.net for more information. From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US Fri Oct 8 17:26:55 2004 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP) Date: Fri, 8 Oct 2004 11:26:55 -0600 Subject: New technology improves syllabics on the web (fwd) Message-ID: This is Free to non-profits. I wrote to them asking for additional information. I will let everyone know when I hear back. Their demos are great! Immediately get the point across, using English font examples and color demonstrations, so people can follow easily if they are used to the difficult issues of font selection and multiple platforms. http://www.glyphgate.com/info/demos.htm Mia ----- Original Message ----- From: "MiaKalish at LFP" To: Sent: Friday, October 08, 2004 11:14 AM Subject: Re: New technology improves syllabics on the web (fwd) > This sounds Veri Cool. I wonder how much it costs. Off to the referenced > site to Check It OUT!!!!!!! > > Happy Friday, > Mia > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "phil cash cash" > To: > Sent: Friday, October 08, 2004 10:54 AM > Subject: New technology improves syllabics on the web (fwd) > > > Nunatsiaq News October 8, 2004 > > New technology improves syllabics on the web > > "We want to make sure people using older computers aren't missed" > > SARA MINOGUE > http://www.nunatsiaq.com/news/nunavut/41008_11.html > > A small Iqaluit company has found a hassle-free way to put Inuktitut > syllabics online. > > "Up until now you always had to download fonts, and if you didn't have > the right font, you couldn't access the information," says Gavin > Nesbitt of Attavik.net. > > "Most people would just ignore the Inuktitut text and they wouldn't > access it at all." > > Now, he says, it's possible to guarantee that anybody with a computer > and Internet access can read and print syllabics from Inuktitut web > sites. > > A prime example of the new technology can be at the new website of the > Office of the Languages Commissioner of Nunavut, at www.langcom.nu.ca. > > Visitors to the site are no longer prompted repeatedly to download a > special font to view the Inuktitut. Instead, new technology on the > Attavik web server takes care of the font problem, with no extra effort > by the user required. > > It works like this: Every time someone visits a web page hosted by > Attavik, it is filtered through a piece of software called Glyphgate, > created by Swedish company em2 Solutions. > > Glyphgate automatically performs a check of the user's browser, and then > decides what it needs to do to make Inuktitut syllabics visible on that > particular computer. > > If the computer cannot already display Inuktitut syllabics, Glyphgate > will create a quick fix. One fix is to create a temporary font > specifically for that user. > > "If you're on a Mac," Nesbitt says, "you can see this visibly. It will > actually show a bunch of random characters and then switch them to > syllabics." > > The other fix �~W if your computer technology is really ancient �~W is for > Glyphgate to convert all of the Inuktitut words to tiny images that are > displayed as one big picture. > > Current efforts designed to help people use Inuktitut online generally > rely on brand new technical standards, governed by obscure > international bodies, which means that people working in Inuktitut > generally need to have the latest equipment and fonts on their > computers. > > This allows people to type and print syllabics, and copy and paste > syllabics from different programs. > > "To people working in Inuktitut, that's fine," Nesbitt says. "But if > you're somebody in Pond Inlet using Mac OS 8 with Internet Explorer 4 > or something, you probably aren't going to be able to read most of the > web sites that are online right now. > > "We want to make sure that people who are using older computers aren't > missed." > > Attavik.net was founded about a year ago, as a partnership between the > Pirurvik Centre, a language and cultural consultancy Nesbitt runs with > Leena Evic, and a Toronto-based non-profit web hosting service called > Web Community Resource Networks. > > The Pirurvik Centre's interest was mainly driven by the desire to give > Inuktitut "the same options that other languages have online," Nesbitt > says. > > However, the Attavik.net system has also proved to be a flexible, > easy-to-use mechanism for companies or groups to create and maintain > web sites in multiple languages, as many Nunavut organizations do. > > With just 10 minutes of training, Nesbitt says, Languages Commissioner > Eva Aariak can update Inuktitut text online, a major change from most > Inuktitut web sites. > > "Right now, it's pretty much the norm that web sites are out of date," > Nesbitt says. > > The word "Attavik" translates roughly to mean "foundation," and is a > short version of "Inuttitut Qarasaujalirinirmut Attavik," which means, > "setting a base for Inuktitut computing." > > A number of other groups are already using the technology, including the > Municipal Training Organization, which has won rave reviews. > > The Languages Commissioners' Office, appropriately, is the first to > actively promote the technology with the launch of their site. > > "The easier it is to put Inuktitut on the web, and the easier it is for > users to get Inuktitut on the web, the better it is for the language," > says Jonathan Dewar, public affairs officer for the OLC. > > Attavik.net is now open for business. Prospective customers should visit > www.attavik.net for more information. > > From pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET Fri Oct 8 17:29:16 2004 From: pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET (phil cash cash) Date: Fri, 8 Oct 2004 10:29:16 -0700 Subject: New technology improves syllabics on the web (fwd) In-Reply-To: <010401c4ad5a$3f608ad0$abed7b80@red6bvg9btk> Message-ID: yes, i was impressed myself. maybe it can be used to assist the readability of fonts for other indigenous languages and communities. phil cash cash UofA, ILAT On Oct 8, 2004, at 10:14 AM, MiaKalish at LFP wrote: > This sounds Veri Cool. I wonder how much it costs. Off to the > referenced > site to Check It OUT!!!!!!! > > Happy Friday, > Mia > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "phil cash cash" > To: > Sent: Friday, October 08, 2004 10:54 AM > Subject: New technology improves syllabics on the web (fwd) > > > Nunatsiaq News October 8, 2004 > > New technology improves syllabics on the web > > "We want to make sure people using older computers aren't missed" > > SARA MINOGUE > http://www.nunatsiaq.com/news/nunavut/41008_11.html > > A small Iqaluit company has found a hassle-free way to put Inuktitut > syllabics online. > > "Up until now you always had to download fonts, and if you didn't have > the right font, you couldn't access the information," says Gavin > Nesbitt of Attavik.net. > > "Most people would just ignore the Inuktitut text and they wouldn't > access it at all." > > Now, he says, it's possible to guarantee that anybody with a computer > and Internet access can read and print syllabics from Inuktitut web > sites. > > A prime example of the new technology can be at the new website of the > Office of the Languages Commissioner of Nunavut, at www.langcom.nu.ca. > > Visitors to the site are no longer prompted repeatedly to download a > special font to view the Inuktitut. Instead, new technology on the > Attavik web server takes care of the font problem, with no extra effort > by the user required. > > It works like this: Every time someone visits a web page hosted by > Attavik, it is filtered through a piece of software called Glyphgate, > created by Swedish company em2 Solutions. > > Glyphgate automatically performs a check of the user's browser, and > then > decides what it needs to do to make Inuktitut syllabics visible on that > particular computer. > > If the computer cannot already display Inuktitut syllabics, Glyphgate > will create a quick fix. One fix is to create a temporary font > specifically for that user. > > "If you're on a Mac," Nesbitt says, "you can see this visibly. It will > actually show a bunch of random characters and then switch them to > syllabics." > > The other fix — if your computer technology is really ancient — is for > Glyphgate to convert all of the Inuktitut words to tiny images that are > displayed as one big picture. > > Current efforts designed to help people use Inuktitut online generally > rely on brand new technical standards, governed by obscure > international bodies, which means that people working in Inuktitut > generally need to have the latest equipment and fonts on their > computers. > > This allows people to type and print syllabics, and copy and paste > syllabics from different programs. > > "To people working in Inuktitut, that's fine," Nesbitt says. "But if > you're somebody in Pond Inlet using Mac OS 8 with Internet Explorer 4 > or something, you probably aren't going to be able to read most of the > web sites that are online right now. > > "We want to make sure that people who are using older computers aren't > missed." > > Attavik.net was founded about a year ago, as a partnership between the > Pirurvik Centre, a language and cultural consultancy Nesbitt runs with > Leena Evic, and a Toronto-based non-profit web hosting service called > Web Community Resource Networks. > > The Pirurvik Centre's interest was mainly driven by the desire to give > Inuktitut "the same options that other languages have online," Nesbitt > says. > > However, the Attavik.net system has also proved to be a flexible, > easy-to-use mechanism for companies or groups to create and maintain > web sites in multiple languages, as many Nunavut organizations do. > > With just 10 minutes of training, Nesbitt says, Languages Commissioner > Eva Aariak can update Inuktitut text online, a major change from most > Inuktitut web sites. > > "Right now, it's pretty much the norm that web sites are out of date," > Nesbitt says. > > The word "Attavik" translates roughly to mean "foundation," and is a > short version of "Inuttitut Qarasaujalirinirmut Attavik," which means, > "setting a base for Inuktitut computing." > > A number of other groups are already using the technology, including > the > Municipal Training Organization, which has won rave reviews. > > The Languages Commissioners' Office, appropriately, is the first to > actively promote the technology with the launch of their site. > > "The easier it is to put Inuktitut on the web, and the easier it is for > users to get Inuktitut on the web, the better it is for the language," > says Jonathan Dewar, public affairs officer for the OLC. > > Attavik.net is now open for business. Prospective customers should > visit > www.attavik.net for more information. > From keola at LEOKI.UHH.HAWAII.EDU Fri Oct 8 17:58:40 2004 From: keola at LEOKI.UHH.HAWAII.EDU (Keola Donaghy) Date: Fri, 8 Oct 2004 07:58:40 -1000 Subject: New technology improves syllabics on the web (fwd) In-Reply-To: <93FC831E-194F-11D9-9703-0003936727C2@dakotacom.net> Message-ID: FWIW, we used Glyphgate (previously Fairy) for Hawaiian several years ago and worked with the developer to strengthen Hawaiian and Polynesian support, but eventually abandoned it and just converted our site to straight UTF-8. The company was very responsive and helpful, but I found myself spending far too much time tweaking the settings for broswers that did not require the plugin to display the language. Perhaps it's easier now. If anyone wants more details feel free to contact me directly. Keola Indigenous Languages and Technology writes: >yes, i was impressed myself. maybe it can be used to assist the >readability of fonts for other indigenous languages and communities. ======================================================================= 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 Oct 8 18:27:44 2004 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP) Date: Fri, 8 Oct 2004 12:27:44 -0600 Subject: New technology improves syllabics on the web (fwd) Message-ID: Hi, Keola, I don't know too much about Hawai'ian, except that its so beautiful. Can you give us a quick overview of how many letters are different and how different the glyphs are? For Apache, we have the en-yay (n with a tilde over it) and the voiceless l, both of which are available in UTF-8 and Unicode. But we also have upper-lower case vowels with both the acute accent and the cedilla, indicating nasalized, rising tone. The Unicode people have said that we can use the new script to build these characters on the fly, but the new script requires newer operating system capabilities, and has the usual platform problems. There's some Apache on the menus at http://learningforpeople.us/MALibrary/index.htm. There aren't any of these double characters, but you can see both the acute and the cedilla on the vowels. best, Mia ----- Original Message ----- From: "Keola Donaghy" To: Sent: Friday, October 08, 2004 11:58 AM Subject: Re: New technology improves syllabics on the web (fwd) > FWIW, we used Glyphgate (previously Fairy) for Hawaiian several years ago > and worked with the developer to strengthen Hawaiian and Polynesian > support, but eventually abandoned it and just converted our site to > straight UTF-8. The company was very responsive and helpful, but I found > myself spending far too much time tweaking the settings for broswers that > did not require the plugin to display the language. Perhaps it's easier > now. If anyone wants more details feel free to contact me directly. > > Keola > > Indigenous Languages and Technology writes: > >yes, i was impressed myself. maybe it can be used to assist the > >readability of fonts for other indigenous languages and communities. > > > ======================================================================== > 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 Oct 8 22:23:21 2004 From: keola at LEOKI.UHH.HAWAII.EDU (Keola Donaghy) Date: Fri, 8 Oct 2004 12:23:21 -1000 Subject: New technology improves syllabics on the web (fwd) In-Reply-To: <017b01c4ad64$810c5360$abed7b80@red6bvg9btk> Message-ID: Aloha e Mia. Basically we need a macron over vowels, both upper and lower case, and the glottal. We started using customized fonts for Hawaiian on the web since in 1994, a bit of the history is here: http://www.olelo.hawaii.edu/eng/resources/fonts.html Later we tried Bitstream's and Microsoft's dowloadable fonts, Fairy/Glyphgate, and now just use Unicode. This page shows (in Unicode compliant browsers) the characters we require and their locations: http://www.olelo.hawaii.edu/eng/resources/unicode.html Keola Indigenous Languages and Technology writes: >I don't know too much about Hawai'ian, except that its so beautiful. > >Can you give us a quick overview of how many letters are different and how >different the glyphs are? For Apache, we have the en-yay (n with a tilde >over it) and the voiceless l, both of which are available in UTF-8 and >Unicode. But we also have upper-lower case vowels with both the acute >accent >and the cedilla, indicating nasalized, rising tone. The Unicode people >have >said that we can use the new script to build these characters on the fly, >but the new script requires newer operating system capabilities, and has >the >usual platform problems. > >There's some Apache on the menus at >http://learningforpeople.us/MALibrary/index.htm. There aren't any of these >double characters, but you can see both the acute and the cedilla on the >vowels. ======================================================================= 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 Oct 9 10:55:59 2004 From: dzo at BISHARAT.NET (Donald Z. Osborn) Date: Sat, 9 Oct 2004 05:55:59 -0500 Subject: Fwd: Digital Language Documentation Message-ID: The following item from the Linguist list may be of interest. Although the request for info concerns primarily American languages, the subject reminds me of a set of tapes of interviews with Sahelian people in the 1980s about changes in their environment. This material was used for an English language publication on that topic and the tapes were archived. Apparently at least some of the tapes are still extant, but I'm not sure of their condition or the possibilities for digitizing the audio (the latter contingent mainly on funding), which was in the interviewees' languages. This doesn't concern endangered languages but it would still be a shame to lose these voices. Don Osborn Bisharat.net Date: 03-Oct-2004 From: Jeff Good Subject: Digital Language Documentation As part of work I am doing with several colleagues on the state of archiving of digital resources, particularly in Americanist linguistics, I would like to solicit any stories or anecdotes that list members have either (i) about data that was unfortunately lost because of shifts in technology or media degradation or (ii) an unexpected use that data was able to be put to because of the use of good (especially ''best practice'') digital archiving methods. To be more concrete, on the negative side, this could be a story about, for example, how a dictionary for an endangered language was lost because of the degradation of a floppy disk or because no program could be found to read an old computer file. On the positive side, this could be a story about how a well-structured and carefully maintained lexical database was able to be put to multiple uses, for example to produce both an academic and a pedagogical dictionary. While we are particularly interested in cases from American languages, we expect such a collection of stories to be of potential value to the general linguistic community and, therefore, are collecting any relevant stories and anecdotes--even if we don't use them all in our own research, they may, for example, be valuable to the E-MELD project (http://www.emeld.org/). Since a story of ''lost'' data could potentially be embarrassing, I would be happy to keep such a story anonymous in the summary post of responses to this query if requested. Linguistic Field(s): General Linguistics From dzo at BISHARAT.NET Sun Oct 10 06:31:07 2004 From: dzo at BISHARAT.NET (Donald Z. Osborn) Date: Sun, 10 Oct 2004 01:31:07 -0500 Subject: New technology improves syllabics on the web (fwd) In-Reply-To: <017b01c4ad64$810c5360$abed7b80@red6bvg9btk> Message-ID: Interesting thread. I'll be passing the news along (also noticed mention of Glyphgate on another list). The "build these characters on the fly" Mia mentions is called "dynamic composition." In principle, with a newer system that can position the "combining diacritics" properly (e.g., cedilla or accent), this works fine. On older systems, that's another matter - hence this discussion. The issue of precomposed vs. dynamically composed characters has been somewhat controversial in Africa (at least at one conference), with some arguing for more precomposed characters in Unicode/ISO-10646. However it doesn't seem that Unicode will change its decision not to add more precomposed Latin characters and ultimately (eventually) the technology will render the issue moot. Another issue is the order of diacritics added to the base characters, which can be important for searching, sorting, etc. Don Osborn Bisharat.net Quoting "MiaKalish at LFP" : > Hi, Keola, > > I don't know too much about Hawai'ian, except that its so beautiful. > > Can you give us a quick overview of how many letters are different and how > different the glyphs are? For Apache, we have the en-yay (n with a tilde > over it) and the voiceless l, both of which are available in UTF-8 and > Unicode. But we also have upper-lower case vowels with both the acute accent > and the cedilla, indicating nasalized, rising tone. The Unicode people have > said that we can use the new script to build these characters on the fly, > but the new script requires newer operating system capabilities, and has the > usual platform problems. > > There's some Apache on the menus at > http://learningforpeople.us/MALibrary/index.htm. There aren't any of these > double characters, but you can see both the acute and the cedilla on the > vowels. > > best, > Mia > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Keola Donaghy" > To: > Sent: Friday, October 08, 2004 11:58 AM > Subject: Re: New technology improves syllabics on the web (fwd) > > > > FWIW, we used Glyphgate (previously Fairy) for Hawaiian several years ago > > and worked with the developer to strengthen Hawaiian and Polynesian > > support, but eventually abandoned it and just converted our site to > > straight UTF-8. The company was very responsive and helpful, but I found > > myself spending far too much time tweaking the settings for broswers that > > did not require the plugin to display the language. Perhaps it's easier > > now. If anyone wants more details feel free to contact me directly. > > > > Keola > > > > Indigenous Languages and Technology writes: > > >yes, i was impressed myself. maybe it can be used to assist the > > >readability of fonts for other indigenous languages and communities. > > > > > > ======================================================================== > > 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 Sun Oct 10 17:19:09 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Sun, 10 Oct 2004 10:19:09 -0700 Subject: Yukon chiefs call for control of language cash (fwd) Message-ID: NORTH.CBC.CA Yukon chiefs call for control of language cash Last Updated: Oct 8 2004 07:25 PM CDT http://north.cbc.ca/regional/servlet/View?filename=oct08yukchief10082004, WHITEHORSE - Yukon Council of First Nations Grand Chief Ed Schultz wants to know why Yukon First Nations aren't in charge of the territory's aboriginal language programs. [photo inset - 'We have the least say on that. And we're not going to take it any more' – Ed Schultz] Schultz had some strong words about the situation Friday following a meeting of Yukon chiefs. Schultz says with many native languages disappearing, and some gone already, he's going to take action. Schultz says the territory's First Nations have a mandate to protect languages, but lack the tools to do it. He wants to make sure the people who speak those languages have the power to preserve them. "What makes us distinct is our language – that's what makes us distinct," he says. "That's the essence of our identity. But the control measures for its ongoing utilization, development, promotion and integration into the contemporary world is controlled by everyone else but us." "We have the least say on that. And we're not going to take it any more." Currently, most money for Yukon language programs flows through non-native government agencies like Canadian Heritage, and the territorial Department of Education. Schulz says as soon as possible, that cash and the power that comes with it must be transferred to the Council of Yukon First Nations Copyright ? 2004 Canadian Broadcasting Corporation - All Rights Reserved From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US Mon Oct 11 17:21:22 2004 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP) Date: Mon, 11 Oct 2004 11:21:22 -0600 Subject: New technology improves syllabics on the web (fwd) Message-ID: > Another issue is the order of diacritics added to the base characters, which can > be important for searching, sorting, etc. This is not a problem with pre-composed characters, but opens issues of protocols (which can be violated) and meta-font interfaces. (I just made up meta-font, and what it means is that the composed characters are "globbed together" and given a new reference, rendering the sequence of aggregation moot.) Thanks, Don, for your throught-provoking comments. Mia ----- Original Message ----- From: "Donald Z. Osborn" To: Sent: Sunday, October 10, 2004 12:31 AM Subject: Re: New technology improves syllabics on the web (fwd) > Interesting thread. I'll be passing the news along (also noticed mention of > Glyphgate on another list). > > The "build these characters on the fly" Mia mentions is called "dynamic > composition." In principle, with a newer system that can position the > "combining diacritics" properly (e.g., cedilla or accent), this works fine. On > older systems, that's another matter - hence this discussion. > > The issue of precomposed vs. dynamically composed characters has been somewhat > controversial in Africa (at least at one conference), with some arguing for > more precomposed characters in Unicode/ISO-10646. However it doesn't seem that > Unicode will change its decision not to add more precomposed Latin characters > and ultimately (eventually) the technology will render the issue moot. > > Another issue is the order of diacritics added to the base characters, which can > be important for searching, sorting, etc. > > Don Osborn > Bisharat.net > > > > Quoting "MiaKalish at LFP" : > > > Hi, Keola, > > > > I don't know too much about Hawai'ian, except that its so beautiful. > > > > Can you give us a quick overview of how many letters are different and how > > different the glyphs are? For Apache, we have the en-yay (n with a tilde > > over it) and the voiceless l, both of which are available in UTF-8 and > > Unicode. But we also have upper-lower case vowels with both the acute accent > > and the cedilla, indicating nasalized, rising tone. The Unicode people have > > said that we can use the new script to build these characters on the fly, > > but the new script requires newer operating system capabilities, and has the > > usual platform problems. > > > > There's some Apache on the menus at > > http://learningforpeople.us/MALibrary/index.htm. There aren't any of these > > double characters, but you can see both the acute and the cedilla on the > > vowels. > > > > best, > > Mia > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: "Keola Donaghy" > > To: > > Sent: Friday, October 08, 2004 11:58 AM > > Subject: Re: New technology improves syllabics on the web (fwd) > > > > > > > FWIW, we used Glyphgate (previously Fairy) for Hawaiian several years ago > > > and worked with the developer to strengthen Hawaiian and Polynesian > > > support, but eventually abandoned it and just converted our site to > > > straight UTF-8. The company was very responsive and helpful, but I found > > > myself spending far too much time tweaking the settings for broswers that > > > did not require the plugin to display the language. Perhaps it's easier > > > now. If anyone wants more details feel free to contact me directly. > > > > > > Keola > > > > > > Indigenous Languages and Technology writes: > > > >yes, i was impressed myself. maybe it can be used to assist the > > > >readability of fonts for other indigenous languages and communities. > > > > > > > > > ======================================================================= > > > 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 Oct 11 17:24:00 2004 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP) Date: Mon, 11 Oct 2004 11:24:00 -0600 Subject: Yukon chiefs call for control of language cash (fwd) Message-ID: Ya know, I know some people who were offered the tools to take control of their language,and they turned it down. Is he only talking about $$$$$$$? Or is he perhaps talking about developing a rigorous technical support base that can make it happen? (I have noticed that people will frequently have a "gut reaction" to technology, but they don't calculate the ratio of teachers to learners, that is increasing year by year as Elders pass.) This just happens to fit so will with our other thread about fonts. Mia ----- Original Message ----- From: "phil cash cash" To: Sent: Sunday, October 10, 2004 11:19 AM Subject: Yukon chiefs call for control of language cash (fwd) NORTH.CBC.CA Yukon chiefs call for control of language cash Last Updated: Oct 8 2004 07:25 PM CDT http://north.cbc.ca/regional/servlet/View?filename=oct08yukchief10082004, WHITEHORSE - Yukon Council of First Nations Grand Chief Ed Schultz wants to know why Yukon First Nations aren't in charge of the territory's aboriginal language programs. [photo inset - 'We have the least say on that. And we're not going to take it any more' �~V Ed Schultz] Schultz had some strong words about the situation Friday following a meeting of Yukon chiefs. Schultz says with many native languages disappearing, and some gone already, he's going to take action. Schultz says the territory's First Nations have a mandate to protect languages, but lack the tools to do it. He wants to make sure the people who speak those languages have the power to preserve them. "What makes us distinct is our language �~V that's what makes us distinct," he says. "That's the essence of our identity. But the control measures for its ongoing utilization, development, promotion and integration into the contemporary world is controlled by everyone else but us." "We have the least say on that. And we're not going to take it any more." Currently, most money for Yukon language programs flows through non-native government agencies like Canadian Heritage, and the territorial Department of Education. Schulz says as soon as possible, that cash and the power that comes with it must be transferred to the Council of Yukon First Nations Copyright ? 2004 Canadian Broadcasting Corporation - All Rights Reserved From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Tue Oct 12 17:00:15 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Tue, 12 Oct 2004 10:00:15 -0700 Subject: Dedicated to keeping their language alive (fwd) Message-ID: GETTING TO KNOW GEORGE ADAMS AND CATALINA RENTERIA Dedicated to keeping their language alive http://news.bellinghamherald.com/stories/20041012/TopStories/211700.shtml [NOOKSACK HERITAGE: George Adams and Catalina Renteria are language specialists who work in the cultural management resource office at the Nooksack Indian Tribal center in Deming. They use books, videos and ceremony to help preserve the tribe's traditional language. MAME BURNS HERALD PHOTO] By Linda Kendall Scott, for the Bellingham Herald Modern technology is being linked with the voices of elders to return the nearly extinct Nooksack language to life. Lhchelesem nearly died in 1977 with the last fluent speaker, Sindick Jimmy. Cultural specialist and teacher George Adams said the Nooksacks were bilingual for nearly 200 years after the young men began going north, around 1790, to find brides. Later, the northern language, Upriver Halq'emylem, was more commonly used. As the elders died, even that language began fading away. In the early 1970s, linguist Brent Galloway, now on the staff of the University of Regina in Saskatchewan, and other scholars began recording and transcribing stories and songs told by the elders in both languages. In May 2002, nearly 50 CDs of Halq'emylem were presented to the Nooksack tribe. Meanwhile, language specialist Catalina Renteria adapted an interactive computer program to teach the language at the Nooksack Education Center. Now, Renteria, Adams and Galloway are creating a program to preserve and revive Lhchelesem. They've got an alphabet and digitized dictionary, and they're retrieving parts of speech and syntax from Jimmy's recordings. They hope some of their youths will become trilingual. Q: How will you accomplish this? Adams: Our young people grew up speaking English. Perhaps a dozen can now read and write basic Halq'emylem and converse in simple sentences. We think Halq'emylem speakers can learn Lhchelesem. The alphabets of the two languages are similar. We'll be happy if even six to eight of our young people become fluent. With only a handful of elders who knew it, we made enough tapes to revive it. Renteria: The young people hear these words when we teach our history. The language is tied to the land. It emanates from our stories, songs and dances. Q: You've shared Nooksack culture with nontribal children and parents in the community and in public classrooms. Why? Adams: It educates the public that we're still here, and this is our language and culture. Renteria: It claims our inherent right to the land, sovereignty, and cultural identity. If we lose the language, gone is an irreplaceable resource, gone is the teachings of our old ones, gone to our little ones and gone for scholars and scientists. Q: What do children and parents experience with your ceremonies? Adams: We engage the students in making gifts for a give-away - clappers, medicine pouches, rocks from the river painted with a Coast Salish design. It's a high premium in our society to give rather than receive. They learn the language by learning to sing a song or tell a story. Using our shawls and drums, they will celebrate the song or story. Renteria: We engage the students in the oral tradition of calling witnesses from among the parents and visitors to explain what took place and to acknowledge their responsibility to remember what they learned. Adams: A lot of feedback from the witnesses is often very touching. Linda Kendall Scott is a freelance writer. For questions or story ideas, contact Dean Kahn at dean.kahn at bellinghamherald.com or 715-2291. From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Oct 13 18:18:05 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 13 Oct 2004 11:18:05 -0700 Subject: Being Bilingual Boosts Brain (fwd) Message-ID: Being Bilingual Boosts Brain Oct. 13, 2004 http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/10/13/health/webmd/main649050.shtml People who are bilingual have an advantage over the rest of us, and not just in terms of communication skills. The bilingual brain develops more densely, giving it an advantage in various abilities and skills, according to new research. Researchers Andrea Mechelli of London's Wellcome Department of Imaging Neuroscience and colleagues, including experts from the Fondazione Santa Lucia in Rome, looked at brain densities of bilingual people. First, they recruited 25 people who speak one language, 25 who learned a second European language before age 5, and 33 who became bilingual between ages 10 and 15. All the participants spoke English as their primary language. Those who had learned a second language later in life had practiced it regularly for at least five years. Bilingual Brains Do Better The brain has two types of tissue visible to the naked eye, termed gray and white matter. Gray matter makes up the bulk of nerve cells within the brain. Studies have shown an association with gray matter density (or volume and intellect), especially in areas of language, memory, and attention. Brain imaging showed that bilingual speakers had denser gray matter compared with monolingual participants. The difference was especially significant in the brain's left side — an area known to control language and communication skills. The right hemisphere of bilingual speakers also showed a similar trend. The researchers say that although language is thought to be mediated by functional changes in the brain, they show that being bilingual structurally changes the brain. Their study shows the effect was strongest in people who had learned a second language before age 5. In a second test, the researchers studied 22 native Italian speakers who had learned English as a second language between ages 2 and 34. Those who had learned English at a young age had greater proficiency in reading, writing, talking, and understanding English speech. As in the first test, increases in gray matter density in the brain's left region were linked to age at which a person became bilingual. The earliest second language learners had the densest gray matter in that part of the brain. Of course, while it might seem easier to pick up a second language as a child, it's still possible to do so as an adult. "Our findings suggest that the structure of the human brain is altered by the experience of acquiring a second language," write the researchers in the October issue of the journal Nature. SOURCE: Mechelli, A. Nature, October 2004; vol 431: p 757. From mithun at LINGUISTICS.UCSB.EDU Wed Oct 13 22:00:41 2004 From: mithun at LINGUISTICS.UCSB.EDU (Marianne Mithun) Date: Wed, 13 Oct 2004 15:00:41 -0700 Subject: Job at Santa Barbara Message-ID: Assistant Professor, Computational/Corpus Linguistics The Linguistics Department of the University of California, Santa Barbara seeks to hire a specialist in computational and/or corpus linguistic approaches to language. The appointment will be tenure-track at the Assistant Professor level, effective July 1, 2005. We are especially interested in candidates whose research shows theoretical implications bridging computational and/or corpus linguistics and general linguistics, and who can interact with colleagues and students across disciplinary boundaries at UCSB. Candidates will be preferred whose research engages with the departmental focus on functional and usage-based approaches to explaining language. Research experience with corpora of naturally occurring language use is required. Candidates must have demonstrated excellence in teaching, and will be expected to teach a range of graduate and undergraduate courses in both computational/corpus linguistics and general linguistics. Ph.D. in linguistics or a related field such as cognitive science or computer science is required. Ph.D. normally required by the time of appointment. Applicants should submit hard copy of curriculum vitae, statement of research interests, 1-2 writing samples, and full contact information for three academic references to the Search Committee, Linguistics Department, UCSB, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-3100. Fax and email applications not accepted. Inquiries may be addressed to the above address or via email to lingsearch at linguistics.ucsb.edu. Tentative deadline is November 12, 2004. However, the position will remain open until filled. Preliminary interviews will be conducted at the Linguistic Society of America, although attendance is not required for consideration. The department is especially interested in candidates who can contribute to the diversity and excellence of the academic community through research, teaching and service. UCSB is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. Address for Applications: Attn: Search Committee Dana Spoonerow University of California, Santa Barbara, Linguistics Department 3607 South Hall Santa Barbara, CA 93016 United States of America Applications are due by 12-Nov-2004 Contact Information: Professor Cumming Email: lingsearch at linguistics.ucsb.edu Tel: 805-893-7241 Fax: 805-893-7769 Website: http://www.linguistics.ucsb.edu From andrekar at NCIDC.ORG Thu Oct 14 18:51:23 2004 From: andrekar at NCIDC.ORG (Andre Cramblit) Date: Thu, 14 Oct 2004 11:51:23 -0700 Subject: Elders dinner Message-ID: Press Release CONTACT: André Cramblit WHERE: NCIDC (707) 445-8451 The Northern California Indian Development Council is proud to sponsor the Elders-Dinner and Inter Tribal Gathering for 2004. About 200 volunteers are needed to help make this event a success. We depend on the energy and commitment of many people to make this celebration a triumph so all are invited to help make the event a great day. To Volunteer please call Lou at (707) 445-8451 or go to www.ncidc.org: http://www.ncidc.org/nwit.htm .:.  André Cramblit: andre.p.cramblit.86 at alum.dartmouth.org is the Operations Director Northern California Indian Development Council NCIDC (http://www.ncidc.org) is a non-profit that meets the development needs of American Indians To subscribe to a news letter of interest to Natives send an email to: IndigenousNewsNetwork-subscribe at topica.com or go to: http://www.topica.com/lists/IndigenousNewsNetwork/subscribe/? location=listinfo -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 1458 bytes Desc: not available URL: From andrekar at NCIDC.ORG Thu Oct 14 23:44:23 2004 From: andrekar at NCIDC.ORG (Andre Cramblit) Date: Thu, 14 Oct 2004 16:44:23 -0700 Subject: No subject Message-ID: Press Release CONTACT: André Cramblit WHERE: NCIDC (707) 445-8451 The Northern California Indian Development Council is proud to sponsor the Elders-Dinner and Inter Tribal Gathering for 2004. About 200 volunteers are needed to help make this event a success. We depend on the energy and commitment of many people to make this celebration a triumph so all are invited to help make the event a great day. To Volunteer please call Lou at (707) 445-8451 or go to www.ncidc.org: http://www.ncidc.org/nwit.htm -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 642 bytes Desc: not available URL: From dzo at BISHARAT.NET Sun Oct 17 14:34:03 2004 From: dzo at BISHARAT.NET (Donald Z. Osborn) Date: Sun, 17 Oct 2004 09:34:03 -0500 Subject: Fwd: Language and Discrimination Message-ID: This topic (& CFP - note approaching deadline) may be of interest for those who haven't seen it. (Reposted from H-West-Africa, where it appeared on 28 May). DZO Title: Language and Discrimination Special Issue of the Journal Patterns of Prejudice on Language and Discrimination Call for Papers Deadline: 2004-11-30 Date Submitted: 2004-05-11 Richard Pugh (Keele University) will guest edit a special issue of the journal Patterns of Prejudice on Language and Discrimination, to be published in eptember 2005. The role that language plays in racial or ethnic stereotyping and discriminatory practices is widely noted but the position of minority languages is less frequently explored. Minority languages are often subsumed in discussions of race and ethnicity and consequently remain an under-recognized aspect of prejudice and discrimination. However, political upheavals throughout Europe and the wider world together with the resurgence of assertions of ethnic identity are increasingly focusing attention on the experiences of various linguistic minorities, including the Roma, refugees and asylum-seekers as well as indigenous or long-established linguistic minorities within countries. This special issue of Patterns of Prejudice will encourage such an examination of the role of minority languages. The editors are particularly interested in papers that clearly focus on power relations and issues of discrimination and marginalization. Contributions that are confined to ethnographic description will not be considered for this special issue. Papers might focus on: * the role of "official" languages in expressing nationalism both generally or within particular countries, and the consequences for linguistic minorities affected; * the demographic, social or legal situation of minority languages in different countries; * the significance of minority languages in terms of a minority group's experience of marginalization, and in the implementation of discriminatory measures; * the role of minority languages in resisting negative stereotyping, prejudice or discrimination * the differential response of governments and public bodies to minority language claims (especially in regard to education, law, welfare, and cultural expression). Papers addressing these and related questions should be submitted in hard copy with a disk, or as an e-mail attachment, by 30 November 2004. Submissions should be between 5,000 and 7,000 words in length, although in exceptional cases longer articles can be considered. All papers must be the original work of the author/s. Contributions will be subject to peer review and the editors' decisions will be final. Further notes for contributors can be found on the journal's webpage (www.tandf.co.uk/journals/authors/rpopauth.asp). Submissions should be sent in the first instance to the address below. Barbara Rosenbaum Patterns of Prejudice 79 Wimpole Street London W1G 9RY United Kingdom fax: +44 (0)20 7935 3252 Contact: b.rosenbaum at jpr.org.uk Announcement ID: 138508 http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/announce/show.cgi?ID=138508 ----- End forwarded message ----- From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Oct 18 04:16:06 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Sun, 17 Oct 2004 21:16:06 -0700 Subject: some freeware updates... Message-ID: fyi, a new version of Lexique Pro (a free software) was just released... Lexique Pro Current version: 2.1, released October 2004 http://www.lexiquepro.com/ Lexique Pro is an interactive lexicon viewer, with hyperlinks between entries, category views, dictionary reversal, search, and export tools. It can be configured to display your Toolbox/Shoebox database in a user-friendly format so that you can distribute it to others. also, a new version of Audacity (a free software) was released... Audacity Current version: 1.2.2 released August 25, 2004 http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ Audacity is a free audio editor. You can record sounds, play sounds, import and export WAV, AIFF, Ogg Vorbis, and MP3 files, and more. Use it to edit your sounds using Cut, Copy and Paste (with unlimited Undo), mix tracks together, or apply effects to your recordings. It also has a built-in amplitude envelope editor, a customizable spectrogram mode and a frequency analysis window for audio analysis applications. Built-in effects include Echo, Change Tempo, and Noise Removal, and it also supports VST and LADSPA plug-in effects. From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Oct 18 18:34:09 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Mon, 18 Oct 2004 11:34:09 -0700 Subject: What Can Be Done to Save This Language And Culture (fwd) Message-ID: What Can Be Done to Save This Language And Culture The Nation (Nairobi) NEWS October 17, 2004 Posted to the web October 18, 2004 http://allafrica.com/stories/200410180333.html By Gakuu Mathenge Nairobi The Kenya Government, if ever it looks at the plight facing the few surviving Yaaku speakers in Mukogodo Forest of Laikipia, can borrow a leaf from what South Africa did with the death of apartheid and emergence of black majority rule. Khomani speakers are part of the San ethnic group, who are indigenous to South Africa. At one time spread over almost the whole of South Africa, in 1930 the Khomani moved to the Central and Northern Kalahari Desert and adjacent districts. However, in 1973, the last San communities were evicted from the Kalahari Gemsbok Park, with their native tongue, Khomani, being declared officially extinct. In 1994, with the end of apartheid, and the installation of nationalist Nelson Mandela as the first democratically elected President of what came to be known as the Rainbow Nation, a new law was enacted in South Africa to allow people to reclaim land they had lost on the basis of race since 1913. With the help of the South African San Institute the Khomani community put in a claim against the National Park. In 1999, the government awarded them 40,000 hectares of land outside the park and another 25,000 hectares inside the park. At the end of the 1990s, the first known surviving Khomani speaker was identified. Since then research has found around 20 additional speakers. Approximately 1,500 adults are spread over an area of more than 1,000 square kilometres in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa. Most Khomani nowadays speak fluently Khoekhoegowap (Nama) and or Afrikaans as their primary language. The use of the languages differs according to the context: Khomani is used with other Khomani speakers, Nama with friends and children, Afrikaans with adults and outsiders, sometimes with children, and for church. Literacy is in Afrikaans. The San also live in Botswana and Namibia. Unesco's Red Book on Extinct and Endangered Languages defines dead languages as follows: If there are only a few speakers but practically no children among them. If it is possibly extinct but there is no reliable information of remaining speakers. Nearly extinct, with some children speakers at least in some parts of their range but decreasingly so. Potentially endangered languages, with a large number of children speakers but has no official or prestigious status. With less than a dozen known speakers, all them aged. Yaaku is more than endangered. Languages become extinct when native speakers, usually minority groups, adopt languages spoken by the majority, either for survival or other reasons. In 1983, researchers put the number of Yaaku speakers at 50, in a population of about 250. A recently formed self-help group, the Yaaku Group, with offices in Dol Dol township, helps the forest dwellers refine and market their honey on a commercial basis. It estimates their number at 700 although there has been no official census. Another endangered group is the Baka (pygmies) in Gabon, who live in the forest in the area bordering Cameroun to the north. They are part of the large group of Baka found in Southwest Cameroun and Northeast of Congo Brazzaville. They migrated to Gabon in recent history. The language of the Baka is Ubangian-based in contrast to other forest people groups in Gabon the languages of which are Bantu-based. From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Oct 18 18:47:48 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Mon, 18 Oct 2004 11:47:48 -0700 Subject: Wireless microphones for language recording Message-ID: Dear ILAT, i recently recieved a request on recording with wireless microphones. a language program is interested in making a recording session as comfortable as possible when recording elder's speech and is looking to use wireless microphones. they are also interested in using headset microphones for more general recording of the language. they are aware that you can record to analog and to digital. please feel free to share if you have any experience in this or suggestions on microphone brands and particular recording uses. thanks, phil cash cash UofA, ILAT From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US Mon Oct 18 20:54:30 2004 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP) Date: Mon, 18 Oct 2004 14:54:30 -0600 Subject: Wireless microphones for language recording Message-ID: Hi, All, We have been using tiny Olympus digital microphones for nearly 4 years with great success. They run on 2 small AAA batteries, have 3 quality settings, and a mode for meetings. They have a USB connector, a nice program for transferring the information, and an option to record directly into the computer or laptop. They are small, unintrusive, and have good pick-up (sometimes too good: we get the entire family activities, and these are hard to edit out, so be forewarned). They cost about $99 when we bought them. I don't have mine with me, but I could bring it tomorrow if people are interested in more details. Oh, and it's only about 3.5 inches long, almost less than an inch thick, and not quite 2 inches wide. Great device. One of the best pieces of hardware I ever owned (except maybe for the remote control light switch that I bought at Radio Shack this week-end so I don't trip over a pile of greyhounds on my way to the light in the dark :-). Mia ----- Original Message ----- From: "phil cash cash" To: Sent: Monday, October 18, 2004 12:47 PM Subject: Wireless microphones for language recording > Dear ILAT, > > i recently recieved a request on recording with wireless microphones. a > language program is interested in making a recording session as > comfortable as possible when recording elder's speech and is looking to > use wireless microphones. they are also interested in using headset > microphones for more general recording of the language. they are aware > that you can record to analog and to digital. > > please feel free to share if you have any experience in this or > suggestions on microphone brands and particular recording uses. > > thanks, > phil cash cash > UofA, ILAT > > From sandra at ASU.EDU Mon Oct 18 21:19:57 2004 From: sandra at ASU.EDU (Sandra Andrews) Date: Mon, 18 Oct 2004 14:19:57 -0700 Subject: Wireless microphones for language recording Message-ID: We also used the Olympus digital recorders. They worked well with speech, but not so well with music, in spite of having a music setting. Also they did not work well when placed in a shirt pocket! Sandy Andrews Sandra Sutton Andrews Digital Media and Instructional Technologies Arizona State University -----Original Message----- From: Indigenous Languages and Technology on behalf of MiaKalish at LFP Sent: Mon 10/18/2004 1:54 PM To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Cc: Subject: Re: Wireless microphones for language recording Hi, All, We have been using tiny Olympus digital microphones for nearly 4 years with great success. They run on 2 small AAA batteries, have 3 quality settings, and a mode for meetings. They have a USB connector, a nice program for transferring the information, and an option to record directly into the computer or laptop. They are small, unintrusive, and have good pick-up (sometimes too good: we get the entire family activities, and these are hard to edit out, so be forewarned). They cost about $99 when we bought them. I don't have mine with me, but I could bring it tomorrow if people are interested in more details. Oh, and it's only about 3.5 inches long, almost less than an inch thick, and not quite 2 inches wide. Great device. One of the best pieces of hardware I ever owned (except maybe for the remote control light switch that I bought at Radio Shack this week-end so I don't trip over a pile of greyhounds on my way to the light in the dark :-). Mia ----- Original Message ----- From: "phil cash cash" To: Sent: Monday, October 18, 2004 12:47 PM Subject: Wireless microphones for language recording > Dear ILAT, > > i recently recieved a request on recording with wireless microphones. a > language program is interested in making a recording session as > comfortable as possible when recording elder's speech and is looking to > use wireless microphones. they are also interested in using headset > microphones for more general recording of the language. they are aware > that you can record to analog and to digital. > > please feel free to share if you have any experience in this or > suggestions on microphone brands and particular recording uses. > > thanks, > phil cash cash > UofA, ILAT > > From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US Mon Oct 18 21:54:42 2004 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP) Date: Mon, 18 Oct 2004 15:54:42 -0600 Subject: Wireless microphones for language recording Message-ID: We always used ours like one would use a much larger microphone, making sure there was no noise, although as I mentioned, I goofed a few times. I never would have thought of putting it in a shirt pocket. Did you do this to hide it, so people wouldn't think they were being recorded? Also, we purchased ours specifically for voice recording, and these were tuned for voice. We never tried to record music, although one time I recorded a small slice from a DVD that I wanted to use in a presentation. It was tricky, but I got it to work. Mia ----- Original Message ----- From: "Sandra Andrews" To: Sent: Monday, October 18, 2004 3:19 PM Subject: Re: Wireless microphones for language recording We also used the Olympus digital recorders. They worked well with speech, but not so well with music, in spite of having a music setting. Also they did not work well when placed in a shirt pocket! Sandy Andrews Sandra Sutton Andrews Digital Media and Instructional Technologies Arizona State University -----Original Message----- From: Indigenous Languages and Technology on behalf of MiaKalish at LFP Sent: Mon 10/18/2004 1:54 PM To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Cc: Subject: Re: Wireless microphones for language recording Hi, All, We have been using tiny Olympus digital microphones for nearly 4 years with great success. They run on 2 small AAA batteries, have 3 quality settings, and a mode for meetings. They have a USB connector, a nice program for transferring the information, and an option to record directly into the computer or laptop. They are small, unintrusive, and have good pick-up (sometimes too good: we get the entire family activities, and these are hard to edit out, so be forewarned). They cost about $99 when we bought them. I don't have mine with me, but I could bring it tomorrow if people are interested in more details. Oh, and it's only about 3.5 inches long, almost less than an inch thick, and not quite 2 inches wide. Great device. One of the best pieces of hardware I ever owned (except maybe for the remote control light switch that I bought at Radio Shack this week-end so I don't trip over a pile of greyhounds on my way to the light in the dark :-). Mia ----- Original Message ----- From: "phil cash cash" To: Sent: Monday, October 18, 2004 12:47 PM Subject: Wireless microphones for language recording > Dear ILAT, > > i recently recieved a request on recording with wireless microphones. a > language program is interested in making a recording session as > comfortable as possible when recording elder's speech and is looking to > use wireless microphones. they are also interested in using headset > microphones for more general recording of the language. they are aware > that you can record to analog and to digital. > > please feel free to share if you have any experience in this or > suggestions on microphone brands and particular recording uses. > > thanks, > phil cash cash > UofA, ILAT > > From sandra at ASU.EDU Mon Oct 18 22:00:24 2004 From: sandra at ASU.EDU (Sandra Andrews) Date: Mon, 18 Oct 2004 15:00:24 -0700 Subject: Wireless microphones for language recording Message-ID: No, we weren't hiding anything, just experimenting. It was thought (by one of the elders) that at times it might be less intrusive not to have the technology on the table. Didn't work though. Picked up the sound of the fabric instead. ;-) This was several years ago. Which, to continue, is sort of interesting because a major crime case in Phoenix was solved, also years ago, when someone's Olympus, in a backpack, picked up the information necessary to close the case. In our experience that would not have been very likely to have happened. We would have heard the tiny backpack sounds instead. It is a great tool for interviews etc. though (if placed on the table!!!) Sandy Sandra Sutton Andrews Digital Media and Instructional Technologies Arizona State Universities -----Original Message----- From: Indigenous Languages and Technology on behalf of MiaKalish at LFP Sent: Mon 10/18/2004 2:54 PM To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Cc: Subject: Re: Wireless microphones for language recording We always used ours like one would use a much larger microphone, making sure there was no noise, although as I mentioned, I goofed a few times. I never would have thought of putting it in a shirt pocket. Did you do this to hide it, so people wouldn't think they were being recorded? Also, we purchased ours specifically for voice recording, and these were tuned for voice. We never tried to record music, although one time I recorded a small slice from a DVD that I wanted to use in a presentation. It was tricky, but I got it to work. Mia ----- Original Message ----- From: "Sandra Andrews" To: Sent: Monday, October 18, 2004 3:19 PM Subject: Re: Wireless microphones for language recording We also used the Olympus digital recorders. They worked well with speech, but not so well with music, in spite of having a music setting. Also they did not work well when placed in a shirt pocket! Sandy Andrews Sandra Sutton Andrews Digital Media and Instructional Technologies Arizona State University -----Original Message----- From: Indigenous Languages and Technology on behalf of MiaKalish at LFP Sent: Mon 10/18/2004 1:54 PM To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Cc: Subject: Re: Wireless microphones for language recording Hi, All, We have been using tiny Olympus digital microphones for nearly 4 years with great success. They run on 2 small AAA batteries, have 3 quality settings, and a mode for meetings. They have a USB connector, a nice program for transferring the information, and an option to record directly into the computer or laptop. They are small, unintrusive, and have good pick-up (sometimes too good: we get the entire family activities, and these are hard to edit out, so be forewarned). They cost about $99 when we bought them. I don't have mine with me, but I could bring it tomorrow if people are interested in more details. Oh, and it's only about 3.5 inches long, almost less than an inch thick, and not quite 2 inches wide. Great device. One of the best pieces of hardware I ever owned (except maybe for the remote control light switch that I bought at Radio Shack this week-end so I don't trip over a pile of greyhounds on my way to the light in the dark :-). Mia ----- Original Message ----- From: "phil cash cash" To: Sent: Monday, October 18, 2004 12:47 PM Subject: Wireless microphones for language recording > Dear ILAT, > > i recently recieved a request on recording with wireless microphones. a > language program is interested in making a recording session as > comfortable as possible when recording elder's speech and is looking to > use wireless microphones. they are also interested in using headset > microphones for more general recording of the language. they are aware > that you can record to analog and to digital. > > please feel free to share if you have any experience in this or > suggestions on microphone brands and particular recording uses. > > thanks, > phil cash cash > UofA, ILAT > > From gforger at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Tue Oct 19 21:17:09 2004 From: gforger at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Garry Forger) Date: Tue, 19 Oct 2004 14:17:09 -0700 Subject: Journal Article Message-ID: Journal of Electronic Publishing "Typesetting Native American Languages" http://www.press.umich.edu/jep/08-01/syropoulos.html All the native American languages spoken today are written either in some Latin alphabet, augmented with "accented" letters, or in a syllabary, a set of indivisible syllabic symbols, each of which represents a syllable. The Apache and the Navaho languages are among the native American languages that use a Latin alphabet, while Cherokee, Inuiktitut, and Cree are among the languages that use modern syllabaries. Syllabaries, common in ancient scripts, were used by the Maya and the Epi-Olmec people of Mesoamerica. ... -- ______________________ Garry J. Forger, MLS Assistant Director Learning Technologies Center The University of Arizona 1077 N. Highland Ave Tucson, AZ 85721-0073 gforger at u.arizona.edu http://www.ltc.arizona.edu/ Phone 520-626-7761 Fax 520-626-8220 From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Oct 20 17:13:49 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 20 Oct 2004 10:13:49 -0700 Subject: Celebrate Native Languages and Cultures (fwd) Message-ID: Celebrate Native Languages and Cultures Seventh annual "Celebration of Indian Languages and Cultures" planned NORMAN OK Jennifer Tedlock 10/19/2004 http://www.nativetimes.com/index.asp?action=displayarticle&article_id=5341 All of these [Native American] languages are endangered, said Alice Anderton, Executive Director of the Intertribal Wordpath Society. Time is running out. We still have about 25 languages spoken here in Oklahoma, Anderton told the Native American Times. That is why IWS's work is so important. All of the languages are considered endangered. Without careful preservation they will disappear as will the cultures they are so deeply connected with. The seventh annual Celebration of Indian Language and Culture will be held on Friday, October 22 in Norman, Oklahoma. The celebration is set to take place from 4:30 to 10:30 p.m. at the Cleveland County Fairgrounds. It is an opportunity to hear some of Oklahoma's Native languages, listen so Native songs, and buy genuine Native goods. This event is not about mourning the loss of traditional languages, but rather about celebrating the remaining ones. Margaret Mauldin, who helped create a Creek dictionary and developed the curriculum for teaching the language at the University of Oklahoma, will lead a workshop on making children's books in Native American languages. That event will kick things off on Friday, October 22. The main program, featuring stories, songs and poetry in a selection of Native languages from around the state, will begin at 6 p.m. English translations will be provided, as will commentary about the importance of each language to its culture. Durbin Feeling (Cherokee) will emcee the event, announcing the program in both Cherokee and English. Presenters include Mogre Lookout (Osage) of Pawhuska, Henry Leib (Ponca) and students from Red Rock, Gus Palmer, Jr. (Kiowa) of Norman, Geneva Navarro (Comanche) of Lawton, University of Oklahoma instructors LeRoy Sealy and Brenda Samuels (Choctaw) and students, and Lahoma Burd (Kickapoo). Evans Ray Satepauhoodle (Kiowa) of Hominy will sing Kiowa songs at the drum. At around mid-evening, a dramatic ceremony of commitment to honor Oklahoma languages will be held. This ceremony celebrates the languages that still exist. Candles for each of those 25 languages will be lit in what Anderton called a powerful and moving ceremony. The Intertribal Wordpath Society was created in 1996 and incorporated the following year. According to their website, IWS assists Oklahoma language preservation with: fund raising, public speaking, a television show Wordpath, Pathways newletter, exhibits and educational programs for the general public, production of language-related items, information archives, teacher training and publications, workshops, demonstration projects, advice on alphabets, materials and curricula, and their annual Celebration. To find out more about the Celebration of Indian Language and Culture, visit www.ahalenia.com/iws. Cleveland County Fairgrounds are located at 615 E. Robinson in Norman. From Rrlapier at AOL.COM Fri Oct 22 03:35:38 2004 From: Rrlapier at AOL.COM (Rrlapier at AOL.COM) Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2004 23:35:38 EDT Subject: tech book Message-ID: Can someone respond to Michael Price? Rosalyn LaPier Piegan Institute www.pieganinstitute.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- An embedded message was scrubbed... From: "Michael Wassegijig Price" Subject: Fw: [aio_ambassadors] Newsletter Call for Information! Date: Wed, 20 Oct 2004 10:26:57 -0500 Size: 2785 URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Fri Oct 22 19:12:00 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Fri, 22 Oct 2004 12:12:00 -0700 Subject: Draining the Language out of Color (fwd link) Message-ID: Draining the Language out of Color Words mold many aspects of thought, says linguist Paul Kay, but not all aspects. The proof lies in the names the world's languages give to colors By Philip E. Ross http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&articleID=00055EE3-4530-1052-853083414B7F0000 [note: although the publish date was March-April, the online version was just made available. pcc] From cashcash at U.ARIZONA.EDU Sun Oct 24 18:25:48 2004 From: cashcash at U.ARIZONA.EDU (Phil Cash Cash) Date: Sun, 24 Oct 2004 14:25:48 -0400 Subject: Phil Cash Cash has sent you an article from npr.org Message-ID: Phil Cash Cash thought you would be interested in this story: "NPR : The Battle over the Zapotec Bible" *Listen to this story* Please click on the headline to the story using a RealAudio or WindowsMedia player. For players or technical support, please visit NPR's Audio Help page. . *Order a text transcript of this story* *Do you like the music you hear on NPR?* All Songs Considered... but few are chosen: The All Songs Considered 4 CD Box Set. Available in The NPR Shop where your purchase supports NPR! From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Oct 25 20:04:35 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Mon, 25 Oct 2004 13:04:35 -0700 Subject: Aboriginal languages said facing extinction (fwd) Message-ID: Aboriginal languages said facing extinction Canadian Press Updated: Sun. Oct. 24 2004 11:25 PM ET http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1098654385233_19/?hub=Canada SAINT-SAUVEUR, Que. — Many of Canada's aboriginal languages could face extinction in as little as a generation unless government gets involved, said some participants Sunday at a conference held to discuss the problem. "We have to preserve and above all revitalize (these languages)," said Thanissa Laine, a co-ordinator for the second Conference on Aboriginal Languages. "There is no law protecting endangered languages in Canada but there are (laws) for animals that are becoming extinct." Of Canada's 50 aboriginal languages, 47 face extinction within one or two generations. And though Cree, Ojibwa and Inuktitut have enough speakers to survive another four or five generations they too will die out unless action is taken, said Lise Bastien, director of the board of education for Quebec's First Nations. About 150 participants from Canada and the United States gathered for the three-day conference to discuss endangered languages and how to preserve them. Bastien said some communities have had short-term success by teaching all or a portion of elementary education in an aboriginal language or having elders participate in social or community activities with children so the language is transmitted naturally. However, long-term progress won't be made until government gets involved, she said. "Language is very important for the cultural blossoming of aboriginal communities," she said. "It would take a financial commitment and an official recognition of the languages (by the government). "They should be supported by permanent policies." Laine said it is a struggle maintaining such languages in the face of a "dominant culture of globalization and assimilation," although she added she remains optimistic. "People are more sensitized now than they were one or even two generations ago," she said. "That's my positive side but it's an enormous job." Other participants said Canada's culture of multiculturalism and bilingualism will make it easier for its aboriginal languages to survive in the long-term than in other countries. "We appreciate (here) the importance of language," said Arpi Hamalian, a Canadian on a UNESCO committee and an education professor at Concordia University. "Canada is at the forefront of trying to bring about a convention on cultural diversity at the United Nations level. Cultural diversity at its heart also protects linguistic diversity. The first Conference on Aboriginal Languages was held in 1998 Quebec City. Saint-Sauveur is about 50 kilometres northwest of Montreal. The conference ends Tuesday. © Copyright 2004 Bell Globemedia Inc. From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Oct 25 20:09:18 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Mon, 25 Oct 2004 13:09:18 -0700 Subject: Invitation to the Media - Aboriginal Language Conference Starts this Weekend (fwd) Message-ID: Invitation to the Media - Aboriginal Language Conference Starts this Weekend http://www.cnw.ca/fr/releases/archive/October2004/22/c3551.html SAINT-SAUVEUR, Oct. 22 /CNW Telbec/ - Members of the media are invited to attend the Second Aboriginal Language Conference organized by the First Nations Education Council (FNEC), to be held at the Manoir Saint-Sauveur from Sunday, October 24, to Tuesday, October 26. This conference is of great importance for those who want to take action to ensure the cultural survival of Aboriginal peoples. DATES AND TIMES: October 24 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. October 25 8:45 a.m. to 6 p.m. October 26 8:15 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. PLACE: Manoir Saint-Sauveur 246 chemin du Lac-Millette Saint-Sauveur, Quebec This meeting will give participants an overview of the current situation Aboriginal languages are facing nationally and internationally, as well as encourage them to preserve these languages by taking part in various dialogues that will lead to invaluable recommendations in this area. Over 150 participants are expected at this event and it is also possible to follow the conference live via Webcast at www.cepn-fnec.com For further information: Nadia Paquet, Communication & Stratégie, (514) 844-1678, Cell: (514) 576-8932; Prepared by: Thanissa Lainé, FNEC From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Oct 25 20:12:01 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Mon, 25 Oct 2004 13:12:01 -0700 Subject: Second Aboriginal Language Conference by the First Nations Education Council (fwd) Message-ID: Second Aboriginal Language Conference by the First Nations Education Council - Conference theme "Words for Our Future" http://www.cnw.ca/fr/releases/archive/October2004/18/c1432.html WENDAKE, Oct. 18 /CNW Telbec/ - The First Nations Education Council (FNEC), an organization whose strength is drawn from the desire of all First Nations in Quebec to work together to offer every First Nations child a quality education, will hold its Second Conference on Aboriginal Languages from October 24 to 26, 2004, at the Manoir du Mont Saint-Sauveur. There are about 6000 languages spoken in the world, half of which may become extinct. Only 3 of Canada's 50 Aboriginal languages (Cree, Inuktitut and Ojibway) have a big enough basin of speakers to not be considered at risk. At least 12 languages are in danger of disappearing and 10 have completely died out over the last century. "Given that a language is vital for the cultural survival of Aboriginal peoples, concerted efforts have already been made worldwide to breathe new life into languages at risk, primarily by focusing on language preservation activities, recording the speech of elders and implementing special community-based programs. There is an urgent need for developing concrete measures andtaking action so that our people do not simply become a footnote of history," said Ghislain Picard, Regional Chief of the Assembly of First Nations of Quebec and Labrador (AFNQL) and speaker for the event. In addition to allowing conference participants to gain a better understanding of the situation Aboriginal languages face nationally and internationally, several language preservation projects will be showcased. The conference will be a forum for participants to discuss the means for saving and reviving Aboriginal languages. "The FNEC hopes to end the conference with a list of recommendations and a blueprint for an action plan to ensure we will be able to transmit our languages to future generations," said Lise Bastien, FNEC Director. For more information or the complete conference program, go to www.cepn-fnec.com From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US Mon Oct 25 21:19:03 2004 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP) Date: Mon, 25 Oct 2004 15:19:03 -0600 Subject: tech book Message-ID: I am thinking of submitting a proposal for a book on Technology and revitalization/language type applications, but I don't think I sent a general notice to the list. I can't remember if I saw another email go by about it. It's right now a question of whether I can edit a book while doing the research for my PhD and finishing my dissertation. Also, if I did this book, it would be about how people Applied the Theory. We have lots of good books on theory, and about how teaching in culture is more effective than teaching out of culture. Also, we have lots, and lots, and lots, and lots, and lots of papers and articles about the Possibilities of using Technology, hence the focus: Best Practices in Technology Applications for Language and Culture Revitalization. best, Mia ----- Original Message ----- From: Rrlapier at AOL.COM To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Sent: Thursday, October 21, 2004 9:35 PM Subject: tech book Can someone respond to Michael Price? Rosalyn LaPier Piegan Institute www.pieganinstitute.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From fmarmole at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Oct 25 23:56:58 2004 From: fmarmole at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Francisco Marmolejo) Date: Mon, 25 Oct 2004 16:56:58 -0700 Subject: FW: CONAHEC Message: Various Funding Opportunities Message-ID: Dear colleagues, The following are some funding opportunities with upcoming deadlines. 1. Applications Invited for International Dissertation Field Research Fellowships Deadlines: November 1, 2004 (online) - November 8, 2004 (mail-in) Administered by the Social Science Research Council (http://ssrc.org/) in partnership with the American Council of Learned Societies, the International Dissertation Field Research Fellowship program provides support for social scientists and humanists conducting dissertation field research in all areas and regions of the world. Up to fifty fellowships will be awarded in the year 2005. Funds are provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. IDRF awards are designed to enable doctoral candidates of proven achievement and outstanding potential to use their knowledge of distinctive cultures, societies, languages, economies, polities, and histories, in combination with their disciplinary training, to address issues that transcend their disciplines or area specializations. The program is open to full-time graduate students in the humanities and social sciences, regardless of citizenship, enrolled in doctoral programs in the United States. The program invites proposals for field research on all areas or regions of the world, as well as for research that is comparative, cross-regional, and cross-cultural. Proposals that identify the U.S. as a case for comparative inquiry are welcome; however, proposals that require no substantial research outside the U.S. are not eligible. Standard fellowships will provide support for nine to twelve months in the field, plus travel expenses. Funding will rarely exceed $20,000. See the SSCR Web site for complete program information and application procedures. RFP Link: http://ssrc.org/programs/idrf/ 2. The Wenner-Gren Foundation: Individual Research Grants for anthropological projects Eligibility: Scholars from Mexico, Canada, the U.S. and other countries. http://www.wennergren.org/programsirg.html#fieldwork Programs The Wenner-Gren Foundation pursues its two major goals - advancing basic research in anthropology and building an international community of anthropologists - through several funding programs. Individual Research Grants Description: Grants for amounts up to $25,000 are available for basic research in all branches of anthropology. Grants are made to seed innovative approaches and ideas, to cover specific expenses or phases of a project, and/or to encourage aid from other funding agencies. The foundation particularly invites projects employing comparative perspectives or integrating two or more subfields of anthropology. A small number of awards is available for projects designed to develop resources for anthropological research and scholarly exchange. The foundation, under its Individual Research Grants Program, offers: * Dissertation Fieldwork Grants * Post-Ph.D. Grants * Richard Carley Hunt Postdoctoral Fellowships. Budgetary Guidelines: Grants cover research expenses directly related and essential to the project (i.e., travel, living expenses during fieldwork, equipment, supplies, research assistance, and other relevant expenditures). Aid is not provided for salary and/or fringe benefits of applicant, tuition, non-project personnel, travel to meetings, institutional overhead, or institutional support. Low priority is given to dissertation writeup or other support for writing (except under the Hunt Fellowship), publication assistance, and film- or video-making (unless inherent to the research project). Expenses incurred prior to the effective date of an award will not be covered; budgets should reflect foundation deadlines. Application information: A formal application must be submitted. Those interested in receiving an application can contact the foundation to have the appropriate forms mailed to them, or (if they know their eligibility) individuals can download the forms directly from this website. Please note that our application forms have been revised; forms dated prior to year 2000 cannot be accepted. Deadlines: There are two deadlines each year, May 1st and November 1st. For applications submitted by the May 1st deadline, funding will be available the following January 1st. Under the November 1st deadline, funding will be available the following July 1st. Applicants should meet the most appropriate deadline for their research plans. Decisions for each application cycle will be announced six to eight monthes after the deadline date. Only one application may be submitted during any twelve-month period. Dissertation Fieldwork Grants are awarded to individuals to aid doctoral dissertation or thesis research. Applicants must be enrolled for a doctoral degree. Application must be made jointly with a thesis advisor or other scholar who will undertake responsibility for supervising the project. Awards are contigent upon the applicant's successful completion of all requirements for the degree other than the dissertation/thesis. Applications may be submitted before such requirements have been met; however, should an award be approved, the foundation will at that time request evidence of that the applicant is "all-but-dissertation/ advanced-to-candidacy". Qualified students of all nationalities are eligible. Post-Ph.D. Grants are awarded to individual scholars holding the doctorate or equivalent qualification in anthropology or a related discipline. Qualified scholars are eligible without regard to nationality or institutional affiliation. Application for Post-Ph.D. Grants may be made by the scholar either as an individual or on behalf of an organization. Ph.D. candidates seeking postdoctoral support should file a Dissertation Fieldwork Grant application and indicate that support is being requested for postdoctoral research; if an award is approved it will be made after the Ph.D. is in hand. A limited number of Richard Carley Hunt Postdoctoral Fellowships, nonrenewable awards with a maximum of $40,000, is available to scholars within ten years of receipt of the Ph.D., to aid the writeup of research results for publication. Qualified scholars are eligible without regard to nationality or institutional affiliation. Applicants must hold the Ph.D. at the time of application. 3. CONACyT 2005 Call for Scholarship Applications Eligibility: Mexicans wishing to pursue Specializations, Master's or Doctoral studies in the United States or Canada. Please visit the website for more information. http://www.conacyt.mx/dafcyt/avisos_sol/convocatoria2005_EUyCA.html 4. International Dissertation Field Research Fellowships for doctoral students in the United States. (no citizenship requirement) The International Dissertation Field Research Fellowship (IDRF) program provides support for social scientists and humanists conducting dissertation field research in all areas and regions of the world. Up to fifty fellowships will be awarded in the year 2005. The program is administered by the Social Science Research Council in partnership with the American Council of Learned Societies. Funds are provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The IDRF awards enable doctoral candidates of proven achievement and outstanding potential to use their knowledge of distinctive cultures, societies, languages, economies, polities, and histories, in combination with their disciplinary training, to address issues that transcend their disciplines or area specializations. The program supports scholarship that treats place and setting in relation to broader phenomena as well as in particular historical and cultural contexts. Standard fellowships will provide support for nine to twelve months in the field, plus travel expenses. They will rarely exceed $20,000. In some cases, the candidate may propose fewer than nine months of overseas fieldwork, but no award will be given for fewer than six months. The fellowship must be held for a single continuous period within the eighteen months between July 2005 and December 2006. Eligibility The program is open to full-time graduate students in the humanities and social sciences - regardless of citizenship - enrolled in doctoral programs in the United States. The program invites proposals for field research on all areas or regions of the world, as well as for research that is comparative, cross-regional and cross-cultural. Proposals that identify the U.S. as a case for comparative inquiry are welcome; however, proposals that require no substantial research outside the United States are not eligible. Proposals requesting support for a second year of field research will be funded only under exceptional circumstances. Proposals may cover all periods in history, but must address topics that have relevance to contemporary issues and debates. Applicants must complete all Ph.D. requirements except fieldwork and dissertation by the time the fellowship begins or by December 2005, whichever comes first. Standard fellowships will provide support for nine to twelve months in the field, plus travel expenses. They will rarely exceed $20,000. In some cases, the candidate may propose fewer than nine months of overseas fieldwork, but no award will be given for fewer than six months. The fellowship must be held for a single continuous period within the eighteen months between July 2005 and December 2006. http://www.ssrc.org/programs/idrf/ Best regards, Francisco Marmolejo Executive Director Consortium for North American Higher Education Collaboration (CONAHEC) University of Arizona 220 W. 6th St. University Services Annex, Bldg. 300A Rm. 108 PO Box 210300 Tucson, AZ 85721-0300 USA Phone: (520) 621-9080 Fax: (520) 626-2675 E-mail: fmarmole at u.arizona.edu http://conahec.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From anguksuar at YAHOO.COM Wed Oct 27 15:42:21 2004 From: anguksuar at YAHOO.COM (Richard LaFortune) Date: Wed, 27 Oct 2004 08:42:21 -0700 Subject: NCAI support resolution for statewide Dakota/Ojibwe language alliance In-Reply-To: <1098735121.5bb05474cb0ab@www.email.arizona.edu> Message-ID: the Dakota/Ojibwe Language Revitalization Alliance (DOLRA) in Minnesota is pleased to announce a resolution of support by the oldest, largest tribal government organization in the US. best regards Richard LaFortune Legislative co-chair, DOLRA vhttp://www.ncai.org/data/docs/resolution/annual2004/ftl04-055.pdf _______________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Express yourself with Y! Messenger! Free. Download now. http://messenger.yahoo.com From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Thu Oct 28 19:30:54 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Thu, 28 Oct 2004 12:30:54 -0700 Subject: Native concerns discussed (fwd) Message-ID: October 28, 2004 Native concerns discussed BY JOHN R. CRANE Journal Staff Writer http://www.cortezjournal.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp?article_type=news&article_path=/news/news041028_3.htm More needs to be done to address local American Indian students' lack of achievement, to offer Navajo classes in Cortez schools and to speed transmission of student absentee data between the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and the Re-1 Montezuma Cortez School District, said representatives from area tribes at a special school district board meeting Tuesday night. The meeting between the Montezuma-Cortez Re-1 School District and area tribes is held annually as part of the district's Indian policy and procedures and to discuss how to address American Indian students' needs. School board members mostly listened during the meeting. "Overall, figures show that Ute Mountain Ute students are not experiencing adequate success in the Re-1 School District," said Selwyn Whiteskunk, chairman-elect of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribal Council in Towaoc. Whiteskunk added that the tribe's students are the lowest proficiency group on CSAP tests and that areas of development need to be identified to ease student transition between grades. "It's alarming," Whiteskunk said of the CSAP achievement gap between native and non-native students. Whiteskunk said more American Indian staff in district schools is needed and that expulsion is not always the solution to students' problems. He added that sending truant students to boarding schools is an easy way out. "I don't want to send children to boarding schools away from family," he said. "I went to a boarding school. I know how it is to be away for nine months." Ute Mountain Ute Tribal Councilman Manuel Heart reminded the board of the United States' "unique legal relationship" with its American Indian tribes. He mentioned the Bush administration's efforts to assist American Indians in meeting the challenges and standards of the No Child Left Behind Act, in accordance with tribal conditions, languages and cultures. "This is an opportunity for tribal members and tribal leaders and educators, such as yourselves, to work together with the Department of Education to find strategies to implement No Child Left Behind in Indian country," Heart said. Heart added that the tribe and the district should work together in research and data collection, strengthening early childhood education, high school graduation rates and postsecondary education. The Ute Mountain Ute Indian Tribe is working toward a grant that would enable the tribe to put the Ute language in written form for future generations, Heart said. Heart said non-Indian Coloradans know little about American Indian culture and that tribes suffered greatly throughout U.S. history. "We, as Indian nations, have gone through a Holocaust," he said. "We also, the Ute tribe as a whole, have been exiled in the state of Colorado. What do (non-native) students in the state of Colorado know about the first people who were here?" Students need to be safer, as well, in light of methamphetamine labs being discovered near area schools, Heart said. Today's students are tomorrow's administrators and service providers, and tackling these issues and taking action are paramount, Heart said. Michael Mills, with Towaoc's truancy program, said he hopes to work in conjunction with the school district in gathering tribal students' absentee data, in accordance with the tribal ordinance. Absentee data is important in monitoring students' attendance and in prosecution of truant students, Mills said. Since the truancy program requires data separated by jurisdictional boundaries, the district and the tribe must reach an agreement, he said. Cindy Higgins, a Navajo, stressed the importance of adding Navajo language, history and culture courses to the district's schools, which lack those classes. Navajo students cannot get certain tribal scholarships without credits in Navajo language and culture, she said. Joseph Chee, a Navajo culture and language scholar, expressed concern over diagnostic procedures after his daughter was placed in the special education program. He said he asked her the same questions in Navajo that she was asked during the diagnosis, and that she did fine. She later exited the special education program and re-entered the mainstream system. He said some American Indian children may be labeled "special ed" because of language and cultural barriers, instead of behavioral problems. "I'm wondering how many children have been set back because of these issues," he said. From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Thu Oct 28 19:34:01 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Thu, 28 Oct 2004 12:34:01 -0700 Subject: Native American Family Technology Journey to Help Weave Technology With Traditions (fwd) Message-ID: Native American Family Technology Journey to Help Weave Technology With Traditions IBM and Career Communications Group Launch Public Awareness Initiative October 30th to Assist Native Americans in Closing the Digital Divide http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release_html_b1?release_id=74997 ARMONK, NY -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 10/28/2004 -- Weaving today's computer technology with Native American traditions is the centerpiece of the inaugural Native American Family Technology Journey (NAFTJ), a national public awareness program starting October 30th to encourage native people to consider the advantages and opportunities made possible by bringing computer technology into their daily lives. The first of four NAFTJ events will be a technology workshop hosted by IBM and the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian at the museum in New York City on October 30th. Native American children will collaborate on programming a robot and guiding it over an obstacle course designed to their specifications. At the same time, parents and other guests will attend a seminar highlighting the educational, career and other opportunities that can be leveraged by building technological skills. A study released by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, titled "Falling Through The Net: Defining The Digital Divide," found that Native Americans "rank far below the national average in their access to telephones, computers and the Internet... " At 26.8%, access to computers among rural Native American households lags behind the national average by more than 15%. Similarly, access to the Internet for Native American households overall at 18.9% also trails the national average. Sponsored by IBM and Career Communications Group, NAFTJ coincides with National American Indian Heritage Month. The Journey includes career and educational seminars, interactive demonstrations and computer and Internet workshops that will offer Native Americans residing in urban centers, rural areas and on tribal lands technology access and training. "As the world's largest information technology provider, IBM has the privilege of employing and doing business with people from virtually every background," said Bob Moffat, senior vice president, Integrated Supply Chain, IBM and a NAFTJ national co-chair. "Working with our employees, business partners and the leadership of American Indian communities, we've seen the possibilities of how technology can help preserve languages and traditions and enhance the educational and career opportunities for native people; and we are committed to doing everything we can to assist Native American families in participating more fully in the Digital Age." NAFTJ will also highlight the role technology is playing in the preservation of native languages. Native American tribes seeking federal recognition by the U.S. government must have and still use a native language. More than 500 native languages exist, most of which are spoken rather than written. Storytelling is the means by which many elders pass native languages on to younger generations. IBM has been working with the Cherokee Nation to develop translation software and keyboard enablements that could assist tribes in preserving their languages. Other Native American Family Technology Journey events include: November 1st: Students from local middle schools will visit the University of North Carolina Pembroke to participate in a robotics experiment and develop technology presentations that they will share with their parents at a NAFTJ reception later that afternoon. They will also interact with Native American executives and IBM employee volunteers to learn about career opportunities in the IT industry. November 6th: NAFTJ will partner with the nation of the Tohono O'odham people to host a technology fair at the Tohono O'odham Community College in Sells, Arizona, providing more than 200 people with computer training as well as instructions on navigating the Internet and accessing online information about educational grants and other key services. November 18th: The Cherokee Nation in Tahlequah, OK, will host a technology fair for approximately 100 people at Sequoyah High School, which will include demonstrations of the IBM translation software and keyboard. Parents will also receive computer instruction, attend workshops and learn about software that will allow them to access student grades, activities, upcoming events and other important information. To learn more about the Native American Family Technology Journey, please visit www.nativeamericanfamilynet.net or call (410) 244-7101. About IBM IBM is the world's largest information technology company, with 80 years of leadership in helping businesses innovate. Drawing on resources from across IBM and key Business Partners, IBM offers a wide range of services, solutions and technologies that enable customers, large and small, to take full advantage of the new era of e-business. For more information about IBM, visit www.ibm.com. About CCG Career Communications Group, Inc. (CCG) is a minority-owned media services company, headquartered in Baltimore, MD. The company was founded 20 years ago to promote significant minority achievements in engineering, science and technology. For more information about CCG, visit www.ccgmag.com. CONTACT: Karina Diehl Duart IBM 305-969-7318 kdiehld at us.ibm.com Cecilia Santana Circulation Expertí, Ltd. 914-948-8144 cecilias at experti.com SOURCE:  IBM From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Fri Oct 29 17:19:49 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Fri, 29 Oct 2004 10:19:49 -0700 Subject: The language of learning (fwd) Message-ID: October 25, 2004 The language of learning A bilingual approach to Aboriginal education has spelt success, writes Jill Jolliffe in Arnhem Land. http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/10/22/1098316840865.html?oneclick=true# Daly River School, 200 kilometres from Darwin, was founded by Jesuits in the 19th century and is set on a bank of the deep-running river, from which the strange barking of crocodiles can be heard at night. The school is still Catholic but is now run by the Nauiyu Aboriginal community, and like most remote schools, few of its children speak English on admission. In the Northern Territory education system, it sits midway between schools teaching in indigenous languages and those teaching only in English. Its curriculum highlights local culture and its teachers are mainly Aboriginal. This day begins with a pep talk to a fractious class by principal Miriam Rose Baumann, a highly qualified pioneer of indigenous teaching. Students suffer low self-esteem so she chides gently. "You're all very clever," she tells them, "but you must work together. You follow the AFL mob so you should know a footballer can't play without the others." Helen McCarthy, a young Aboriginal teacher with an MA from Deakin University, supervises a first-grade painting class, in which "most speak Creole, some understand English, a few speak 'language' ". Five-year-old Milly Sambono-Diyini is the daughter of prominent Aboriginal artists. She colours her drawings carefully, then joins Ms Baumann's language and culture class in Ngangi Kurungurr, a language thousands of years old. The children learn new words and discuss the uses of local plants - the kapok tree for making canoes, and cashews and tamarinds for picking after morning dew sets in. "Language is everything to us. A person who knows their language knows who they are," the principal says. Kathy McMahon began teaching 20 years ago in Arnhem Land. It was an exciting time, after the Whitlam Labor government recognised indigenous children's right to learn in their mother tongue - and that they learnt better that way. Under the reforms, children were taught first in their own language, while also studying English. Indigenous literacy became a bridge to English literacy. Linguists fluent in local languages were appointed and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander teachers recruited. By 1994, more than 100 had graduated from Batchelor Institute, outside Darwin. The NT was administered then by the Commonwealth Government, but after self-government in 1978, the Country-Liberal Party (CLP) ruled. It eroded the bilingual system and challenged the "bridging" theory. Ms McMahon admits that there were problems but claims critics measured success by narrow standards. "Education's not just about literacy, it's about cognitive development," she says, "and that's where first language is essential. That's why UN resolutions say kids should be able to learn in their mother tongue, because that's the language their brains are in. They should be able to develop that and learn what they need from outside cultures." In 1999 the NT government tried scrapping bilingual teaching for an English-only system, but met a backlash. "The education minister arrived at Port Keats to find the whole community there," Ms McMahon recalls, "including old people all painted up, wearing T-shirts saying, 'Bilingual Forever'." The idea was dropped and bilingualists won the day, in theory, but claim the government later killed the project by cutting funds. Disillusioned with the state system, Ms McMahon moved to Daly River School, which championed indigenous culture. The election of the NT's first Labor government, in 2001, raised new hopes, with Chief Minister Clare Martin declaring her commitment to bilingualism. Statistics remained grim. Of 50,785 indigenous NT residents counted by the 2001 census, only 4704 had completed years 11-12. And although they represented 25 per cent of the general population, only 5 per cent held university places (21 per cent of the general population has tertiary education). Under Minister Sid Stirling, the few remaining bilingual schools (cut from 21 to 12 under the CLP ) still lack resources, with the Government prioritising "accelerated literacy development" in English. It is also reinforcing secondary programs, with some success. He defends these choices, saying there have been some outstanding results in the accelerated literacy drive. He told Education he supports the retention of language programs "where they still existed in 1999. We haven't walked away from bilingual teaching, we're still looking at it." (The Martin Government has its own "two-way program" version but several educators have described it as a "watered-down" version of original principles.) Those educators who accuse Labor of failing Aboriginal education say its promise to leave the previous government bureaucracy intact was disastrous. "When Clare came in, she started to use the 'b' word - 'bilingual' - but we're still in the CLP mode," says Raymattja Marika, a senior teacher at Arnhem Land's Yirrkala Community Education Centre. Yirrkala is one of the few remaining schools teaching in indigenous languages. Principal Leon White arrived in the NT in 1969, a 19-year-old from Wycheproof who was trained in Geelong. It was the shock of his life to discover his students spoke no English. Yirrkala is the heartland of Arnhem Land culture, and painting and music are part of daily life. Musicians such as the Yothu Yindi band are role models, and the school has three bands, including one for girls. Mr White witnessed the Whitlam-era reforms and their decline. He feels that champions of the system didn't defend their ideas properly, paving the way for the CLP cuts. "We lost our way in terms of a robust discussion," he says. And, like Ms McMahon, he admits there were errors. "By the early '90s, people became concerned the kids weren't learning enough English, and a major, positive restructuring happened. We wanted two-way education but not at the expense of kids learning English, and the community reasserted its interest in clan languages." He advocates bilingualism in a setting in which "schools have a big role to play in the way kids' self-esteem is developed - and resilience, inner strength, to be strong against drugs". Raymattja Marika sees the project as a struggle for souls, against the lure of substance abuse, crime and despair. In the next two years, Yirrkala will have children studying for the Northern Territory Certificate of Education for the first time, thanks partly to Minister Stirling's boosting of secondary resources. They will be a rare minority who have always studied in their own language as well as English. "They were definitely advantaged by being bilingual from primary," teacher Katrina Hudson says. "They have a precious asset-gains in community knowledge, self-esteem, and being comfortable to operate in both systems." From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Sun Oct 31 17:42:23 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Sun, 31 Oct 2004 10:42:23 -0700 Subject: =?iso-8859-1?b?QXR0ZW1wdKB0bw==?= save =?iso-8859-1?b?Tml1ZaBjdWx0dXJl?= (fwd) Message-ID: Attempt to save Niue culture Meeting in Niue to try to preserve the language and culture of the island, where only 1500 people still live 30 October 2004 http://home.nzcity.co.nz/news/default.asp?id=44506&c=w A two-day meeting in Niue will call on the strategy used in New Zealand to boost the use of Te Reo Maori. The gathering of leaders, including Prime Minister Helen Clark, aims to revitalise Niue's language and culture. Miss Clark says New Zealand is in a position to offer experience garnered through the Maori language renaissance. She says Niueans understand the community must come together to revive the language. Miss Clark says New Zealand's Education Ministry is working on a Niuean language curriculum. Statistics show just 12 percent of the 20,000 Niueans in New Zealand can speak their native tongue. New Zealand-based Niueans have gathered on the tiny Pacific island to help save the language and culture. Only 1,500 now live on the island. New Zealand's Niue High Commissioner Hima Takalesi says the two-day meeting mends a rift between islanders and New Zealand-based Niueans. He says in the past there has been contention between the two groups. Those who have left the island feel they have been isolated from the decision-making process, while those left behind feel abandoned. Mr Takalesi says Niueans have recognised the communities must come together to save the language. © 2004 NZCity, IRN From mona at ALLIESMEDIAART.COM Sun Oct 31 17:56:21 2004 From: mona at ALLIESMEDIAART.COM (MM Smith) Date: Sun, 31 Oct 2004 11:56:21 -0600 Subject: NCAI support resolution for statewide Dakota/Ojibwe language alliance In-Reply-To: <20041027154221.86315.qmail@web11206.mail.yahoo.com> Message-ID: WONDERFUL!!! -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: oneterm.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 4164 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- On Oct 27, 2004, at 10:42 AM, Richard LaFortune wrote: > the Dakota/Ojibwe Language Revitalization Alliance > (DOLRA) in Minnesota is pleased to announce a > resolution of support by the oldest, largest tribal > government organization in the US. > > best regards > Richard LaFortune > Legislative co-chair, DOLRA > > > vhttp://www.ncai.org/data/docs/resolution/annual2004/ftl04-055.pdf > > > > _______________________________ > Do you Yahoo!? > Express yourself with Y! Messenger! Free. Download now. > http://messenger.yahoo.com > From andrekar at NCIDC.ORG Mon Oct 4 16:33:14 2004 From: andrekar at NCIDC.ORG (Andre Cramblit) Date: Mon, 4 Oct 2004 09:33:14 -0700 Subject: Language conference (event) Message-ID: there will be a conference on indigenous languages in nearby St-Sauveur, Qu?bec? on Oct. 24th-26th. It's the 2nd conference on aboriginal languages organized by the First Nation Education Council (www.cepn-fnec.com) and the title is "Paroles d'Avenir". You can find information at www.cepn-fnec.com The FNEC is pleased to invite communities in Quebec and Canada to its second Conference on Aboriginal Languages, which is being held October 24-26, 2004 at the Manoir Saint-Sauveur. The conference will give participants the opportunity to learn about the situation of Aboriginal languages at the national and international levels. It will also present various projects that a number of communities have undertaken to preserve their languages. Participants will be able to discuss the possibilities for carrying out similar actions. The FNEC is planning to conclude the event with the formulation of recommendations and an action plan for preserving and revitalizing the languages of the Aboriginal communities in Quebec. To make sure the issues are approached from a broader perspective, the FNEC is inviting experts from other countries to take part in the conference. Indeed, preserving Aboriginal languages is a matter of international concern. The FNEC will also be inviting artists and craftspersons from the communities to present their work at the conference. A room will be reserved for them. For more information on the conference, please call Eve Bastien, at (418) 842-7672. -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 1899 bytes Desc: not available URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Oct 6 17:33:46 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 6 Oct 2004 10:33:46 -0700 Subject: Memory Module Explains Super Language Learners (fwd) Message-ID: Memory Module Explains Super Language Learners More active in people with greater proficiency in foreign tongues By Gabe Romain Betterhumans Staff 10/4/2004 4:12 PM http://www.betterhumans.com/News/news.aspx?articleID=2004-10-04-2 The ease at which some people adopt a second language may stem from a highly proficient short-term memory module. Researcher Michael Chee and colleagues at Singapore General Hospital have found that the activity of brain regions controlling phonological working memory (PWM)?the type of short-term memory used to remember letters, words and digits?is greater in people who are highly adept at learning a new language. "The key finding in the present study relates to people who have excellent first-language attainment and who despite having comparable impetus to be bilingual differ in second-language proficiency," say the researchers. "We found that these individuals show differences in cortical activation that suggest an important contribution of PWM to language attainment." Sound memory Research has shown that PWM is crucial for learning a new language. Specifically, it has been proposed that something called the phonological loop exists to facilitate language acquisition. The phonological loop consists of the phonological store and the articulatory control process. The phonological store can retain speech-based information for a short period?unless rehearsed, the memories fade within seconds. The articulatory control process involves subvocal rehearsal aimed at offsetting the decay of recently acquired memories. A number of behavioral studies have shown that measures of PWM predict the outcome of native language acquisition in children and foreign language acquisition in both children and adults, say the researchers. Moreover, studies on people with short-term memory deficits, language impairment and low scholastic achievement have revealed that PWM appears to be crucial for language acquisition. Brain differences To determine what PWM-related brain regions contribute to language learning, Chee and colleagues investigated the correlation between PWM in people termed "equal bilinguals" and people labeled "unequal bilinguals." English was the first language of both groups, however, equal bilinguals were also highly proficient in Chinese, whereas unequal bilinguals were less adept in Chinese. To evaluate the brain regions involved in PWM, participants were scanned with magnetic resonance imaging while performing an auditory test. Successful performance of the test required continuous updating and temporal reordering of phonological information. Equal and unequal bilinguals performed the task equally well. Equal bilinguals, however, showed greater activation in cortical areas that participate in PWM, whereas unequal bilinguals showed greater activation in brain areas that are engaged in goal directed processing. "Taken together, these observations support the overall construct that unequal bilinguals show differences in neural activation patterns that may belie a less efficient processing strategy that correlates with poorer second-language attainment," say the researchers. "The extent to which such processing differences are the cause or consequence of impaired second-language attainment remains to be explored." The research is reported in the Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences (read abstract). From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Fri Oct 8 16:54:40 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Fri, 8 Oct 2004 09:54:40 -0700 Subject: New technology improves syllabics on the web (fwd) Message-ID: Nunatsiaq News October 8, 2004 New technology improves syllabics on the web "We want to make sure people using older computers aren't missed" SARA MINOGUE http://www.nunatsiaq.com/news/nunavut/41008_11.html A small Iqaluit company has found a hassle-free way to put Inuktitut syllabics online. "Up until now you always had to download fonts, and if you didn't have the right font, you couldn't access the information," says Gavin Nesbitt of Attavik.net. "Most people would just ignore the Inuktitut text and they wouldn't access it at all." Now, he says, it's possible to guarantee that anybody with a computer and Internet access can read and print syllabics from Inuktitut web sites. A prime example of the new technology can be at the new website of the Office of the Languages Commissioner of Nunavut, at www.langcom.nu.ca. Visitors to the site are no longer prompted repeatedly to download a special font to view the Inuktitut. Instead, new technology on the Attavik web server takes care of the font problem, with no extra effort by the user required. It works like this: Every time someone visits a web page hosted by Attavik, it is filtered through a piece of software called Glyphgate, created by Swedish company em2 Solutions. Glyphgate automatically performs a check of the user's browser, and then decides what it needs to do to make Inuktitut syllabics visible on that particular computer. If the computer cannot already display Inuktitut syllabics, Glyphgate will create a quick fix. One fix is to create a temporary font specifically for that user. "If you're on a Mac," Nesbitt says, "you can see this visibly. It will actually show a bunch of random characters and then switch them to syllabics." The other fix ? if your computer technology is really ancient ? is for Glyphgate to convert all of the Inuktitut words to tiny images that are displayed as one big picture. Current efforts designed to help people use Inuktitut online generally rely on brand new technical standards, governed by obscure international bodies, which means that people working in Inuktitut generally need to have the latest equipment and fonts on their computers. This allows people to type and print syllabics, and copy and paste syllabics from different programs. "To people working in Inuktitut, that's fine," Nesbitt says. "But if you're somebody in Pond Inlet using Mac OS 8 with Internet Explorer 4 or something, you probably aren't going to be able to read most of the web sites that are online right now. "We want to make sure that people who are using older computers aren't missed." Attavik.net was founded about a year ago, as a partnership between the Pirurvik Centre, a language and cultural consultancy Nesbitt runs with Leena Evic, and a Toronto-based non-profit web hosting service called Web Community Resource Networks. The Pirurvik Centre's interest was mainly driven by the desire to give Inuktitut "the same options that other languages have online," Nesbitt says. However, the Attavik.net system has also proved to be a flexible, easy-to-use mechanism for companies or groups to create and maintain web sites in multiple languages, as many Nunavut organizations do. With just 10 minutes of training, Nesbitt says, Languages Commissioner Eva Aariak can update Inuktitut text online, a major change from most Inuktitut web sites. "Right now, it's pretty much the norm that web sites are out of date," Nesbitt says. The word "Attavik" translates roughly to mean "foundation," and is a short version of "Inuttitut Qarasaujalirinirmut Attavik," which means, "setting a base for Inuktitut computing." A number of other groups are already using the technology, including the Municipal Training Organization, which has won rave reviews. The Languages Commissioners' Office, appropriately, is the first to actively promote the technology with the launch of their site. "The easier it is to put Inuktitut on the web, and the easier it is for users to get Inuktitut on the web, the better it is for the language," says Jonathan Dewar, public affairs officer for the OLC. Attavik.net is now open for business. Prospective customers should visit www.attavik.net for more information. From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Fri Oct 8 16:57:50 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Fri, 8 Oct 2004 09:57:50 -0700 Subject: Labels promote Inuktitut vocabulary (fwd) Message-ID: Nunatsiaq News October 8, 2004 Labels promote Inuktitut vocabulary For English and Inuktitut speakers, things have two names JANE GEORGE http://www.nunatsiaq.com/news/nunavut/41008_17.html [photo inset- Labels like these are designed to help people recognize letters, syllabics, and the meaning of words.] The Nunavut Literacy Council has developed a simple and eye-catching way to improve literacy in Nunavut: sets of labels that show an object's name in English, Inuktitut syllabics and Roman orthography. "Somebody had done up some labels and put them in the drugstore and other places in town. Elders had said how great that was for them so that they knew what they were looking at. People thought it was a really great idea, and the labels stayed around for absolute ages," said Kim Crockatt, from the Nunavut Literacy Council. The labels show the names in their singular and plural forms. There's a set for tools and hardware labels, as well as sets for common objects in homes, stores and offices. "It's really important for kids and other people who are learning Inuktitut to see things and connect them to the objects. So, it's a great way to promote literacy and language skills," Crockatt said. There was not enough money to produce the labels in Innuinaqtun and French. "When people see Inuktitut print everywhere it helps them learn to recognize the letters and the meaning of the words. It's good for kids too. We didn't create labels for absolutely everything but this will give people a good start," said Quluaq Pilakapsi, the council's Inuktitut Resource Coordinator in Rankin Inlet. Shortly before Literacy Week, Oct. 3 to 9, schools, libraries and learning centres received a sample of the printed labels as well the CDs with templates for the labels. "The CDs have PDF files so they can print them up with the nice borders. They can also take the labels and make changes to them," Crockatt said. The council also has instructions for making a calendar as a way to promote Inuktitut and lots of information sheets on how parents can help their children's literacy skills. The labels are available through the Nunavut Literacy Council at 867-983-2678 or by sending an email to kimcr at polarnet.ca. From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US Fri Oct 8 17:14:18 2004 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP) Date: Fri, 8 Oct 2004 11:14:18 -0600 Subject: New technology improves syllabics on the web (fwd) Message-ID: This sounds Veri Cool. I wonder how much it costs. Off to the referenced site to Check It OUT!!!!!!! Happy Friday, Mia ----- Original Message ----- From: "phil cash cash" To: Sent: Friday, October 08, 2004 10:54 AM Subject: New technology improves syllabics on the web (fwd) Nunatsiaq News October 8, 2004 New technology improves syllabics on the web "We want to make sure people using older computers aren't missed" SARA MINOGUE http://www.nunatsiaq.com/news/nunavut/41008_11.html A small Iqaluit company has found a hassle-free way to put Inuktitut syllabics online. "Up until now you always had to download fonts, and if you didn't have the right font, you couldn't access the information," says Gavin Nesbitt of Attavik.net. "Most people would just ignore the Inuktitut text and they wouldn't access it at all." Now, he says, it's possible to guarantee that anybody with a computer and Internet access can read and print syllabics from Inuktitut web sites. A prime example of the new technology can be at the new website of the Office of the Languages Commissioner of Nunavut, at www.langcom.nu.ca. Visitors to the site are no longer prompted repeatedly to download a special font to view the Inuktitut. Instead, new technology on the Attavik web server takes care of the font problem, with no extra effort by the user required. It works like this: Every time someone visits a web page hosted by Attavik, it is filtered through a piece of software called Glyphgate, created by Swedish company em2 Solutions. Glyphgate automatically performs a check of the user's browser, and then decides what it needs to do to make Inuktitut syllabics visible on that particular computer. If the computer cannot already display Inuktitut syllabics, Glyphgate will create a quick fix. One fix is to create a temporary font specifically for that user. "If you're on a Mac," Nesbitt says, "you can see this visibly. It will actually show a bunch of random characters and then switch them to syllabics." The other fix ?~W if your computer technology is really ancient ?~W is for Glyphgate to convert all of the Inuktitut words to tiny images that are displayed as one big picture. Current efforts designed to help people use Inuktitut online generally rely on brand new technical standards, governed by obscure international bodies, which means that people working in Inuktitut generally need to have the latest equipment and fonts on their computers. This allows people to type and print syllabics, and copy and paste syllabics from different programs. "To people working in Inuktitut, that's fine," Nesbitt says. "But if you're somebody in Pond Inlet using Mac OS 8 with Internet Explorer 4 or something, you probably aren't going to be able to read most of the web sites that are online right now. "We want to make sure that people who are using older computers aren't missed." Attavik.net was founded about a year ago, as a partnership between the Pirurvik Centre, a language and cultural consultancy Nesbitt runs with Leena Evic, and a Toronto-based non-profit web hosting service called Web Community Resource Networks. The Pirurvik Centre's interest was mainly driven by the desire to give Inuktitut "the same options that other languages have online," Nesbitt says. However, the Attavik.net system has also proved to be a flexible, easy-to-use mechanism for companies or groups to create and maintain web sites in multiple languages, as many Nunavut organizations do. With just 10 minutes of training, Nesbitt says, Languages Commissioner Eva Aariak can update Inuktitut text online, a major change from most Inuktitut web sites. "Right now, it's pretty much the norm that web sites are out of date," Nesbitt says. The word "Attavik" translates roughly to mean "foundation," and is a short version of "Inuttitut Qarasaujalirinirmut Attavik," which means, "setting a base for Inuktitut computing." A number of other groups are already using the technology, including the Municipal Training Organization, which has won rave reviews. The Languages Commissioners' Office, appropriately, is the first to actively promote the technology with the launch of their site. "The easier it is to put Inuktitut on the web, and the easier it is for users to get Inuktitut on the web, the better it is for the language," says Jonathan Dewar, public affairs officer for the OLC. Attavik.net is now open for business. Prospective customers should visit www.attavik.net for more information. From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US Fri Oct 8 17:26:55 2004 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP) Date: Fri, 8 Oct 2004 11:26:55 -0600 Subject: New technology improves syllabics on the web (fwd) Message-ID: This is Free to non-profits. I wrote to them asking for additional information. I will let everyone know when I hear back. Their demos are great! Immediately get the point across, using English font examples and color demonstrations, so people can follow easily if they are used to the difficult issues of font selection and multiple platforms. http://www.glyphgate.com/info/demos.htm Mia ----- Original Message ----- From: "MiaKalish at LFP" To: Sent: Friday, October 08, 2004 11:14 AM Subject: Re: New technology improves syllabics on the web (fwd) > This sounds Veri Cool. I wonder how much it costs. Off to the referenced > site to Check It OUT!!!!!!! > > Happy Friday, > Mia > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "phil cash cash" > To: > Sent: Friday, October 08, 2004 10:54 AM > Subject: New technology improves syllabics on the web (fwd) > > > Nunatsiaq News October 8, 2004 > > New technology improves syllabics on the web > > "We want to make sure people using older computers aren't missed" > > SARA MINOGUE > http://www.nunatsiaq.com/news/nunavut/41008_11.html > > A small Iqaluit company has found a hassle-free way to put Inuktitut > syllabics online. > > "Up until now you always had to download fonts, and if you didn't have > the right font, you couldn't access the information," says Gavin > Nesbitt of Attavik.net. > > "Most people would just ignore the Inuktitut text and they wouldn't > access it at all." > > Now, he says, it's possible to guarantee that anybody with a computer > and Internet access can read and print syllabics from Inuktitut web > sites. > > A prime example of the new technology can be at the new website of the > Office of the Languages Commissioner of Nunavut, at www.langcom.nu.ca. > > Visitors to the site are no longer prompted repeatedly to download a > special font to view the Inuktitut. Instead, new technology on the > Attavik web server takes care of the font problem, with no extra effort > by the user required. > > It works like this: Every time someone visits a web page hosted by > Attavik, it is filtered through a piece of software called Glyphgate, > created by Swedish company em2 Solutions. > > Glyphgate automatically performs a check of the user's browser, and then > decides what it needs to do to make Inuktitut syllabics visible on that > particular computer. > > If the computer cannot already display Inuktitut syllabics, Glyphgate > will create a quick fix. One fix is to create a temporary font > specifically for that user. > > "If you're on a Mac," Nesbitt says, "you can see this visibly. It will > actually show a bunch of random characters and then switch them to > syllabics." > > The other fix ?~W if your computer technology is really ancient ?~W is for > Glyphgate to convert all of the Inuktitut words to tiny images that are > displayed as one big picture. > > Current efforts designed to help people use Inuktitut online generally > rely on brand new technical standards, governed by obscure > international bodies, which means that people working in Inuktitut > generally need to have the latest equipment and fonts on their > computers. > > This allows people to type and print syllabics, and copy and paste > syllabics from different programs. > > "To people working in Inuktitut, that's fine," Nesbitt says. "But if > you're somebody in Pond Inlet using Mac OS 8 with Internet Explorer 4 > or something, you probably aren't going to be able to read most of the > web sites that are online right now. > > "We want to make sure that people who are using older computers aren't > missed." > > Attavik.net was founded about a year ago, as a partnership between the > Pirurvik Centre, a language and cultural consultancy Nesbitt runs with > Leena Evic, and a Toronto-based non-profit web hosting service called > Web Community Resource Networks. > > The Pirurvik Centre's interest was mainly driven by the desire to give > Inuktitut "the same options that other languages have online," Nesbitt > says. > > However, the Attavik.net system has also proved to be a flexible, > easy-to-use mechanism for companies or groups to create and maintain > web sites in multiple languages, as many Nunavut organizations do. > > With just 10 minutes of training, Nesbitt says, Languages Commissioner > Eva Aariak can update Inuktitut text online, a major change from most > Inuktitut web sites. > > "Right now, it's pretty much the norm that web sites are out of date," > Nesbitt says. > > The word "Attavik" translates roughly to mean "foundation," and is a > short version of "Inuttitut Qarasaujalirinirmut Attavik," which means, > "setting a base for Inuktitut computing." > > A number of other groups are already using the technology, including the > Municipal Training Organization, which has won rave reviews. > > The Languages Commissioners' Office, appropriately, is the first to > actively promote the technology with the launch of their site. > > "The easier it is to put Inuktitut on the web, and the easier it is for > users to get Inuktitut on the web, the better it is for the language," > says Jonathan Dewar, public affairs officer for the OLC. > > Attavik.net is now open for business. Prospective customers should visit > www.attavik.net for more information. > > From pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET Fri Oct 8 17:29:16 2004 From: pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET (phil cash cash) Date: Fri, 8 Oct 2004 10:29:16 -0700 Subject: New technology improves syllabics on the web (fwd) In-Reply-To: <010401c4ad5a$3f608ad0$abed7b80@red6bvg9btk> Message-ID: yes, i was impressed myself. maybe it can be used to assist the readability of fonts for other indigenous languages and communities. phil cash cash UofA, ILAT On Oct 8, 2004, at 10:14 AM, MiaKalish at LFP wrote: > This sounds Veri Cool. I wonder how much it costs. Off to the > referenced > site to Check It OUT!!!!!!! > > Happy Friday, > Mia > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "phil cash cash" > To: > Sent: Friday, October 08, 2004 10:54 AM > Subject: New technology improves syllabics on the web (fwd) > > > Nunatsiaq News October 8, 2004 > > New technology improves syllabics on the web > > "We want to make sure people using older computers aren't missed" > > SARA MINOGUE > http://www.nunatsiaq.com/news/nunavut/41008_11.html > > A small Iqaluit company has found a hassle-free way to put Inuktitut > syllabics online. > > "Up until now you always had to download fonts, and if you didn't have > the right font, you couldn't access the information," says Gavin > Nesbitt of Attavik.net. > > "Most people would just ignore the Inuktitut text and they wouldn't > access it at all." > > Now, he says, it's possible to guarantee that anybody with a computer > and Internet access can read and print syllabics from Inuktitut web > sites. > > A prime example of the new technology can be at the new website of the > Office of the Languages Commissioner of Nunavut, at www.langcom.nu.ca. > > Visitors to the site are no longer prompted repeatedly to download a > special font to view the Inuktitut. Instead, new technology on the > Attavik web server takes care of the font problem, with no extra effort > by the user required. > > It works like this: Every time someone visits a web page hosted by > Attavik, it is filtered through a piece of software called Glyphgate, > created by Swedish company em2 Solutions. > > Glyphgate automatically performs a check of the user's browser, and > then > decides what it needs to do to make Inuktitut syllabics visible on that > particular computer. > > If the computer cannot already display Inuktitut syllabics, Glyphgate > will create a quick fix. One fix is to create a temporary font > specifically for that user. > > "If you're on a Mac," Nesbitt says, "you can see this visibly. It will > actually show a bunch of random characters and then switch them to > syllabics." > > The other fix ? if your computer technology is really ancient ? is for > Glyphgate to convert all of the Inuktitut words to tiny images that are > displayed as one big picture. > > Current efforts designed to help people use Inuktitut online generally > rely on brand new technical standards, governed by obscure > international bodies, which means that people working in Inuktitut > generally need to have the latest equipment and fonts on their > computers. > > This allows people to type and print syllabics, and copy and paste > syllabics from different programs. > > "To people working in Inuktitut, that's fine," Nesbitt says. "But if > you're somebody in Pond Inlet using Mac OS 8 with Internet Explorer 4 > or something, you probably aren't going to be able to read most of the > web sites that are online right now. > > "We want to make sure that people who are using older computers aren't > missed." > > Attavik.net was founded about a year ago, as a partnership between the > Pirurvik Centre, a language and cultural consultancy Nesbitt runs with > Leena Evic, and a Toronto-based non-profit web hosting service called > Web Community Resource Networks. > > The Pirurvik Centre's interest was mainly driven by the desire to give > Inuktitut "the same options that other languages have online," Nesbitt > says. > > However, the Attavik.net system has also proved to be a flexible, > easy-to-use mechanism for companies or groups to create and maintain > web sites in multiple languages, as many Nunavut organizations do. > > With just 10 minutes of training, Nesbitt says, Languages Commissioner > Eva Aariak can update Inuktitut text online, a major change from most > Inuktitut web sites. > > "Right now, it's pretty much the norm that web sites are out of date," > Nesbitt says. > > The word "Attavik" translates roughly to mean "foundation," and is a > short version of "Inuttitut Qarasaujalirinirmut Attavik," which means, > "setting a base for Inuktitut computing." > > A number of other groups are already using the technology, including > the > Municipal Training Organization, which has won rave reviews. > > The Languages Commissioners' Office, appropriately, is the first to > actively promote the technology with the launch of their site. > > "The easier it is to put Inuktitut on the web, and the easier it is for > users to get Inuktitut on the web, the better it is for the language," > says Jonathan Dewar, public affairs officer for the OLC. > > Attavik.net is now open for business. Prospective customers should > visit > www.attavik.net for more information. > From keola at LEOKI.UHH.HAWAII.EDU Fri Oct 8 17:58:40 2004 From: keola at LEOKI.UHH.HAWAII.EDU (Keola Donaghy) Date: Fri, 8 Oct 2004 07:58:40 -1000 Subject: New technology improves syllabics on the web (fwd) In-Reply-To: <93FC831E-194F-11D9-9703-0003936727C2@dakotacom.net> Message-ID: FWIW, we used Glyphgate (previously Fairy) for Hawaiian several years ago and worked with the developer to strengthen Hawaiian and Polynesian support, but eventually abandoned it and just converted our site to straight UTF-8. The company was very responsive and helpful, but I found myself spending far too much time tweaking the settings for broswers that did not require the plugin to display the language. Perhaps it's easier now. If anyone wants more details feel free to contact me directly. Keola Indigenous Languages and Technology writes: >yes, i was impressed myself. maybe it can be used to assist the >readability of fonts for other indigenous languages and communities. ======================================================================= 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 Oct 8 18:27:44 2004 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP) Date: Fri, 8 Oct 2004 12:27:44 -0600 Subject: New technology improves syllabics on the web (fwd) Message-ID: Hi, Keola, I don't know too much about Hawai'ian, except that its so beautiful. Can you give us a quick overview of how many letters are different and how different the glyphs are? For Apache, we have the en-yay (n with a tilde over it) and the voiceless l, both of which are available in UTF-8 and Unicode. But we also have upper-lower case vowels with both the acute accent and the cedilla, indicating nasalized, rising tone. The Unicode people have said that we can use the new script to build these characters on the fly, but the new script requires newer operating system capabilities, and has the usual platform problems. There's some Apache on the menus at http://learningforpeople.us/MALibrary/index.htm. There aren't any of these double characters, but you can see both the acute and the cedilla on the vowels. best, Mia ----- Original Message ----- From: "Keola Donaghy" To: Sent: Friday, October 08, 2004 11:58 AM Subject: Re: New technology improves syllabics on the web (fwd) > FWIW, we used Glyphgate (previously Fairy) for Hawaiian several years ago > and worked with the developer to strengthen Hawaiian and Polynesian > support, but eventually abandoned it and just converted our site to > straight UTF-8. The company was very responsive and helpful, but I found > myself spending far too much time tweaking the settings for broswers that > did not require the plugin to display the language. Perhaps it's easier > now. If anyone wants more details feel free to contact me directly. > > Keola > > Indigenous Languages and Technology writes: > >yes, i was impressed myself. maybe it can be used to assist the > >readability of fonts for other indigenous languages and communities. > > > ======================================================================== > 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 Oct 8 22:23:21 2004 From: keola at LEOKI.UHH.HAWAII.EDU (Keola Donaghy) Date: Fri, 8 Oct 2004 12:23:21 -1000 Subject: New technology improves syllabics on the web (fwd) In-Reply-To: <017b01c4ad64$810c5360$abed7b80@red6bvg9btk> Message-ID: Aloha e Mia. Basically we need a macron over vowels, both upper and lower case, and the glottal. We started using customized fonts for Hawaiian on the web since in 1994, a bit of the history is here: http://www.olelo.hawaii.edu/eng/resources/fonts.html Later we tried Bitstream's and Microsoft's dowloadable fonts, Fairy/Glyphgate, and now just use Unicode. This page shows (in Unicode compliant browsers) the characters we require and their locations: http://www.olelo.hawaii.edu/eng/resources/unicode.html Keola Indigenous Languages and Technology writes: >I don't know too much about Hawai'ian, except that its so beautiful. > >Can you give us a quick overview of how many letters are different and how >different the glyphs are? For Apache, we have the en-yay (n with a tilde >over it) and the voiceless l, both of which are available in UTF-8 and >Unicode. But we also have upper-lower case vowels with both the acute >accent >and the cedilla, indicating nasalized, rising tone. The Unicode people >have >said that we can use the new script to build these characters on the fly, >but the new script requires newer operating system capabilities, and has >the >usual platform problems. > >There's some Apache on the menus at >http://learningforpeople.us/MALibrary/index.htm. There aren't any of these >double characters, but you can see both the acute and the cedilla on the >vowels. ======================================================================= 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 Oct 9 10:55:59 2004 From: dzo at BISHARAT.NET (Donald Z. Osborn) Date: Sat, 9 Oct 2004 05:55:59 -0500 Subject: Fwd: Digital Language Documentation Message-ID: The following item from the Linguist list may be of interest. Although the request for info concerns primarily American languages, the subject reminds me of a set of tapes of interviews with Sahelian people in the 1980s about changes in their environment. This material was used for an English language publication on that topic and the tapes were archived. Apparently at least some of the tapes are still extant, but I'm not sure of their condition or the possibilities for digitizing the audio (the latter contingent mainly on funding), which was in the interviewees' languages. This doesn't concern endangered languages but it would still be a shame to lose these voices. Don Osborn Bisharat.net Date: 03-Oct-2004 From: Jeff Good Subject: Digital Language Documentation As part of work I am doing with several colleagues on the state of archiving of digital resources, particularly in Americanist linguistics, I would like to solicit any stories or anecdotes that list members have either (i) about data that was unfortunately lost because of shifts in technology or media degradation or (ii) an unexpected use that data was able to be put to because of the use of good (especially ''best practice'') digital archiving methods. To be more concrete, on the negative side, this could be a story about, for example, how a dictionary for an endangered language was lost because of the degradation of a floppy disk or because no program could be found to read an old computer file. On the positive side, this could be a story about how a well-structured and carefully maintained lexical database was able to be put to multiple uses, for example to produce both an academic and a pedagogical dictionary. While we are particularly interested in cases from American languages, we expect such a collection of stories to be of potential value to the general linguistic community and, therefore, are collecting any relevant stories and anecdotes--even if we don't use them all in our own research, they may, for example, be valuable to the E-MELD project (http://www.emeld.org/). Since a story of ''lost'' data could potentially be embarrassing, I would be happy to keep such a story anonymous in the summary post of responses to this query if requested. Linguistic Field(s): General Linguistics From dzo at BISHARAT.NET Sun Oct 10 06:31:07 2004 From: dzo at BISHARAT.NET (Donald Z. Osborn) Date: Sun, 10 Oct 2004 01:31:07 -0500 Subject: New technology improves syllabics on the web (fwd) In-Reply-To: <017b01c4ad64$810c5360$abed7b80@red6bvg9btk> Message-ID: Interesting thread. I'll be passing the news along (also noticed mention of Glyphgate on another list). The "build these characters on the fly" Mia mentions is called "dynamic composition." In principle, with a newer system that can position the "combining diacritics" properly (e.g., cedilla or accent), this works fine. On older systems, that's another matter - hence this discussion. The issue of precomposed vs. dynamically composed characters has been somewhat controversial in Africa (at least at one conference), with some arguing for more precomposed characters in Unicode/ISO-10646. However it doesn't seem that Unicode will change its decision not to add more precomposed Latin characters and ultimately (eventually) the technology will render the issue moot. Another issue is the order of diacritics added to the base characters, which can be important for searching, sorting, etc. Don Osborn Bisharat.net Quoting "MiaKalish at LFP" : > Hi, Keola, > > I don't know too much about Hawai'ian, except that its so beautiful. > > Can you give us a quick overview of how many letters are different and how > different the glyphs are? For Apache, we have the en-yay (n with a tilde > over it) and the voiceless l, both of which are available in UTF-8 and > Unicode. But we also have upper-lower case vowels with both the acute accent > and the cedilla, indicating nasalized, rising tone. The Unicode people have > said that we can use the new script to build these characters on the fly, > but the new script requires newer operating system capabilities, and has the > usual platform problems. > > There's some Apache on the menus at > http://learningforpeople.us/MALibrary/index.htm. There aren't any of these > double characters, but you can see both the acute and the cedilla on the > vowels. > > best, > Mia > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Keola Donaghy" > To: > Sent: Friday, October 08, 2004 11:58 AM > Subject: Re: New technology improves syllabics on the web (fwd) > > > > FWIW, we used Glyphgate (previously Fairy) for Hawaiian several years ago > > and worked with the developer to strengthen Hawaiian and Polynesian > > support, but eventually abandoned it and just converted our site to > > straight UTF-8. The company was very responsive and helpful, but I found > > myself spending far too much time tweaking the settings for broswers that > > did not require the plugin to display the language. Perhaps it's easier > > now. If anyone wants more details feel free to contact me directly. > > > > Keola > > > > Indigenous Languages and Technology writes: > > >yes, i was impressed myself. maybe it can be used to assist the > > >readability of fonts for other indigenous languages and communities. > > > > > > ======================================================================== > > 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 Sun Oct 10 17:19:09 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Sun, 10 Oct 2004 10:19:09 -0700 Subject: Yukon chiefs call for control of language cash (fwd) Message-ID: NORTH.CBC.CA Yukon chiefs call for control of language cash Last Updated: Oct 8 2004 07:25 PM CDT http://north.cbc.ca/regional/servlet/View?filename=oct08yukchief10082004, WHITEHORSE - Yukon Council of First Nations Grand Chief Ed Schultz wants to know why Yukon First Nations aren't in charge of the territory's aboriginal language programs. [photo inset - 'We have the least say on that. And we're not going to take it any more' ? Ed Schultz] Schultz had some strong words about the situation Friday following a meeting of Yukon chiefs. Schultz says with many native languages disappearing, and some gone already, he's going to take action. Schultz says the territory's First Nations have a mandate to protect languages, but lack the tools to do it. He wants to make sure the people who speak those languages have the power to preserve them. "What makes us distinct is our language ? that's what makes us distinct," he says. "That's the essence of our identity. But the control measures for its ongoing utilization, development, promotion and integration into the contemporary world is controlled by everyone else but us." "We have the least say on that. And we're not going to take it any more." Currently, most money for Yukon language programs flows through non-native government agencies like Canadian Heritage, and the territorial Department of Education. Schulz says as soon as possible, that cash and the power that comes with it must be transferred to the Council of Yukon First Nations Copyright ? 2004 Canadian Broadcasting Corporation - All Rights Reserved From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US Mon Oct 11 17:21:22 2004 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP) Date: Mon, 11 Oct 2004 11:21:22 -0600 Subject: New technology improves syllabics on the web (fwd) Message-ID: > Another issue is the order of diacritics added to the base characters, which can > be important for searching, sorting, etc. This is not a problem with pre-composed characters, but opens issues of protocols (which can be violated) and meta-font interfaces. (I just made up meta-font, and what it means is that the composed characters are "globbed together" and given a new reference, rendering the sequence of aggregation moot.) Thanks, Don, for your throught-provoking comments. Mia ----- Original Message ----- From: "Donald Z. Osborn" To: Sent: Sunday, October 10, 2004 12:31 AM Subject: Re: New technology improves syllabics on the web (fwd) > Interesting thread. I'll be passing the news along (also noticed mention of > Glyphgate on another list). > > The "build these characters on the fly" Mia mentions is called "dynamic > composition." In principle, with a newer system that can position the > "combining diacritics" properly (e.g., cedilla or accent), this works fine. On > older systems, that's another matter - hence this discussion. > > The issue of precomposed vs. dynamically composed characters has been somewhat > controversial in Africa (at least at one conference), with some arguing for > more precomposed characters in Unicode/ISO-10646. However it doesn't seem that > Unicode will change its decision not to add more precomposed Latin characters > and ultimately (eventually) the technology will render the issue moot. > > Another issue is the order of diacritics added to the base characters, which can > be important for searching, sorting, etc. > > Don Osborn > Bisharat.net > > > > Quoting "MiaKalish at LFP" : > > > Hi, Keola, > > > > I don't know too much about Hawai'ian, except that its so beautiful. > > > > Can you give us a quick overview of how many letters are different and how > > different the glyphs are? For Apache, we have the en-yay (n with a tilde > > over it) and the voiceless l, both of which are available in UTF-8 and > > Unicode. But we also have upper-lower case vowels with both the acute accent > > and the cedilla, indicating nasalized, rising tone. The Unicode people have > > said that we can use the new script to build these characters on the fly, > > but the new script requires newer operating system capabilities, and has the > > usual platform problems. > > > > There's some Apache on the menus at > > http://learningforpeople.us/MALibrary/index.htm. There aren't any of these > > double characters, but you can see both the acute and the cedilla on the > > vowels. > > > > best, > > Mia > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: "Keola Donaghy" > > To: > > Sent: Friday, October 08, 2004 11:58 AM > > Subject: Re: New technology improves syllabics on the web (fwd) > > > > > > > FWIW, we used Glyphgate (previously Fairy) for Hawaiian several years ago > > > and worked with the developer to strengthen Hawaiian and Polynesian > > > support, but eventually abandoned it and just converted our site to > > > straight UTF-8. The company was very responsive and helpful, but I found > > > myself spending far too much time tweaking the settings for broswers that > > > did not require the plugin to display the language. Perhaps it's easier > > > now. If anyone wants more details feel free to contact me directly. > > > > > > Keola > > > > > > Indigenous Languages and Technology writes: > > > >yes, i was impressed myself. maybe it can be used to assist the > > > >readability of fonts for other indigenous languages and communities. > > > > > > > > > ======================================================================= > > > 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 Oct 11 17:24:00 2004 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP) Date: Mon, 11 Oct 2004 11:24:00 -0600 Subject: Yukon chiefs call for control of language cash (fwd) Message-ID: Ya know, I know some people who were offered the tools to take control of their language,and they turned it down. Is he only talking about $$$$$$$? Or is he perhaps talking about developing a rigorous technical support base that can make it happen? (I have noticed that people will frequently have a "gut reaction" to technology, but they don't calculate the ratio of teachers to learners, that is increasing year by year as Elders pass.) This just happens to fit so will with our other thread about fonts. Mia ----- Original Message ----- From: "phil cash cash" To: Sent: Sunday, October 10, 2004 11:19 AM Subject: Yukon chiefs call for control of language cash (fwd) NORTH.CBC.CA Yukon chiefs call for control of language cash Last Updated: Oct 8 2004 07:25 PM CDT http://north.cbc.ca/regional/servlet/View?filename=oct08yukchief10082004, WHITEHORSE - Yukon Council of First Nations Grand Chief Ed Schultz wants to know why Yukon First Nations aren't in charge of the territory's aboriginal language programs. [photo inset - 'We have the least say on that. And we're not going to take it any more' ?~V Ed Schultz] Schultz had some strong words about the situation Friday following a meeting of Yukon chiefs. Schultz says with many native languages disappearing, and some gone already, he's going to take action. Schultz says the territory's First Nations have a mandate to protect languages, but lack the tools to do it. He wants to make sure the people who speak those languages have the power to preserve them. "What makes us distinct is our language ?~V that's what makes us distinct," he says. "That's the essence of our identity. But the control measures for its ongoing utilization, development, promotion and integration into the contemporary world is controlled by everyone else but us." "We have the least say on that. And we're not going to take it any more." Currently, most money for Yukon language programs flows through non-native government agencies like Canadian Heritage, and the territorial Department of Education. Schulz says as soon as possible, that cash and the power that comes with it must be transferred to the Council of Yukon First Nations Copyright ? 2004 Canadian Broadcasting Corporation - All Rights Reserved From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Tue Oct 12 17:00:15 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Tue, 12 Oct 2004 10:00:15 -0700 Subject: Dedicated to keeping their language alive (fwd) Message-ID: GETTING TO KNOW GEORGE ADAMS AND CATALINA RENTERIA Dedicated to keeping their language alive http://news.bellinghamherald.com/stories/20041012/TopStories/211700.shtml [NOOKSACK HERITAGE: George Adams and Catalina Renteria are language specialists who work in the cultural management resource office at the Nooksack Indian Tribal center in Deming. They use books, videos and ceremony to help preserve the tribe's traditional language. MAME BURNS HERALD PHOTO] By Linda Kendall Scott, for the Bellingham Herald Modern technology is being linked with the voices of elders to return the nearly extinct Nooksack language to life. Lhchelesem nearly died in 1977 with the last fluent speaker, Sindick Jimmy. Cultural specialist and teacher George Adams said the Nooksacks were bilingual for nearly 200 years after the young men began going north, around 1790, to find brides. Later, the northern language, Upriver Halq'emylem, was more commonly used. As the elders died, even that language began fading away. In the early 1970s, linguist Brent Galloway, now on the staff of the University of Regina in Saskatchewan, and other scholars began recording and transcribing stories and songs told by the elders in both languages. In May 2002, nearly 50 CDs of Halq'emylem were presented to the Nooksack tribe. Meanwhile, language specialist Catalina Renteria adapted an interactive computer program to teach the language at the Nooksack Education Center. Now, Renteria, Adams and Galloway are creating a program to preserve and revive Lhchelesem. They've got an alphabet and digitized dictionary, and they're retrieving parts of speech and syntax from Jimmy's recordings. They hope some of their youths will become trilingual. Q: How will you accomplish this? Adams: Our young people grew up speaking English. Perhaps a dozen can now read and write basic Halq'emylem and converse in simple sentences. We think Halq'emylem speakers can learn Lhchelesem. The alphabets of the two languages are similar. We'll be happy if even six to eight of our young people become fluent. With only a handful of elders who knew it, we made enough tapes to revive it. Renteria: The young people hear these words when we teach our history. The language is tied to the land. It emanates from our stories, songs and dances. Q: You've shared Nooksack culture with nontribal children and parents in the community and in public classrooms. Why? Adams: It educates the public that we're still here, and this is our language and culture. Renteria: It claims our inherent right to the land, sovereignty, and cultural identity. If we lose the language, gone is an irreplaceable resource, gone is the teachings of our old ones, gone to our little ones and gone for scholars and scientists. Q: What do children and parents experience with your ceremonies? Adams: We engage the students in making gifts for a give-away - clappers, medicine pouches, rocks from the river painted with a Coast Salish design. It's a high premium in our society to give rather than receive. They learn the language by learning to sing a song or tell a story. Using our shawls and drums, they will celebrate the song or story. Renteria: We engage the students in the oral tradition of calling witnesses from among the parents and visitors to explain what took place and to acknowledge their responsibility to remember what they learned. Adams: A lot of feedback from the witnesses is often very touching. Linda Kendall Scott is a freelance writer. For questions or story ideas, contact Dean Kahn at dean.kahn at bellinghamherald.com or 715-2291. From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Oct 13 18:18:05 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 13 Oct 2004 11:18:05 -0700 Subject: Being Bilingual Boosts Brain (fwd) Message-ID: Being Bilingual Boosts Brain Oct. 13, 2004 http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/10/13/health/webmd/main649050.shtml People who are bilingual have an advantage over the rest of us, and not just in terms of communication skills. The bilingual brain develops more densely, giving it an advantage in various abilities and skills, according to new research. Researchers Andrea Mechelli of London's Wellcome Department of Imaging Neuroscience and colleagues, including experts from the Fondazione Santa Lucia in Rome, looked at brain densities of bilingual people. First, they recruited 25 people who speak one language, 25 who learned a second European language before age 5, and 33 who became bilingual between ages 10 and 15. All the participants spoke English as their primary language. Those who had learned a second language later in life had practiced it regularly for at least five years. Bilingual Brains Do Better The brain has two types of tissue visible to the naked eye, termed gray and white matter. Gray matter makes up the bulk of nerve cells within the brain. Studies have shown an association with gray matter density (or volume and intellect), especially in areas of language, memory, and attention. Brain imaging showed that bilingual speakers had denser gray matter compared with monolingual participants. The difference was especially significant in the brain's left side ? an area known to control language and communication skills. The right hemisphere of bilingual speakers also showed a similar trend. The researchers say that although language is thought to be mediated by functional changes in the brain, they show that being bilingual structurally changes the brain. Their study shows the effect was strongest in people who had learned a second language before age 5. In a second test, the researchers studied 22 native Italian speakers who had learned English as a second language between ages 2 and 34. Those who had learned English at a young age had greater proficiency in reading, writing, talking, and understanding English speech. As in the first test, increases in gray matter density in the brain's left region were linked to age at which a person became bilingual. The earliest second language learners had the densest gray matter in that part of the brain. Of course, while it might seem easier to pick up a second language as a child, it's still possible to do so as an adult. "Our findings suggest that the structure of the human brain is altered by the experience of acquiring a second language," write the researchers in the October issue of the journal Nature. SOURCE: Mechelli, A. Nature, October 2004; vol 431: p 757. From mithun at LINGUISTICS.UCSB.EDU Wed Oct 13 22:00:41 2004 From: mithun at LINGUISTICS.UCSB.EDU (Marianne Mithun) Date: Wed, 13 Oct 2004 15:00:41 -0700 Subject: Job at Santa Barbara Message-ID: Assistant Professor, Computational/Corpus Linguistics The Linguistics Department of the University of California, Santa Barbara seeks to hire a specialist in computational and/or corpus linguistic approaches to language. The appointment will be tenure-track at the Assistant Professor level, effective July 1, 2005. We are especially interested in candidates whose research shows theoretical implications bridging computational and/or corpus linguistics and general linguistics, and who can interact with colleagues and students across disciplinary boundaries at UCSB. Candidates will be preferred whose research engages with the departmental focus on functional and usage-based approaches to explaining language. Research experience with corpora of naturally occurring language use is required. Candidates must have demonstrated excellence in teaching, and will be expected to teach a range of graduate and undergraduate courses in both computational/corpus linguistics and general linguistics. Ph.D. in linguistics or a related field such as cognitive science or computer science is required. Ph.D. normally required by the time of appointment. Applicants should submit hard copy of curriculum vitae, statement of research interests, 1-2 writing samples, and full contact information for three academic references to the Search Committee, Linguistics Department, UCSB, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-3100. Fax and email applications not accepted. Inquiries may be addressed to the above address or via email to lingsearch at linguistics.ucsb.edu. Tentative deadline is November 12, 2004. However, the position will remain open until filled. Preliminary interviews will be conducted at the Linguistic Society of America, although attendance is not required for consideration. The department is especially interested in candidates who can contribute to the diversity and excellence of the academic community through research, teaching and service. UCSB is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. Address for Applications: Attn: Search Committee Dana Spoonerow University of California, Santa Barbara, Linguistics Department 3607 South Hall Santa Barbara, CA 93016 United States of America Applications are due by 12-Nov-2004 Contact Information: Professor Cumming Email: lingsearch at linguistics.ucsb.edu Tel: 805-893-7241 Fax: 805-893-7769 Website: http://www.linguistics.ucsb.edu From andrekar at NCIDC.ORG Thu Oct 14 18:51:23 2004 From: andrekar at NCIDC.ORG (Andre Cramblit) Date: Thu, 14 Oct 2004 11:51:23 -0700 Subject: Elders dinner Message-ID: Press Release CONTACT: Andr? Cramblit WHERE: NCIDC (707) 445-8451 The Northern California Indian Development Council is proud to sponsor the Elders-Dinner and Inter Tribal Gathering for 2004. About 200 volunteers are needed to help make this event a success. We depend on the energy and commitment of many people to make this celebration a triumph so all are invited to help make the event a great day. To Volunteer please call Lou at (707) 445-8451 or go to www.ncidc.org: http://www.ncidc.org/nwit.htm .:.? Andr? Cramblit: andre.p.cramblit.86 at alum.dartmouth.org is the Operations Director Northern California Indian Development Council NCIDC (http://www.ncidc.org) is a non-profit that meets the development needs of American Indians To subscribe to a news letter of interest to Natives send an email to: IndigenousNewsNetwork-subscribe at topica.com or go to: http://www.topica.com/lists/IndigenousNewsNetwork/subscribe/? location=listinfo -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 1458 bytes Desc: not available URL: From andrekar at NCIDC.ORG Thu Oct 14 23:44:23 2004 From: andrekar at NCIDC.ORG (Andre Cramblit) Date: Thu, 14 Oct 2004 16:44:23 -0700 Subject: No subject Message-ID: Press Release CONTACT: Andr? Cramblit WHERE: NCIDC (707) 445-8451 The Northern California Indian Development Council is proud to sponsor the Elders-Dinner and Inter Tribal Gathering for 2004. About 200 volunteers are needed to help make this event a success. We depend on the energy and commitment of many people to make this celebration a triumph so all are invited to help make the event a great day. To Volunteer please call Lou at (707) 445-8451 or go to www.ncidc.org: http://www.ncidc.org/nwit.htm -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 642 bytes Desc: not available URL: From dzo at BISHARAT.NET Sun Oct 17 14:34:03 2004 From: dzo at BISHARAT.NET (Donald Z. Osborn) Date: Sun, 17 Oct 2004 09:34:03 -0500 Subject: Fwd: Language and Discrimination Message-ID: This topic (& CFP - note approaching deadline) may be of interest for those who haven't seen it. (Reposted from H-West-Africa, where it appeared on 28 May). DZO Title: Language and Discrimination Special Issue of the Journal Patterns of Prejudice on Language and Discrimination Call for Papers Deadline: 2004-11-30 Date Submitted: 2004-05-11 Richard Pugh (Keele University) will guest edit a special issue of the journal Patterns of Prejudice on Language and Discrimination, to be published in eptember 2005. The role that language plays in racial or ethnic stereotyping and discriminatory practices is widely noted but the position of minority languages is less frequently explored. Minority languages are often subsumed in discussions of race and ethnicity and consequently remain an under-recognized aspect of prejudice and discrimination. However, political upheavals throughout Europe and the wider world together with the resurgence of assertions of ethnic identity are increasingly focusing attention on the experiences of various linguistic minorities, including the Roma, refugees and asylum-seekers as well as indigenous or long-established linguistic minorities within countries. This special issue of Patterns of Prejudice will encourage such an examination of the role of minority languages. The editors are particularly interested in papers that clearly focus on power relations and issues of discrimination and marginalization. Contributions that are confined to ethnographic description will not be considered for this special issue. Papers might focus on: * the role of "official" languages in expressing nationalism both generally or within particular countries, and the consequences for linguistic minorities affected; * the demographic, social or legal situation of minority languages in different countries; * the significance of minority languages in terms of a minority group's experience of marginalization, and in the implementation of discriminatory measures; * the role of minority languages in resisting negative stereotyping, prejudice or discrimination * the differential response of governments and public bodies to minority language claims (especially in regard to education, law, welfare, and cultural expression). Papers addressing these and related questions should be submitted in hard copy with a disk, or as an e-mail attachment, by 30 November 2004. Submissions should be between 5,000 and 7,000 words in length, although in exceptional cases longer articles can be considered. All papers must be the original work of the author/s. Contributions will be subject to peer review and the editors' decisions will be final. Further notes for contributors can be found on the journal's webpage (www.tandf.co.uk/journals/authors/rpopauth.asp). Submissions should be sent in the first instance to the address below. Barbara Rosenbaum Patterns of Prejudice 79 Wimpole Street London W1G 9RY United Kingdom fax: +44 (0)20 7935 3252 Contact: b.rosenbaum at jpr.org.uk Announcement ID: 138508 http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/announce/show.cgi?ID=138508 ----- End forwarded message ----- From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Oct 18 04:16:06 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Sun, 17 Oct 2004 21:16:06 -0700 Subject: some freeware updates... Message-ID: fyi, a new version of Lexique Pro (a free software) was just released... Lexique Pro Current version:?2.1, released October 2004 http://www.lexiquepro.com/ Lexique Pro is an interactive lexicon viewer, with hyperlinks between entries, category views, dictionary reversal, search, and export tools. It can be configured to display your Toolbox/Shoebox database in a user-friendly format so that you can distribute it to others. also, a new version of Audacity (a free software) was released... Audacity Current version: 1.2.2 released August 25, 2004 http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ Audacity is a free audio editor. You can record sounds, play sounds, import and export WAV, AIFF, Ogg Vorbis, and MP3 files, and more. Use it to edit your sounds using Cut, Copy and Paste (with unlimited Undo), mix tracks together, or apply effects to your recordings. It also has a built-in amplitude envelope editor, a customizable spectrogram mode and a frequency analysis window for audio analysis applications. Built-in effects include Echo, Change Tempo, and Noise Removal, and it also supports VST and LADSPA plug-in effects. From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Oct 18 18:34:09 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Mon, 18 Oct 2004 11:34:09 -0700 Subject: What Can Be Done to Save This Language And Culture (fwd) Message-ID: What Can Be Done to Save This Language And Culture The Nation (Nairobi) NEWS October 17, 2004 Posted to the web October 18, 2004 http://allafrica.com/stories/200410180333.html By Gakuu Mathenge Nairobi The Kenya Government, if ever it looks at the plight facing the few surviving Yaaku speakers in Mukogodo Forest of Laikipia, can borrow a leaf from what South Africa did with the death of apartheid and emergence of black majority rule. Khomani speakers are part of the San ethnic group, who are indigenous to South Africa. At one time spread over almost the whole of South Africa, in 1930 the Khomani moved to the Central and Northern Kalahari Desert and adjacent districts. However, in 1973, the last San communities were evicted from the Kalahari Gemsbok Park, with their native tongue, Khomani, being declared officially extinct. In 1994, with the end of apartheid, and the installation of nationalist Nelson Mandela as the first democratically elected President of what came to be known as the Rainbow Nation, a new law was enacted in South Africa to allow people to reclaim land they had lost on the basis of race since 1913. With the help of the South African San Institute the Khomani community put in a claim against the National Park. In 1999, the government awarded them 40,000 hectares of land outside the park and another 25,000 hectares inside the park. At the end of the 1990s, the first known surviving Khomani speaker was identified. Since then research has found around 20 additional speakers. Approximately 1,500 adults are spread over an area of more than 1,000 square kilometres in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa. Most Khomani nowadays speak fluently Khoekhoegowap (Nama) and or Afrikaans as their primary language. The use of the languages differs according to the context: Khomani is used with other Khomani speakers, Nama with friends and children, Afrikaans with adults and outsiders, sometimes with children, and for church. Literacy is in Afrikaans. The San also live in Botswana and Namibia. Unesco's Red Book on Extinct and Endangered Languages defines dead languages as follows: If there are only a few speakers but practically no children among them. If it is possibly extinct but there is no reliable information of remaining speakers. Nearly extinct, with some children speakers at least in some parts of their range but decreasingly so. Potentially endangered languages, with a large number of children speakers but has no official or prestigious status. With less than a dozen known speakers, all them aged. Yaaku is more than endangered. Languages become extinct when native speakers, usually minority groups, adopt languages spoken by the majority, either for survival or other reasons. In 1983, researchers put the number of Yaaku speakers at 50, in a population of about 250. A recently formed self-help group, the Yaaku Group, with offices in Dol Dol township, helps the forest dwellers refine and market their honey on a commercial basis. It estimates their number at 700 although there has been no official census. Another endangered group is the Baka (pygmies) in Gabon, who live in the forest in the area bordering Cameroun to the north. They are part of the large group of Baka found in Southwest Cameroun and Northeast of Congo Brazzaville. They migrated to Gabon in recent history. The language of the Baka is Ubangian-based in contrast to other forest people groups in Gabon the languages of which are Bantu-based. From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Oct 18 18:47:48 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Mon, 18 Oct 2004 11:47:48 -0700 Subject: Wireless microphones for language recording Message-ID: Dear ILAT, i recently recieved a request on recording with wireless microphones. a language program is interested in making a recording session as comfortable as possible when recording elder's speech and is looking to use wireless microphones. they are also interested in using headset microphones for more general recording of the language. they are aware that you can record to analog and to digital. please feel free to share if you have any experience in this or suggestions on microphone brands and particular recording uses. thanks, phil cash cash UofA, ILAT From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US Mon Oct 18 20:54:30 2004 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP) Date: Mon, 18 Oct 2004 14:54:30 -0600 Subject: Wireless microphones for language recording Message-ID: Hi, All, We have been using tiny Olympus digital microphones for nearly 4 years with great success. They run on 2 small AAA batteries, have 3 quality settings, and a mode for meetings. They have a USB connector, a nice program for transferring the information, and an option to record directly into the computer or laptop. They are small, unintrusive, and have good pick-up (sometimes too good: we get the entire family activities, and these are hard to edit out, so be forewarned). They cost about $99 when we bought them. I don't have mine with me, but I could bring it tomorrow if people are interested in more details. Oh, and it's only about 3.5 inches long, almost less than an inch thick, and not quite 2 inches wide. Great device. One of the best pieces of hardware I ever owned (except maybe for the remote control light switch that I bought at Radio Shack this week-end so I don't trip over a pile of greyhounds on my way to the light in the dark :-). Mia ----- Original Message ----- From: "phil cash cash" To: Sent: Monday, October 18, 2004 12:47 PM Subject: Wireless microphones for language recording > Dear ILAT, > > i recently recieved a request on recording with wireless microphones. a > language program is interested in making a recording session as > comfortable as possible when recording elder's speech and is looking to > use wireless microphones. they are also interested in using headset > microphones for more general recording of the language. they are aware > that you can record to analog and to digital. > > please feel free to share if you have any experience in this or > suggestions on microphone brands and particular recording uses. > > thanks, > phil cash cash > UofA, ILAT > > From sandra at ASU.EDU Mon Oct 18 21:19:57 2004 From: sandra at ASU.EDU (Sandra Andrews) Date: Mon, 18 Oct 2004 14:19:57 -0700 Subject: Wireless microphones for language recording Message-ID: We also used the Olympus digital recorders. They worked well with speech, but not so well with music, in spite of having a music setting. Also they did not work well when placed in a shirt pocket! Sandy Andrews Sandra Sutton Andrews Digital Media and Instructional Technologies Arizona State University -----Original Message----- From: Indigenous Languages and Technology on behalf of MiaKalish at LFP Sent: Mon 10/18/2004 1:54 PM To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Cc: Subject: Re: Wireless microphones for language recording Hi, All, We have been using tiny Olympus digital microphones for nearly 4 years with great success. They run on 2 small AAA batteries, have 3 quality settings, and a mode for meetings. They have a USB connector, a nice program for transferring the information, and an option to record directly into the computer or laptop. They are small, unintrusive, and have good pick-up (sometimes too good: we get the entire family activities, and these are hard to edit out, so be forewarned). They cost about $99 when we bought them. I don't have mine with me, but I could bring it tomorrow if people are interested in more details. Oh, and it's only about 3.5 inches long, almost less than an inch thick, and not quite 2 inches wide. Great device. One of the best pieces of hardware I ever owned (except maybe for the remote control light switch that I bought at Radio Shack this week-end so I don't trip over a pile of greyhounds on my way to the light in the dark :-). Mia ----- Original Message ----- From: "phil cash cash" To: Sent: Monday, October 18, 2004 12:47 PM Subject: Wireless microphones for language recording > Dear ILAT, > > i recently recieved a request on recording with wireless microphones. a > language program is interested in making a recording session as > comfortable as possible when recording elder's speech and is looking to > use wireless microphones. they are also interested in using headset > microphones for more general recording of the language. they are aware > that you can record to analog and to digital. > > please feel free to share if you have any experience in this or > suggestions on microphone brands and particular recording uses. > > thanks, > phil cash cash > UofA, ILAT > > From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US Mon Oct 18 21:54:42 2004 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP) Date: Mon, 18 Oct 2004 15:54:42 -0600 Subject: Wireless microphones for language recording Message-ID: We always used ours like one would use a much larger microphone, making sure there was no noise, although as I mentioned, I goofed a few times. I never would have thought of putting it in a shirt pocket. Did you do this to hide it, so people wouldn't think they were being recorded? Also, we purchased ours specifically for voice recording, and these were tuned for voice. We never tried to record music, although one time I recorded a small slice from a DVD that I wanted to use in a presentation. It was tricky, but I got it to work. Mia ----- Original Message ----- From: "Sandra Andrews" To: Sent: Monday, October 18, 2004 3:19 PM Subject: Re: Wireless microphones for language recording We also used the Olympus digital recorders. They worked well with speech, but not so well with music, in spite of having a music setting. Also they did not work well when placed in a shirt pocket! Sandy Andrews Sandra Sutton Andrews Digital Media and Instructional Technologies Arizona State University -----Original Message----- From: Indigenous Languages and Technology on behalf of MiaKalish at LFP Sent: Mon 10/18/2004 1:54 PM To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Cc: Subject: Re: Wireless microphones for language recording Hi, All, We have been using tiny Olympus digital microphones for nearly 4 years with great success. They run on 2 small AAA batteries, have 3 quality settings, and a mode for meetings. They have a USB connector, a nice program for transferring the information, and an option to record directly into the computer or laptop. They are small, unintrusive, and have good pick-up (sometimes too good: we get the entire family activities, and these are hard to edit out, so be forewarned). They cost about $99 when we bought them. I don't have mine with me, but I could bring it tomorrow if people are interested in more details. Oh, and it's only about 3.5 inches long, almost less than an inch thick, and not quite 2 inches wide. Great device. One of the best pieces of hardware I ever owned (except maybe for the remote control light switch that I bought at Radio Shack this week-end so I don't trip over a pile of greyhounds on my way to the light in the dark :-). Mia ----- Original Message ----- From: "phil cash cash" To: Sent: Monday, October 18, 2004 12:47 PM Subject: Wireless microphones for language recording > Dear ILAT, > > i recently recieved a request on recording with wireless microphones. a > language program is interested in making a recording session as > comfortable as possible when recording elder's speech and is looking to > use wireless microphones. they are also interested in using headset > microphones for more general recording of the language. they are aware > that you can record to analog and to digital. > > please feel free to share if you have any experience in this or > suggestions on microphone brands and particular recording uses. > > thanks, > phil cash cash > UofA, ILAT > > From sandra at ASU.EDU Mon Oct 18 22:00:24 2004 From: sandra at ASU.EDU (Sandra Andrews) Date: Mon, 18 Oct 2004 15:00:24 -0700 Subject: Wireless microphones for language recording Message-ID: No, we weren't hiding anything, just experimenting. It was thought (by one of the elders) that at times it might be less intrusive not to have the technology on the table. Didn't work though. Picked up the sound of the fabric instead. ;-) This was several years ago. Which, to continue, is sort of interesting because a major crime case in Phoenix was solved, also years ago, when someone's Olympus, in a backpack, picked up the information necessary to close the case. In our experience that would not have been very likely to have happened. We would have heard the tiny backpack sounds instead. It is a great tool for interviews etc. though (if placed on the table!!!) Sandy Sandra Sutton Andrews Digital Media and Instructional Technologies Arizona State Universities -----Original Message----- From: Indigenous Languages and Technology on behalf of MiaKalish at LFP Sent: Mon 10/18/2004 2:54 PM To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Cc: Subject: Re: Wireless microphones for language recording We always used ours like one would use a much larger microphone, making sure there was no noise, although as I mentioned, I goofed a few times. I never would have thought of putting it in a shirt pocket. Did you do this to hide it, so people wouldn't think they were being recorded? Also, we purchased ours specifically for voice recording, and these were tuned for voice. We never tried to record music, although one time I recorded a small slice from a DVD that I wanted to use in a presentation. It was tricky, but I got it to work. Mia ----- Original Message ----- From: "Sandra Andrews" To: Sent: Monday, October 18, 2004 3:19 PM Subject: Re: Wireless microphones for language recording We also used the Olympus digital recorders. They worked well with speech, but not so well with music, in spite of having a music setting. Also they did not work well when placed in a shirt pocket! Sandy Andrews Sandra Sutton Andrews Digital Media and Instructional Technologies Arizona State University -----Original Message----- From: Indigenous Languages and Technology on behalf of MiaKalish at LFP Sent: Mon 10/18/2004 1:54 PM To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Cc: Subject: Re: Wireless microphones for language recording Hi, All, We have been using tiny Olympus digital microphones for nearly 4 years with great success. They run on 2 small AAA batteries, have 3 quality settings, and a mode for meetings. They have a USB connector, a nice program for transferring the information, and an option to record directly into the computer or laptop. They are small, unintrusive, and have good pick-up (sometimes too good: we get the entire family activities, and these are hard to edit out, so be forewarned). They cost about $99 when we bought them. I don't have mine with me, but I could bring it tomorrow if people are interested in more details. Oh, and it's only about 3.5 inches long, almost less than an inch thick, and not quite 2 inches wide. Great device. One of the best pieces of hardware I ever owned (except maybe for the remote control light switch that I bought at Radio Shack this week-end so I don't trip over a pile of greyhounds on my way to the light in the dark :-). Mia ----- Original Message ----- From: "phil cash cash" To: Sent: Monday, October 18, 2004 12:47 PM Subject: Wireless microphones for language recording > Dear ILAT, > > i recently recieved a request on recording with wireless microphones. a > language program is interested in making a recording session as > comfortable as possible when recording elder's speech and is looking to > use wireless microphones. they are also interested in using headset > microphones for more general recording of the language. they are aware > that you can record to analog and to digital. > > please feel free to share if you have any experience in this or > suggestions on microphone brands and particular recording uses. > > thanks, > phil cash cash > UofA, ILAT > > From gforger at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Tue Oct 19 21:17:09 2004 From: gforger at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Garry Forger) Date: Tue, 19 Oct 2004 14:17:09 -0700 Subject: Journal Article Message-ID: Journal of Electronic Publishing "Typesetting Native American Languages" http://www.press.umich.edu/jep/08-01/syropoulos.html All the native American languages spoken today are written either in some Latin alphabet, augmented with "accented" letters, or in a syllabary, a set of indivisible syllabic symbols, each of which represents a syllable. The Apache and the Navaho languages are among the native American languages that use a Latin alphabet, while Cherokee, Inuiktitut, and Cree are among the languages that use modern syllabaries. Syllabaries, common in ancient scripts, were used by the Maya and the Epi-Olmec people of Mesoamerica. ... -- ______________________ Garry J. Forger, MLS Assistant Director Learning Technologies Center The University of Arizona 1077 N. Highland Ave Tucson, AZ 85721-0073 gforger at u.arizona.edu http://www.ltc.arizona.edu/ Phone 520-626-7761 Fax 520-626-8220 From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Oct 20 17:13:49 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 20 Oct 2004 10:13:49 -0700 Subject: Celebrate Native Languages and Cultures (fwd) Message-ID: Celebrate Native Languages and Cultures Seventh annual "Celebration of Indian Languages and Cultures" planned NORMAN OK Jennifer Tedlock 10/19/2004 http://www.nativetimes.com/index.asp?action=displayarticle&article_id=5341 All of these [Native American] languages are endangered, said Alice Anderton, Executive Director of the Intertribal Wordpath Society. Time is running out. We still have about 25 languages spoken here in Oklahoma, Anderton told the Native American Times. That is why IWS's work is so important. All of the languages are considered endangered. Without careful preservation they will disappear as will the cultures they are so deeply connected with. The seventh annual Celebration of Indian Language and Culture will be held on Friday, October 22 in Norman, Oklahoma. The celebration is set to take place from 4:30 to 10:30 p.m. at the Cleveland County Fairgrounds. It is an opportunity to hear some of Oklahoma's Native languages, listen so Native songs, and buy genuine Native goods. This event is not about mourning the loss of traditional languages, but rather about celebrating the remaining ones. Margaret Mauldin, who helped create a Creek dictionary and developed the curriculum for teaching the language at the University of Oklahoma, will lead a workshop on making children's books in Native American languages. That event will kick things off on Friday, October 22. The main program, featuring stories, songs and poetry in a selection of Native languages from around the state, will begin at 6 p.m. English translations will be provided, as will commentary about the importance of each language to its culture. Durbin Feeling (Cherokee) will emcee the event, announcing the program in both Cherokee and English. Presenters include Mogre Lookout (Osage) of Pawhuska, Henry Leib (Ponca) and students from Red Rock, Gus Palmer, Jr. (Kiowa) of Norman, Geneva Navarro (Comanche) of Lawton, University of Oklahoma instructors LeRoy Sealy and Brenda Samuels (Choctaw) and students, and Lahoma Burd (Kickapoo). Evans Ray Satepauhoodle (Kiowa) of Hominy will sing Kiowa songs at the drum. At around mid-evening, a dramatic ceremony of commitment to honor Oklahoma languages will be held. This ceremony celebrates the languages that still exist. Candles for each of those 25 languages will be lit in what Anderton called a powerful and moving ceremony. The Intertribal Wordpath Society was created in 1996 and incorporated the following year. According to their website, IWS assists Oklahoma language preservation with: fund raising, public speaking, a television show Wordpath, Pathways newletter, exhibits and educational programs for the general public, production of language-related items, information archives, teacher training and publications, workshops, demonstration projects, advice on alphabets, materials and curricula, and their annual Celebration. To find out more about the Celebration of Indian Language and Culture, visit www.ahalenia.com/iws. Cleveland County Fairgrounds are located at 615 E. Robinson in Norman. From Rrlapier at AOL.COM Fri Oct 22 03:35:38 2004 From: Rrlapier at AOL.COM (Rrlapier at AOL.COM) Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2004 23:35:38 EDT Subject: tech book Message-ID: Can someone respond to Michael Price? Rosalyn LaPier Piegan Institute www.pieganinstitute.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- An embedded message was scrubbed... From: "Michael Wassegijig Price" Subject: Fw: [aio_ambassadors] Newsletter Call for Information! Date: Wed, 20 Oct 2004 10:26:57 -0500 Size: 2785 URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Fri Oct 22 19:12:00 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Fri, 22 Oct 2004 12:12:00 -0700 Subject: Draining the Language out of Color (fwd link) Message-ID: Draining the Language out of Color Words mold many aspects of thought, says linguist Paul Kay, but not all aspects. The proof lies in the names the world's languages give to colors By Philip E. Ross http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&articleID=00055EE3-4530-1052-853083414B7F0000 [note: although the publish date was March-April, the online version was just made available. pcc] From cashcash at U.ARIZONA.EDU Sun Oct 24 18:25:48 2004 From: cashcash at U.ARIZONA.EDU (Phil Cash Cash) Date: Sun, 24 Oct 2004 14:25:48 -0400 Subject: Phil Cash Cash has sent you an article from npr.org Message-ID: Phil Cash Cash thought you would be interested in this story: "NPR : The Battle over the Zapotec Bible" *Listen to this story* Please click on the headline to the story using a RealAudio or WindowsMedia player. For players or technical support, please visit NPR's Audio Help page. . *Order a text transcript of this story* *Do you like the music you hear on NPR?* All Songs Considered... but few are chosen: The All Songs Considered 4 CD Box Set. Available in The NPR Shop where your purchase supports NPR! From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Oct 25 20:04:35 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Mon, 25 Oct 2004 13:04:35 -0700 Subject: Aboriginal languages said facing extinction (fwd) Message-ID: Aboriginal languages said facing extinction Canadian Press Updated: Sun. Oct. 24 2004 11:25 PM ET http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1098654385233_19/?hub=Canada SAINT-SAUVEUR, Que. ? Many of Canada's aboriginal languages could face extinction in as little as a generation unless government gets involved, said some participants Sunday at a conference held to discuss the problem. "We have to preserve and above all revitalize (these languages)," said Thanissa Laine, a co-ordinator for the second Conference on Aboriginal Languages. "There is no law protecting endangered languages in Canada but there are (laws) for animals that are becoming extinct." Of Canada's 50 aboriginal languages, 47 face extinction within one or two generations. And though Cree, Ojibwa and Inuktitut have enough speakers to survive another four or five generations they too will die out unless action is taken, said Lise Bastien, director of the board of education for Quebec's First Nations. About 150 participants from Canada and the United States gathered for the three-day conference to discuss endangered languages and how to preserve them. Bastien said some communities have had short-term success by teaching all or a portion of elementary education in an aboriginal language or having elders participate in social or community activities with children so the language is transmitted naturally. However, long-term progress won't be made until government gets involved, she said. "Language is very important for the cultural blossoming of aboriginal communities," she said. "It would take a financial commitment and an official recognition of the languages (by the government). "They should be supported by permanent policies." Laine said it is a struggle maintaining such languages in the face of a "dominant culture of globalization and assimilation," although she added she remains optimistic. "People are more sensitized now than they were one or even two generations ago," she said. "That's my positive side but it's an enormous job." Other participants said Canada's culture of multiculturalism and bilingualism will make it easier for its aboriginal languages to survive in the long-term than in other countries. "We appreciate (here) the importance of language," said Arpi Hamalian, a Canadian on a UNESCO committee and an education professor at Concordia University. "Canada is at the forefront of trying to bring about a convention on cultural diversity at the United Nations level. Cultural diversity at its heart also protects linguistic diversity. The first Conference on Aboriginal Languages was held in 1998 Quebec City. Saint-Sauveur is about 50 kilometres northwest of Montreal. The conference ends Tuesday. ??Copyright 2004 Bell Globemedia Inc. From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Oct 25 20:09:18 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Mon, 25 Oct 2004 13:09:18 -0700 Subject: Invitation to the Media - Aboriginal Language Conference Starts this Weekend (fwd) Message-ID: Invitation to the Media - Aboriginal Language Conference Starts this Weekend http://www.cnw.ca/fr/releases/archive/October2004/22/c3551.html SAINT-SAUVEUR, Oct. 22 /CNW Telbec/ - Members of the media are invited to attend the Second Aboriginal Language Conference organized by the First Nations Education Council (FNEC), to be held at the Manoir Saint-Sauveur from Sunday, October 24, to Tuesday, October 26. This conference is of great importance for those who want to take action to ensure the cultural survival of Aboriginal peoples. DATES AND TIMES: October 24 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. October 25 8:45 a.m. to 6 p.m. October 26 8:15 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. PLACE: Manoir Saint-Sauveur 246 chemin du Lac-Millette Saint-Sauveur, Quebec This meeting will give participants an overview of the current situation Aboriginal languages are facing nationally and internationally, as well as encourage them to preserve these languages by taking part in various dialogues that will lead to invaluable recommendations in this area. Over 150 participants are expected at this event and it is also possible to follow the conference live via Webcast at www.cepn-fnec.com For further information: Nadia Paquet, Communication & Strat?gie, (514) 844-1678, Cell: (514) 576-8932; Prepared by: Thanissa Lain?, FNEC From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Oct 25 20:12:01 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Mon, 25 Oct 2004 13:12:01 -0700 Subject: Second Aboriginal Language Conference by the First Nations Education Council (fwd) Message-ID: Second Aboriginal Language Conference by the First Nations Education Council - Conference theme "Words for Our Future" http://www.cnw.ca/fr/releases/archive/October2004/18/c1432.html WENDAKE, Oct. 18 /CNW Telbec/ - The First Nations Education Council (FNEC), an organization whose strength is drawn from the desire of all First Nations in Quebec to work together to offer every First Nations child a quality education, will hold its Second Conference on Aboriginal Languages from October 24 to 26, 2004, at the Manoir du Mont Saint-Sauveur. There are about 6000 languages spoken in the world, half of which may become extinct. Only 3 of Canada's 50 Aboriginal languages (Cree, Inuktitut and Ojibway) have a big enough basin of speakers to not be considered at risk. At least 12 languages are in danger of disappearing and 10 have completely died out over the last century. "Given that a language is vital for the cultural survival of Aboriginal peoples, concerted efforts have already been made worldwide to breathe new life into languages at risk, primarily by focusing on language preservation activities, recording the speech of elders and implementing special community-based programs. There is an urgent need for developing concrete measures andtaking action so that our people do not simply become a footnote of history," said Ghislain Picard, Regional Chief of the Assembly of First Nations of Quebec and Labrador (AFNQL) and speaker for the event. In addition to allowing conference participants to gain a better understanding of the situation Aboriginal languages face nationally and internationally, several language preservation projects will be showcased. The conference will be a forum for participants to discuss the means for saving and reviving Aboriginal languages. "The FNEC hopes to end the conference with a list of recommendations and a blueprint for an action plan to ensure we will be able to transmit our languages to future generations," said Lise Bastien, FNEC Director. For more information or the complete conference program, go to www.cepn-fnec.com From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US Mon Oct 25 21:19:03 2004 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (MiaKalish@LFP) Date: Mon, 25 Oct 2004 15:19:03 -0600 Subject: tech book Message-ID: I am thinking of submitting a proposal for a book on Technology and revitalization/language type applications, but I don't think I sent a general notice to the list. I can't remember if I saw another email go by about it. It's right now a question of whether I can edit a book while doing the research for my PhD and finishing my dissertation. Also, if I did this book, it would be about how people Applied the Theory. We have lots of good books on theory, and about how teaching in culture is more effective than teaching out of culture. Also, we have lots, and lots, and lots, and lots, and lots of papers and articles about the Possibilities of using Technology, hence the focus: Best Practices in Technology Applications for Language and Culture Revitalization. best, Mia ----- Original Message ----- From: Rrlapier at AOL.COM To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Sent: Thursday, October 21, 2004 9:35 PM Subject: tech book Can someone respond to Michael Price? Rosalyn LaPier Piegan Institute www.pieganinstitute.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From fmarmole at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Oct 25 23:56:58 2004 From: fmarmole at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Francisco Marmolejo) Date: Mon, 25 Oct 2004 16:56:58 -0700 Subject: FW: CONAHEC Message: Various Funding Opportunities Message-ID: Dear colleagues, The following are some funding opportunities with upcoming deadlines. 1. Applications Invited for International Dissertation Field Research Fellowships Deadlines: November 1, 2004 (online) - November 8, 2004 (mail-in) Administered by the Social Science Research Council (http://ssrc.org/) in partnership with the American Council of Learned Societies, the International Dissertation Field Research Fellowship program provides support for social scientists and humanists conducting dissertation field research in all areas and regions of the world. Up to fifty fellowships will be awarded in the year 2005. Funds are provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. IDRF awards are designed to enable doctoral candidates of proven achievement and outstanding potential to use their knowledge of distinctive cultures, societies, languages, economies, polities, and histories, in combination with their disciplinary training, to address issues that transcend their disciplines or area specializations. The program is open to full-time graduate students in the humanities and social sciences, regardless of citizenship, enrolled in doctoral programs in the United States. The program invites proposals for field research on all areas or regions of the world, as well as for research that is comparative, cross-regional, and cross-cultural. Proposals that identify the U.S. as a case for comparative inquiry are welcome; however, proposals that require no substantial research outside the U.S. are not eligible. Standard fellowships will provide support for nine to twelve months in the field, plus travel expenses. Funding will rarely exceed $20,000. See the SSCR Web site for complete program information and application procedures. RFP Link: http://ssrc.org/programs/idrf/ 2. The Wenner-Gren Foundation: Individual Research Grants for anthropological projects Eligibility: Scholars from Mexico, Canada, the U.S. and other countries. http://www.wennergren.org/programsirg.html#fieldwork Programs The Wenner-Gren Foundation pursues its two major goals - advancing basic research in anthropology and building an international community of anthropologists - through several funding programs. Individual Research Grants Description: Grants for amounts up to $25,000 are available for basic research in all branches of anthropology. Grants are made to seed innovative approaches and ideas, to cover specific expenses or phases of a project, and/or to encourage aid from other funding agencies. The foundation particularly invites projects employing comparative perspectives or integrating two or more subfields of anthropology. A small number of awards is available for projects designed to develop resources for anthropological research and scholarly exchange. The foundation, under its Individual Research Grants Program, offers: * Dissertation Fieldwork Grants * Post-Ph.D. Grants * Richard Carley Hunt Postdoctoral Fellowships. Budgetary Guidelines: Grants cover research expenses directly related and essential to the project (i.e., travel, living expenses during fieldwork, equipment, supplies, research assistance, and other relevant expenditures). Aid is not provided for salary and/or fringe benefits of applicant, tuition, non-project personnel, travel to meetings, institutional overhead, or institutional support. Low priority is given to dissertation writeup or other support for writing (except under the Hunt Fellowship), publication assistance, and film- or video-making (unless inherent to the research project). Expenses incurred prior to the effective date of an award will not be covered; budgets should reflect foundation deadlines. Application information: A formal application must be submitted. Those interested in receiving an application can contact the foundation to have the appropriate forms mailed to them, or (if they know their eligibility) individuals can download the forms directly from this website. Please note that our application forms have been revised; forms dated prior to year 2000 cannot be accepted. Deadlines: There are two deadlines each year, May 1st and November 1st. For applications submitted by the May 1st deadline, funding will be available the following January 1st. Under the November 1st deadline, funding will be available the following July 1st. Applicants should meet the most appropriate deadline for their research plans. Decisions for each application cycle will be announced six to eight monthes after the deadline date. Only one application may be submitted during any twelve-month period. Dissertation Fieldwork Grants are awarded to individuals to aid doctoral dissertation or thesis research. Applicants must be enrolled for a doctoral degree. Application must be made jointly with a thesis advisor or other scholar who will undertake responsibility for supervising the project. Awards are contigent upon the applicant's successful completion of all requirements for the degree other than the dissertation/thesis. Applications may be submitted before such requirements have been met; however, should an award be approved, the foundation will at that time request evidence of that the applicant is "all-but-dissertation/ advanced-to-candidacy". Qualified students of all nationalities are eligible. Post-Ph.D. Grants are awarded to individual scholars holding the doctorate or equivalent qualification in anthropology or a related discipline. Qualified scholars are eligible without regard to nationality or institutional affiliation. Application for Post-Ph.D. Grants may be made by the scholar either as an individual or on behalf of an organization. Ph.D. candidates seeking postdoctoral support should file a Dissertation Fieldwork Grant application and indicate that support is being requested for postdoctoral research; if an award is approved it will be made after the Ph.D. is in hand. A limited number of Richard Carley Hunt Postdoctoral Fellowships, nonrenewable awards with a maximum of $40,000, is available to scholars within ten years of receipt of the Ph.D., to aid the writeup of research results for publication. Qualified scholars are eligible without regard to nationality or institutional affiliation. Applicants must hold the Ph.D. at the time of application. 3. CONACyT 2005 Call for Scholarship Applications Eligibility: Mexicans wishing to pursue Specializations, Master's or Doctoral studies in the United States or Canada. Please visit the website for more information. http://www.conacyt.mx/dafcyt/avisos_sol/convocatoria2005_EUyCA.html 4. International Dissertation Field Research Fellowships for doctoral students in the United States. (no citizenship requirement) The International Dissertation Field Research Fellowship (IDRF) program provides support for social scientists and humanists conducting dissertation field research in all areas and regions of the world. Up to fifty fellowships will be awarded in the year 2005. The program is administered by the Social Science Research Council in partnership with the American Council of Learned Societies. Funds are provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The IDRF awards enable doctoral candidates of proven achievement and outstanding potential to use their knowledge of distinctive cultures, societies, languages, economies, polities, and histories, in combination with their disciplinary training, to address issues that transcend their disciplines or area specializations. The program supports scholarship that treats place and setting in relation to broader phenomena as well as in particular historical and cultural contexts. Standard fellowships will provide support for nine to twelve months in the field, plus travel expenses. They will rarely exceed $20,000. In some cases, the candidate may propose fewer than nine months of overseas fieldwork, but no award will be given for fewer than six months. The fellowship must be held for a single continuous period within the eighteen months between July 2005 and December 2006. Eligibility The program is open to full-time graduate students in the humanities and social sciences - regardless of citizenship - enrolled in doctoral programs in the United States. The program invites proposals for field research on all areas or regions of the world, as well as for research that is comparative, cross-regional and cross-cultural. Proposals that identify the U.S. as a case for comparative inquiry are welcome; however, proposals that require no substantial research outside the United States are not eligible. Proposals requesting support for a second year of field research will be funded only under exceptional circumstances. Proposals may cover all periods in history, but must address topics that have relevance to contemporary issues and debates. Applicants must complete all Ph.D. requirements except fieldwork and dissertation by the time the fellowship begins or by December 2005, whichever comes first. Standard fellowships will provide support for nine to twelve months in the field, plus travel expenses. They will rarely exceed $20,000. In some cases, the candidate may propose fewer than nine months of overseas fieldwork, but no award will be given for fewer than six months. The fellowship must be held for a single continuous period within the eighteen months between July 2005 and December 2006. http://www.ssrc.org/programs/idrf/ Best regards, Francisco Marmolejo Executive Director Consortium for North American Higher Education Collaboration (CONAHEC) University of Arizona 220 W. 6th St. University Services Annex, Bldg. 300A Rm. 108 PO Box 210300 Tucson, AZ 85721-0300 USA Phone: (520) 621-9080 Fax: (520) 626-2675 E-mail: fmarmole at u.arizona.edu http://conahec.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From anguksuar at YAHOO.COM Wed Oct 27 15:42:21 2004 From: anguksuar at YAHOO.COM (Richard LaFortune) Date: Wed, 27 Oct 2004 08:42:21 -0700 Subject: NCAI support resolution for statewide Dakota/Ojibwe language alliance In-Reply-To: <1098735121.5bb05474cb0ab@www.email.arizona.edu> Message-ID: the Dakota/Ojibwe Language Revitalization Alliance (DOLRA) in Minnesota is pleased to announce a resolution of support by the oldest, largest tribal government organization in the US. best regards Richard LaFortune Legislative co-chair, DOLRA vhttp://www.ncai.org/data/docs/resolution/annual2004/ftl04-055.pdf _______________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Express yourself with Y! Messenger! Free. Download now. http://messenger.yahoo.com From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Thu Oct 28 19:30:54 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Thu, 28 Oct 2004 12:30:54 -0700 Subject: Native concerns discussed (fwd) Message-ID: October 28, 2004 Native concerns discussed BY JOHN R. CRANE Journal Staff Writer http://www.cortezjournal.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp?article_type=news&article_path=/news/news041028_3.htm More needs to be done to address local American Indian students' lack of achievement, to offer Navajo classes in Cortez schools and to speed transmission of student absentee data between the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and the Re-1 Montezuma Cortez School District, said representatives from area tribes at a special school district board meeting Tuesday night. The meeting between the Montezuma-Cortez Re-1 School District and area tribes is held annually as part of the district's Indian policy and procedures and to discuss how to address American Indian students' needs. School board members mostly listened during the meeting. "Overall, figures show that Ute Mountain Ute students are not experiencing adequate success in the Re-1 School District," said Selwyn Whiteskunk, chairman-elect of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribal Council in Towaoc. Whiteskunk added that the tribe's students are the lowest proficiency group on CSAP tests and that areas of development need to be identified to ease student transition between grades. "It's alarming," Whiteskunk said of the CSAP achievement gap between native and non-native students. Whiteskunk said more American Indian staff in district schools is needed and that expulsion is not always the solution to students' problems. He added that sending truant students to boarding schools is an easy way out. "I don't want to send children to boarding schools away from family," he said. "I went to a boarding school. I know how it is to be away for nine months." Ute Mountain Ute Tribal Councilman Manuel Heart reminded the board of the United States' "unique legal relationship" with its American Indian tribes. He mentioned the Bush administration's efforts to assist American Indians in meeting the challenges and standards of the No Child Left Behind Act, in accordance with tribal conditions, languages and cultures. "This is an opportunity for tribal members and tribal leaders and educators, such as yourselves, to work together with the Department of Education to find strategies to implement No Child Left Behind in Indian country," Heart said. Heart added that the tribe and the district should work together in research and data collection, strengthening early childhood education, high school graduation rates and postsecondary education. The Ute Mountain Ute Indian Tribe is working toward a grant that would enable the tribe to put the Ute language in written form for future generations, Heart said. Heart said non-Indian Coloradans know little about American Indian culture and that tribes suffered greatly throughout U.S. history. "We, as Indian nations, have gone through a Holocaust," he said. "We also, the Ute tribe as a whole, have been exiled in the state of Colorado. What do (non-native) students in the state of Colorado know about the first people who were here?" Students need to be safer, as well, in light of methamphetamine labs being discovered near area schools, Heart said. Today's students are tomorrow's administrators and service providers, and tackling these issues and taking action are paramount, Heart said. Michael Mills, with Towaoc's truancy program, said he hopes to work in conjunction with the school district in gathering tribal students' absentee data, in accordance with the tribal ordinance. Absentee data is important in monitoring students' attendance and in prosecution of truant students, Mills said. Since the truancy program requires data separated by jurisdictional boundaries, the district and the tribe must reach an agreement, he said. Cindy Higgins, a Navajo, stressed the importance of adding Navajo language, history and culture courses to the district's schools, which lack those classes. Navajo students cannot get certain tribal scholarships without credits in Navajo language and culture, she said. Joseph Chee, a Navajo culture and language scholar, expressed concern over diagnostic procedures after his daughter was placed in the special education program. He said he asked her the same questions in Navajo that she was asked during the diagnosis, and that she did fine. She later exited the special education program and re-entered the mainstream system. He said some American Indian children may be labeled "special ed" because of language and cultural barriers, instead of behavioral problems. "I'm wondering how many children have been set back because of these issues," he said. From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Thu Oct 28 19:34:01 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Thu, 28 Oct 2004 12:34:01 -0700 Subject: Native American Family Technology Journey to Help Weave Technology With Traditions (fwd) Message-ID: Native American Family Technology Journey to Help Weave Technology With Traditions IBM and Career Communications Group Launch Public Awareness Initiative October 30th to Assist Native Americans in Closing the Digital Divide http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release_html_b1?release_id=74997 ARMONK, NY -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 10/28/2004 -- Weaving today's computer technology with Native American traditions is the centerpiece of the inaugural Native American Family Technology Journey (NAFTJ), a national public awareness program starting October 30th to encourage native people to consider the advantages and opportunities made possible by bringing computer technology into their daily lives. The first of four NAFTJ events will be a technology workshop hosted by IBM and the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian at the museum in New York City on October 30th. Native American children will collaborate on programming a robot and guiding it over an obstacle course designed to their specifications. At the same time, parents and other guests will attend a seminar highlighting the educational, career and other opportunities that can be leveraged by building technological skills. A study released by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, titled "Falling Through The Net: Defining The Digital Divide," found that Native Americans "rank far below the national average in their access to telephones, computers and the Internet... " At 26.8%, access to computers among rural Native American households lags behind the national average by more than 15%. Similarly, access to the Internet for Native American households overall at 18.9% also trails the national average. Sponsored by IBM and Career Communications Group, NAFTJ coincides with National American Indian Heritage Month. The Journey includes career and educational seminars, interactive demonstrations and computer and Internet workshops that will offer Native Americans residing in urban centers, rural areas and on tribal lands technology access and training. "As the world's largest information technology provider, IBM has the privilege of employing and doing business with people from virtually every background," said Bob Moffat, senior vice president, Integrated Supply Chain, IBM and a NAFTJ national co-chair. "Working with our employees, business partners and the leadership of American Indian communities, we've seen the possibilities of how technology can help preserve languages and traditions and enhance the educational and career opportunities for native people; and we are committed to doing everything we can to assist Native American families in participating more fully in the Digital Age." NAFTJ will also highlight the role technology is playing in the preservation of native languages. Native American tribes seeking federal recognition by the U.S. government must have and still use a native language. More than 500 native languages exist, most of which are spoken rather than written. Storytelling is the means by which many elders pass native languages on to younger generations. IBM has been working with the Cherokee Nation to develop translation software and keyboard enablements that could assist tribes in preserving their languages. Other Native American Family Technology Journey events include: November 1st: Students from local middle schools will visit the University of North Carolina Pembroke to participate in a robotics experiment and develop technology presentations that they will share with their parents at a NAFTJ reception later that afternoon. They will also interact with Native American executives and IBM employee volunteers to learn about career opportunities in the IT industry. November 6th: NAFTJ will partner with the nation of the Tohono O'odham people to host a technology fair at the Tohono O'odham Community College in Sells, Arizona, providing more than 200 people with computer training as well as instructions on navigating the Internet and accessing online information about educational grants and other key services. November 18th: The Cherokee Nation in Tahlequah, OK, will host a technology fair for approximately 100 people at Sequoyah High School, which will include demonstrations of the IBM translation software and keyboard. Parents will also receive computer instruction, attend workshops and learn about software that will allow them to access student grades, activities, upcoming events and other important information. To learn more about the Native American Family Technology Journey, please visit www.nativeamericanfamilynet.net or call (410) 244-7101. About IBM IBM is the world's largest information technology company, with 80 years of leadership in helping businesses innovate. Drawing on resources from across IBM and key Business Partners, IBM offers a wide range of services, solutions and technologies that enable customers, large and small, to take full advantage of the new era of e-business. For more information about IBM, visit www.ibm.com. About CCG Career Communications Group, Inc. (CCG) is a minority-owned media services company, headquartered in Baltimore, MD. The company was founded 20 years ago to promote significant minority achievements in engineering, science and technology. For more information about CCG, visit www.ccgmag.com. CONTACT: Karina Diehl Duart IBM 305-969-7318 kdiehld at us.ibm.com Cecilia Santana Circulation Expert?, Ltd. 914-948-8144 cecilias at experti.com SOURCE:??IBM From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Fri Oct 29 17:19:49 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Fri, 29 Oct 2004 10:19:49 -0700 Subject: The language of learning (fwd) Message-ID: October 25, 2004 The language of learning A bilingual approach to Aboriginal education has spelt success, writes Jill Jolliffe in Arnhem Land. http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/10/22/1098316840865.html?oneclick=true# Daly River School, 200 kilometres from Darwin, was founded by Jesuits in the 19th century and is set on a bank of the deep-running river, from which the strange barking of crocodiles can be heard at night. The school is still Catholic but is now run by the Nauiyu Aboriginal community, and like most remote schools, few of its children speak English on admission. In the Northern Territory education system, it sits midway between schools teaching in indigenous languages and those teaching only in English. Its curriculum highlights local culture and its teachers are mainly Aboriginal. This day begins with a pep talk to a fractious class by principal Miriam Rose Baumann, a highly qualified pioneer of indigenous teaching. Students suffer low self-esteem so she chides gently. "You're all very clever," she tells them, "but you must work together. You follow the AFL mob so you should know a footballer can't play without the others." Helen McCarthy, a young Aboriginal teacher with an MA from Deakin University, supervises a first-grade painting class, in which "most speak Creole, some understand English, a few speak 'language' ". Five-year-old Milly Sambono-Diyini is the daughter of prominent Aboriginal artists. She colours her drawings carefully, then joins Ms Baumann's language and culture class in Ngangi Kurungurr, a language thousands of years old. The children learn new words and discuss the uses of local plants - the kapok tree for making canoes, and cashews and tamarinds for picking after morning dew sets in. "Language is everything to us. A person who knows their language knows who they are," the principal says. Kathy McMahon began teaching 20 years ago in Arnhem Land. It was an exciting time, after the Whitlam Labor government recognised indigenous children's right to learn in their mother tongue - and that they learnt better that way. Under the reforms, children were taught first in their own language, while also studying English. Indigenous literacy became a bridge to English literacy. Linguists fluent in local languages were appointed and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander teachers recruited. By 1994, more than 100 had graduated from Batchelor Institute, outside Darwin. The NT was administered then by the Commonwealth Government, but after self-government in 1978, the Country-Liberal Party (CLP) ruled. It eroded the bilingual system and challenged the "bridging" theory. Ms McMahon admits that there were problems but claims critics measured success by narrow standards. "Education's not just about literacy, it's about cognitive development," she says, "and that's where first language is essential. That's why UN resolutions say kids should be able to learn in their mother tongue, because that's the language their brains are in. They should be able to develop that and learn what they need from outside cultures." In 1999 the NT government tried scrapping bilingual teaching for an English-only system, but met a backlash. "The education minister arrived at Port Keats to find the whole community there," Ms McMahon recalls, "including old people all painted up, wearing T-shirts saying, 'Bilingual Forever'." The idea was dropped and bilingualists won the day, in theory, but claim the government later killed the project by cutting funds. Disillusioned with the state system, Ms McMahon moved to Daly River School, which championed indigenous culture. The election of the NT's first Labor government, in 2001, raised new hopes, with Chief Minister Clare Martin declaring her commitment to bilingualism. Statistics remained grim. Of 50,785 indigenous NT residents counted by the 2001 census, only 4704 had completed years 11-12. And although they represented 25 per cent of the general population, only 5 per cent held university places (21 per cent of the general population has tertiary education). Under Minister Sid Stirling, the few remaining bilingual schools (cut from 21 to 12 under the CLP ) still lack resources, with the Government prioritising "accelerated literacy development" in English. It is also reinforcing secondary programs, with some success. He defends these choices, saying there have been some outstanding results in the accelerated literacy drive. He told Education he supports the retention of language programs "where they still existed in 1999. We haven't walked away from bilingual teaching, we're still looking at it." (The Martin Government has its own "two-way program" version but several educators have described it as a "watered-down" version of original principles.) Those educators who accuse Labor of failing Aboriginal education say its promise to leave the previous government bureaucracy intact was disastrous. "When Clare came in, she started to use the 'b' word - 'bilingual' - but we're still in the CLP mode," says Raymattja Marika, a senior teacher at Arnhem Land's Yirrkala Community Education Centre. Yirrkala is one of the few remaining schools teaching in indigenous languages. Principal Leon White arrived in the NT in 1969, a 19-year-old from Wycheproof who was trained in Geelong. It was the shock of his life to discover his students spoke no English. Yirrkala is the heartland of Arnhem Land culture, and painting and music are part of daily life. Musicians such as the Yothu Yindi band are role models, and the school has three bands, including one for girls. Mr White witnessed the Whitlam-era reforms and their decline. He feels that champions of the system didn't defend their ideas properly, paving the way for the CLP cuts. "We lost our way in terms of a robust discussion," he says. And, like Ms McMahon, he admits there were errors. "By the early '90s, people became concerned the kids weren't learning enough English, and a major, positive restructuring happened. We wanted two-way education but not at the expense of kids learning English, and the community reasserted its interest in clan languages." He advocates bilingualism in a setting in which "schools have a big role to play in the way kids' self-esteem is developed - and resilience, inner strength, to be strong against drugs". Raymattja Marika sees the project as a struggle for souls, against the lure of substance abuse, crime and despair. In the next two years, Yirrkala will have children studying for the Northern Territory Certificate of Education for the first time, thanks partly to Minister Stirling's boosting of secondary resources. They will be a rare minority who have always studied in their own language as well as English. "They were definitely advantaged by being bilingual from primary," teacher Katrina Hudson says. "They have a precious asset-gains in community knowledge, self-esteem, and being comfortable to operate in both systems." From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Sun Oct 31 17:42:23 2004 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Sun, 31 Oct 2004 10:42:23 -0700 Subject: =?iso-8859-1?b?QXR0ZW1wdKB0bw==?= save =?iso-8859-1?b?Tml1ZaBjdWx0dXJl?= (fwd) Message-ID: Attempt?to save Niue?culture Meeting in Niue to try to preserve the language and culture of the island, where only 1500 people still live 30 October 2004 http://home.nzcity.co.nz/news/default.asp?id=44506&c=w A two-day meeting in Niue will call on the strategy used in New Zealand to boost the use of Te Reo Maori. The gathering of leaders, including Prime Minister Helen Clark, aims to revitalise Niue's language and culture. Miss Clark says New Zealand is in a position to offer experience garnered through the Maori language renaissance. She says Niueans understand the community must come together to revive the language. Miss Clark says New Zealand's Education Ministry is working on a Niuean language curriculum. Statistics show just 12 percent of the 20,000 Niueans in New Zealand can speak their native tongue. New Zealand-based Niueans have gathered on the tiny Pacific island to help save the language and culture. Only 1,500 now live on the island. New Zealand's Niue High Commissioner Hima Takalesi says the two-day meeting mends a rift between islanders and New Zealand-based Niueans. He says in the past there has been contention between the two groups. Those who have left the island feel they have been isolated from the decision-making process, while those left behind feel abandoned. Mr Takalesi says Niueans have recognised the communities must come together to save the language. ? 2004?NZCity, IRN From mona at ALLIESMEDIAART.COM Sun Oct 31 17:56:21 2004 From: mona at ALLIESMEDIAART.COM (MM Smith) Date: Sun, 31 Oct 2004 11:56:21 -0600 Subject: NCAI support resolution for statewide Dakota/Ojibwe language alliance In-Reply-To: <20041027154221.86315.qmail@web11206.mail.yahoo.com> Message-ID: WONDERFUL!!! -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: oneterm.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 4164 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- On Oct 27, 2004, at 10:42 AM, Richard LaFortune wrote: > the Dakota/Ojibwe Language Revitalization Alliance > (DOLRA) in Minnesota is pleased to announce a > resolution of support by the oldest, largest tribal > government organization in the US. > > best regards > Richard LaFortune > Legislative co-chair, DOLRA > > > vhttp://www.ncai.org/data/docs/resolution/annual2004/ftl04-055.pdf > > > > _______________________________ > Do you Yahoo!? > Express yourself with Y! Messenger! Free. Download now. > http://messenger.yahoo.com >