From mona at ALLIESMEDIAART.COM Sat Dec 1 00:51:42 2007 From: mona at ALLIESMEDIAART.COM (Mona Smith) Date: Fri, 30 Nov 2007 18:51:42 -0600 Subject: New Marantz PMD620 In-Reply-To: <20071130153522.004cyfsc0w4kccw0@www.email.arizona.edu> Message-ID: drool. drool. Mona Allies: media/art phil cash cash wrote: > Friday greetings, > > For all the field audio buffs, you will want to keep an eye out for the new > Marantz digital recorder. B&H is selling this for 399. > > There a number of announcements out there of below of which is but one example. > > Marantz PMD620 > http://www.bradlinder.net/2007/10/more-marantz-pmd620-details-emerge.html > > l8ter, > > Phil > UofA > > From aidan at USYD.EDU.AU Sat Dec 1 01:08:41 2007 From: aidan at USYD.EDU.AU (Aidan Wilson) Date: Sat, 1 Dec 2007 12:08:41 +1100 Subject: New Marantz PMD620 In-Reply-To: <4750B01E.3080808@alliesmediaart.com> Message-ID: Hmm. I'm not sold on devices like this, they typically have quite inferior preamps, and marantz certainly don't have a very good track record with preamps in their smaller devices - the PMD660 comes to mind. That said, the 671 is very good and has excellent preamps, but at four times the price of the 620, maybe that's a sacrifice you'd be prepared to make. I still think that in the miniaturised device market, the best choices are the Edirol R-09 - which has a great pedigree, being made by Roland - and the Samson Zoom H4. The H4 is a little above the rest in my opinion because it has XLR microphone inputs rather than just 1/8" minijack, which most of these devices only have. I suppose I really should suspend judgement until I've tested it, or read a good professional audio review, especially when it comes to those issues like ease of use of controls - how quickly can you turn up the levels while recording? On a Nagra V - the absolute gold standard of portable recording devices, it's a matter of two dedicated dials on the front panel of the device, which at the other end of the spectrum, the H4 requires you to go through a maze of menu options to find the input gain. All these seemingly pedantic details really make a huge difference out in the field. For the record, I use, or have been using, a PMD 660 for my fieldwork, despite its inferior preamps, because the menu and interface make it great to use. I'm currently working on a grand fieldmethods website and resource centre that will have a dedicated section to choosing audio devices for one's specific requirements, so I've done a fair bit of research on this. I'll report back when I've got something to show for it. Here's Marantz's website for the 620: http://www.d-mpro.com/users/folder.asp?FolderID=4313&CatID=19&SubCatID=188 Also, something else to drool over: http://www.sounddevices.com/products/702.htm Dat's what I'm talkin' bout. -Aidan Audio at Paradisec Mona Smith wrote: > drool. drool. > > Mona > Allies: media/art > > phil cash cash wrote: >> Friday greetings, >> >> For all the field audio buffs, you will want to keep an eye out for >> the new >> Marantz digital recorder. B&H is selling this for 399. >> >> There a number of announcements out there of below of which is but >> one example. >> >> Marantz PMD620 >> http://www.bradlinder.net/2007/10/more-marantz-pmd620-details-emerge.html >> >> >> l8ter, >> >> Phil >> UofA >> >> From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Sat Dec 1 17:22:07 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Sat, 1 Dec 2007 10:22:07 -0700 Subject: New Marantz PMD620 In-Reply-To: <4750B419.3050309@usyd.edu.au> Message-ID: Thanks Aidan, all good points. Let us know when you have your web page up and running as it sounds like it will be of interest to a lot of us here on ILAT and elsewhere. And yes, the 702 is something to drool over. Phil UofA Quoting Aidan Wilson : > Hmm. I'm not sold on devices like this, they typically have quite > inferior preamps, and marantz certainly don't have a very good track > record with preamps in their smaller devices - the PMD660 comes to mind. > That said, the 671 is very good and has excellent preamps, but at four > times the price of the 620, maybe that's a sacrifice you'd be prepared > to make. > I still think that in the miniaturised device market, the best choices > are the Edirol R-09 - which has a great pedigree, being made by Roland - > and the Samson Zoom H4. The H4 is a little above the rest in my opinion > because it has XLR microphone inputs rather than just 1/8" minijack, > which most of these devices only have. > I suppose I really should suspend judgement until I've tested it, or > read a good professional audio review, especially when it comes to those > issues like ease of use of controls - how quickly can you turn up the > levels while recording? On a Nagra V - the absolute gold standard of > portable recording devices, it's a matter of two dedicated dials on the > front panel of the device, which at the other end of the spectrum, the > H4 requires you to go through a maze of menu options to find the input > gain. All these seemingly pedantic details really make a huge difference > out in the field. > For the record, I use, or have been using, a PMD 660 for my fieldwork, > despite its inferior preamps, because the menu and interface make it > great to use. > I'm currently working on a grand fieldmethods website and resource > centre that will have a dedicated section to choosing audio devices for > one's specific requirements, so I've done a fair bit of research on > this. I'll report back when I've got something to show for it. > Here's Marantz's website for the 620: > http://www.d-mpro.com/users/folder.asp?FolderID=4313&CatID=19&SubCatID=188 > Also, something else to drool over: > http://www.sounddevices.com/products/702.htm Dat's what I'm talkin' bout. > > -Aidan > Audio at Paradisec > > Mona Smith wrote: >> drool. drool. >> >> Mona >> Allies: media/art >> >> phil cash cash wrote: >>> Friday greetings, >>> >>> For all the field audio buffs, you will want to keep an eye out for the new >>> Marantz digital recorder. B&H is selling this for 399. >>> >>> There a number of announcements out there of below of which is but >>> one example. >>> >>> Marantz PMD620 >>> http://www.bradlinder.net/2007/10/more-marantz-pmd620-details-emerge.html >>> l8ter, >>> >>> Phil >>> UofA >>> >>> From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Sat Dec 1 18:44:42 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Sat, 1 Dec 2007 11:44:42 -0700 Subject: Two languages (fwd link) Message-ID: Two languages Diné schools look to modify Arizona's English teaching program By Jason Begay Navajo Times (Special to the Times - Donovan Quintero) WINDOW ROCK, Nov. 29, 2007 Transportation. The word has four syllables that the class chants with gleeful, harmonious handclaps: Trans. Por. Tay. Shun. The word also has 13 letters, a daunting challenge for the second graders in Chris Yazzie's classroom. "That's a lot of letters," Yazzie explains. "Remember the trick when spelling long words?" She begins to explain, but the class cuts her off. "Break it up to small chunks," David Mitchell III yells out, echoed by his classmates. "Because the brain will remember the words easier." This is Tséhootsooí Elementary School's second grade English Language Learners class, a daily four-hour block of time filled with students deemed to need extra help learning English, according to a new state policy. The policy, which districts statewide began to implement this fall, requires schools to implement a curriculum that would identify and isolate these students in order to give them more intensive assistance. To access the full article, just follow the link below: http://www.thenavajotimes.com/education/1129english.php From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Sun Dec 2 18:52:13 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Sun, 2 Dec 2007 11:52:13 -0700 Subject: Language immersion has many meanings (fwd link) Message-ID: Language immersion has many meanings BY VALERIE STRAUSS THE WASHINGTON POST WASHINGTON -- Language immersion programs started more than 30 years ago, most focusing on Spanish. According to the nonprofit Center for Applied Linguistics, three public schools had one immersion class each in 1971. Last year, there were 263 in 83 schools. To access full article, just follow the link below: http://www.star-telegram.com/national_news/story/335111.html From dzo at BISHARAT.NET Mon Dec 3 18:19:06 2007 From: dzo at BISHARAT.NET (Don Osborn) Date: Mon, 3 Dec 2007 13:19:06 -0500 Subject: FW: Linguapax Award 2008 Message-ID: FYI, nominations are now being accepted for the Linguapax Award 2008. Note the deadline of Dec. 15. Don -------------------------------- [from a letter with call for nominations] We are pleased to inform you that the call for candidates to the Linguapax awards 2008 is open. Kindly send your nominees to the secretariat of the Linguapax Institute (info at linguapax.org) before December 15th 2007 along with their short biographical note if possible. As in previous occasions, the name of the prize-winner will be made public on February 21, coinciding with the International Mother Language Day. The Linguapax Awardee will be granted the amount of 3,000 €. For more information about the awards, please visit: Català http://www.linguapax.org/ct/premisLPX.html Español http://www.linguapax.org/es/premisLPXcas.html English http://www.linguapax.org/en/premisLPXang.html Français http://www.linguapax.org/fr/premisLPXfr.html -------------------------------- [from the Linguapax website] Linguapax Prize Rules 1. The Linguapax Prizes are awarded every year by the Linguapax Institute. 2. The prizes are awarded to linguists, researchers, professors and members of the civil society in acknowledgement of their outstanding work in the field linguistic diversity and/or multilingual education. Nominations of people having contributed to improve the linguistic situation of a community or country will be specially appreciated. 3. The nominations for the Linguapax Prizes must be sent to the secretariat of the Linguapax Institute along with a biographical note of the candidate. The nominations will remain confidential among the members of the jury. 4. The jury of the Linguapax Prizes will be formed by the members of the Advisory Committee of the Linguapax Institute. 5. The Linguapax prizes can be declared void. The jury's decision will be final. 6. The Linguapax Prize will be made public on February 21st of every year, International Mother Language Day. 7. The awardee will be granted the amount of 3,000 € From hsouter at GMAIL.COM Tue Dec 4 04:38:58 2007 From: hsouter at GMAIL.COM (Heather Souter) Date: Mon, 3 Dec 2007 22:38:58 -0600 Subject: Royalty-free, Fee-free Clip??? Message-ID: Taanshi! Besides the sites hosted at Purdue U and UVic, d oes anyone know of any other good sites for language teaching clip art? I am especially interested in action-oriented (verbs, verbs, verbs!) clip art.... Kihchi-maarsii! Heather From ryamada at UOREGON.EDU Tue Dec 4 05:49:13 2007 From: ryamada at UOREGON.EDU (Racquel) Date: Mon, 3 Dec 2007 21:49:13 -0800 Subject: Royalty-free, Fee-free Clip??? In-Reply-To: <6d8c8c410712032038o173eceb3q608dccbc8fcfb8ee@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: I've used ESL HQ (they require a free registration): http://www.eslhq.com/gallery/browseimages.php?c=541&userid= -Racquel On Mon, 3 Dec 2007 22:38:58 -0600, Heather Souter wrote: > Taanshi! > > Besides the sites hosted at Purdue U and UVic, d oes anyone know of > any other good sites for language teaching clip art? I am especially > interested in action-oriented (verbs, verbs, verbs!) clip art.... > > Kihchi-maarsii! > > Heather > -- Graduate Assistant Department of Linguistics 1290 University of Oregon Eugene, OR 97403 phone: 541-346-0796 cell: 541-914-3018 e-mail: ryamada at uoregon.edu From aidan at USYD.EDU.AU Tue Dec 4 12:25:05 2007 From: aidan at USYD.EDU.AU (Aidan Wilson) Date: Tue, 4 Dec 2007 23:25:05 +1100 Subject: Language in schools Message-ID: From ABC news: Koori school reaps language benefits Teachers at a Sydney high school say since they've been teaching Indigenous students the Dharug language, the students have lifted their attendance rates. Full video: http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2007/12/04/2109099.htm For the record, Dharug is considered extinct. Doesn't much sound like it though... (ignore the fact that the presenter calls it 'Jurack') -Aid From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Tue Dec 4 15:28:38 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Tue, 4 Dec 2007 08:28:38 -0700 Subject: Royalty-free, Fee-free Clip??? In-Reply-To: <6d8c8c410712032038o173eceb3q608dccbc8fcfb8ee@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: Heather, here is a set of links to clip-art on my course webpage.  Hope this helps! http://www.u.arizona.edu/~cashcash/aildi_2007/online_resources.html Phil UofA Quoting Heather Souter : > Taanshi! > > Besides the sites hosted at Purdue U and UVic, d oes anyone know of > any other good sites for language teaching clip art? I am especially > interested in action-oriented (verbs, verbs, verbs!) clip art.... > > Kihchi-maarsii! > > Heather -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From andrekar at NCIDC.ORG Thu Dec 6 19:41:47 2007 From: andrekar at NCIDC.ORG (Andre Cramblit) Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2007 11:41:47 -0800 Subject: Language Revitalization Message-ID: Language revitalization featured at education conference by: Staff Reports / Indian Country Today HONOLULU - Language revitalization programming was highlighted at the 38th annual convention of the National Indian Education Association, held in Honolulu Oct. 25 - 28. Approximately 3,000 attendees from tribes throughout the United States were welcomed by the organization's first Native Hawaiian president, VerlieAnn Leimomi Malina-Wright, vice principal of the K - 12 Ke Kula Kaiapuni o Anuenue Hawaiian language immersion school. Hawaiian language chanting and hula by Anuenue's Hawaiian-speaking football team were part of the opening ceremonies. Excursions to visit 'Aha Punana Leo language nest preschools and Hawaiian language immersion school sites including Anuenue were well- attended. Some groups arrived a number of days before the conference to spend more time at immersion sites. Throughout the conference, a wide variety of presentations on Native language teaching were held. One special feature was a two-day forum on language revitalization through immersion schooling held in the convention center theater. The forum featured panels of teachers, community members, teacher preparation programs, researchers and administrators discussing national best practices in immersion. The high academic performance of students in Native language immersion programs nationwide was stressed by researchers. Complete story @: http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096416185 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From andrekar at NCIDC.ORG Sat Dec 8 19:54:25 2007 From: andrekar at NCIDC.ORG (Andre Cramblit) Date: Sat, 8 Dec 2007 11:54:25 -0800 Subject: last speaker of Wichita Message-ID: Anadarko woman last fluent speaker of the Wichita language ANADARKO, OK By S. E. RUCKMAN (AP) 12/5/2007 Oklahoma had been a state for only two decades when Doris Jean Lamar was born in 1927. Her first spoken words were not English, but an American Indian language taught to her by grandparents. Today, Lamar is the last fluent speaker in the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes, a tribe of 2,300. Sitting in a tribal canteen that she supervises, the 80-year-old Lamar carries a language that once was spoken by thousands, then hundreds of Wichita language speakers. ``I never thought I would be in this position as a girl, to be our last fluent speaker,'' she said. Wichita is one of the languages classified as Caddoan, but is only similar in stock to the Caddo language, scholars said. Lamar's tribe is one of a handful indigenous to Oklahoma with a present-day jurisdiction in Caddo County. Lamar's journey was not unlike other girls in southwest Oklahoma in the years right before the Great Depression. Her full-blood maternal grandparents worked a farm and raised their grandchildren. She recalls fewer cars, more thriftiness and no electricity back then. With a white father and an Indian mother, Lamar stood out among her peers. ``I never thought of myself as white; to me, I was Wichita,'' she said. ``The old ladies of our tribe thought it was something to hear this little white girl speak Wichita.'' She eventually married a non-Indian and had children. After she divorced in 1959, she moved back among her American Indian relatives near Gracemont. She continued to speak Wichita as she did as a girl. ``Ever since I could remember, I spoke Wichita,'' she said. ``My husband told me that me speaking Indian was the only time he remembered I was Indian.'' Around 1962, Lamar met an earnest young linguist who followed tribal members in order to listen to them speak, she recalled. That young linguist was David Rood from the University of Colorado. Rood has been working with the Wichitas since he stumbled upon the Indian language while looking for one that was not being preserved, he said. He still works with Lamar and other tribal members. They race to record the Wichita language so that a dictionary can be gleaned. They have spent hours going over Wichita words and compiling language CDs on creation stories, verbs, nouns and names. Defining tribal fluency can be tricky, Rood said. In small tribes, debates exist over who qualifies as a fluent speaker. Lamar speaks some Wichita with another tribal member who labors with the language. ``She tells me there are so many words in her head that she can't get out, she gets frustrated,'' Lamar said. Speaking and writing the language are key. Sometimes tribal members know ceremonial songs by heart. Yet linguists think fluency is more complicated than that. ``I would say when somebody is able to speak the language in a way that has never been spoken before or ever written in a language book . . . as an abstract thought, then that is fluency,'' Rood said. The linguist tried to organize a conversation among the last few fluent Wichita speakers in the early 2000s, he said. He regards the exercise as a half-success. But the gathering was stilted because of political differences among the speakers. ``Which is typical in almost all Indian tribes,'' he said of tribal political factions. ``They spoke a little, but not much.'' Hope exists for the Wichitas' dying language. An immersion class for children has been soldiering forward, as is an adult-oriented language class, both subsidized by federal grants. But the Wichitas must cross another obstacle of language revitalization: retention. Sam Still, a Cherokee speaker, said retention among adults and children remains low if the language is not already spoken in the home. ``For children, when they have no one at home to speak the language with, there is no one to practice the sounds with and they lose it,'' Still said. ``When you're around the language, you learn it better.'' Meanwhile, Lamar fishes a small recorder out of her pocket and turns it on. She speaks English words first, then the Wichita word follows. ``I have been doing this a lot, lately,'' she said, pressing play. ``I just put whatever words pop into my head.'' The tribal elder is aware that her language hangs on the precipice. She remembers the time when everyone around her spoke Wichita. Now, none of her children speak more than a few words, she said. ``They live in the white world,'' she said. ``I don't.'' -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From andrekar at NCIDC.ORG Sat Dec 8 21:10:07 2007 From: andrekar at NCIDC.ORG (Andre Cramblit) Date: Sat, 8 Dec 2007 13:10:07 -0800 Subject: Rosetta Stone Message-ID: panel of Navajo translators and linguists converged on Window Rock last weekend to begin a project to develop new Navajo language learning software. Rosetta Stone Ltd., based in Harrisonburg, Va., produces language- learning software in 30 languages. The company takes its name from an ancient stone artifact that provided the key for modern people to understand Egyptian hieroglyphics. Rosetta Stone does not use English translation at all but instead uses visual images to convey the word or phrase being taught. The Navajo software is being developed through the company's "endangered languages program," which means it will be owned by the sponsor organization and will be used as the tribe sees fit, said Marion Bittinger, manager of Rosetta Stone's endangered language program. Though the software will be modeled on the company's popular language- learning program, it will not be part of the commercial line of products, which typically run about $200 for the entry-level CD. Navajo Language Renaissance, a nonprofit organization based in Cornville, Ariz., organized the collaboration with Rosetta Stone and recruited seven Navajo language instructors to provide the translations. The Department of Diné Education is also participating and the project is endorsed by the Navajo Nation Board of Education. Clayton Long, president of NLR, directs bilingual education for the San Juan school district in San Juan County, Utah. He has taught Navajo language courses in high school and also developed a Navajo online course for students living off the reservation. Long said the new Rosetta Stone software will "probably take precedence" over what he developed because of the number of Navajo translators collaborating on it, coupled with Rosetta Stone's unique "dynamic immersion" method of teaching language. Besides Long, the translators involved in the project are Lucille Hunt, who writes and translates children's stories in Navajo; Navajo linguist Ellavina Perkins; Don Mose, Navajo languge curriculum specialist at the San Juan school district; Polly Bitsui, who teaches Navajo language in the Tsaile, Ariz., public schools; Jacqueline Jones, a technology specialist at IHS; and Lorraine Monavi, Navajo language instructor at San Juan College in Farmington. All are native speakers. The software program will not take the place of Navajo language teachers in reservation schools, Long added, but will provide a valuable supplement to existing courses. Most Rosetta Stone programs offer three levels of instruction, from the basics of a language to advanced conversation. The group hopes to have level one of Rosetta Stone Navajo ready by the end of 2008. Level one is divided into four units: language basics, greetings and introductions, work and school, and shopping. Each translator will take a section, providing words and phrases for the images that appear. They'll get together periodically to discuss their results and edit their work. When the group met Nov. 30 in the Navajo Nation Museum computer lab to see Rosetta Stone software in action, Navajo language was the dominant mode of communication as the translators talked amongst themselves. The only non-Navajos in the room were Bittinger and Betsy Cook, a board member with Navajo Language Renaissance. Bittinger presented tips on how to navigate instances when direct translation won't work, which requires "creative translation." Mose, who has created bilingual versions of Navajo coyote tales for print and video animation, said the Rosetta Stone software is a much needed addition to the tools for teaching Navajo language. "The whole idea is to use new media," Mose said. "The kids are glued to computers today - why not fuse language and technology to help them learn their culture?" "There are many good Navajo teachers out there, I know that," he said, "but we've been using old materials because there's nothing available that uses the current technology" Mose's first language is Navajo, but he learned English in boarding school and would like to see all Navajo youth be bilingual. "Why not be a doctor or lawyer and know the Navajo language as well?" he said. "You have every right to have both, and I'll think you'll be better off." Perkins, his colleague in the project, said the translations will be done with the utmost care. "As a linguist I want to make sure we use the right terms," said Perkins, who holds a Ph.D. in linguistics from the University of Arizona. Through its endangered language program, Rosetta Stone subsidizes the cost of producing the software. The applicant is asked to contribute 10 percent of the cost, which runs about $200,000. NLR's Cook noted that the idea to contact Rosetta Stone on a language collaboration first became serious three years ago. Finally in January of 2006 the agreement became official. The Navajo language application was one of two proposals picked from 20 applicants, and NLR is the most recent of five Native American groups to collaborate with Rosetta Stone. The Mohawk, Inupiat and Inuttitut tribes have all created level 1 courses in their respective languages. The Chitimacha tribe of Louisiana is also producing a level 1 course at this time. No release date has been set for the Rosetta Stone-Navajo level 1 CD, and distribution details are yet to be worked out. The CDs will be available to Navajo individuals for a fee, and NLR is hoping the Department of Diné Education will handle distribution of the program. But Cook noted that it is not certain the collaboration will continue beyond the level 1 program because much depends on funding. Rosetta Stone may extend its grant for level 2, but production of level 3 will not be subsidized so the nonprofit needs to come up with another source of money. In addition, Cook said, the subsidy does not include paying the translators for their work. Currently all are volunteering their time and must also pay their own travel costs to meetings. Money for such projects is supposed to be available under the federal Esther Martinez Native American Languages Preservation Act of 2006, but Congress has not appropriated any because of disagreement between the House and Senate over the amount. "We really need help," Cook said. "Right now everyone is going into their own pockets." Donations are tax-deductible and can be sent to Navajo Language Renaissance, P.O. Box 1111, Cornville, AZ 86325. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jcrippen at GMAIL.COM Mon Dec 10 21:19:38 2007 From: jcrippen at GMAIL.COM (James Crippen) Date: Mon, 10 Dec 2007 11:19:38 -1000 Subject: Rosetta Stone In-Reply-To: <049A95A2-A3A8-47F4-AE70-08F6F737D1AD@ncidc.org> Message-ID: On Dec 8, 2007 11:10 AM, Andre Cramblit wrote: [...] > But Cook noted that it is not certain the collaboration will continue beyond > the level 1 program because much depends on funding. Rosetta Stone may > extend its grant for level 2, but production of level 3 will not be > subsidized so the nonprofit needs to come up with another source of money. I have been somewhat suspicious about this effort by Rosetta Stone to promote their language learning software among endangered language communities. On the one hand they seem to be actively trying to help, but on the other they seem to be milking their effort for all the publicity that it is worth. I can't criticize their software or their efforts because I have not seen the software in person. However, learning that they only provide "level 1" (presumably the introductory and easiest materials to prepare) with their normal grant, and then "may" provide "level 2", but do not provide "level 3" as a free service makes me far more suspicious of their intentions. It sounds as if they are encouraging vendor lock-in so that the community will become dependent on their software and then force them to pay for further advancement. Why not just train community members to develop the materials themselves, rather than depend on the company for constant handholding? And what sort of nondisclosure agreements do they require participants to sign in order to protect Rosetta Stone's valuable intellectual property? > In addition, Cook said, the subsidy does not include paying the translators > for their work. Currently all are volunteering their time and must also pay > their own travel costs to meetings. This is even more suspicious to me. If the company is not willing to assist the translators, who among endangered languages are often frail and elderly, then what point is there in offering their software services? It does not take a large committee to develop language teaching materials, merely one or two native speakers suffices in my experience. I would be much more impressed by a nonprofit or academic organization which develops a framework and tools for designing language teaching software for endangered language communities. This whole Rosetta Stone business I keep hearing about sounds more and more like a publicity act rather than a serious effort to assist endangered languages in revitalization projects. Pardon me if I sit back and scowl at all of this news about Rosetta Stone. While they may have the best intentions in mind, their actions are not yet encouraging me to believe in them. James A. Crippen Student in the Department of Linguistics University of Hawai'i From phonosemantics at EARTHLINK.NET Mon Dec 10 21:56:22 2007 From: phonosemantics at EARTHLINK.NET (jess tauber) Date: Mon, 10 Dec 2007 16:56:22 -0500 Subject: Rosetta Stone Message-ID: First they try to take your language away, by force or other means for economic or political incentives. OK that's not PC anymore in many places... and- Then before it is too late the academics show up to take what's left of your language away, for their own economic incentives...also not PC anymore and so- Now the professionals show up to give you your language back, again for their own economic incentives... You had it- we took it- and now if you want it back you have to pay the ransom. And no cops- I mean it, or the language gets it. Jess 'Bugsy' Tauber phonosemantics at earthlink.net From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US Mon Dec 10 22:19:07 2007 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (Mia Kalish) Date: Mon, 10 Dec 2007 15:19:07 -0700 Subject: Rosetta Stone In-Reply-To: <10349767.1197323783213.JavaMail.root@elwamui-karabash.atl.sa.earthlink.net> Message-ID: This isn't exactly fair. Here's my 2 cents on why. First, lots of you know that a Mescalero friend - an adult who wanted to learn her language - and I developed some really good software, not very expensive, and wanted to introduce it to the Tribe, for adults who wanted to learn their language, and to help the teachers. The breakdown is about 80% people who don't speak, many of whom would like to learn, and 20% speakers. Many of the speakers are elderly, and can't sustain long teaching sessions. The politics became quite awful, the speakers vs. the want-to-speak, and the whole project went down the ditch, not once but 3 times. The issues - and they seem to occur in tribe after tribe after tribe - is pedagogy. Half the people think technology should be used, half not. Issues of sacredness come up. And issues of money. Yes, what sank the Mescalero project was the money that speakers were going to make from helping with the movie The Missing. My friend was very, very hurt, because she thought she was doing a wonderful thing. Now, academics did take over a lot of work with endangered languages. . . the NSF funds a lot of PhD linguists who want to work with endangered languages. Phil Cash Cash was funded (congrats, again), but I don't think there are many other Native linguists . . . I know we had a discussion about this . . . In Hawaii, there was a concerted grass-roots effort to save the language, and from what I hear, lots of different people work together to make it happen. Where I am, the issues are pretty complex. They are political, social, age-based, life-style based, as well as technologically-based . . . It isn't trivial. But if these languages are going to be saved, and the incredible thought complexes that inform them with them, SOMEONE has to do it. What'ch'all think of that? Mia -----Original Message----- From: Indigenous Languages and Technology [mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU] On Behalf Of jess tauber Sent: Monday, December 10, 2007 2:56 PM To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Subject: Re: [ILAT] Rosetta Stone First they try to take your language away, by force or other means for economic or political incentives. OK that's not PC anymore in many places... and- Then before it is too late the academics show up to take what's left of your language away, for their own economic incentives...also not PC anymore and so- Now the professionals show up to give you your language back, again for their own economic incentives... You had it- we took it- and now if you want it back you have to pay the ransom. And no cops- I mean it, or the language gets it. Jess 'Bugsy' Tauber phonosemantics at earthlink.net From dzo at BISHARAT.NET Tue Dec 11 00:53:24 2007 From: dzo at BISHARAT.NET (Don Osborn) Date: Mon, 10 Dec 2007 19:53:24 -0500 Subject: Rosetta Stone In-Reply-To: <009001c83b7a$b03855b0$8a3f14ac@LFPMIA> Message-ID: As I look at this thread several thoughts occur. One is Robert Chambers' discussion of "positive practitioners" and "negative academics" in international development. The former try to do something, whatever the agenda, and sometimes ineptly. The latter critique, sometimes insightfully and incisively and sometimes less so. That is not to say that one is right and the other wrong, but that in some ways they are like two different cultures. Jess Tauber is right to point out the ironies in the historical sweep. The same dominant culture that via education and technology tried to wipe out languages or systematically marginalize them (not just in the Americas), now is in part (at least the parts you see) trying to save them. It is natural to ask why. Part of it is the dynamic of power. I've noted - again in international development - that the people in positions to do so end up occupying or pre-empting both sides (or all positions) in many debates. Even about the nature of a people themselves. This was particularly striking in several decades of debates on pastoralism in Africa - an evolution of two opposing views on the rationality or not of transhumant (semi-nomadic) herding. An evolving debate entirely outside of the cultures discussed, with indirect and imperfect references to the herders' knowledge systems, and in terms totally outside pastoralists' languages, and totally immersed in Western terms of reference. I see a little of this in discussions on languages and on languages & technology. In part, this dynamic of power is just that way, like the wind just blows. It shifts too, and you can find a way to explain it, but in the end how do you protect yourself from it and better yet use its force to some advantage? So, on one level, Jess's generalizing about "they" responds to a real set of issues. However on another level it seems to blur some realities. When looking at the specific case of companies like Rosetta Stone (or for that matter bigger technology companies) part of what one must appreciate is the nature of the beast and the environment it is working in. The bottom line and survival in that environment is money. How to get it can raise issues, but without it, *poof*. James's suspicion is natural, but with a company, what else is new? But even that is more complex. I resist reifying the notion of corporation too far to the point of overlooking the agency of people in organizations like Rosetta Stone, who may be very sincerely devoted to somehow changing the world for better. The latter may end up being the "positive practitioners" per Chambers' dichotomy, with their more or less imperfect human (and culturally bound) understanding of what they are dealing with - and their own environment to survive in. >From what little I know of Rosetta Stone I see it as a business that is at least trying to do something. It's making good money, apparently, in general language learning with a product that has positive reviews. It's stepping outside of that market in an interesting way. Of course they are milking it for publicity too, but again, that is the nature of companies. I don't know enough about the program, its approach or results to judge it, but I'm absolutely not surprised if there are limits in terms of what they spend on it (anything has limits). Let me finish with another technology example. A company named Lancor just sued the One Laptop Per Child project for alleged use of codes in a patented keyboard. The object of both keyboards is to facilitate input of "extended Latin characters" and diacritics for West African languages. I don't know the technical or patent issues well enough, but whatever the merits of the case may or may not be, the ultimate victims will be people who might have been able to use the technology sooner for their languages. The collateral damage to common aims from disputes over methods can be considerable, and avoidable to the extent one accepts that everyone has honorable intent. (Maybe a key question is how to establish the latter and a sense of trust.) I'd agree with Mia's bottom line conclusion that someone has to do it. If you start subtracting potential partners from the equation, are you better off? Don Osborn From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US Tue Dec 11 01:19:31 2007 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (Mia Kalish) Date: Mon, 10 Dec 2007 18:19:31 -0700 Subject: Rosetta Stone In-Reply-To: <00eb01c83b90$3c17a0d0$b446e270$@net> Message-ID: What a lovely response, Don. I enjoyed the multiple perspectives and the thoughts that they engendered. And most of us have seen all of this, yes? By the way, a very nice lady from Rosetta Stone is on this list - or she used to be. Their technology is a lot like the technology we put together and researched. It is not exact; I don't want anyone to infer that I am implying any misbehavior on anyone's part. The point I want to make is that presenting the visual, the sound and the text simultaneously in what we did was 78% effective Across populations - that was, people who had heard Apache but were either not fluent or not literate, and people who had never been exposed to Apache ever. "Across populations" is a statistical characteristic that says that the populations are so alike they can be analyzed as a single group. This is rare in pedagogies. As for the publicity . . . Rosetta Stone advertises on television. They have lots of languages. I've lost track of how many. Publicity tells people what's happening. It tells People what Other People think is important. Right now, in New Mexico, there is a huge "DWI Blitz" (You drink; you drive; you lose.) This is telling people who drive that people are taking driving sober very seriously. And there are lots of billboards talking about DWI; it's in the papers, on the news. Now, is this a current issue in a lot of state? No-o-o-o-o-o. But, my point here is that Publicity is how you let people know what others are thinking. I saw another sign today, "Ron Paul for President . . . A new view" and I thought, Who is Ron Paul? There was just one sign, and I couldn't connect it to anything else I had seen or heard. One sign won't get me to vote for Ron Paul for president, but many, many signs will get a lot of drunk drivers off the road, and will change attitudes. So maybe all the publicity for Rosetta Stone will start to change attitudes about what is important about People. For a long time, there has been the "white ruling class" and everyone else. Like Don pointed out, there hasn't been much real knowledge about "everyone else." I am so happy to see even the little bits of beginnings where we start to know about Everyone Else, even the Everyone Elses of us :-) Thanks Don, Really, really good piece - I think, Mia -----Original Message----- From: Indigenous Languages and Technology [mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU] On Behalf Of Don Osborn Sent: Monday, December 10, 2007 5:53 PM To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Subject: Re: [ILAT] Rosetta Stone As I look at this thread several thoughts occur. One is Robert Chambers' discussion of "positive practitioners" and "negative academics" in international development. The former try to do something, whatever the agenda, and sometimes ineptly. The latter critique, sometimes insightfully and incisively and sometimes less so. That is not to say that one is right and the other wrong, but that in some ways they are like two different cultures. Jess Tauber is right to point out the ironies in the historical sweep. The same dominant culture that via education and technology tried to wipe out languages or systematically marginalize them (not just in the Americas), now is in part (at least the parts you see) trying to save them. It is natural to ask why. Part of it is the dynamic of power. I've noted - again in international development - that the people in positions to do so end up occupying or pre-empting both sides (or all positions) in many debates. Even about the nature of a people themselves. This was particularly striking in several decades of debates on pastoralism in Africa - an evolution of two opposing views on the rationality or not of transhumant (semi-nomadic) herding. An evolving debate entirely outside of the cultures discussed, with indirect and imperfect references to the herders' knowledge systems, and in terms totally outside pastoralists' languages, and totally immersed in Western terms of reference. I see a little of this in discussions on languages and on languages & technology. In part, this dynamic of power is just that way, like the wind just blows. It shifts too, and you can find a way to explain it, but in the end how do you protect yourself from it and better yet use its force to some advantage? So, on one level, Jess's generalizing about "they" responds to a real set of issues. However on another level it seems to blur some realities. When looking at the specific case of companies like Rosetta Stone (or for that matter bigger technology companies) part of what one must appreciate is the nature of the beast and the environment it is working in. The bottom line and survival in that environment is money. How to get it can raise issues, but without it, *poof*. James's suspicion is natural, but with a company, what else is new? But even that is more complex. I resist reifying the notion of corporation too far to the point of overlooking the agency of people in organizations like Rosetta Stone, who may be very sincerely devoted to somehow changing the world for better. The latter may end up being the "positive practitioners" per Chambers' dichotomy, with their more or less imperfect human (and culturally bound) understanding of what they are dealing with - and their own environment to survive in. >From what little I know of Rosetta Stone I see it as a business that is at least trying to do something. It's making good money, apparently, in general language learning with a product that has positive reviews. It's stepping outside of that market in an interesting way. Of course they are milking it for publicity too, but again, that is the nature of companies. I don't know enough about the program, its approach or results to judge it, but I'm absolutely not surprised if there are limits in terms of what they spend on it (anything has limits). Let me finish with another technology example. A company named Lancor just sued the One Laptop Per Child project for alleged use of codes in a patented keyboard. The object of both keyboards is to facilitate input of "extended Latin characters" and diacritics for West African languages. I don't know the technical or patent issues well enough, but whatever the merits of the case may or may not be, the ultimate victims will be people who might have been able to use the technology sooner for their languages. The collateral damage to common aims from disputes over methods can be considerable, and avoidable to the extent one accepts that everyone has honorable intent. (Maybe a key question is how to establish the latter and a sense of trust.) I'd agree with Mia's bottom line conclusion that someone has to do it. If you start subtracting potential partners from the equation, are you better off? Don Osborn From bernisantamaria at GMAIL.COM Tue Dec 11 17:01:30 2007 From: bernisantamaria at GMAIL.COM (Bernadette Santamaria) Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2007 10:01:30 -0700 Subject: Rosetta Stone In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Although I have many other thoughts/comments I could make, for now I just want to let you all know that I agree with you, James and Jess. I, too, am often suspicious of technological methods--but not for exactly the same reasons. I'm an older White Mountain Apache, worked on a doctoral dissertation on our Apache language in which I am fluent along with two other languages; therefore, i feel that I come at these issues from that perspective. There are many issues involved in our attempts at revitalizing our languages in local communities. I must state that in our tribe, we still have many speakers in comparison with other tribes that only have a few fluent speakers, and we also still have children speakers. But the percentages of children and younger people learning our language is decreasing year by year. That is our concern. I taught Apache at the University level and sometimes had non-Indian students and have been contacted by several non-Indian individuals who wished to learn Apache and I also had Apache students, some of whom grew up on their reservations and had been around spoken Apache all their lives and many have passive knowledge. Then there are the Apache students who never lived on the reservation and do not have speakers in their families; therefore, had language-learning results that were similar to the non-Indian students. The fastest learners are those with passive knowledge and written Apache is not very helpful to learners. I attempted to not stress reading & writing for those reasons. People do not have to learn to read and write Apache to learn it. I believe the total immersion method is best and that involves observational language situations for language learning. We will be utilizing that at the local level if we can get funded for immersion camps in future. The point that I wish to make is that some of us do not wish for our languages to be on Internets, websites, or even on CDs. These open learning of Apache to many who would misuse, misinterpret, mispronounce, and abuse our sacred language. I know that these things happen because of my teaching experience. The adult learners I have attempted to teach usually go off on their own tangents in learning methods, I cannot understand their spoken Apache (in many instances) even though I am a fluent speaker and I thought I had taught them the correct pronunciations by going over and over the alphabet used in written Apache. But I cannot understand them except for a very few words and a couple of them have been at it for years. Another attempts to sing but that is another whole topic concerning who should be singing our sacred songs. Abuse of our language is therefore, an issue with some of us--where would they use the language and why? Getting to the issue of the Rosetta Stone, I have often thought of misplaced trust that sometimes occurs in our native communities about so many things technology has to offer. There is also another company that has cassette tapes (and DVDs) for sale that features one Apache language and that would probably mean people would misconstrue that all Apaches speak that language when there once were more than ten Apache nations and languages. Now several of our nations no longer have fluent speakers left. For the reasons that are very close to our hearts and emotions, many of our community members wish for the children to learn and use our Apache languages but some of us do not want it abused by publication in various media. We should develop our own methods and total immersion and observational language learning are best taught intergenerationally within our homes. Language learning at schools is just a tool available at other domains but should not be the main or only place for our children to learn their first languages. Being bilingual is a great educational advantage. And speaking of PC, our Indigenous communities and histories pre-date the United States and its constitutional rights, and as polemic as the term is in contemporary US society, our traditional knowledge, beliefs, and values should definitely not be judged under such a new and ephemeral term. Thanks for all your points, I enjoyed reading them. Bernadette Adley-SantaMaria On 12/10/07, James Crippen wrote: > > On Dec 8, 2007 11:10 AM, Andre Cramblit wrote: > [...] > > But Cook noted that it is not certain the collaboration will continue > beyond > > the level 1 program because much depends on funding. Rosetta Stone may > > extend its grant for level 2, but production of level 3 will not be > > subsidized so the nonprofit needs to come up with another source of > money. > > I have been somewhat suspicious about this effort by Rosetta Stone to > promote their language learning software among endangered language > communities. On the one hand they seem to be actively trying to help, > but on the other they seem to be milking their effort for all the > publicity that it is worth. > > I can't criticize their software or their efforts because I have not > seen the software in person. However, learning that they only provide > "level 1" (presumably the introductory and easiest materials to > prepare) with their normal grant, and then "may" provide "level 2", > but do not provide "level 3" as a free service makes me far more > suspicious of their intentions. It sounds as if they are encouraging > vendor lock-in so that the community will become dependent on their > software and then force them to pay for further advancement. > > Why not just train community members to develop the materials > themselves, rather than depend on the company for constant > handholding? And what sort of nondisclosure agreements do they require > participants to sign in order to protect Rosetta Stone's valuable > intellectual property? > > > In addition, Cook said, the subsidy does not include paying the > translators > > for their work. Currently all are volunteering their time and must also > pay > > their own travel costs to meetings. > > This is even more suspicious to me. If the company is not willing to > assist the translators, who among endangered languages are often frail > and elderly, then what point is there in offering their software > services? It does not take a large committee to develop language > teaching materials, merely one or two native speakers suffices in my > experience. > > I would be much more impressed by a nonprofit or academic organization > which develops a framework and tools for designing language teaching > software for endangered language communities. This whole Rosetta Stone > business I keep hearing about sounds more and more like a publicity > act rather than a serious effort to assist endangered languages in > revitalization projects. > > Pardon me if I sit back and scowl at all of this news about Rosetta > Stone. While they may have the best intentions in mind, their actions > are not yet encouraging me to believe in them. > > James A. Crippen > Student in the Department of Linguistics > University of Hawai'i > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From andrekar at NCIDC.ORG Wed Dec 12 19:06:38 2007 From: andrekar at NCIDC.ORG (Andre Cramblit) Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2007 11:06:38 -0800 Subject: 12 Days of xmas Message-ID: Northern California Version On the Twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, Twelve Drummers Drumming, Eleven Salmon Swimming, Ten Hunters Hunting, Nine Brush Dancers, Eight Girls Singing, Seven Baby Baskets, Six Hawks Soaring, Five Redwood Homes, Four strands of dentalia calling, Three Elk Horn Purses, Two bundles of bear grass, and a Woodpecker in a huckleberry bush. (Idea “borrowed” from Ivy and Yolanda Fulmer of Kirkland, Washington and Hoonah, Alaska) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From andrekar at NCIDC.ORG Wed Dec 12 19:13:57 2007 From: andrekar at NCIDC.ORG (Andre Cramblit) Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2007 11:13:57 -0800 Subject: Rosetta Stone In-Reply-To: <00b301c83b93$e24a4a90$8a3f14ac@LFPMIA> Message-ID: The arguments against Rosetta stone remind me of the complaints I have heard about the Phrasealator. Why do we need to pay so much money, people are just trying to get rich. I agree in a perfect world the items to help tribes recover and preserve their languages would be free to them (either through generosity, grants or other subsidy), but alas we are in less than a perfect world. The next best thing is to find out what works best (program, sytem, software, etc) regardless of costs and then work like the devil to get the costs covered. The paramount objective is preservation of my language. Profiteers have to face their music when creator chooses. On Dec 10, 2007, at 5:19 PM, Mia Kalish wrote: What a lovely response, Don. I enjoyed the multiple perspectives and the thoughts that they engendered. And most of us have seen all of this, yes? By the way, a very nice lady from Rosetta Stone is on this list - or she used to be. Their technology is a lot like the technology we put together and researched. It is not exact; I don't want anyone to infer that I am implying any misbehavior on anyone's part. The point I want to make is that presenting the visual, the sound and the text simultaneously in what we did was 78% effective Across populations - that was, people who had heard Apache but were either not fluent or not literate, and people who had never been exposed to Apache ever. "Across populations" is a statistical characteristic that says that the populations are so alike they can be analyzed as a single group. This is rare in pedagogies. As for the publicity . . . Rosetta Stone advertises on television. They have lots of languages. I've lost track of how many. Publicity tells people what's happening. It tells People what Other People think is important. Right now, in New Mexico, there is a huge "DWI Blitz" (You drink; you drive; you lose.) This is telling people who drive that people are taking driving sober very seriously. And there are lots of billboards talking about DWI; it's in the papers, on the news. Now, is this a current issue in a lot of state? No-o-o-o-o-o. But, my point here is that Publicity is how you let people know what others are thinking. I saw another sign today, "Ron Paul for President . . . A new view" and I thought, Who is Ron Paul? There was just one sign, and I couldn't connect it to anything else I had seen or heard. One sign won't get me to vote for Ron Paul for president, but many, many signs will get a lot of drunk drivers off the road, and will change attitudes. So maybe all the publicity for Rosetta Stone will start to change attitudes about what is important about People. For a long time, there has been the "white ruling class" and everyone else. Like Don pointed out, there hasn't been much real knowledge about "everyone else." I am so happy to see even the little bits of beginnings where we start to know about Everyone Else, even the Everyone Elses of us :-) Thanks Don, Really, really good piece - I think, Mia -----Original Message----- From: Indigenous Languages and Technology [mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU] On Behalf Of Don Osborn Sent: Monday, December 10, 2007 5:53 PM To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Subject: Re: [ILAT] Rosetta Stone As I look at this thread several thoughts occur. One is Robert Chambers' discussion of "positive practitioners" and "negative academics" in international development. The former try to do something, whatever the agenda, and sometimes ineptly. The latter critique, sometimes insightfully and incisively and sometimes less so. That is not to say that one is right and the other wrong, but that in some ways they are like two different cultures. Jess Tauber is right to point out the ironies in the historical sweep. The same dominant culture that via education and technology tried to wipe out languages or systematically marginalize them (not just in the Americas), now is in part (at least the parts you see) trying to save them. It is natural to ask why. Part of it is the dynamic of power. I've noted - again in international development - that the people in positions to do so end up occupying or pre-empting both sides (or all positions) in many debates. Even about the nature of a people themselves. This was particularly striking in several decades of debates on pastoralism in Africa - an evolution of two opposing views on the rationality or not of transhumant (semi-nomadic) herding. An evolving debate entirely outside of the cultures discussed, with indirect and imperfect references to the herders' knowledge systems, and in terms totally outside pastoralists' languages, and totally immersed in Western terms of reference. I see a little of this in discussions on languages and on languages & technology. In part, this dynamic of power is just that way, like the wind just blows. It shifts too, and you can find a way to explain it, but in the end how do you protect yourself from it and better yet use its force to some advantage? So, on one level, Jess's generalizing about "they" responds to a real set of issues. However on another level it seems to blur some realities. When looking at the specific case of companies like Rosetta Stone (or for that matter bigger technology companies) part of what one must appreciate is the nature of the beast and the environment it is working in. The bottom line and survival in that environment is money. How to get it can raise issues, but without it, *poof*. James's suspicion is natural, but with a company, what else is new? But even that is more complex. I resist reifying the notion of corporation too far to the point of overlooking the agency of people in organizations like Rosetta Stone, who may be very sincerely devoted to somehow changing the world for better. The latter may end up being the "positive practitioners" per Chambers' dichotomy, with their more or less imperfect human (and culturally bound) understanding of what they are dealing with - and their own environment to survive in. From what little I know of Rosetta Stone I see it as a business that is at least trying to do something. It's making good money, apparently, in general language learning with a product that has positive reviews. It's stepping outside of that market in an interesting way. Of course they are milking it for publicity too, but again, that is the nature of companies. I don't know enough about the program, its approach or results to judge it, but I'm absolutely not surprised if there are limits in terms of what they spend on it (anything has limits). Let me finish with another technology example. A company named Lancor just sued the One Laptop Per Child project for alleged use of codes in a patented keyboard. The object of both keyboards is to facilitate input of "extended Latin characters" and diacritics for West African languages. I don't know the technical or patent issues well enough, but whatever the merits of the case may or may not be, the ultimate victims will be people who might have been able to use the technology sooner for their languages. The collateral damage to common aims from disputes over methods can be considerable, and avoidable to the extent one accepts that everyone has honorable intent. (Maybe a key question is how to establish the latter and a sense of trust.) I'd agree with Mia's bottom line conclusion that someone has to do it. If you start subtracting potential partners from the equation, are you better off? Don Osborn From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Dec 12 19:37:53 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2007 12:37:53 -0700 Subject: Collaboration Between Lakehead University Faculty and Aboriginal Community Partners Leads to Substantial SSHRC Funding (fwd link) Message-ID: Dec 06, 2007 12:06 ET Collaboration Between Lakehead University Faculty and Aboriginal Community Partners Leads to Substantial SSHRC Funding Research Initiatives to Benefit Aboriginal Language and Learning THUNDER BAY, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Dec. 6, 2007) - In partnership with two Aboriginal organizations, four members of Lakehead University's Faculty of Education are pleased to announce a collective total of $436,000 in Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) funding for partner-based research which aims to benefit Aboriginal communities. Principal investigator Dr. Ethel Gardner, partners from the Grand Council of Treaty #3, and co-investigator Dr. John O'Meara have collaborated on a research plan to receive $225,000 in SSHRC funding which will develop a comprehensive, collaborative, and strategic plan for the retention and revitalization of the Anishinaabe language-more commonly known as Ojibwe. To acces full article, just follow the link below: http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release.do?id=800453 From awebster at SIU.EDU Wed Dec 12 19:40:14 2007 From: awebster at SIU.EDU (awebster@siu.edu) Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2007 14:40:14 -0500 Subject: Rosetta Stone In-Reply-To: <7C8FD959-D9E6-4BA4-9DED-181640E5C2F7@ncidc.org> Message-ID: To those of you who get the Navajo Times via mail, my Dec. 6, 2007 copy just came and there is an article on the Rosetta Stone on A-9. Best, akw ---------Included Message---------- >Date: 12-dec-2007 13:33:02 -0600 >From: "Andre Cramblit" >Reply-To: "Indigenous Languages and Technology" >To: >Subject: Re: [ILAT] Rosetta Stone > >The arguments against Rosetta stone remind me of the complaints I >have heard about the Phrasealator. Why do we need to pay so much >money, people are just trying to get rich. > >I agree in a perfect world the items to help tribes recover and >preserve their languages would be free to them (either through >generosity, grants or other subsidy), but alas we are in less than a >perfect world. The next best thing is to find out what works best >(program, sytem, software, etc) regardless of costs and then work >like the devil to get the costs covered. The paramount objective is >preservation of my language. Profiteers have to face their music >when creator chooses. > >On Dec 10, 2007, at 5:19 PM, Mia Kalish wrote: > >What a lovely response, Don. I enjoyed the multiple perspectives and the >thoughts that they engendered. And most of us have seen all of this, >yes? >By the way, a very nice lady from Rosetta Stone is on this list - or she >used to be. Their technology is a lot like the technology we put >together >and researched. It is not exact; I don't want anyone to infer that I am >implying any misbehavior on anyone's part. The point I want to make >is that >presenting the visual, the sound and the text simultaneously in what >we did >was 78% effective Across populations - that was, people who had heard >Apache >but were either not fluent or not literate, and people who had never >been >exposed to Apache ever. "Across populations" is a statistical >characteristic >that says that the populations are so alike they can be analyzed as a >single >group. This is rare in pedagogies. >As for the publicity . . . Rosetta Stone advertises on television. >They have >lots of languages. I've lost track of how many. Publicity tells people >what's happening. It tells People what Other People think is important. >Right now, in New Mexico, there is a huge "DWI Blitz" (You drink; you >drive; >you lose.) This is telling people who drive that people are taking >driving >sober very seriously. And there are lots of billboards talking about >DWI; >it's in the papers, on the news. Now, is this a current issue in a >lot of >state? No-o-o-o-o-o. But, my point here is that Publicity is how you let >people know what others are thinking. I saw another sign today, "Ron >Paul >for President . . . A new view" and I thought, Who is Ron Paul? There >was >just one sign, and I couldn't connect it to anything else I had seen or >heard. One sign won't get me to vote for Ron Paul for president, but >many, >many signs will get a lot of drunk drivers off the road, and will change >attitudes. >So maybe all the publicity for Rosetta Stone will start to change >attitudes >about what is important about People. For a long time, there has been >the >"white ruling class" and everyone else. Like Don pointed out, there >hasn't >been much real knowledge about "everyone else." I am so happy to see >even >the little bits of beginnings where we start to know about Everyone >Else, >even the Everyone Elses of us :-) > >Thanks Don, >Really, really good piece - I think, >Mia > > > >-----Original Message----- >From: Indigenous Languages and Technology >[mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU] >On Behalf Of Don Osborn >Sent: Monday, December 10, 2007 5:53 PM >To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU >Subject: Re: [ILAT] Rosetta Stone > >As I look at this thread several thoughts occur. One is Robert Chambers' >discussion of "positive practitioners" and "negative academics" in >international development. The former try to do something, whatever the >agenda, and sometimes ineptly. The latter critique, sometimes >insightfully >and incisively and sometimes less so. That is not to say that one is >right >and the other wrong, but that in some ways they are like two different >cultures. > >Jess Tauber is right to point out the ironies in the historical >sweep. The >same dominant culture that via education and technology tried to wipe >out >languages or systematically marginalize them (not just in the >Americas), now >is in part (at least the parts you see) trying to save them. It is >natural >to ask why. > >Part of it is the dynamic of power. I've noted - again in international >development - that the people in positions to do so end up occupying or >pre-empting both sides (or all positions) in many debates. Even about >the >nature of a people themselves. This was particularly striking in several >decades of debates on pastoralism in Africa - an evolution of two >opposing >views on the rationality or not of transhumant (semi-nomadic) >herding. An >evolving debate entirely outside of the cultures discussed, with >indirect >and imperfect references to the herders' knowledge systems, and in terms >totally outside pastoralists' languages, and totally immersed in Western >terms of reference. > >I see a little of this in discussions on languages and on languages & >technology. > >In part, this dynamic of power is just that way, like the wind just >blows. >It shifts too, and you can find a way to explain it, but in the end >how do >you protect yourself from it and better yet use its force to some >advantage? > >So, on one level, Jess's generalizing about "they" responds to a real >set of >issues. However on another level it seems to blur some realities. > >When looking at the specific case of companies like Rosetta Stone (or >for >that matter bigger technology companies) part of what one must >appreciate is >the nature of the beast and the environment it is working in. The bottom >line and survival in that environment is money. How to get it can raise >issues, but without it, *poof*. James's suspicion is natural, but with a >company, what else is new? > >But even that is more complex. I resist reifying the notion of >corporation >too far to the point of overlooking the agency of people in >organizations >like Rosetta Stone, who may be very sincerely devoted to somehow >changing >the world for better. The latter may end up being the "positive >practitioners" per Chambers' dichotomy, with their more or less >imperfect >human (and culturally bound) understanding of what they are dealing >with - >and their own environment to survive in. > > From what little I know of Rosetta Stone I see it as a business that >is at >least trying to do something. It's making good money, apparently, in >general >language learning with a product that has positive reviews. It's >stepping >outside of that market in an interesting way. Of course they are >milking it >for publicity too, but again, that is the nature of companies. I >don't know >enough about the program, its approach or results to judge it, but I'm >absolutely not surprised if there are limits in terms of what they >spend on >it (anything has limits). > >Let me finish with another technology example. A company named Lancor >just >sued the One Laptop Per Child project for alleged use of codes in a >patented >keyboard. The object of both keyboards is to facilitate input of >"extended >Latin characters" and diacritics for West African languages. I don't >know >the technical or patent issues well enough, but whatever the merits >of the >case may or may not be, the ultimate victims will be people who might >have >been able to use the technology sooner for their languages. > >The collateral damage to common aims from disputes over methods can be >considerable, and avoidable to the extent one accepts that everyone has >honorable intent. (Maybe a key question is how to establish the >latter and a >sense of trust.) > >I'd agree with Mia's bottom line conclusion that someone has to do >it. If >you start subtracting potential partners from the equation, are you >better >off? > >Don Osborn > > ---------End of Included Message---------- Anthony K. Webster, Ph.D. Department of Anthropology & Native American Studies Minor Southern Illinois University Mail Code 4502 Carbondale, IL 62901-4502 618-453-5027 From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Dec 12 19:33:36 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2007 12:33:36 -0700 Subject: Silent Night in four languages (fwd link) Message-ID: Silent Night in four languages Last Update: Monday, December 10, 2007. 9:28am ACST By Nicole Lee “Inua indotai; Mungangka, miil-miilpa; Stille nacht, heilige nacht.” Even if the words seem foreign, the song will be familiar. These are the opening lines to the Christmas carol 'Silent Night' in Western Arrernte, Luritja and German. To access full article, juts follow the link below: http://www.abc.net.au/alicesprings/stories/s2114098.htm?backyard From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Dec 12 19:48:44 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2007 12:48:44 -0700 Subject: Yup’ik degree approved by UA Board of Regents (fwd link) Message-ID: Yup’ik degree approved by UA Board of Regents Staff Report Published December 7, 2007 A new bachelor’s degree in Yup’ik language and culture has been approved by the University of Alaska Board of Regents. The four-year program will be offered at the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Kuskokwim Campus in Bethel. “In Yup’ik, the program is called ‘Yupiit Nakmiin Qaneryaraat Piciryaraat-llu,’” Oscar Alexie, assistant professor of Yup’ik at the Bethel campus, said Thursday during the regent’s meeting in Anchorage. “That means ‘the very own language and culture of the Yup’ik people.’” To access full article, just follow the link below: http://newsminer.com/2007/12/07/10277/ From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Dec 12 19:54:17 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2007 12:54:17 -0700 Subject: "Every 14 Days a Language Dies." (fwd link) Message-ID: "Every 14 Days a Language Dies." IKLC and Game for Charity Launch Online Casual Game Tournament to Revitalize a Native American Language Press Release News | Home ATLANTA, GA -- 12/04/07 -- "Every 14 days a language dies" reports the National Geographic Enduring Voices project. In the United States' Pacific Northwest and Southwest regions, the danger of language extinction ranges from high to severe. That startling fact is why the Iiwas Katrutsini Learning Center (IKLC), a non-profit based in New Mexico, is launching a unique online fundraiser. This event will provide monies to help the Cochiti and Santo Domingo Pueblo Indians build a school for the preservation of their indigenous language. To access full article, just follow the link below: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/news_press_release,235100.shtml From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Dec 12 19:39:44 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2007 12:39:44 -0700 Subject: Aboriginal Languages Slowly Making Way into Australian Schools (fwd link) Message-ID: Aboriginal Languages Slowly Making Way into Australian Schools By Nicola Fell Sydney 04 December 2007 Fell report - Download MP3 (1.061 MB) audio clip Listen to Fell report audio clip On the eve of European settlement in Australia, around 250 indigenous languages were spoken. Today most of them have been lost, and only 17 are thought likely to survive for another generation. But in the state of New South Wales, the government is attempting to reverse this. In schools with a large indigenous population, learning an aboriginal language will be available to all students, as Nicola Fell reports from Sydney. To access full article, just follow the link below: http://www.voanews.com/english/2007-12-04-voa15.cfm From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Dec 12 19:35:59 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2007 12:35:59 -0700 Subject: Tough Nunavut language laws could be on the way: minister (fwd link) Message-ID: Tough Nunavut language laws could be on the way: minister Last Updated: Thursday, December 6, 2007 | 12:10 PM CT CBC News Nunavut's minister of culture, language, elders and youth says the territory is on the brink of enacting the toughest protection yet for an aboriginal language in Canada. Louis Tapardjuk said Bills 6 and 7, the proposed official languages act and Inuit language protection act, would be powerful legislation if made into law. To access full article, just follow the link below: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/north/story/2007/12/06/lang-bills.html From Jimrem at AOL.COM Wed Dec 12 20:42:48 2007 From: Jimrem at AOL.COM (Jimrem at AOL.COM) Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2007 15:42:48 EST Subject: Silent Night in four languages (fwd link) Message-ID: In a message dated 12/12/2007 1:53:27 PM Central Standard Time, cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU writes: Silent Night in four languages For Silent Night in several American Indian languages go to _http://silentnight.web.za/translate/_ (http://silentnight.web.za/translate/) . Some of the language versions are for Cheyenne, Cherokee, Hawaiian, Inuit, and Lenape. Jim Rementer Lenape Language Project **************************************See AOL's top rated recipes (http://food.aol.com/top-rated-recipes?NCID=aoltop00030000000004) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Dec 12 20:04:26 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2007 13:04:26 -0700 Subject: Gwich'in, Cree speakers very low in N.W.T., stats show (fwd link) Message-ID: Gwich'in, Cree speakers very low in N.W.T., stats show Last Updated: Tuesday, December 11, 2007 | 8:12 AM CT CBC News At least two northern aboriginal languages are at risk of dying off as mother tongues in the Northwest Territories, according to statistics released recently by Statistics Canada and the territory's Bureau of Statistics. The figures, which come from the 2006 census, show that about 20 per cent of N.W.T. residents speak a mother tongue that is neither English nor French. But when those respondents are broken down by language, Gwich'in and Cree came dead last, trailing behind even Chinese and Vietnamese in the number of mother-tongue speakers. To access full article, just follow the link below: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/north/story/2007/12/10/nwt-lang.html From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Dec 12 19:23:04 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2007 12:23:04 -0700 Subject: GUATEMALA: Teaching With Two Voices (fwd link) Message-ID: GUATEMALA: Teaching With Two Voices By Inés Benítez GUATEMALA CITY, DEC 4 (IPS) - IN THE XEPANIL VILLAGE SCHOOL IN SANTA APOLONIA, TO THE WEST OF THE GUATEMALAN CAPITAL, 20 CHILDREN ARE LEARNING BOTH SPANISH AND THE MAYAN INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE KAQCHIKEL. THEIR TEACHER, MARTA LIDIA RODRíGUEZ, ONE OF THOUSANDS OF BILINGUAL EDUCATION TEACHERS IN THIS COUNTRY TODAY, WALKS AN HOUR A DAY TO GET TO THE SCHOOL. "There are children in the village who don’t understand Spanish," Rodríguez, who teaches primary-level students between the ages of seven and 12, explained to IPS. "Speaking to them in their own language at school is elemental and productive." In 1989, the literacy rate among indigenous people between the ages of 15 and 24 stood at 54 percent. By 2002, it had risen to 71 percent in this age group, according to the 2nd Millennium Development Goals Progress Report for Guatemala, released in 2006. Nevertheless, three out of every 10 adult Guatemalans do not know how to read or write, and among indigenous Guatemalans, the adult illiteracy rate is 48 percent, more than double the rate for the non-indigenous population, according to official figures. And among rural indigenous women, the illiteracy rate rises to 65 percent. To read full article, just access the link below: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40344 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Dec 12 19:29:23 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2007 12:29:23 -0700 Subject: First Nations languages at risk of extinction (fwd link) Message-ID: First Nations languages at risk of extinction Dec, 09 2007 - 10:10 PM VANCOUVER/CKNW(AM980) - Canada's indigenous languages are in "dire straights," according to the Regional Chief of the BC Assembly of First Nations. To access article, juts follow the link below: http://www.cknw.com/news/news_local.cfm?cat=7428109912&rem=81260&red=80110923aPBIny&wids=410&gi=1&gm=news_local.cfm From Rrlapier at AOL.COM Wed Dec 12 21:29:37 2007 From: Rrlapier at AOL.COM (Rrlapier at AOL.COM) Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2007 16:29:37 EST Subject: Rosetta Stone Message-ID: I have read ANA language grants for several years. In the last couple of years I have noticed more and more efforts to document language using technologies from outside of the community. Oftentimes the community does not articulate how they will incorporate these technologies into their whole language revitalization strategy or how it will build their community capcity. Rosetta Stone is one of those companies. In most cases the community knew very very little about the company (they would attach a brochure to their application) and so their grant would basically be asking for 90% to cover the cost of RS and 10% for at home. The question I always asked to the applicant is to show how this is "community capacity building" -- if all the dollars leave the community? I think tribes need to be proactive and require companies like RS to put most of the dollars back into the community, by training technicians, language specialists, etc. Tribes need to make this relationship a partnership. Rosalyn LaPier Piegan Institute In a message dated 12/12/2007 12:14:46 P.M. Mountain Standard Time, andrekar at NCIDC.ORG writes: The arguments against Rosetta stone remind me of the complaints I have heard about the Phrasealator. Why do we need to pay so much money, people are just trying to get rich. I agree in a perfect world the items to help tribes recover and preserve their languages would be free to them (either through generosity, grants or other subsidy), but alas we are in less than a perfect world. The next best thing is to find out what works best (program, sytem, software, etc) regardless of costs and then work like the devil to get the costs covered. The paramount objective is preservation of my language. Profiteers have to face their music when creator chooses. On Dec 10, 2007, at 5:19 PM, Mia Kalish wrote: What a lovely response, Don. I enjoyed the multiple perspectives and the thoughts that they engendered. And most of us have seen all of this, yes? By the way, a very nice lady from Rosetta Stone is on this list - or she used to be. Their technology is a lot like the technology we put together and researched. It is not exact; I don't want anyone to infer that I am implying any misbehavior on anyone's part. The point I want to make is that presenting the visual, the sound and the text simultaneously in what we did was 78% effective Across populations - that was, people who had heard Apache but were either not fluent or not literate, and people who had never been exposed to Apache ever. "Across populations" is a statistical characteristic that says that the populations are so alike they can be analyzed as a single group. This is rare in pedagogies. As for the publicity . . . Rosetta Stone advertises on television. They have lots of languages. I've lost track of how many. Publicity tells people what's happening. It tells People what Other People think is important. Right now, in New Mexico, there is a huge "DWI Blitz" (You drink; you drive; you lose.) This is telling people who drive that people are taking driving sober very seriously. And there are lots of billboards talking about DWI; it's in the papers, on the news. Now, is this a current issue in a lot of state? No-o-o-o-o-o. But, my point here is that Publicity is how you let people know what others are thinking. I saw another sign today, "Ron Paul for President . . . A new view" and I thought, Who is Ron Paul? There was just one sign, and I couldn't connect it to anything else I had seen or heard. One sign won't get me to vote for Ron Paul for president, but many, many signs will get a lot of drunk drivers off the road, and will change attitudes. So maybe all the publicity for Rosetta Stone will start to change attitudes about what is important about People. For a long time, there has been the "white ruling class" and everyone else. Like Don pointed out, there hasn't been much real knowledge about "everyone else." I am so happy to see even the little bits of beginnings where we start to know about Everyone Else, even the Everyone Elses of us :-) Thanks Don, Really, really good piece - I think, Mia -----Original Message----- From: Indigenous Languages and Technology [mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU] On Behalf Of Don Osborn Sent: Monday, December 10, 2007 5:53 PM To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Subject: Re: [ILAT] Rosetta Stone As I look at this thread several thoughts occur. One is Robert Chambers' discussion of "positive practitioners" and "negative academics" in international development. The former try to do something, whatever the agenda, and sometimes ineptly. The latter critique, sometimes insightfully and incisively and sometimes less so. That is not to say that one is right and the other wrong, but that in some ways they are like two different cultures. Jess Tauber is right to point out the ironies in the historical sweep. The same dominant culture that via education and technology tried to wipe out languages or systematically marginalize them (not just in the Americas), now is in part (at least the parts you see) trying to save them. It is natural to ask why. Part of it is the dynamic of power. I've noted - again in international development - that the people in positions to do so end up occupying or pre-empting both sides (or all positions) in many debates. Even about the nature of a people themselves. This was particularly striking in several decades of debates on pastoralism in Africa - an evolution of two opposing views on the rationality or not of transhumant (semi-nomadic) herding. An evolving debate entirely outside of the cultures discussed, with indirect and imperfect references to the herders' knowledge systems, and in terms totally outside pastoralists' languages, and totally immersed in Western terms of reference. I see a little of this in discussions on languages and on languages & technology. In part, this dynamic of power is just that way, like the wind just blows. It shifts too, and you can find a way to explain it, but in the end how do you protect yourself from it and better yet use its force to some advantage? So, on one level, Jess's generalizing about "they" responds to a real set of issues. However on another level it seems to blur some realities. When looking at the specific case of companies like Rosetta Stone (or for that matter bigger technology companies) part of what one must appreciate is the nature of the beast and the environment it is working in. The bottom line and survival in that environment is money. How to get it can raise issues, but without it, *poof*. James's suspicion is natural, but with a company, what else is new? But even that is more complex. I resist reifying the notion of corporation too far to the point of overlooking the agency of people in organizations like Rosetta Stone, who may be very sincerely devoted to somehow changing the world for better. The latter may end up being the "positive practitioners" per Chambers' dichotomy, with their more or less imperfect human (and culturally bound) understanding of what they are dealing with - and their own environment to survive in. >From what little I know of Rosetta Stone I see it as a business that is at least trying to do something. It's making good money, apparently, in general language learning with a product that has positive reviews. It's stepping outside of that market in an interesting way. Of course they are milking it for publicity too, but again, that is the nature of companies. I don't know enough about the program, its approach or results to judge it, but I'm absolutely not surprised if there are limits in terms of what they spend on it (anything has limits). Let me finish with another technology example. A company named Lancor just sued the One Laptop Per Child project for alleged use of codes in a patented keyboard. The object of both keyboards is to facilitate input of "extended Latin characters" and diacritics for West African languages. I don't know the technical or patent issues well enough, but whatever the merits of the case may or may not be, the ultimate victims will be people who might have been able to use the technology sooner for their languages. The collateral damage to common aims from disputes over methods can be considerable, and avoidable to the extent one accepts that everyone has honorable intent. (Maybe a key question is how to establish the latter and a sense of trust.) I'd agree with Mia's bottom line conclusion that someone has to do it. If you start subtracting potential partners from the equation, are you better off? Don Osborn **************************************See AOL's top rated recipes (http://food.aol.com/top-rated-recipes?NCID=aoltop00030000000004) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From andrekar at NCIDC.ORG Wed Dec 12 21:57:09 2007 From: andrekar at NCIDC.ORG (Andre Cramblit) Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2007 13:57:09 -0800 Subject: Yuman Lang. Summit ~ April 2008, Barona Message-ID: SAVE THE DATE ~ Yuman Language Summitt at Barona Rez, April 2008 -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: SAVE THE DATE.doc Type: application/msword Size: 26624 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Dec 12 22:01:39 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2007 15:01:39 -0700 Subject: Rosetta Stone In-Reply-To: <1197488414-519.00022.00507-smmsdV2.1.6@saluki-mailhub.siu.edu> Message-ID: I hope to someday buy me a Rosetta Stone package for say Spanish (Latin America) or some such language not just out of curiousity as I do really want to learn a "foreign language" (hehe...).  However, I am not too familiar with how the interface or content of Rosetta is organized.  But I would be concerned about "cookie cutter" approaches to content.  In some cases, what works for European languages may not work for indigenous ones.   This is partly due to the unique structures many indigenous languages possess, such as free word order, head-dependent marking, complex verb and nominal morphology, etc, etc., (just to name a few from the syntax side of things, not to mention cultural pragmatic issues as well!).  These unique factors should challenge anybody who is not familiar with these kinds of languages.  With regard to a broader issue, I wonder if any 2nd Lang learning assessments have been published showing the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of Rosetta overall?  Let us know... l8ter, Phil UofA -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Dec 12 19:51:13 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2007 12:51:13 -0700 Subject: Sea ice may disappear, but native words linger (fwd link) Message-ID: Sea ice may disappear, but native words linger Program #5394 of the Earth & Sky Radio Series with hosts Deborah Byrd, Joel Block, # Lindsay Patterson and Jorge Salazar. Arctic sea ice is changing – and so are traditional ways of knowing sea ice by the Eskimo or Inuit people of the far north. Igor Krupnik: As the practices of using and knowing sea ice are to change, so will the knowledge about sea ice. Let’s say if multi-year ice disappears, the language will be perhaps the last resort of any knowledge about multi-year ice. To access full article, just follow the link below: http://www.earthsky.org/radioshows/52040/sea-ice-may-disappear-but-native-words-linger From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Dec 12 19:41:29 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2007 12:41:29 -0700 Subject: Indigneous language program producing results (fwd link) Message-ID: Indigneous language program producing results Posted Tue Dec 4, 2007 8:34pm AEDT A high school in Western Sydney says its Aboriginal language program has lifted results and boosted the attendance rates of Indigenous students. To access full article, just follow the link below: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/12/04/2109727.htm From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US Thu Dec 13 01:21:33 2007 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (Mia Kalish) Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2007 18:21:33 -0700 Subject: Rosetta Stone In-Reply-To: Message-ID: I have a story to share. But first, let me build a little context. For as long as I have been doing this, there has been lots of to-ing and fro-ing about technology, and in our case, language revitalization. And there has been also some to-ing and fro-ing on revitalization pedagogies. And of course, dollars, where they come from, who gets them, how they are used. Arguments rage on; in some cases, very little happens as they rage. Now that everyone has the context, let me tell you what happened, and of course, how I saw it . . . :-) maybe it will bring some ideas into focus. On Monday, one of our professors went to the neighboring town, 25.5 miles away, to give the final exam for his class. It was a dark and snowy-rainy-wintry night. He gave his final, and 2 people saw him leave for home. On Tuesday, he hadn't made it, and people were worried; they were spreading the word, looking for him. Last year, one of his friends, also a friend of mine, was helping him with a car incident. I said, Why don't you call him? My friend said, He doesn't have a cell. So into the dark and stormy night - and I can tell you it was truly miserable: rain, sleet; snow; and, unrelenting cold - this man drove. There is a turn several - but not many - miles out of town, where one either goes up the mountain to Tsaile, and the warmth of the home fire - kuhgą - or follows the south rim of Canyon de Chelly. The two terrains are vastly different, one leading up the mountain, on paved road, with a few lights and homes, the other leading down, past the Inn, into the canyon. His car was found almost 8 miles along the rim highway, at the place where the paved road turns to dirt. His body was found a short ways from his car. The police think he died of exposure. This man had made a personal decision, not to have a cell phone. Can we challenge his right to make a personal decision not to adopt a technology that could have saved his life? I wonder if he would make a different decision today than he had a week ago, and the year before that, and the decade before that. Would his family encourage him to make a different decision today? Part of the problem with the passage of life is that sometimes, you can't go back and do it over. Sometimes, it seems to me, the risks of being wrong outweigh individual feelings and perspectives. It seems to me. I chose Rosalyn's email, of all the possible choices, to share this little story over, because I absolutely agree with her premise. I think that the bulk of the money Should go into the community, to develop people who can make more materials For the Community. In Ndn communities, "workforce development," even in the world of burgeoning technology, still means pipefitters and dental hygienists. Do we need people with these skills? Absolutely. Should "workforce development" be limited to this options? Absolutely not. Developing technology takes time, skill, and money in dynamic relationship. But if Tribes hire outside companies, no matter who they are, and abrogate their right and their responsibility to participate in their own advancement, or in this case, cultural and linguistic revitalization, where will they be when the money is gone and they need more materials? How will they pass the skills along? What about the pedagogical issues that Phil and Andre and others have brought up? Technology is not "easy" . . . but then, the people who lived here before Columbus arrived mastered pretty amazing technology (Petroglyph Calendars, mounds square to fractions of a degree; nautical navigation; sophisticated animal husbandry and plant genetics; sun daggers; and, my personal favorite, Chaco Canyon) so there isn't any reason why their descendants can't master a little simple computer technology. After all, graphics, sounds, language, and sophisticated knowledge representations are all in the blood. So I would like to end with Kaddish for my colleague, an ancient prayer. It will not save him, but merely send good wishes for his path. Would technology have saved him? I don't know. But the "Maybe it would have" haunts me, because here, we are sharing the tears of loss, of a pain too unexplained for words. When we lost Emmanuel, we lost his language, and the complex web of knowledge that made his language - his ideolect - his own. Is it really so different from what we fight for every day? Mia _____ From: Indigenous Languages and Technology [mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU] On Behalf Of Rrlapier at AOL.COM Sent: Wednesday, December 12, 2007 2:30 PM To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Subject: Re: [ILAT] Rosetta Stone I have read ANA language grants for several years. In the last couple of years I have noticed more and more efforts to document language using technologies from outside of the community. Oftentimes the community does not articulate how they will incorporate these technologies into their whole language revitalization strategy or how it will build their community capcity. Rosetta Stone is one of those companies. In most cases the community knew very very little about the company (they would attach a brochure to their application) and so their grant would basically be asking for 90% to cover the cost of RS and 10% for at home. The question I always asked to the applicant is to show how this is "community capacity building" -- if all the dollars leave the community? I think tribes need to be proactive and require companies like RS to put most of the dollars back into the community, by training technicians, language specialists, etc. Tribes need to make this relationship a partnership. Rosalyn LaPier Piegan Institute In a message dated 12/12/2007 12:14:46 P.M. Mountain Standard Time, andrekar at NCIDC.ORG writes: The arguments against Rosetta stone remind me of the complaints I have heard about the Phrasealator. Why do we need to pay so much money, people are just trying to get rich. I agree in a perfect world the items to help tribes recover and preserve their languages would be free to them (either through generosity, grants or other subsidy), but alas we are in less than a perfect world. The next best thing is to find out what works best (program, sytem, software, etc) regardless of costs and then work like the devil to get the costs covered. The paramount objective is preservation of my language. Profiteers have to face their music when creator chooses. On Dec 10, 2007, at 5:19 PM, Mia Kalish wrote: What a lovely response, Don. I enjoyed the multiple perspectives and the thoughts that they engendered. And most of us have seen all of this, yes? By the way, a very nice lady from Rosetta Stone is on this list - or she used to be. Their technology is a lot like the technology we put together and researched. It is not exact; I don't want anyone to infer that I am implying any misbehavior on anyone's part. The point I want to make is that presenting the visual, the sound and the text simultaneously in what we did was 78% effective Across populations - that was, people who had heard Apache but were either not fluent or not literate, and people who had never been exposed to Apache ever. "Across populations" is a statistical characteristic that says that the populations are so alike they can be analyzed as a single group. This is rare in pedagogies. As for the publicity . . . Rosetta Stone advertises on television. They have lots of languages. I've lost track of how many. Publicity tells people what's happening. It tells People what Other People think is important. Right now, in New Mexico, there is a huge "DWI Blitz" (You drink; you drive; you lose.) This is telling people who drive that people are taking driving sober very seriously. And there are lots of billboards talking about DWI; it's in the papers, on the news. Now, is this a current issue in a lot of state? No-o-o-o-o-o. But, my point here is that Publicity is how you let people know what others are thinking. I saw another sign today, "Ron Paul for President . . . A new view" and I thought, Who is Ron Paul? There was just one sign, and I couldn't connect it to anything else I had seen or heard. One sign won't get me to vote for Ron Paul for president, but many, many signs will get a lot of drunk drivers off the road, and will change attitudes. So maybe all the publicity for Rosetta Stone will start to change attitudes about what is important about People. For a long time, there has been the "white ruling class" and everyone else. Like Don pointed out, there hasn't been much real knowledge about "everyone else." I am so happy to see even the little bits of beginnings where we start to know about Everyone Else, even the Everyone Elses of us :-) Thanks Don, Really, really good piece - I think, Mia -----Original Message----- From: Indigenous Languages and Technology [mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU] On Behalf Of Don Osborn Sent: Monday, December 10, 2007 5:53 PM To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Subject: Re: [ILAT] Rosetta Stone As I look at this thread several thoughts occur. One is Robert Chambers' discussion of "positive practitioners" and "negative academics" in international development. The former try to do something, whatever the agenda, and sometimes ineptly. The latter critique, sometimes insightfully and incisively and sometimes less so. That is not to say that one is right and the other wrong, but that in some ways they are like two different cultures. Jess Tauber is right to point out the ironies in the historical sweep. The same dominant culture that via education and technology tried to wipe out languages or systematically marginalize them (not just in the Americas), now is in part (at least the parts you see) trying to save them. It is natural to ask why. Part of it is the dynamic of power. I've noted - again in international development - that the people in positions to do so end up occupying or pre-empting both sides (or all positions) in many debates. Even about the nature of a people themselves. This was particularly striking in several decades of debates on pastoralism in Africa - an evolution of two opposing views on the rationality or not of transhumant (semi-nomadic) herding. An evolving debate entirely outside of the cultures discussed, with indirect and imperfect references to the herders' knowledge systems, and in terms totally outside pastoralists' languages, and totally immersed in Western terms of reference. I see a little of this in discussions on languages and on languages & technology. In part, this dynamic of power is just that way, like the wind just blows. It shifts too, and you can find a way to explain it, but in the end how do you protect yourself from it and better yet use its force to some advantage? So, on one level, Jess's generalizing about "they" responds to a real set of issues. However on another level it seems to blur some realities. When looking at the specific case of companies like Rosetta Stone (or for that matter bigger technology companies) part of what one must appreciate is the nature of the beast and the environment it is working in. The bottom line and survival in that environment is money. How to get it can raise issues, but without it, *poof*. James's suspicion is natural, but with a company, what else is new? But even that is more complex. I resist reifying the notion of corporation too far to the point of overlooking the agency of people in organizations like Rosetta Stone, who may be very sincerely devoted to somehow changing the world for better. The latter may end up being the "positive practitioners" per Chambers' dichotomy, with their more or less imperfect human (and culturally bound) understanding of what they are dealing with - and their own environment to survive in. >From what little I know of Rosetta Stone I see it as a business that is at least trying to do something. It's making good money, apparently, in general language learning with a product that has positive reviews. It's stepping outside of that market in an interesting way. Of course they are milking it for publicity too, but again, that is the nature of companies. I don't know enough about the program, its approach or results to judge it, but I'm absolutely not surprised if there are limits in terms of what they spend on it (anything has limits). Let me finish with another technology example. A company named Lancor just sued the One Laptop Per Child project for alleged use of codes in a patented keyboard. The object of both keyboards is to facilitate input of "extended Latin characters" and diacritics for West African languages. I don't know the technical or patent issues well enough, but whatever the merits of the case may or may not be, the ultimate victims will be people who might have been able to use the technology sooner for their languages. The collateral damage to common aims from disputes over methods can be considerable, and avoidable to the extent one accepts that everyone has honorable intent. (Maybe a key question is how to establish the latter and a sense of trust.) I'd agree with Mia's bottom line conclusion that someone has to do it. If you start subtracting potential partners from the equation, are you better off? Don Osborn _____ See AOL's top rated recipes and easy ways to stay in shape for winter. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From phonosemantics at EARTHLINK.NET Thu Dec 13 15:17:51 2007 From: phonosemantics at EARTHLINK.NET (jess tauber) Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2007 10:17:51 -0500 Subject: Rosetta Stone Message-ID: Phil's last point (the 'cookie-cutter') is well taken- are all languages amenable to a 'one-size-fits-all' approach? It reminds me of the 'shell-books' concept I read about a couple of years ago. There may be more to resistance to writing one's oral language down than mere cultural inertia- perhaps the brain actually differently processes different types of language, and so some orthographical systems might clash with such processing differences. I remember reading something along these lines with regard to dyslexics. The same may go for different types of learning environments- for instance secret ritual languages in Australia (according to Dixon) aren't picked up the same way as the main language. And one runs into such issues all the time with regards to ideophones, which play important roles in some languages, yet are scarcely dealt with by linguists, let alone teaching aids. Creators of electronic tools may be paying way too much attention to the nuts and bolts of the system, and pretty packaging, which are fine in the context of dominant cultural/linguistic facts, and not enough to adapting their tools (or even perhaps shaping them from the beginning) around what may be different truths for other languages. Jess Tauber phonosemantics at earthlink.net From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Thu Dec 13 15:52:00 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2007 08:52:00 -0700 Subject: It isn't Greek, but everyone's loving this Zorba (fwd link) Message-ID: It isn't Greek, but everyone's loving this Zorba Lindsay Murdoch in Darwin December 12, 2007 ABORIGINAL teenagers on isolated Elcho Island, off the north-eastern coast of Northern Territory, got a few laughs late one night when they danced their version of Zorba The Greek with a sort of chook shuffle. Twelve months later the "Chooky Dancers" have become a world-wide hit on the internet. Yesterday their hilarious performance had been viewed by 364,773 people on YouTube. Get the full article here: http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/it-isnt-greek-but-everyones-loving-this-zorba/2007/12/11/1197135463482.html From dzo at BISHARAT.NET Thu Dec 13 16:06:47 2007 From: dzo at BISHARAT.NET (Don Osborn) Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2007 11:06:47 -0500 Subject: Linguapax Award 2008 Message-ID: I've just learned that the deadline for nominations has been extended to 21 December 2007. Don > -----Original Message----- > From: Don Osborn [mailto:dzo at bisharat.net] > Sent: Monday, December 03, 2007 1:19 PM > To: 'AfricanLanguages at yahoogroups.com'; 'Indigenous Languages and > Technology' > Subject: FW: Linguapax Award 2008 > > FYI, nominations are now being accepted for the Linguapax Award 2008. > Note the deadline of Dec. 15. Don > > > -------------------------------- > [from a letter with call for nominations] > > We are pleased to inform you that the call for candidates to the > Linguapax awards 2008 is open. Kindly send your nominees to the > secretariat of the Linguapax Institute ( info at linguapax.org ) before > December 15th 2007 along with their short biographical note if > possible. > > As in previous occasions, the name of the prize-winner will be made > public on February 21, coinciding with the International Mother > Language Day. The Linguapax Awardee will be granted the amount of 3,000 > €. > > For more information about the awards, please visit: > > Català http://www.linguapax.org/ct/premisLPX.html > Español http://www.linguapax.org/es/premisLPXcas.html > English http://www.linguapax.org/en/premisLPXang.html > Français http://www.linguapax.org/fr/premisLPXfr.html > > -------------------------------- > > [from the Linguapax website] > > Linguapax Prize > > Rules > > 1. The Linguapax Prizes are awarded every year by the Linguapax > Institute. > > 2. The prizes are awarded to linguists, researchers, professors and > members of the civil society in acknowledgement of their outstanding > work in the field linguistic diversity and/or multilingual education. > Nominations of people having contributed to improve the linguistic > situation of a community or country will be specially appreciated. > > 3. The nominations for the Linguapax Prizes must be sent to the > secretariat of the Linguapax Institute along with a biographical note > of the candidate. The nominations will remain confidential among the > members of the jury. > > 4. The jury of the Linguapax Prizes will be formed by the members of > the Advisory Committee of the Linguapax Institute. > > 5. The Linguapax prizes can be declared void. The jury's decision will > be final. > > 6. The Linguapax Prize will be made public on February 21st of every > year, International Mother Language Day. > > 7. The awardee will be granted the amount of 3,000 € From hardman at UFL.EDU Thu Dec 13 16:47:23 2007 From: hardman at UFL.EDU (MJ Hardman) Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2007 11:47:23 -0500 Subject: Jaqaru and the earthquake In-Reply-To: <20071212130426.pe1ivt6o0wc0gcg4@www.email.arizona.edu> Message-ID: The aftermath of the Earthquake has put the Jaqaru language in an even more precarious position. And just when we thought we had things going well! MJ http://txupi.org http://tupefund.org Markmashi, friends, colleagues, family ­ It is now nearly four months since the earthquake of Aug. 15, 2007 destroyed Tupe. We have been most gratified by the many offers of help from so many of you. I thought it would take me a couple of days to arrange an easy conduit for such help. Unsurprisingly, but not anticipated, in a capitalistic society, charity giving is also a capitalistic enterprise. There is an old Spanish blessing of health, wealth, love and the time to enjoy them. In opening a direct path for help for Tupe it turned out that while Dimas and I had the love, we lacked the health, wealth and time to do so. http://tupefund.org We do have, however, a website, http://txupi.wordpress.com/ , as well as domain names as well as an email address (jaqaru at bellsouth.net ). We tell the story on the webiste http://txupi.wordpress.com/ as well as listing some of what has been done, what still needs to be done ­ especially for the school, what we still hope to do in spite of it all, and how you can help. http://txupi.wordpress.com/ . The site is set up as a so that everyone can participate. We are hoping that people who are involved in the reconstruction will also tell their stories there which will help us in what we might attempt to do from here, as well as comments from here on what is feasible. Also, there are links to videos done after the earthquake as well as other documents and some material about and in Jaqaru. We are hoping to make this website http://txupi.org a central information site for the earthquake and for the reconstruction, with an idea to continuing for the preservation and revitalization of Jaqaru, http://txupi.wordpress.com/ . Everything is in both English and Spanish; which comes first varies, but if you don't find the language you want, please go to the bottom. Maybe there will be a volunteer out there who can think of a way of making it easier for those who want only one language. http://txupi.org There is another saying that the coffee is best drunk hot. Natural disasters have certainly not been lacking since August, the world over. Recovery, however, takes a very long time. In the case of Tupe the matter of the survival of Jaqaru complicates everything. One teacher, one who has been most active in bilingual education, was heard to remark, in the aftermath of the earthquake, that Jaqaru was going to die anyway so why try anymore. Since a year ago there has been a full time position for working with the teachers in Jaqaru. In the aftermath of the Earthquake that has now been cut to half-time. We have just received news that they are thinking of cutting it out entirely. We would so like to find the way to make the path to the preservation and revitalization of Jaqaru sustainable; it's loss as a consequence of the earthquake, after all it has been through to manage to still exist now, 500 years after conquest, would be a human loss indeed. Dr. MJ Hardman and Dr. Dimas Bauista Iturrizaga From donaghy at HAWAII.EDU Thu Dec 13 18:28:54 2007 From: donaghy at HAWAII.EDU (Keola Donaghy) Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2007 08:28:54 -1000 Subject: Rosetta Stone In-Reply-To: <003601c83d26$7ff20c40$8a3f14ac@LFPMIA> Message-ID: Aloha e Mia, and mahalo to all who have contributed thoughts on this topic. We had been approached by the Rosetta Stone folks to develop a Hawaiian version of RS, and nearly every concern I had about doing it has been echoed by someone in this thread. The commitment required in terms of not only dollars but the hours of our most valuable staff is difficult to justify. The inability to make significant changes to the structure of the lessons would make the product of dubious value in many of our programs. We're still looking at it and talking with other organizations that may be interested in collaborating on this, however, I would not characterize it as a high priority project at the moment. Regarding the use of technology overall in language instruction, it has been invaluable to us, but as been pointed out previously, it has worked because our needs are driving out technology use, not the technology driving our approach to language instruction, documentation and perpetuation. When we find a need that technology can help address we will find the appropriate technology and adopt it to our needs. Also important is our ability to do the work ourselves and not depend heavily on outside contractors and consultants to do the work for us. In the online Hawaiian classes we have taught, we have made it clear to our students that online learning is not the most effective way to teach the language, but for most of the students, it is either online learning or nothing. They live in areas where they do not people that they can learn the language from, or their work and personal commitments preclude their enrolling in formal classes. We do what we can to provide them the opportunity, and it certainly requires more of a commitment from then than simply buying a CD and hoping that it actually gets used. I've spoken to many students who have taken our online classes who related to me that they would never have gotten through the class if there had not been a real human being online to provide not only instruction but encouragement and even solace in difficult times. The online environment was not just a technology solution, but a community of language learners whose bonds to us and each other strengthen through their shared experience. I was saddened by the story of your colleague. I myself have been slow to adopt to mobile technology, however, have been warming up to its value only in life and death situations such as the one that you have shared, but in our work to keep the Hawaiian language moving forward. In some cases it may be for language instruction or documentation, and others simply a way of allowing us to do our work more effectively. Keola ======================================================================== Keola Donaghy Assistant Professor of Hawaiian Studies Ka Haka 'Ula O Ke'elikolani keola at leoki.uhh.hawaii.edu University of Hawai'i at Hilo http://www2.hawaii.edu/~donaghy/ "Tír gan teanga, tír gan anam." (Irish Gaelic saying) A country without its language is a country without its soul. ======================================================================== On 12 Kek. 2007, at 3:21 PM, Mia Kalish wrote: > I have a story to share. But first, let me build a little context. > > For as long as I have been doing this, there has been lots of to- > ing and fro-ing about technology, and in our case, language > revitalization. And there has been also some to-ing and fro-ing on > revitalization pedagogies. And of course, dollars, where they come > from, who gets them, how they are used. Arguments rage on; in some > cases, very little happens as they rage. > > > > Now that everyone has the context, let me tell you what happened, > and of course, how I saw it . . . J maybe it will bring some ideas > into focus. > > > > On Monday, one of our professors went to the neighboring town, 25.5 > miles away, to give the final exam for his class. It was a dark and > snowy-rainy-wintry night. He gave his final, and 2 people saw him > leave for home. On Tuesday, he hadn’t made it, and people were > worried; they were spreading the word, looking for him. Last year, > one of his friends, also a friend of mine, was helping him with a > car incident. I said, Why don’t you call him? My friend said, He > doesn’t have a cell. > > > > So into the dark and stormy night – and I can tell you it was > truly miserable: rain, sleet; snow; and, unrelenting cold – this > man drove. There is a turn several – but not many – miles out of > town, where one either goes up the mountain to Tsaile, and the > warmth of the home fire – kuhgą – or follows the south rim of > Canyon de Chelly. The two terrains are vastly different, one > leading up the mountain, on paved road, with a few lights and > homes, the other leading down, past the Inn, into the canyon. > > > > His car was found almost 8 miles along the rim highway, at the > place where the paved road turns to dirt. His body was found a > short ways from his car. The police think he died of exposure. This > man had made a personal decision, not to have a cell phone. Can we > challenge his right to make a personal decision not to adopt a > technology that could have saved his life? I wonder if he would > make a different decision today than he had a week ago, and the > year before that, and the decade before that. Would his family > encourage him to make a different decision today? > > > > Part of the problem with the passage of life is that sometimes, you > can’t go back and do it over. Sometimes, it seems to me, the risks > of being wrong outweigh individual feelings and perspectives. It > seems to me. > > > > I chose Rosalyn’s email, of all the possible choices, to share > this little story over, because I absolutely agree with her > premise. I think that the bulk of the money Should go into the > community, to develop people who can make more materials For the > Community. In Ndn communities, “workforce development,” even in > the world of burgeoning technology, still means pipefitters and > dental hygienists. Do we need people with these skills? Absolutely. > Should “workforce development” be limited to this options? > Absolutely not. > > > > Developing technology takes time, skill, and money in dynamic > relationship. But if Tribes hire outside companies, no matter who > they are, and abrogate their right and their responsibility to > participate in their own advancement, or in this case, cultural and > linguistic revitalization, where will they be when the money is > gone and they need more materials? How will they pass the skills > along? What about the pedagogical issues that Phil and Andre and > others have brought up? Technology is not “easy” . . . but > then, the people who lived here before Columbus arrived mastered > pretty amazing technology (Petroglyph Calendars, mounds square to > fractions of a degree; nautical navigation; sophisticated animal > husbandry and plant genetics; sun daggers; and, my personal > favorite, Chaco Canyon) so there isn’t any reason why their > descendants can’t master a little simple computer technology. > After all, graphics, sounds, language, and sophisticated knowledge > representations are all in the blood. > > > > So I would like to end with Kaddish for my colleague, an ancient > prayer. It will not save him, but merely send good wishes for his > path. Would technology have saved him? I don’t know. But the > “Maybe it would have” haunts me, because here, we are sharing > the tears of loss, of a pain too unexplained for words. When we > lost Emmanuel, we lost his language, and the complex web of > knowledge that made his language – his ideolect – his own. Is it > really so different from what we fight for every day? > > > > Mia > > > > > > > > > > > > From: Indigenous Languages and Technology > [mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU] On Behalf Of Rrlapier at AOL.COM > Sent: Wednesday, December 12, 2007 2:30 PM > To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU > Subject: Re: [ILAT] Rosetta Stone > > > > I have read ANA language grants for several years. In the last > couple of years I have noticed more and more efforts to document > language using technologies from outside of the community. > Oftentimes the community does not articulate how they will > incorporate these technologies into their whole language > revitalization strategy or how it will build their community capcity. > > > > Rosetta Stone is one of those companies. In most cases the > community knew very very little about the company (they would > attach a brochure to their application) and so their grant would > basically be asking for 90% to cover the cost of RS and 10% for at > home. The question I always asked to the applicant is to show how > this is "community capacity building" -- if all the dollars leave > the community? > > > > I think tribes need to be proactive and require companies like RS > to put most of the dollars back into the community, by training > technicians, language specialists, etc. Tribes need to make this > relationship a partnership. > > > > Rosalyn LaPier > > Piegan Institute > > > > > > > > In a message dated 12/12/2007 12:14:46 P.M. Mountain Standard Time, > andrekar at NCIDC.ORG writes: > > The arguments against Rosetta stone remind me of the complaints I > have heard about the Phrasealator. Why do we need to pay so much > money, people are just trying to get rich. > > I agree in a perfect world the items to help tribes recover and > preserve their languages would be free to them (either through > generosity, grants or other subsidy), but alas we are in less than a > perfect world. The next best thing is to find out what works best > (program, sytem, software, etc) regardless of costs and then work > like the devil to get the costs covered. The paramount objective is > preservation of my language. Profiteers have to face their music > when creator chooses. > > On Dec 10, 2007, at 5:19 PM, Mia Kalish wrote: > > What a lovely response, Don. I enjoyed the multiple perspectives > and the > thoughts that they engendered. And most of us have seen all of this, > yes? > By the way, a very nice lady from Rosetta Stone is on this list - > or she > used to be. Their technology is a lot like the technology we put > together > and researched. It is not exact; I don't want anyone to infer that > I am > implying any misbehavior on anyone's part. The point I want to make > is that > presenting the visual, the sound and the text simultaneously in what > we did > was 78% effective Across populations - that was, people who had heard > Apache > but were either not fluent or not literate, and people who had never > been > exposed to Apache ever. "Across populations" is a statistical > characteristic > that says that the populations are so alike they can be analyzed as a > single > group. This is rare in pedagogies. > As for the publicity . . . Rosetta Stone advertises on television. > They have > lots of languages. I've lost track of how many. Publicity tells people > what's happening. It tells People what Other People think is > important. > Right now, in New Mexico, there is a huge "DWI Blitz" (You drink; you > drive; > you lose.) This is telling people who drive that people are taking > driving > sober very seriously. And there are lots of billboards talking about > DWI; > it's in the papers, on the news. Now, is this a current issue in a > lot of > state? No-o-o-o-o-o. But, my point here is that Publicity is how > you let > people know what others are thinking. I saw another sign today, "Ron > Paul > for President . . . A new view" and I thought, Who is Ron Paul? There > was > just one sign, and I couldn't connect it to anything else I had > seen or > heard. One sign won't get me to vote for Ron Paul for president, but > many, > many signs will get a lot of drunk drivers off the road, and will > change > attitudes. > So maybe all the publicity for Rosetta Stone will start to change > attitudes > about what is important about People. For a long time, there has been > the > "white ruling class" and everyone else. Like Don pointed out, there > hasn't > been much real knowledge about "everyone else." I am so happy to see > even > the little bits of beginnings where we start to know about Everyone > Else, > even the Everyone Elses of us :-) > > Thanks Don, > Really, really good piece - I think, > Mia > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Indigenous Languages and Technology > [mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU] > On Behalf Of Don Osborn > Sent: Monday, December 10, 2007 5:53 PM > To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU > Subject: Re: [ILAT] Rosetta Stone > > As I look at this thread several thoughts occur. One is Robert > Chambers' > discussion of "positive practitioners" and "negative academics" in > international development. The former try to do something, whatever > the > agenda, and sometimes ineptly. The latter critique, sometimes > insightfully > and incisively and sometimes less so. That is not to say that one is > right > and the other wrong, but that in some ways they are like two different > cultures. > > Jess Tauber is right to point out the ironies in the historical > sweep. The > same dominant culture that via education and technology tried to wipe > out > languages or systematically marginalize them (not just in the > Americas), now > is in part (at least the parts you see) trying to save them. It is > natural > to ask why. > > Part of it is the dynamic of power. I've noted - again in > international > development - that the people in positions to do so end up > occupying or > pre-empting both sides (or all positions) in many debates. Even about > the > nature of a people themselves. This was particularly striking in > several > decades of debates on pastoralism in Africa - an evolution of two > opposing > views on the rationality or not of transhumant (semi-nomadic) > herding. An > evolving debate entirely outside of the cultures discussed, with > indirect > and imperfect references to the herders' knowledge systems, and in > terms > totally outside pastoralists' languages, and totally immersed in > Western > terms of reference. > > I see a little of this in discussions on languages and on languages & > technology. > > In part, this dynamic of power is just that way, like the wind just > blows. > It shifts too, and you can find a way to explain it, but in the end > how do > you protect yourself from it and better yet use its force to some > advantage? > > So, on one level, Jess's generalizing about "they" responds to a real > set of > issues. However on another level it seems to blur some realities. > > When looking at the specific case of companies like Rosetta Stone (or > for > that matter bigger technology companies) part of what one must > appreciate is > the nature of the beast and the environment it is working in. The > bottom > line and survival in that environment is money. How to get it can > raise > issues, but without it, *poof*. James's suspicion is natural, but > with a > company, what else is new? > > But even that is more complex. I resist reifying the notion of > corporation > too far to the point of overlooking the agency of people in > organizations > like Rosetta Stone, who may be very sincerely devoted to somehow > changing > the world for better. The latter may end up being the "positive > practitioners" per Chambers' dichotomy, with their more or less > imperfect > human (and culturally bound) understanding of what they are dealing > with - > and their own environment to survive in. > > From what little I know of Rosetta Stone I see it as a business that > is at > least trying to do something. It's making good money, apparently, in > general > language learning with a product that has positive reviews. It's > stepping > outside of that market in an interesting way. Of course they are > milking it > for publicity too, but again, that is the nature of companies. I > don't know > enough about the program, its approach or results to judge it, but I'm > absolutely not surprised if there are limits in terms of what they > spend on > it (anything has limits). > > Let me finish with another technology example. A company named Lancor > just > sued the One Laptop Per Child project for alleged use of codes in a > patented > keyboard. The object of both keyboards is to facilitate input of > "extended > Latin characters" and diacritics for West African languages. I don't > know > the technical or patent issues well enough, but whatever the merits > of the > case may or may not be, the ultimate victims will be people who might > have > been able to use the technology sooner for their languages. > > The collateral damage to common aims from disputes over methods can be > considerable, and avoidable to the extent one accepts that everyone > has > honorable intent. (Maybe a key question is how to establish the > latter and a > sense of trust.) > > I'd agree with Mia's bottom line conclusion that someone has to do > it. If > you start subtracting potential partners from the equation, are you > better > off? > > Don Osborn > > > > > See AOL's top rated recipes and easy ways to stay in shape for winter. > ======================================================================== 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/ "Tír gan teanga, tír gan anam." (Irish Gaelic saying) A country without its language is a country without its soul. ======================================================================== -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mona at ALLIESMEDIAART.COM Thu Dec 13 19:54:07 2007 From: mona at ALLIESMEDIAART.COM (Mona Smith) Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2007 13:54:07 -0600 Subject: [Fwd: "The Linguists" world premieres at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival] Message-ID: -------- Original Message -------- Subject: "The Linguists" world premieres at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2007 14:15:10 -0500 From: Daniel A. Miller Reply-To: Daniel A. Miller To: ENDANGERED-LANGUAGES-L at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG We are nothing short of elated to announce that our documentary feature THE LINGUISTS was selected to world premiere in the newly minted "Spectrum: Documentary Spotlight" category at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. THE LINGUISTS is the first documentary supported by the National Science Foundation to ever make it to Sundance. The trailer is at http://www.thelinguists.com. Here's a brief synopsis: It is estimated that of 7,000 languages in the world, half will be gone by the end of this century. THE LINGUISTS follows David Harrison and Gregory Anderson, scientists racing to document languages on the verge of extinction. In Siberia, India, and Bolivia, the linguists' resolve is tested by the very forces silencing languages: institutionalized racism and violent economic unrest. David and Greg's journey takes them deep into the heart of the cultures, knowledge, and communities at risk when a language dies. We hope you can join us in Utah for one (or maybe all) of the following screenings: Friday, January 18, 12 Noon - Egyptian Theatre, Park City Saturday, January 19, 12:45 PM - Broadway Centre Cinemas V, Salt Lake City Saturday, January 19, 11:30 PM - Prospector Square Theatre, Park City Wednesday, January 23, 9:00 AM, Holiday Village Cinema I, Park City - PRESS AND INDUSTRY ONLY Wednesday, January 23, 8:30 PM - Holiday Village Cinema II, Park City Tickets are available at http://www.sundance.org/festival/. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us or our publicist Winston Emano at wemano at tcdm-associates.com. We look forward to hearing you there, in all languages! Happy Holidays, Seth Kramer, Daniel A. Miller, and Jeremy Newberger Ironbound Films, Inc. PO Box 441 Garrison, NY 10524 T: 845.424.3700 F: 845.424.3753 news at ironboundfilms.com www.ironboundfilms.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mona at ALLIESMEDIAART.COM Thu Dec 13 19:58:49 2007 From: mona at ALLIESMEDIAART.COM (Mona Smith) Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2007 13:58:49 -0600 Subject: from the Westerman family Message-ID: > > ---------------------------- Original Message ---------------------------- > Subject: from the Westerman family > From: "Griffin, Gwen N" > Date: Thu, December 13, 2007 8:40 am > To: "vikki.howard at LLOJIBWE.COM" > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Floyd Red Crow Westerman passed to the spirit world this morning in Los > Angeles, California, with family at his side. Services are pending. We > thank you from our hearts for all the prayers and support and kindness and > love that you have shown him and us. > > Gwen Westerman Griffin > Mankato, MN > From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US Thu Dec 13 21:31:46 2007 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (Mia Kalish) Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2007 14:31:46 -0700 Subject: Rosetta Stone In-Reply-To: <5172F8C5-BD9D-485A-B6BD-2498A7F1D1A6@hawaii.edu> Message-ID: Thank you, Keola, It is always such a pleasure to hear from you. What a beautifully written email. I always think language learning should occur with, about, around, for and with People. After all, language doesn't talk to itself. Best wishes, and thanks again, Mia _____ From: Indigenous Languages and Technology [mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU] On Behalf Of Keola Donaghy Sent: Thursday, December 13, 2007 11:29 AM To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Subject: Re: [ILAT] Rosetta Stone Aloha e Mia, and mahalo to all who have contributed thoughts on this topic. We had been approached by the Rosetta Stone folks to develop a Hawaiian version of RS, and nearly every concern I had about doing it has been echoed by someone in this thread. The commitment required in terms of not only dollars but the hours of our most valuable staff is difficult to justify. The inability to make significant changes to the structure of the lessons would make the product of dubious value in many of our programs. We're still looking at it and talking with other organizations that may be interested in collaborating on this, however, I would not characterize it as a high priority project at the moment. Regarding the use of technology overall in language instruction, it has been invaluable to us, but as been pointed out previously, it has worked because our needs are driving out technology use, not the technology driving our approach to language instruction, documentation and perpetuation. When we find a need that technology can help address we will find the appropriate technology and adopt it to our needs. Also important is our ability to do the work ourselves and not depend heavily on outside contractors and consultants to do the work for us. In the online Hawaiian classes we have taught, we have made it clear to our students that online learning is not the most effective way to teach the language, but for most of the students, it is either online learning or nothing. They live in areas where they do not people that they can learn the language from, or their work and personal commitments preclude their enrolling in formal classes. We do what we can to provide them the opportunity, and it certainly requires more of a commitment from then than simply buying a CD and hoping that it actually gets used. I've spoken to many students who have taken our online classes who related to me that they would never have gotten through the class if there had not been a real human being online to provide not only instruction but encouragement and even solace in difficult times. The online environment was not just a technology solution, but a community of language learners whose bonds to us and each other strengthen through their shared experience. I was saddened by the story of your colleague. I myself have been slow to adopt to mobile technology, however, have been warming up to its value only in life and death situations such as the one that you have shared, but in our work to keep the Hawaiian language moving forward. In some cases it may be for language instruction or documentation, and others simply a way of allowing us to do our work more effectively. Keola ======================================================================== Keola Donaghy Assistant Professor of Hawaiian Studies Ka Haka 'Ula O Ke'elikolani keola at leoki.uhh.hawaii.edu University of Hawai'i at Hilo http://www2.hawaii.edu/~donaghy/ "Tír gan teanga, tír gan anam." (Irish Gaelic saying) A country without its language is a country without its soul. ======================================================================== On 12 Kek. 2007, at 3:21 PM, Mia Kalish wrote: I have a story to share. But first, let me build a little context. For as long as I have been doing this, there has been lots of to-ing and fro-ing about technology, and in our case, language revitalization. And there has been also some to-ing and fro-ing on revitalization pedagogies. And of course, dollars, where they come from, who gets them, how they are used. Arguments rage on; in some cases, very little happens as they rage. Now that everyone has the context, let me tell you what happened, and of course, how I saw it . . . :-) maybe it will bring some ideas into focus. On Monday, one of our professors went to the neighboring town, 25.5 miles away, to give the final exam for his class. It was a dark and snowy-rainy-wintry night. He gave his final, and 2 people saw him leave for home. On Tuesday, he hadn't made it, and people were worried; they were spreading the word, looking for him. Last year, one of his friends, also a friend of mine, was helping him with a car incident. I said, Why don't you call him? My friend said, He doesn't have a cell. So into the dark and stormy night - and I can tell you it was truly miserable: rain, sleet; snow; and, unrelenting cold - this man drove. There is a turn several - but not many - miles out of town, where one either goes up the mountain to Tsaile, and the warmth of the home fire - kuhgą - or follows the south rim of Canyon de Chelly. The two terrains are vastly different, one leading up the mountain, on paved road, with a few lights and homes, the other leading down, past the Inn, into the canyon. His car was found almost 8 miles along the rim highway, at the place where the paved road turns to dirt. His body was found a short ways from his car. The police think he died of exposure. This man had made a personal decision, not to have a cell phone. Can we challenge his right to make a personal decision not to adopt a technology that could have saved his life? I wonder if he would make a different decision today than he had a week ago, and the year before that, and the decade before that. Would his family encourage him to make a different decision today? Part of the problem with the passage of life is that sometimes, you can't go back and do it over. Sometimes, it seems to me, the risks of being wrong outweigh individual feelings and perspectives. It seems to me. I chose Rosalyn's email, of all the possible choices, to share this little story over, because I absolutely agree with her premise. I think that the bulk of the money Should go into the community, to develop people who can make more materials For the Community. In Ndn communities, "workforce development," even in the world of burgeoning technology, still means pipefitters and dental hygienists. Do we need people with these skills? Absolutely. Should "workforce development" be limited to this options? Absolutely not. Developing technology takes time, skill, and money in dynamic relationship. But if Tribes hire outside companies, no matter who they are, and abrogate their right and their responsibility to participate in their own advancement, or in this case, cultural and linguistic revitalization, where will they be when the money is gone and they need more materials? How will they pass the skills along? What about the pedagogical issues that Phil and Andre and others have brought up? Technology is not "easy" . . . but then, the people who lived here before Columbus arrived mastered pretty amazing technology (Petroglyph Calendars, mounds square to fractions of a degree; nautical navigation; sophisticated animal husbandry and plant genetics; sun daggers; and, my personal favorite, Chaco Canyon) so there isn't any reason why their descendants can't master a little simple computer technology. After all, graphics, sounds, language, and sophisticated knowledge representations are all in the blood. So I would like to end with Kaddish for my colleague, an ancient prayer. It will not save him, but merely send good wishes for his path. Would technology have saved him? I don't know. But the "Maybe it would have" haunts me, because here, we are sharing the tears of loss, of a pain too unexplained for words. When we lost Emmanuel, we lost his language, and the complex web of knowledge that made his language - his ideolect - his own. Is it really so different from what we fight for every day? Mia _____ From: Indigenous Languages and Technology [mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU] On Behalf Of Rrlapier at AOL.COM Sent: Wednesday, December 12, 2007 2:30 PM To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Subject: Re: [ILAT] Rosetta Stone I have read ANA language grants for several years. In the last couple of years I have noticed more and more efforts to document language using technologies from outside of the community. Oftentimes the community does not articulate how they will incorporate these technologies into their whole language revitalization strategy or how it will build their community capcity. Rosetta Stone is one of those companies. In most cases the community knew very very little about the company (they would attach a brochure to their application) and so their grant would basically be asking for 90% to cover the cost of RS and 10% for at home. The question I always asked to the applicant is to show how this is "community capacity building" -- if all the dollars leave the community? I think tribes need to be proactive and require companies like RS to put most of the dollars back into the community, by training technicians, language specialists, etc. Tribes need to make this relationship a partnership. Rosalyn LaPier Piegan Institute In a message dated 12/12/2007 12:14:46 P.M. Mountain Standard Time, andrekar at NCIDC.ORG writes: The arguments against Rosetta stone remind me of the complaints I have heard about the Phrasealator. Why do we need to pay so much money, people are just trying to get rich. I agree in a perfect world the items to help tribes recover and preserve their languages would be free to them (either through generosity, grants or other subsidy), but alas we are in less than a perfect world. The next best thing is to find out what works best (program, sytem, software, etc) regardless of costs and then work like the devil to get the costs covered. The paramount objective is preservation of my language. Profiteers have to face their music when creator chooses. On Dec 10, 2007, at 5:19 PM, Mia Kalish wrote: What a lovely response, Don. I enjoyed the multiple perspectives and the thoughts that they engendered. And most of us have seen all of this, yes? By the way, a very nice lady from Rosetta Stone is on this list - or she used to be. Their technology is a lot like the technology we put together and researched. It is not exact; I don't want anyone to infer that I am implying any misbehavior on anyone's part. The point I want to make is that presenting the visual, the sound and the text simultaneously in what we did was 78% effective Across populations - that was, people who had heard Apache but were either not fluent or not literate, and people who had never been exposed to Apache ever. "Across populations" is a statistical characteristic that says that the populations are so alike they can be analyzed as a single group. This is rare in pedagogies. As for the publicity . . . Rosetta Stone advertises on television. They have lots of languages. I've lost track of how many. Publicity tells people what's happening. It tells People what Other People think is important. Right now, in New Mexico, there is a huge "DWI Blitz" (You drink; you drive; you lose.) This is telling people who drive that people are taking driving sober very seriously. And there are lots of billboards talking about DWI; it's in the papers, on the news. Now, is this a current issue in a lot of state? No-o-o-o-o-o. But, my point here is that Publicity is how you let people know what others are thinking. I saw another sign today, "Ron Paul for President . . . A new view" and I thought, Who is Ron Paul? There was just one sign, and I couldn't connect it to anything else I had seen or heard. One sign won't get me to vote for Ron Paul for president, but many, many signs will get a lot of drunk drivers off the road, and will change attitudes. So maybe all the publicity for Rosetta Stone will start to change attitudes about what is important about People. For a long time, there has been the "white ruling class" and everyone else. Like Don pointed out, there hasn't been much real knowledge about "everyone else." I am so happy to see even the little bits of beginnings where we start to know about Everyone Else, even the Everyone Elses of us :-) Thanks Don, Really, really good piece - I think, Mia -----Original Message----- From: Indigenous Languages and Technology [mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU] On Behalf Of Don Osborn Sent: Monday, December 10, 2007 5:53 PM To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Subject: Re: [ILAT] Rosetta Stone As I look at this thread several thoughts occur. One is Robert Chambers' discussion of "positive practitioners" and "negative academics" in international development. The former try to do something, whatever the agenda, and sometimes ineptly. The latter critique, sometimes insightfully and incisively and sometimes less so. That is not to say that one is right and the other wrong, but that in some ways they are like two different cultures. Jess Tauber is right to point out the ironies in the historical sweep. The same dominant culture that via education and technology tried to wipe out languages or systematically marginalize them (not just in the Americas), now is in part (at least the parts you see) trying to save them. It is natural to ask why. Part of it is the dynamic of power. I've noted - again in international development - that the people in positions to do so end up occupying or pre-empting both sides (or all positions) in many debates. Even about the nature of a people themselves. This was particularly striking in several decades of debates on pastoralism in Africa - an evolution of two opposing views on the rationality or not of transhumant (semi-nomadic) herding. An evolving debate entirely outside of the cultures discussed, with indirect and imperfect references to the herders' knowledge systems, and in terms totally outside pastoralists' languages, and totally immersed in Western terms of reference. I see a little of this in discussions on languages and on languages & technology. In part, this dynamic of power is just that way, like the wind just blows. It shifts too, and you can find a way to explain it, but in the end how do you protect yourself from it and better yet use its force to some advantage? So, on one level, Jess's generalizing about "they" responds to a real set of issues. However on another level it seems to blur some realities. When looking at the specific case of companies like Rosetta Stone (or for that matter bigger technology companies) part of what one must appreciate is the nature of the beast and the environment it is working in. The bottom line and survival in that environment is money. How to get it can raise issues, but without it, *poof*. James's suspicion is natural, but with a company, what else is new? But even that is more complex. I resist reifying the notion of corporation too far to the point of overlooking the agency of people in organizations like Rosetta Stone, who may be very sincerely devoted to somehow changing the world for better. The latter may end up being the "positive practitioners" per Chambers' dichotomy, with their more or less imperfect human (and culturally bound) understanding of what they are dealing with - and their own environment to survive in. >From what little I know of Rosetta Stone I see it as a business that is at least trying to do something. It's making good money, apparently, in general language learning with a product that has positive reviews. It's stepping outside of that market in an interesting way. Of course they are milking it for publicity too, but again, that is the nature of companies. I don't know enough about the program, its approach or results to judge it, but I'm absolutely not surprised if there are limits in terms of what they spend on it (anything has limits). Let me finish with another technology example. A company named Lancor just sued the One Laptop Per Child project for alleged use of codes in a patented keyboard. The object of both keyboards is to facilitate input of "extended Latin characters" and diacritics for West African languages. I don't know the technical or patent issues well enough, but whatever the merits of the case may or may not be, the ultimate victims will be people who might have been able to use the technology sooner for their languages. The collateral damage to common aims from disputes over methods can be considerable, and avoidable to the extent one accepts that everyone has honorable intent. (Maybe a key question is how to establish the latter and a sense of trust.) I'd agree with Mia's bottom line conclusion that someone has to do it. If you start subtracting potential partners from the equation, are you better off? Don Osborn _____ See AOL's top rated recipes and easy ways to stay in shape for winter. ======================================================================== 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/ "Tír gan teanga, tír gan anam." (Irish Gaelic saying) A country without its language is a country without its soul. ======================================================================== -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US Thu Dec 13 21:33:23 2007 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (Mia Kalish) Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2007 14:33:23 -0700 Subject: Rosetta Stone In-Reply-To: <27501225.1197559071729.JavaMail.root@elwamui-little.atl.sa.earthlink.net> Message-ID: There is actually an interesting piece of recent research that I don't have time to find at the moment that says that sight and sound are processed together in the brain. Put simply, the Western dichotomy of eyes vs. ears is RONG. :-) Cool, enit? -----Original Message----- From: Indigenous Languages and Technology [mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU] On Behalf Of jess tauber Sent: Thursday, December 13, 2007 8:18 AM To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Subject: Re: [ILAT] Rosetta Stone Phil's last point (the 'cookie-cutter') is well taken- are all languages amenable to a 'one-size-fits-all' approach? It reminds me of the 'shell-books' concept I read about a couple of years ago. There may be more to resistance to writing one's oral language down than mere cultural inertia- perhaps the brain actually differently processes different types of language, and so some orthographical systems might clash with such processing differences. I remember reading something along these lines with regard to dyslexics. The same may go for different types of learning environments- for instance secret ritual languages in Australia (according to Dixon) aren't picked up the same way as the main language. And one runs into such issues all the time with regards to ideophones, which play important roles in some languages, yet are scarcely dealt with by linguists, let alone teaching aids. Creators of electronic tools may be paying way too much attention to the nuts and bolts of the system, and pretty packaging, which are fine in the context of dominant cultural/linguistic facts, and not enough to adapting their tools (or even perhaps shaping them from the beginning) around what may be different truths for other languages. Jess Tauber phonosemantics at earthlink.net From iackerman at ROSETTASTONE.COM Thu Dec 13 23:57:23 2007 From: iackerman at ROSETTASTONE.COM (Ackerman, Ilse) Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2007 18:57:23 -0500 Subject: Rosetta Stone In-Reply-To: A<5172F8C5-BD9D-485A-B6BD-2498A7F1D1A6@hawaii.edu> Message-ID: Hi All, It's me - sorry it's taken so long to chime in. I've appreciated the discussion sparked by the Navajo project, and you all have touched on a lot of the issues in language revitalization and technology that we confront at Rosetta Stone. I thought it might be interesting for you to hear how our approach has been shaped by these concerns.... The colleagues and discussions on this list have been really helpful in guiding our philosophy over the years, and I expect I'll continue to learn from this exchange as well.... Jess and Phil made good points about the cookie-cutter approach. In our case, we've chosen to do something of a hybrid between cookie cutter and starting from scratch. -We provide a template that's flexible, and each language team can take advantage of already-developed elements of the curriculum where they do apply, subtract the elements that don't apply, and add the elements that are missing. ...Recognizing that not starting from scratch means it won't be as perfectly suited to the language as it could be, while starting completely from scratch may render a project unviable economically or otherwise. Re: Phil and Jess's musings as to whether the method supports the intricacies and idiosyncrasies of certain languages... The method works for any vocabulary, syntax, or grammar that you can learn inductively by the juxtaposition of a visual context and context of known language.... We were all pretty successful at learning our first language by that method alone, if you think about it, and that was with a lot of chaotic input, while this is arranged in building block order.... Where this method is least suited is where there are very intricate rule exceptions that don't lend themselves to contrasting examples. However, so far we haven't run into a language that hasn't been able to use it to teach coursefuls of worthwhile content.... Rosalyn LaPier and others made an important point about training. Training our partners in developing the curriculum, using our development tools, recording the audio, doing voiceovers, etc. is one of the no-brainers. : ) The development of content belongs to the indigenous language team, and we don't have either the language expertise or the resources to do that work ourselves. Rosalyn and Keola's points about technology's place in the overall strategy of a revitalization program are really important, too-the last thing we want to happen is to devote the huge effort it takes to develop a new software product and have it end up on a shelf - or to displace other valuable efforts! So that's been an important part of the project application process-being assured that a community is set up to adopt and benefit from a software 'solution', should it be created. Intellectual property, per James. We haven't run into any fuzzy areas yet on this one. The custom language content (text, photos, audio) belong to the indigenous group, the software shell to Rosetta Stone. Our partners have consistently made considered decisions about to whom they'll make the software available. Economic profit. As follows from the intellectual property arrangement, Rosetta Stone doesn't sell or profit from the sale of any endangered language products. Whether to sell the product is up to the indigenous community. Rosetta Stone charges for the development of an endangered language product. This covers the direct costs but not much of the considerable opportunity cost of not putting those resources into making mainstream commercial products that can sell. The development cost means that some potential partners can't afford to do a project. We launched the subsidized program with that in mind, to make it more affordable. Where funds come from for language revitalization.... While I think governments probably should shoulder an enormous part of the responsibility to compensate for and reverse language loss (including by funding teaching methods training/teaching materials creation/teaching), I'm also afraid that won't happen in time. So we think meanwhile there's some logic behind a language-learning business putting some of its profit from sales of mainstream language products toward language diversity. Re: using technology you haven't developed yourself, per Mia. - This is interesting to me. I doubt anyone would argue that if a community wanted to print textbooks they might want to start with developing their own word processing and layout software to do so. I wonder what makes other uses of software feel different that way.... I guess our thinking on this is that we want to be an accessible choice to people who want to take advantage of the enormous R&D effort we were able to invest in developing a method, platform, development tool, and template that works. Or for people who want software, but want to prioritize their resources toward the development of content rather than technology. To Don's post, I think we're aspiring to be critical practitioners? That's somewhere between not being ignorant but also not being paralyzed by the imperfectness of all of this.... : ) ilse Ilse Ackerman Editor-in-chief Rosetta Stone T 540 | 236 5318 800 | 788 0822 F 540 | 432-0953 RosettaStone.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 2683 bytes Desc: image001.jpg URL: From daryn at ARWARBUKARL.COM.AU Fri Dec 14 06:06:57 2007 From: daryn at ARWARBUKARL.COM.AU (Daryn McKenny) Date: Fri, 14 Dec 2007 17:06:57 +1100 Subject: Zorba the Greek Yolngu Style - ABC TV News Story Message-ID: http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2007/12/13/2118191.htm The above link is a follow up story of the now famous boys which aired on our National ABC TV station last night. Enjoy them once again. Regards Daryn Arwarbukarl Cultural Resource Association Inc. Read our Indigenous Language BLOG at http://www.arwarbukarl.net.au/blog/ P | 02 4954 6899 F | 02 4954 3899 E | daryn at arwarbukarl.com.au W | www.arwarbukarl.com.au Please note that we have recently moved to our new location at Cardiff. P Please consider the environment before printing this email The Arwarbukarl Cultural Resource Association Inc. respects the privacy of individuals and strives to comply with all areas of the Privacy Act. The contents of this email are intended for the purpose of the person or persons named in either the "To" or "CC" boxes of the email. Any person not named in these boxes in receipt of this email should immediately delete this email and advise the sender accordingly. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From andrekar at NCIDC.ORG Sat Dec 15 04:41:30 2007 From: andrekar at NCIDC.ORG (Andre Cramblit) Date: Fri, 14 Dec 2007 20:41:30 -0800 Subject: Language Conference Message-ID: > Dear Friend of Indigenous Languages: > > The plans for the 15th Annual SILS Conference on May 2nd and 3rd > are moving along. You can read about the confirmed keynote > speakers, look at the conference schedule, and download > registration and other forms by going to our web site at http:// > nau.edu/TIL and clicking on "conference" on the menu bar at the top > of the page. The deadline for submitting presentation proposals is > January 30, 2008, and the pre-registration deadline is March 15, > 2008. For more information you can also contact me at > Jon.Reyhner at nau.edu > > I apologize if you already received this message. > > Jon Reyhner, SILS Steering Committee Coordinator From andrekar at NCIDC.ORG Sat Dec 15 06:16:52 2007 From: andrekar at NCIDC.ORG (Andre Cramblit) Date: Fri, 14 Dec 2007 22:16:52 -0800 Subject: My Bad March 17-19 2008 In-Reply-To: <001201c82efa$4c6be420$55c17b80@LFPMIA> Message-ID: No we are looking for presenters that can help tribal people save their languages. The conference is in Arcata, not Sausalito On Nov 24, 2007, at 4:29 PM, Mia Kalish wrote: Hi, Andre, I like your title, and your graphic. Don’t know where Sausalito is, but I would like to come. Also – this isn’t quite about Ndn languages, but my friend Yolanda just did a study on why parents choose English Immersion for their Spanish-speaking children. The results aren’t totally earth-shaking, but they are interesting and to the point. Would people be interested in what she has to say? She’s Tejano. Her dad’s part Yaqui. Let me know what you think. Best always, Mia From: Indigenous Languages and Technology [mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU] On Behalf Of Andre Cramblit Sent: Saturday, November 24, 2007 1:17 PM To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Subject: [ILAT] My Bad March 17-19 2008 SAVE THE DATE- SAVE THE DATE- SAVE THE DATE- SAVE THE DATE- Live Your Language Alliance (LYLA) Invites you to join us in our 1st Annual Native Languages Conference: Shut Up & Talk*: Gathering The Tools To Live Our Languages March 17-19, 2008 @ Humboldt State University-Arcata, CA More information, call to conference and call for presenters available online after 12/01/07 * This theme was chosen not to offend but rather as an attempt to challenge people to make a commitment to developing the skills, knowledge and resources needed to preserve the vitality of our Native languages and to speak them in our daily lives. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Sat Dec 15 20:52:13 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Sat, 15 Dec 2007 13:52:13 -0700 Subject: The John Hope Franklin Dissertation Fellowship (fwd link) Message-ID: The John Hope Franklin Dissertation Fellowship http://www.amphilsoc.org/grants/johnhopefranklin.htm Deadline and Notification Applications are due April 1, 2008, with notification in May. Scope This fellowship, named in honor of a distinguished member of the American Philosophical Society, is designed to support an outstanding doctoral student at an American university who is conducting dissertation research. There are two special features to this fellowship. First, the objective of the John Hope Franklin Dissertation Fellowship is to help remedy the serious shortage of faculty of color in core fields in the arts and sciences, by supporting the Ph.D. projects of minority students of great promise (particularly African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans and Native Americans) as well as other talented students who have a demonstrated commitment to eradicating racial disparities and enlarging minority representation in academia. Second, the John Hope Franklin Fellow is expected to spend a significant amount of time in residence at the APS Library and therefore all applicants should be pursuing dissertation topics in which the holdings of the Library are especially strong, such as quantum mechanics, nuclear physics, computer development, the history of genetics and eugenics, the history of medicine, Early American political and cultural history, natural history in the 18th and 19th centuries, the development of cultural anthropology, or American Indian linguistics and culture. The APS Library's extensive collections in these and many other fields are fully described on our website at www.amphilsoc.org/library. Eligibility Candidates must have completed all course work and examinations preliminary to the doctoral dissertation and be prepared to devote full time for twelve months-with no teaching obligations-to research on their dissertation projects or the writing of their dissertations. The John Hope Franklin Fellow will also be expected to spend a minimum of three months in Philadelphia, in residence at the APS Library with full encouragement to conduct research at other libraries and archives in and around the city. Attractive office space will be provided for the Fellow. From dzo at BISHARAT.NET Sun Dec 16 03:14:43 2007 From: dzo at BISHARAT.NET (Don Osborn) Date: Sat, 15 Dec 2007 22:14:43 -0500 Subject: [Fwd: "The Linguists" world premieres at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival] In-Reply-To: <47618DDF.406@alliesmediaart.com> Message-ID: Congratulations on this. Will anything be made of the angle that 2008 is International Year of Languages? Seems like a nice and natural tie-in. (See http://www.unesco.ru/eng/articles/2004/Valya02112007175015.php ). Don From: Indigenous Languages and Technology [mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU] On Behalf Of Mona Smith Sent: Thursday, December 13, 2007 2:54 PM To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Subject: [ILAT] [Fwd: "The Linguists" world premieres at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival] -------- Original Message -------- Subject: "The Linguists" world premieres at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2007 14:15:10 -0500 From: Daniel A. Miller Reply-To: Daniel A. Miller To: ENDANGERED-LANGUAGES-L at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG We are nothing short of elated to announce that our documentary feature THE LINGUISTS was selected to world premiere in the newly minted "Spectrum: Documentary Spotlight" category at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. THE LINGUISTS is the first documentary supported by the National Science Foundation to ever make it to Sundance. The trailer is at http://www.thelinguists.com. Here's a brief synopsis: It is estimated that of 7,000 languages in the world, half will be gone by the end of this century. THE LINGUISTS follows David Harrison and Gregory Anderson, scientists racing to document languages on the verge of extinction. In Siberia, India, and Bolivia, the linguists' resolve is tested by the very forces silencing languages: institutionalized racism and violent economic unrest. David and Greg's journey takes them deep into the heart of the cultures, knowledge, and communities at risk when a language dies. We hope you can join us in Utah for one (or maybe all) of the following screenings: Friday, January 18, 12 Noon - Egyptian Theatre, Park City Saturday, January 19, 12:45 PM - Broadway Centre Cinemas V, Salt Lake City Saturday, January 19, 11:30 PM - Prospector Square Theatre, Park City Wednesday, January 23, 9:00 AM, Holiday Village Cinema I, Park City - PRESS AND INDUSTRY ONLY Wednesday, January 23, 8:30 PM - Holiday Village Cinema II, Park City Tickets are available at http://www.sundance.org/festival/. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us or our publicist Winston Emano at wemano at tcdm-associates.com. We look forward to hearing you there, in all languages! Happy Holidays, Seth Kramer, Daniel A. Miller, and Jeremy Newberger Ironbound Films, Inc. PO Box 441 Garrison, NY 10524 T: 845.424.3700 F: 845.424.3753 news at ironboundfilms.com www.ironboundfilms.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mona at ALLIESMEDIAART.COM Mon Dec 17 17:02:25 2007 From: mona at ALLIESMEDIAART.COM (Mona Smith) Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2007 11:02:25 -0600 Subject: [Fwd: Fwd: www.anishinaabemowin.org] Message-ID: -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Fwd: www.anishinaabemowin.org Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2007 10:56:22 -0600 From: Beth Brown Reply-To: Beth Brown To: MINN-IND at LISTS.UMN.EDU -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: file:///tmp/nsmail.tmp Type: text/enriched Size: 2872 bytes Desc: not available URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Dec 17 17:44:48 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2007 10:44:48 -0700 Subject: Tapardjuk: GN won’t change language laws (fwd link) Message-ID: Nunavat December 14, 2007 Tapardjuk: GN won’t change language laws Minister offers rebuttals to GN critics JIM BELL Louis Tapardjuk, Nunavut's culture and language minister, told MLAs last week that the Government of Nunavut will not cave in to critics who want big changes to its two proposed new language laws. The Ajauqtiit committee, chaired by Akulliq MLA Steve Mapsalak, is now studying Bill 6, which would create a revised Official Languages Act, and Bill 7, which would create a new law called the Inuit Language Protection Act. Groups such as Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. and the Qikiqtani Inuit Association have launched aggressive attacks on the two bills, citing numerous weaknesses. Get the full article here: http://www.nunatsiaq.com/news/nunavut/71214_780.html From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Dec 17 23:33:18 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2007 16:33:18 -0700 Subject: Language Documentation & Conservation (fwd link) Message-ID: Greetings, Please check this out, the December issue (Vol. 1, No. 2) of the Language Documentation & Conservation (LD&C) journal is now electronically available at the address below: http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/ldc/ Here you will find some useful articles and reviews on technology that might be of interest. Phil Cash Cash UofA From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US Wed Dec 19 17:18:19 2007 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (Mia Kalish) Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2007 10:18:19 -0700 Subject: Fonts article/Review of Fontographer In-Reply-To: <025d01c83f91$ce159d70$6a40d850$@net> Message-ID: Hi, Everyone; I am excited to share the link to my article on Fonts and Fontographer. Although this is a technical review, I took the time to establish the context for font issues as they pertain to representing Indigenous languages that have special characters. Southern Athapascan (Navajo & Apache) have 18 special characters, 35 if you count upper case, since the glottal does not have upper/lower, but everything else does. It is not too long, about 10 pages. Overall, it is pretty cool. (I think). Having an article published is so heady, you just have to share with your friends and colleagues. Happily, Mia _____ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From miroslawrajter at GMAIL.COM Wed Dec 19 17:21:34 2007 From: miroslawrajter at GMAIL.COM (Miroslaw Rajter) Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2007 12:21:34 -0500 Subject: Fonts article/Review of Fontographer In-Reply-To: <006701c84263$2705dbb0$881714ac@LFPMIA> Message-ID: Hi Mia, It is nice to meet you. Where is that link to your article? Greetings Miroslaw Polish Ethnolinguistic Expedition 2007/12/19, Mia Kalish : > > > > Hi, Everyone; > > > > I am excited to share the link to my article on Fonts and Fontographer. > Although this is a technical review, I took the time to establish the > context for font issues as they pertain to representing Indigenous languages > that have special characters. Southern Athapascan (Navajo & Apache) have 18 > special characters, 35 if you count upper case, since the glottal does not > have upper/lower, but everything else does. > > > > It is not too long, about 10 pages. Overall, it is pretty cool. (I think). > Having an article published is so heady, you just have to share with your > friends and colleagues. > > > > Happily, > > Mia > ------------------------------ > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US Wed Dec 19 17:35:32 2007 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (Mia Kalish) Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2007 10:35:32 -0700 Subject: Fonts article/Review of Fontographer: Real Link In-Reply-To: Message-ID: http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/ldc/December2007/techreviews/kalish.html Sorry! Too much excitement! Thanks, Miroslaw. Mia _____ From: Indigenous Languages and Technology [mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU] On Behalf Of Miroslaw Rajter Sent: Wednesday, December 19, 2007 10:22 AM To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Subject: Re: [ILAT] Fonts article/Review of Fontographer Hi Mia, It is nice to meet you. Where is that link to your article? Greetings Miroslaw Polish Ethnolinguistic Expedition 2007/12/19, Mia Kalish < MiaKalish at learningforpeople.us >: Hi, Everyone; I am excited to share the link to my article on Fonts and Fontographer. Although this is a technical review, I took the time to establish the context for font issues as they pertain to representing Indigenous languages that have special characters. Southern Athapascan (Navajo & Apache) have 18 special characters, 35 if you count upper case, since the glottal does not have upper/lower, but everything else does. It is not too long, about 10 pages. Overall, it is pretty cool. (I think). Having an article published is so heady, you just have to share with your friends and colleagues. Happily, Mia _____ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Thu Dec 20 19:12:19 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2007 12:12:19 -0700 Subject: The Government of Canada Supports Manitoba Métis Federation (fwd) Message-ID: The Government of Canada Supports Manitoba Métis Federation http://news.gc.ca/web/view/en/index.jsp?articleid=369569 WINNIPEG, December 19, 2007 - On behalf of the Honourable Josée Verner, Minister of Canadian Heritage, Status of Women and Official Languages, the Honourable Vic Toews, President of the Treasury Board and Member of Parliament (Provencher), today announced funding for the Manitoba Métis Federation (MMF). The Manitoba Métis Federation will receive two contributions totalling more than $980,000. The $607,691 contribution for 2007-2008 will support 15 community-based projects for Aboriginal young people in all regions of Manitoba, centred on the themes of youth leadership, community involvement, and cultural, social, and health activities. The $375,000 contribution for 2007-2010 will go toward eight projects to preserve and promote the Michif language. "The Government of Canada is committed to improving the participation of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis young people in Canadian society and to preserving and promoting Aboriginal languages," said Minister Verner. "These projects will give young people new opportunities to enhance their economic, social, and personal prospects and help Métis communities to preserve their language," said Minister Toews. "The Manitoba Métis Federation is dedicated to improving the lives of our people and is pleased to partner with Canadian Heritage on these important initiatives. The significant contribution of $982,691 will assist the MMF in revitalizing and strengthening our traditions and securing our future," said MMF President David Chartrand. "We are empowering our youth and the elderly with 15 essential community-based projects. We are inspiring hope with the preservation and revitalization of the Michif language of our ancestors. I thank Minister Verner and her colleagues for recognizing the need to preserve our culture as a part of a diverse Canada." The Government of Canada is providing the $607,691 investment under the Aboriginal Peoples' Program of the Department of Canadian Heritage. This program is aimed at increasing the participation of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis people in Canadian society and strengthening their cultural revitalization. The contribution of $375,000 over three years is provided under the Aboriginal Languages Initiative of the Department of Canadian Heritage, which is aimed at preserving and promoting Aboriginal languages and culture. Information: Dominic Gosselin Press Secretary Office of the Minister of Canadian Heritage, Status of Women and Official Languages 819 997-7788 Donald Boulanger A/Chief, Media Relations Canadian Heritage From nflrc at HAWAII.EDU Thu Dec 20 21:32:26 2007 From: nflrc at HAWAII.EDU (National Foreign Language Resource Center) Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2007 11:32:26 -1000 Subject: 2008 SLRF Conference (Hawaii): Call for Proposals Message-ID: Our apologies for any cross-postings . . . * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The Department of Second Language Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa is pleased to announce. . . CALL FOR PROPOSALS: 31st Annual Second Language Research Forum (SLRF) October 17-19, 2008 University of Hawaii at Manoa Honolulu, Hawaii http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/slrf08/ Call begins: December 2007 (online proposal submissions - open mid-January, 2008) Call deadline: April 15, 2008 Notification of selection: Mid-May 2008 Theme: EXPLORING SLA: PERSPECTIVES, POSITIONS, AND PRACTICES Plenary speakers: - Dr. Harald Clahsen (University of Essex) - Dr. Alan Firth (Newcastle University) - Dr. Eva Lam (Northwestern University) - Dr. Richard Schmidt (University of Hawai'i at Manoa) We welcome all areas of second language research, including, but not limited to: - Instructed SLA - Acquisition of grammar and phonology - Child SLA - L2 Processing - Language and learner characteristics - Language and cognition - Discourse and interaction - Language and socialization - Bilingualism and multilingualism - Language and ideology - Literacy development - Learner corpora - Language learning and technology - Second language measurement 1) PAPERS: Individual papers will be allotted 20 minutes (plus 10 minutes for discussion). 2) POSTERS: Posters will be displayed for a full day. Posters are intended for one-on-one discussion or reports of work in progress. 3) COLLOQIUA: The colloquia/panels consist of individual paper presentations that relate to a specific or related topics of interest. They are offered in 2-hour sessions. Please see our website for submission instructions and additional updates: http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/slrf08/. Deadline for submissions is April 15, 2008. For any proposal submission questions, please contact the SLRF 2008 Program Chairs at slrf2008program at gmail.com. ************************************************************************* N National Foreign Language Resource Center F University of Hawai'i L 1859 East-West Road, #106 R Honolulu HI 96822 C voice: (808) 956-9424, fax: (808) 956-5983 email: nflrc at hawaii.edu VISIT OUR WEBSITE! http://nflrc.hawaii.edu ************************************************************************* From wjposer at LDC.UPENN.EDU Thu Dec 20 22:01:35 2007 From: wjposer at LDC.UPENN.EDU (William J Poser) Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2007 17:01:35 -0500 Subject: Rosetta Stone In-Reply-To: <003601c83d26$7ff20c40$8a3f14ac@LFPMIA> Message-ID: In principle I agree that it is desirable to train members of endangered language communities to do documentation and develop teaching materials. However, it is important to note that the relatively large groups with large numbers of speakers, are not a good model for the much smaller groups that are more typical at least in much of North America. Here in British Columbia, for example, with the exception of a few larger groups that spill over into BC, such as the Plains Cree, no indigenous language has more than 1,500 speakers and most have far fewer. Furthermore, dialects often differ considerably from community to community, and the people regard it as important to document and teach their particular dialect. In the case of the language that I mostly work with, Carrier, there are perhaps 1,000 total speakers, but they are very unevenly distributed. There are a couple of dialects that have perhaps 300 speakers each, and then a bunch of communities that have from a few dozen on down to four fluent speakers and a few semi-speakers. Not only are the speaker numbers small, so are the total populations. The Carrier band that has four fluent speakers left has a total membership of 266 people. It is also typical of language in BC that there are few if any young speakers, which means that the work must be done quickly if it is to be done at all. The upshot of this is that the people with the specialized skills to do the documentation and develop teaching materials are likely not to be available, and even if people with the right talents and motivation can be found, waiting for them to acquire the necessary training is undesirable. A further factor is that people with these talents will also likely be talented in other ways and may, out of community need, opportunity, or personal preference, spend their time doing something else. Granting that some tasks can be done by people without a lot of specialized training, you simply aren't going to get a good grammar, dictionary, or textbook from people without both a relatively rare set of talents and a considerable amount of training and experience. It is true that some people may acquire the necessary skills without formal education in linguistics and related fields, but even so, they are people with unusual talents and interests who have educated themselves over a considerable time. Given the relative rarity of people with these skills, the odds of finding even one such person in a group of a few hundred or even a few thousand people are poor. We can make a crude estimate on the basis of the Navajo Nation. Out of approximately 200,000 people, I would estimate that there are no more than 20 who have done serious work on documentation or the development of teaching materials. I won't list everyone I am thinking of so as not to insult anybody or trigger arguments about individuals, but I am including people with advanced degrees in linguistics like Elavina Tsosie Perkins and Mary Anne Willie, people like William Morgan, the co-author of the Navajo dictionary, and people more focussed on development of teaching materials, such as Irene Silentman. This yields a crude estimate of about one person in ten thousand. Even if this estimate is off by an order of magnitude, it means that in communities of the size typical in BC the odds of finding a good linguist/materials developer in the community are poor. Such smaller communities are likely to have to make use of people from outside the community. Bill From jgross at OREGONSTATE.EDU Thu Dec 20 22:44:15 2007 From: jgross at OREGONSTATE.EDU (Joan Gross) Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2007 14:44:15 -0800 Subject: 2008 SLRF Conference (Hawaii): Call for Proposals In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Unfortunate that this is exactly the same time as Lasso. jg On 12/20/07 1:32 PM, "National Foreign Language Resource Center" wrote: > Our apologies for any cross-postings . . . > > * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * > > The Department of Second Language Studies at the University of Hawaii at > Manoa is pleased to announce. . . > > CALL FOR PROPOSALS: > > 31st Annual Second Language Research Forum (SLRF) > October 17-19, 2008 > University of Hawaii at Manoa > Honolulu, Hawaii > http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/slrf08/ > > Call begins: December 2007 (online proposal submissions - open > mid-January, 2008) > Call deadline: April 15, 2008 > Notification of selection: Mid-May 2008 > > Theme: EXPLORING SLA: PERSPECTIVES, POSITIONS, AND PRACTICES > > Plenary speakers: > - Dr. Harald Clahsen (University of Essex) > - Dr. Alan Firth (Newcastle University) > - Dr. Eva Lam (Northwestern University) > - Dr. Richard Schmidt (University of Hawai'i at Manoa) > > > We welcome all areas of second language research, including, but not > limited to: > - Instructed SLA > - Acquisition of grammar and phonology > - Child SLA > - L2 Processing > - Language and learner characteristics > - Language and cognition > - Discourse and interaction > - Language and socialization > - Bilingualism and multilingualism > - Language and ideology > - Literacy development > - Learner corpora > - Language learning and technology > - Second language measurement > > > 1) PAPERS: > Individual papers will be allotted 20 minutes (plus 10 minutes for > discussion). > > 2) POSTERS: > Posters will be displayed for a full day. Posters are intended for > one-on-one discussion or reports of work in progress. > > 3) COLLOQIUA: > The colloquia/panels consist of individual paper presentations that relate > to a specific or related topics of interest. They are offered in 2-hour > sessions. > > > Please see our website for submission instructions and additional updates: > http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/slrf08/. > > Deadline for submissions is April 15, 2008. > > For any proposal submission questions, please contact the SLRF 2008 > Program Chairs at slrf2008program at gmail.com. > > > ************************************************************************* > N National Foreign Language Resource Center > F University of Hawai'i > L 1859 East-West Road, #106 > R Honolulu HI 96822 > C voice: (808) 956-9424, fax: (808) 956-5983 > email: nflrc at hawaii.edu > VISIT OUR WEBSITE! http://nflrc.hawaii.edu > ************************************************************************* From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Sat Dec 22 17:21:11 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Sat, 22 Dec 2007 10:21:11 -0700 Subject: Fwd: inquiry from Center for Applied Linguistics Message-ID: Greetings, I am forwarding an inquiry from Prof Frawley at CAL, UC Berkeley, regarding immersion camps.  He gave me his kind permission to post it here on ILAT.  So feel free to provide assistance if you are so inclined.  Let us know too!  Phil UofA ----- Forwarded message from billfrawley at gmail.com ----- Date: Fri, 21 Dec 2007 14:22:39 -0500 From: William Frawley We are writing to you under the aegis of the Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL) to ask your help with a CAL project involving Native American language immersion camps. CAL is one of several partners in the Alliance for the Advancement of Heritage Languages (http://www.cal.org/heritage/index.html), an organization devoted to the preservation, instruction, and advancement of heritage languages in the United States. Part of the Alliance's efforts is the inventory and documentation of US heritage language programs in all their forms - community-based, school-based, independent, etc. -- in order to have a comprehensive database to assist instruction, assessment, research, policy, and advocacy. We are having difficulty locating and documentingNative American language immersion camps, and to make the database as comprehensive as possible, we need information on them. Knowing your position in the field, we would like to ask you if you would be able to help us identify such camps. Would you be able to provide leads or introductions to the program directors and/or tribes running these camps? We have a standard set of questions that we ask about all heritage language programs, but to ask these questions of Native American language camps, we first need to locate them and then have contact with someone who administers them. Any help you might provide in this respect would be greatly appreciated. Please respond to Bill Frawley at bfrawley at cal.org. Bill Frawley, Center for Applied Linguistics Erin Haynes, Center for Applied Linguistics, UC Berkeley ----- End forwarded message ----- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Sun Dec 23 17:44:47 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Sun, 23 Dec 2007 10:44:47 -0700 Subject: Fwd: Donate a $200 computer to a child in a developing nation, get one yourself Message-ID: You may have heard about the $200 laptop computer designed to enable children in developing countries to have access to modern technology. There is a special offer going on now, in which you can donate to purchase a computer for a child and receive one yourself. The offer ends December 31. (The computers can be powered by winding them up, or connecting to solar panels, but these sources cost extra, at least for the computer you would receive.) Presumably you can get a tax break for a donation, and also get a computer your own child, or a child of a friend, could use, or you could simply make a donation. The link to their website is: http://www.laptopgiving.org/en/index.php Rudy P.S. You may want to pass this on to interested friends or other lists. ----- End forwarded message ----- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From andrekar at NCIDC.ORG Fri Dec 28 00:05:46 2007 From: andrekar at NCIDC.ORG (Andre Cramblit) Date: Thu, 27 Dec 2007 16:05:46 -0800 Subject: Harrington Project Message-ID: Preserving California's native languages DATABASE TEAM DECIPHERS A MILLION PAGES OF NOTES By Lisa Krieger Mercury News Article Launched: 12/24/2007 06:09:25 AM PST Click photo to enlarge  Martha Macri holds up a reel of microfilm containing written notes by J.P.... ( Gary Reyes ) Bringing voices from the grave, volunteers at the University of California-Davis are working to decipher nearly a million pages of notes from conversations with long-gone Native Californians, reviving more than 100 languages from the distant past. Word by word, they type the scribbled and cryptic notes left by John Peabody Harrington, an eccentric and tireless linguist who in the early 1900s traveled throughout California interviewing the last surviving speakers of many native tongues, including the local Muwekma Ohlone tribe. Their effort to organize a database of Harrington's vast material will build a Rosetta Stone for these languages and their dialects, creating dictionaries of words, phrases and tribal tales and customs that were destined to disappear. "It is an enormous amount, and it is incredibly difficult to read," said Martha Macri, director of the UC-Davis Native American Language Center and co-director of the effort to computerize Harrington's papers. "He was totally obsessive. We've become a bit obsessive ourselves." His notes tell tales about rocks of gold discovered on Mount Diablo, superstitions ("If any man throws at this eagle rock and hits it, his wife will bear him twins") and ordinary customs ("The women are carrying tule on their backs.") Most are mere phrases ("itr-rezk, used to stab a pig" or "chiqueon, a person who hesitates taking food.") Harrington's Advertisement work San Jose native Margaret Cayward is using his notes to study native music as part of her doctoral thesis at UC-Davis. "It's helping us rediscover old knowledge and values in the music," she said. "Music was a major part of life for Californians, with ritual or sacred significance." In Fremont, descendants of the Muwekma Ohlone tribe used his notes to create Chochenyo flash cards, puzzles and bingo games for their children. In Macri's office, eight large file cabinets are filled with 182 reels of microfilmed images of Harrington's work, copied from his original papers that are stored at the Smithsonian Institution's warehouse in Silver Hill, Md. Each reel, costing $1,000, contains 500 to 2,000 pages of material. Seven years into the Harrington project, funded by the National Science Foundation, it is about two-thirds complete. Many of the project's most devoted volunteers are Native Californians; one person, alone, has transcribed over 3,000 pages. "They have changed my life," said Linda Yamane of Seaside, who based her book of Ohlone tales, called "The Snake That Lived in the Santa Cruz Mountains," on his notes. "Along with a lot of hard work and perseverance, they've made it possible to bring back my Rumsien (Monterey area) Ohlone language and other cultural traditions from the brink of extinction." Hired in 1915 by the Smithsonian Institution, Harrington spent four decades wandering California with unbounded freedom to document languages before they disappeared. It was a time when Native Californians faced fierce discrimination. Few elders spoke the languages to children, so little information was passed on for future generations. "They trusted him," said Bev Ortiz, an anthropologist at California State University-East Bay. "The tribal elders had the wisdom and courage to see that the time would come when it would not be bad to be an Indian - and the language would be there for their descendants." Harrington traveled by car and on foot to find surviving speakers, collecting maps, photographs, and plant and animal specimens along the way. One camping trip, on horseback, took him through the rugged Santa Lucia Mountains. Gifted in phonetics and lexicography, "he spent more of his waking hours, week in and week out, transcribing Indian languages than doing any other conscious thing," said Victor Golla of Humboldt State University. "No linguist, before or since, ever spent so much time engaged in the field collection of primary data." Hidden from colleagues Yet Harrington published little of his work. Although he sent back reports to the Smithsonian, many of his notes seem to have been deliberately hidden from colleagues. "I think he thought he'd get back to them," said Kathryn Klar, a UC- Berkeley anthropologist. "He was a top linguist of his time, and he didn't want to be under the thumb of those with lesser training." After his death in 1961, as Smithsonian curators began cataloging his papers, they discovered stockpiles of boxes stored in warehouses, garages and even chicken coops throughout the West. Six tons of material - among them Indian-made flutes, Kachina dolls, dead birds and tarantulas, baskets, rocks, empty soup cans, half- eaten sandwiches, dirty laundry and two shrunken heads from the Amazon - eventually arrived at the Smithsonian, filling two warehouses. Mixed with the squalor were invaluable photographs, sketches, maps, correspondence and expense accounts - along with extensive translations, a linguistic treasure of the highest order. "The collection is an American treasure," Klar said. For the Harrington project workers, the central challenge is understanding material that Harrington never meant to share. His translations of native words are littered with puzzling abbreviations. And his notations do not represent a standardized phonology, just impressionistic phonetics. Also troubling is his practice of shifting, over the years, the symbols used when transcribing sounds into words. The bilingual Harrington wrote many translations in old California Spanish, with idiosyncratic spelling. And much of his material is disorganized, with notes about one language interspersed with those of another. "There was a method in his madness. He was trying to get as much down as fast as could," Klar said. "But reading it takes endless patience." Despite the frustrations, the Harrington project team says its efforts are slowly shedding light on a long-lost way of life - and educating a proud new generation of Native Californians about the ways of their ancestors. "This is not an academic exercise. It is peoples' lives," said Sheri Tatsch, a Native American postdoctoral scholar with the project. "We're learning not only about the languages, but day-to-day life - the culture and customs, the politics. A language is a universe; it's family, society, religious practices. When you start pulling it out, you start to understand." "These languages never died," she said. "They were just sleeping." IF YOU'RE INTERESTED To learn more about the Harrington project, visit: nas.ucdavis.edu/ NALC/JPH.html. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: 20071224__language24~1_Viewer.JPG.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 6130 bytes Desc: not available URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Fri Dec 28 20:37:29 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2007 13:37:29 -0700 Subject: School board faces Native language issue (fwd link) Message-ID: School board faces Native language issue December 27, 2007 at 11:59AM AKST THE FISHERMAN STAFF Next year may see the return of instruction in Unangam Tunuu – the Native language spoken by the indigenous people of the Aleutian Islands – in the Unalaska City School District. That's the hope of Katherine McGlashan, an Unangan/Aleut herself, and an active group of Unalaska residents, including educators, former teachers, parents, the Museum of the Aleutians and Ounalashka Corp., the representative Alaska Native corporation. To access full article, follow the link below: http://www.thedutchharborfisherman.com/news/show/1049 From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Fri Dec 28 20:39:55 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2007 13:39:55 -0700 Subject: Protecting Native American Languages and Culture (fwd link) Message-ID: Protecting Native American Languages and Culture The last of our four-part series on keeping traditions alive. Transcript of radio broadcast: 25 December 2007 http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/2007-12-25-voa2.cfm From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Fri Dec 28 20:42:31 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2007 13:42:31 -0700 Subject: Apache language in home remains important for overall retention (fwd link) Message-ID: Apache language in home remains important for overall retention Published: Wednesday, December 26, 2007 11:43 AM CST (Second in five-part series) Last week I wrote about our Community Language Survey and what it shows about the rate of decline in people speaking Apache. This week I want to write about why. What did the survey reveal about people's reasons for not speaking Apache? The answers involve a “vicious cycle” and a language program in Hawaii. The vicious cycle is this: people aren't learning Apache because they don't hear it at home, and they don't hear it at home because people aren't learning it. There are basically two types of non-speakers in our community. The first kind are the people who don't speak Apache because they don't know how. The second kind are the people who can speak Apache, but they speak English instead. Our program for language renewal needs to be aware of both of these groups, so that people who don't speak Apache can learn it, if they want, and people who do speak Apache will feel comfortable using their language skills. To access full article, follow the link below: http://www.silverbelt.com/articles/2007/12/26/apache_moccasin/apache04.txt From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Dec 31 01:47:39 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Sun, 30 Dec 2007 18:47:39 -0700 Subject: Henrietta Yurchenco, Pioneer Folklorist, Dies at 91 (fwd link) Message-ID: Henrietta Yurchenco, Pioneer Folklorist, Dies at 91 By DOUGLAS MARTIN Published: December 14, 2007 Henrietta Yurchenco, whose quest to save living music from the past took her from the mountains of Guatemala and southern Mexico to a New York City radio station to the Jewish community of Morocco, died Monday in Manhattan. She was 91. The cause was lung failure, her son, Peter, said. Like a linguist nailing down a dying language, Ms. Yurchenco, an ethnomusicologist, recorded music from long ago that faced an unclear tomorrow. In an interview, Pete Seeger said she “went to places people didn’t believe she would be able to find.” Among her thousands of recordings are ritual songs from North, South and Central American Indians, including peyote chants, and music celebrating everything from love to agriculture, found from Eastern Europe to the Caribbean to Appalachia to Spain. To access the full article, just follow the link below: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/14/arts/14yurchenco.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US Mon Dec 31 18:21:45 2007 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (Mia Kalish) Date: Mon, 31 Dec 2007 11:21:45 -0700 Subject: Rosetta Stone In-Reply-To: <20071220220135.5F7D4B2572@lorax.ldc.upenn.edu> Message-ID: I have to agree with Bill on this, on all points. While I know that many people have been working on these issues for entire lifetimes, and that my 8 years or so is trifling in comparison, I have found that in the creation of language learning technology, the difficulties are compounded by issues of information "being snatched out of the air." However, on a new dimension, these issues are appearing to be relatively minor in comparison with the issue of preparing technical information in the Indigenous language. In this regard, I have started an iPod project at the College where all the information must be in Diné Bizaad. The struggles to speak the technology are enormous. Discussions of how to talk about "iPod" (just this one word) are ongoing, and no resolution has been reached. Shortly after the Maori announced the availability of Windows and MS Office, I spoke with the project director. She told me about the incredible effort they engaged in developing the technical vocabulary. They needed about 675,000 words to define that interface. Although this seems like an enormous number, this is - relatively speaking - a "small" interface. Imagine the effort necessary to create a domain lexicon for Cognitive Psychology, or Physics. How about Mathematics? Some (many) languages don't even seem to have a memory - or perhaps a cognitive concept - of numericalization and serialization. How do we go there? I once worked with an Elder, someone reasonably fluent in 3 related Amerind languages, and who had been a math teacher, who had difficulty counting to 100 in her first language. Personally, I think Powell did the world a huge injustice when his prescriptive document on words to be collected for Amerind languages did not include any technical, mathematical, or scientific lexicons. His anthropological focus on food, clothing, and puberty rites did both the civilizations and us an enormous disservice from which we may never recover. [I really think we should unname Lake Powell and rename it something like Lake Whalen. :-)] Bill talked about the speaker populations, but didn't mention that in immersion learning - as when we are children in a cultural and linguistic milieu - we hear the language being spoken around us. We see signs and cultural symbols, so we learn by having the information soak into us, so to speak. Multi-perceptual soaking is much faster, easier, and probably more reliable than the results of the linear cognitive efforts necessary to apprehend, relate and assimilate the typical text-based presentations used in language classes even today, in a world rich and rife with multimedia. I have a little vignette to share, one that in its many perspectives flashes brightly on the different issues we cope with today, not only in revitalization but also in education: One of my friends, who has a PhD in Linguistics, has a grandson in 1st grade. This child has been raised in a liberal, educated household with two older brothers, both of whom have sophisticated interests, and both of whom have found interests that allow them to be totally involved in spite of a genetic dyslexia that challenges their reading and spelling. This small grandchild has been presented with gray-on-sort-of-white "worksheets" - especially those things called "Fast Puppies" - in kindergarten, and in the fall semester of first grade. The child does between 3 and 6 of the 25 or so repetitive problems, and then stops. His teachers are frustrated because they can't threaten or intimidate him into finishing (word choice here - threaten or intimidate - is deliberate and sadly, accurate). How many people think the child stops because he is incapable of finishing? None. Good. The child stops because in 3-6 problems he has groked the entire learning goal of the unattractive, non-interactive and consequently non-responsive "worksheet." Put in common terminology, He stops because he is bored. There is nothing there to attract or hold his interest, and nothing to tell him why he might want to complete the 25 or so problems. I should probably now clue you in to the fact that the small child is also a computer whiz, for his age, and helps his grandmother figure out things. I will end here, because there are many, many entailments in this last statement. Best to everyone, Mia -----Original Message----- From: Indigenous Languages and Technology [mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU] On Behalf Of William J Poser Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2007 3:02 PM To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Subject: Re: [ILAT] Rosetta Stone In principle I agree that it is desirable to train members of endangered language communities to do documentation and develop teaching materials. However, it is important to note that the relatively large groups with large numbers of speakers, are not a good model for the much smaller groups that are more typical at least in much of North America. Here in British Columbia, for example, with the exception of a few larger groups that spill over into BC, such as the Plains Cree, no indigenous language has more than 1,500 speakers and most have far fewer. Furthermore, dialects often differ considerably from community to community, and the people regard it as important to document and teach their particular dialect. In the case of the language that I mostly work with, Carrier, there are perhaps 1,000 total speakers, but they are very unevenly distributed. There are a couple of dialects that have perhaps 300 speakers each, and then a bunch of communities that have from a few dozen on down to four fluent speakers and a few semi-speakers. Not only are the speaker numbers small, so are the total populations. The Carrier band that has four fluent speakers left has a total membership of 266 people. It is also typical of language in BC that there are few if any young speakers, which means that the work must be done quickly if it is to be done at all. The upshot of this is that the people with the specialized skills to do the documentation and develop teaching materials are likely not to be available, and even if people with the right talents and motivation can be found, waiting for them to acquire the necessary training is undesirable. A further factor is that people with these talents will also likely be talented in other ways and may, out of community need, opportunity, or personal preference, spend their time doing something else. Granting that some tasks can be done by people without a lot of specialized training, you simply aren't going to get a good grammar, dictionary, or textbook from people without both a relatively rare set of talents and a considerable amount of training and experience. It is true that some people may acquire the necessary skills without formal education in linguistics and related fields, but even so, they are people with unusual talents and interests who have educated themselves over a considerable time. Given the relative rarity of people with these skills, the odds of finding even one such person in a group of a few hundred or even a few thousand people are poor. We can make a crude estimate on the basis of the Navajo Nation. Out of approximately 200,000 people, I would estimate that there are no more than 20 who have done serious work on documentation or the development of teaching materials. I won't list everyone I am thinking of so as not to insult anybody or trigger arguments about individuals, but I am including people with advanced degrees in linguistics like Elavina Tsosie Perkins and Mary Anne Willie, people like William Morgan, the co-author of the Navajo dictionary, and people more focussed on development of teaching materials, such as Irene Silentman. This yields a crude estimate of about one person in ten thousand. Even if this estimate is off by an order of magnitude, it means that in communities of the size typical in BC the odds of finding a good linguist/materials developer in the community are poor. Such smaller communities are likely to have to make use of people from outside the community. Bill From dzo at BISHARAT.NET Mon Dec 31 18:55:21 2007 From: dzo at BISHARAT.NET (Don Osborn) Date: Mon, 31 Dec 2007 13:55:21 -0500 Subject: 2008 is "International Year of Languages" Message-ID: Greetings and Happy New Year to all, The year 2008 has been proclaimed International Year of Languages by the United Nations General Assembly. UNESCO, which has been entrusted with the task of coordinating activities for the Year, is determined to fulfill its role as lead agency. Message from Mr Koïchiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO, on the celebration of 2008, International Year of Languages http://portal.unesco.org/culture/en/ev.php-URL_ID=35559 &URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html More than 50% of the 7,000 languages spoken in the world may disappear. Less than a quarter of those languages are currently used in schools and in cyberspace, and most are used only. We must act now as a matter of urgency. How? By encouraging and developing language policies that enable each linguistic community to use its first language, or mother tongue, as widely and as often as possible, including in education, while also mastering a national or regional language and an international language. Also by encouraging speakers of a dominant language to master another national or regional language and one or two international languages. Only if multilingualism is fully accepted can all languages find their place in our globalized world. sporadically. UNESCO therefore invites governments, United Nations organizations, civil society organizations, educational institutions, professional associations and all other stakeholders to increase their own activities to foster respect for, and the promotion and protection of all languages, particularly endangered languages, in all individual and collective contexts UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY PROCLAIMS 2008 INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF LANGUAGES TO PROMOTE UNITY IN DIVERSITY, GLOBAL UNDERSTANDING http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2007/ga10592.doc.htm 2008 International Year of Languages at Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Year_of_Languages 2008 International Year of Languages at Facebook http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=19666430768 [With thanks to Gustavo Lucardi for the formatting concept of this message] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dzo at BISHARAT.NET Mon Dec 31 19:04:02 2007 From: dzo at BISHARAT.NET (Don Osborn) Date: Mon, 31 Dec 2007 14:04:02 -0500 Subject: IYL 2008: Stop punishing kids for speaking mother tongue? Message-ID: Whatever else does or does not happen with International Year of Langauges 2008, it would be a success if it could achieve even this one result: That children are no longer beaten, shamed, or otherwise punished for speaking their mother tongue. Whatever this means for curricula or teaching methods is secondary - i.e., adapt to the learning approaches to the linguistic realities. Reason I bring this up is that I just received a letter from a Tanzanian working on a project in the north of that country who mentioned this practice. In this case it was children who speak Maasai being told in class that they'd be beaten if they spoke anything other than Swahili, but similar approaches still exist in lots of places (substitute the languages and perhaps the punishment). Don Osborn -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Dec 31 20:07:13 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Mon, 31 Dec 2007 13:07:13 -0700 Subject: more on "2008 - International Year of Languages" Message-ID: 2008 - International Year of Languages As we enter 2008, we are reminded to reflect on the unique status of human languages in the world. Never before has our humanity witnessed such a dramatic decline in our linguistic and cultural diversity. "The loss of local languages and of the cultural systems which they express, has meant irretrievable loss of diverse and interesting intellectual wealth. Only with diversity can it be guaranteed that all avenues of human intellectual progress will be traveled." Ken Hale, 1992. At the same time, we are also witness to the resurgence of indigenous/aboriginal activism with its emphasis on language revival, language maintenance, and the creation of new speakers. Around the world, linguists, linguistic anthropologists, and film makers are steadily embarking on documentation projects to record what may possibly be the last words of a uniquely spoken language. In 1996, it was estimated that at least 6,703 separate languages were spoken in the world (LSA web page). Elsewhere, it was also estimated that in every two weeks time, a language was known to lose its last speaker and thus become extinct (LT web page). Let's do a little math here. Every year 26 languages will go extinct. Every decade 260 languages will go extinct. So, in 2008, at least 312 languages have gone extinct since the 1996 census. This estimate leaves us with at least 6,391 viable languages yet existing in the world. Understandably though, these numbers are ONLY estimates and the realities of language loss are relatively unknown. The looming threat of losing one's language, however, is very real and for many indigenous/aboriginal communities the future is uncertain. Undeniably, most all of us--indigenous/aboriginal communities, linguists, anthropologists, students, & interested observers--recognize that our language(s) and culture matter. Further, UNESCO recognizes that our "cultural diversity is closely linked to linguistic diversity." So "How can one help?" you ask. Become an everyday language activist! 1) Get the message out concerning language endangerment. Create awareness. 2) Become an expert on the suppression of linguistic and cultural diversity. 3) Create your own web site, blog, and/or listserv supporting an endangered language. 4) Get media coverage and tell a dramatic human story on language endangerment & revitalization. 5) Raise money and contribute to foundations supporting language endangerment (ELF, FEL, ILI, etc)! 6) Raise money and contribute directly to community-based language documentation/revitalization projects. 7) Donate material resources or in-kind contributions directly to endangered language communities. 8) Devote part or all of your scholarly/graduate career on documenting an endangered language. 9) Support community advocacy and grass-roots efforts on language endangerment issues. 10) Organize a sponsored event supporting community advocacy or language endangerment issues. Take this moment in time to reflect upon the unlimited possibilities for change in the way we think about language endangerment and linguistic/cultural diversity. Can you make a difference? Yes, absolutely! Phil Cash Cash (Cayuse/Nez Perce) University of Arizona ps: feel free to distribute this email to your favorite list or blog! Web Pages Cited What Is an Endangered Language? Linguistic Society of America (LSA) http://www.lsadc.org/info/ling-faqs-endanger.cfm Living Tongues (LT) Institute for Endangered Languages http://www.livingtongues.org/ Message from Mr Koïchiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO, on the celebration of 2008, International Year of Languages http://portal.unesco.org/culture/en/ev.php-URL_ID=35559&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html From mona at ALLIESMEDIAART.COM Sat Dec 1 00:51:42 2007 From: mona at ALLIESMEDIAART.COM (Mona Smith) Date: Fri, 30 Nov 2007 18:51:42 -0600 Subject: New Marantz PMD620 In-Reply-To: <20071130153522.004cyfsc0w4kccw0@www.email.arizona.edu> Message-ID: drool. drool. Mona Allies: media/art phil cash cash wrote: > Friday greetings, > > For all the field audio buffs, you will want to keep an eye out for the new > Marantz digital recorder. B&H is selling this for 399. > > There a number of announcements out there of below of which is but one example. > > Marantz PMD620 > http://www.bradlinder.net/2007/10/more-marantz-pmd620-details-emerge.html > > l8ter, > > Phil > UofA > > From aidan at USYD.EDU.AU Sat Dec 1 01:08:41 2007 From: aidan at USYD.EDU.AU (Aidan Wilson) Date: Sat, 1 Dec 2007 12:08:41 +1100 Subject: New Marantz PMD620 In-Reply-To: <4750B01E.3080808@alliesmediaart.com> Message-ID: Hmm. I'm not sold on devices like this, they typically have quite inferior preamps, and marantz certainly don't have a very good track record with preamps in their smaller devices - the PMD660 comes to mind. That said, the 671 is very good and has excellent preamps, but at four times the price of the 620, maybe that's a sacrifice you'd be prepared to make. I still think that in the miniaturised device market, the best choices are the Edirol R-09 - which has a great pedigree, being made by Roland - and the Samson Zoom H4. The H4 is a little above the rest in my opinion because it has XLR microphone inputs rather than just 1/8" minijack, which most of these devices only have. I suppose I really should suspend judgement until I've tested it, or read a good professional audio review, especially when it comes to those issues like ease of use of controls - how quickly can you turn up the levels while recording? On a Nagra V - the absolute gold standard of portable recording devices, it's a matter of two dedicated dials on the front panel of the device, which at the other end of the spectrum, the H4 requires you to go through a maze of menu options to find the input gain. All these seemingly pedantic details really make a huge difference out in the field. For the record, I use, or have been using, a PMD 660 for my fieldwork, despite its inferior preamps, because the menu and interface make it great to use. I'm currently working on a grand fieldmethods website and resource centre that will have a dedicated section to choosing audio devices for one's specific requirements, so I've done a fair bit of research on this. I'll report back when I've got something to show for it. Here's Marantz's website for the 620: http://www.d-mpro.com/users/folder.asp?FolderID=4313&CatID=19&SubCatID=188 Also, something else to drool over: http://www.sounddevices.com/products/702.htm Dat's what I'm talkin' bout. -Aidan Audio at Paradisec Mona Smith wrote: > drool. drool. > > Mona > Allies: media/art > > phil cash cash wrote: >> Friday greetings, >> >> For all the field audio buffs, you will want to keep an eye out for >> the new >> Marantz digital recorder. B&H is selling this for 399. >> >> There a number of announcements out there of below of which is but >> one example. >> >> Marantz PMD620 >> http://www.bradlinder.net/2007/10/more-marantz-pmd620-details-emerge.html >> >> >> l8ter, >> >> Phil >> UofA >> >> From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Sat Dec 1 17:22:07 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Sat, 1 Dec 2007 10:22:07 -0700 Subject: New Marantz PMD620 In-Reply-To: <4750B419.3050309@usyd.edu.au> Message-ID: Thanks Aidan, all good points. Let us know when you have your web page up and running as it sounds like it will be of interest to a lot of us here on ILAT and elsewhere. And yes, the 702 is something to drool over. Phil UofA Quoting Aidan Wilson : > Hmm. I'm not sold on devices like this, they typically have quite > inferior preamps, and marantz certainly don't have a very good track > record with preamps in their smaller devices - the PMD660 comes to mind. > That said, the 671 is very good and has excellent preamps, but at four > times the price of the 620, maybe that's a sacrifice you'd be prepared > to make. > I still think that in the miniaturised device market, the best choices > are the Edirol R-09 - which has a great pedigree, being made by Roland - > and the Samson Zoom H4. The H4 is a little above the rest in my opinion > because it has XLR microphone inputs rather than just 1/8" minijack, > which most of these devices only have. > I suppose I really should suspend judgement until I've tested it, or > read a good professional audio review, especially when it comes to those > issues like ease of use of controls - how quickly can you turn up the > levels while recording? On a Nagra V - the absolute gold standard of > portable recording devices, it's a matter of two dedicated dials on the > front panel of the device, which at the other end of the spectrum, the > H4 requires you to go through a maze of menu options to find the input > gain. All these seemingly pedantic details really make a huge difference > out in the field. > For the record, I use, or have been using, a PMD 660 for my fieldwork, > despite its inferior preamps, because the menu and interface make it > great to use. > I'm currently working on a grand fieldmethods website and resource > centre that will have a dedicated section to choosing audio devices for > one's specific requirements, so I've done a fair bit of research on > this. I'll report back when I've got something to show for it. > Here's Marantz's website for the 620: > http://www.d-mpro.com/users/folder.asp?FolderID=4313&CatID=19&SubCatID=188 > Also, something else to drool over: > http://www.sounddevices.com/products/702.htm Dat's what I'm talkin' bout. > > -Aidan > Audio at Paradisec > > Mona Smith wrote: >> drool. drool. >> >> Mona >> Allies: media/art >> >> phil cash cash wrote: >>> Friday greetings, >>> >>> For all the field audio buffs, you will want to keep an eye out for the new >>> Marantz digital recorder. B&H is selling this for 399. >>> >>> There a number of announcements out there of below of which is but >>> one example. >>> >>> Marantz PMD620 >>> http://www.bradlinder.net/2007/10/more-marantz-pmd620-details-emerge.html >>> l8ter, >>> >>> Phil >>> UofA >>> >>> From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Sat Dec 1 18:44:42 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Sat, 1 Dec 2007 11:44:42 -0700 Subject: Two languages (fwd link) Message-ID: Two languages Din? schools look to modify Arizona's English teaching program By Jason Begay Navajo Times (Special to the Times - Donovan Quintero) WINDOW ROCK, Nov. 29, 2007 Transportation. The word has four syllables that the class chants with gleeful, harmonious handclaps: Trans. Por. Tay. Shun. The word also has 13 letters, a daunting challenge for the second graders in Chris Yazzie's classroom. "That's a lot of letters," Yazzie explains. "Remember the trick when spelling long words?" She begins to explain, but the class cuts her off. "Break it up to small chunks," David Mitchell III yells out, echoed by his classmates. "Because the brain will remember the words easier." This is Ts?hootsoo? Elementary School's second grade English Language Learners class, a daily four-hour block of time filled with students deemed to need extra help learning English, according to a new state policy. The policy, which districts statewide began to implement this fall, requires schools to implement a curriculum that would identify and isolate these students in order to give them more intensive assistance. To access the full article, just follow the link below: http://www.thenavajotimes.com/education/1129english.php From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Sun Dec 2 18:52:13 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Sun, 2 Dec 2007 11:52:13 -0700 Subject: Language immersion has many meanings (fwd link) Message-ID: Language immersion has many meanings BY VALERIE STRAUSS THE WASHINGTON POST WASHINGTON -- Language immersion programs started more than 30 years ago, most focusing on Spanish. According to the nonprofit Center for Applied Linguistics, three public schools had one immersion class each in 1971. Last year, there were 263 in 83 schools. To access full article, just follow the link below: http://www.star-telegram.com/national_news/story/335111.html From dzo at BISHARAT.NET Mon Dec 3 18:19:06 2007 From: dzo at BISHARAT.NET (Don Osborn) Date: Mon, 3 Dec 2007 13:19:06 -0500 Subject: FW: Linguapax Award 2008 Message-ID: FYI, nominations are now being accepted for the Linguapax Award 2008. Note the deadline of Dec. 15. Don -------------------------------- [from a letter with call for nominations] We are pleased to inform you that the call for candidates to the Linguapax awards 2008 is open. Kindly send your nominees to the secretariat of the Linguapax Institute (info at linguapax.org) before December 15th 2007 along with their short biographical note if possible. As in previous occasions, the name of the prize-winner will be made public on February 21, coinciding with the International Mother Language Day. The Linguapax Awardee will be granted the amount of 3,000 ?. For more information about the awards, please visit: Catal? http://www.linguapax.org/ct/premisLPX.html Espa?ol http://www.linguapax.org/es/premisLPXcas.html English http://www.linguapax.org/en/premisLPXang.html Fran?ais http://www.linguapax.org/fr/premisLPXfr.html -------------------------------- [from the Linguapax website] Linguapax Prize Rules 1. The Linguapax Prizes are awarded every year by the Linguapax Institute. 2. The prizes are awarded to linguists, researchers, professors and members of the civil society in acknowledgement of their outstanding work in the field linguistic diversity and/or multilingual education. Nominations of people having contributed to improve the linguistic situation of a community or country will be specially appreciated. 3. The nominations for the Linguapax Prizes must be sent to the secretariat of the Linguapax Institute along with a biographical note of the candidate. The nominations will remain confidential among the members of the jury. 4. The jury of the Linguapax Prizes will be formed by the members of the Advisory Committee of the Linguapax Institute. 5. The Linguapax prizes can be declared void. The jury's decision will be final. 6. The Linguapax Prize will be made public on February 21st of every year, International Mother Language Day. 7. The awardee will be granted the amount of 3,000 ? From hsouter at GMAIL.COM Tue Dec 4 04:38:58 2007 From: hsouter at GMAIL.COM (Heather Souter) Date: Mon, 3 Dec 2007 22:38:58 -0600 Subject: Royalty-free, Fee-free Clip??? Message-ID: Taanshi! Besides the sites hosted at Purdue U and UVic, d oes anyone know of any other good sites for language teaching clip art? I am especially interested in action-oriented (verbs, verbs, verbs!) clip art.... Kihchi-maarsii! Heather From ryamada at UOREGON.EDU Tue Dec 4 05:49:13 2007 From: ryamada at UOREGON.EDU (Racquel) Date: Mon, 3 Dec 2007 21:49:13 -0800 Subject: Royalty-free, Fee-free Clip??? In-Reply-To: <6d8c8c410712032038o173eceb3q608dccbc8fcfb8ee@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: I've used ESL HQ (they require a free registration): http://www.eslhq.com/gallery/browseimages.php?c=541&userid= -Racquel On Mon, 3 Dec 2007 22:38:58 -0600, Heather Souter wrote: > Taanshi! > > Besides the sites hosted at Purdue U and UVic, d oes anyone know of > any other good sites for language teaching clip art? I am especially > interested in action-oriented (verbs, verbs, verbs!) clip art.... > > Kihchi-maarsii! > > Heather > -- Graduate Assistant Department of Linguistics 1290 University of Oregon Eugene, OR 97403 phone: 541-346-0796 cell: 541-914-3018 e-mail: ryamada at uoregon.edu From aidan at USYD.EDU.AU Tue Dec 4 12:25:05 2007 From: aidan at USYD.EDU.AU (Aidan Wilson) Date: Tue, 4 Dec 2007 23:25:05 +1100 Subject: Language in schools Message-ID: From ABC news: Koori school reaps language benefits Teachers at a Sydney high school say since they've been teaching Indigenous students the Dharug language, the students have lifted their attendance rates. Full video: http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2007/12/04/2109099.htm For the record, Dharug is considered extinct. Doesn't much sound like it though... (ignore the fact that the presenter calls it 'Jurack') -Aid From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Tue Dec 4 15:28:38 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Tue, 4 Dec 2007 08:28:38 -0700 Subject: Royalty-free, Fee-free Clip??? In-Reply-To: <6d8c8c410712032038o173eceb3q608dccbc8fcfb8ee@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: Heather, here is a set of links to clip-art on my course webpage.? Hope this helps! http://www.u.arizona.edu/~cashcash/aildi_2007/online_resources.html Phil UofA Quoting Heather Souter : > Taanshi! > > Besides the sites hosted at Purdue U and UVic, d oes anyone know of > any other good sites for language teaching clip art? I am especially > interested in action-oriented (verbs, verbs, verbs!) clip art.... > > Kihchi-maarsii! > > Heather -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From andrekar at NCIDC.ORG Thu Dec 6 19:41:47 2007 From: andrekar at NCIDC.ORG (Andre Cramblit) Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2007 11:41:47 -0800 Subject: Language Revitalization Message-ID: Language revitalization featured at education conference by: Staff Reports / Indian Country Today HONOLULU - Language revitalization programming was highlighted at the 38th annual convention of the National Indian Education Association, held in Honolulu Oct. 25 - 28. Approximately 3,000 attendees from tribes throughout the United States were welcomed by the organization's first Native Hawaiian president, VerlieAnn Leimomi Malina-Wright, vice principal of the K - 12 Ke Kula Kaiapuni o Anuenue Hawaiian language immersion school. Hawaiian language chanting and hula by Anuenue's Hawaiian-speaking football team were part of the opening ceremonies. Excursions to visit 'Aha Punana Leo language nest preschools and Hawaiian language immersion school sites including Anuenue were well- attended. Some groups arrived a number of days before the conference to spend more time at immersion sites. Throughout the conference, a wide variety of presentations on Native language teaching were held. One special feature was a two-day forum on language revitalization through immersion schooling held in the convention center theater. The forum featured panels of teachers, community members, teacher preparation programs, researchers and administrators discussing national best practices in immersion. The high academic performance of students in Native language immersion programs nationwide was stressed by researchers. Complete story @: http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096416185 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From andrekar at NCIDC.ORG Sat Dec 8 19:54:25 2007 From: andrekar at NCIDC.ORG (Andre Cramblit) Date: Sat, 8 Dec 2007 11:54:25 -0800 Subject: last speaker of Wichita Message-ID: Anadarko woman last fluent speaker of the Wichita language ANADARKO, OK By S. E. RUCKMAN (AP) 12/5/2007 Oklahoma had been a state for only two decades when Doris Jean Lamar was born in 1927. Her first spoken words were not English, but an American Indian language taught to her by grandparents. Today, Lamar is the last fluent speaker in the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes, a tribe of 2,300. Sitting in a tribal canteen that she supervises, the 80-year-old Lamar carries a language that once was spoken by thousands, then hundreds of Wichita language speakers. ``I never thought I would be in this position as a girl, to be our last fluent speaker,'' she said. Wichita is one of the languages classified as Caddoan, but is only similar in stock to the Caddo language, scholars said. Lamar's tribe is one of a handful indigenous to Oklahoma with a present-day jurisdiction in Caddo County. Lamar's journey was not unlike other girls in southwest Oklahoma in the years right before the Great Depression. Her full-blood maternal grandparents worked a farm and raised their grandchildren. She recalls fewer cars, more thriftiness and no electricity back then. With a white father and an Indian mother, Lamar stood out among her peers. ``I never thought of myself as white; to me, I was Wichita,'' she said. ``The old ladies of our tribe thought it was something to hear this little white girl speak Wichita.'' She eventually married a non-Indian and had children. After she divorced in 1959, she moved back among her American Indian relatives near Gracemont. She continued to speak Wichita as she did as a girl. ``Ever since I could remember, I spoke Wichita,'' she said. ``My husband told me that me speaking Indian was the only time he remembered I was Indian.'' Around 1962, Lamar met an earnest young linguist who followed tribal members in order to listen to them speak, she recalled. That young linguist was David Rood from the University of Colorado. Rood has been working with the Wichitas since he stumbled upon the Indian language while looking for one that was not being preserved, he said. He still works with Lamar and other tribal members. They race to record the Wichita language so that a dictionary can be gleaned. They have spent hours going over Wichita words and compiling language CDs on creation stories, verbs, nouns and names. Defining tribal fluency can be tricky, Rood said. In small tribes, debates exist over who qualifies as a fluent speaker. Lamar speaks some Wichita with another tribal member who labors with the language. ``She tells me there are so many words in her head that she can't get out, she gets frustrated,'' Lamar said. Speaking and writing the language are key. Sometimes tribal members know ceremonial songs by heart. Yet linguists think fluency is more complicated than that. ``I would say when somebody is able to speak the language in a way that has never been spoken before or ever written in a language book . . . as an abstract thought, then that is fluency,'' Rood said. The linguist tried to organize a conversation among the last few fluent Wichita speakers in the early 2000s, he said. He regards the exercise as a half-success. But the gathering was stilted because of political differences among the speakers. ``Which is typical in almost all Indian tribes,'' he said of tribal political factions. ``They spoke a little, but not much.'' Hope exists for the Wichitas' dying language. An immersion class for children has been soldiering forward, as is an adult-oriented language class, both subsidized by federal grants. But the Wichitas must cross another obstacle of language revitalization: retention. Sam Still, a Cherokee speaker, said retention among adults and children remains low if the language is not already spoken in the home. ``For children, when they have no one at home to speak the language with, there is no one to practice the sounds with and they lose it,'' Still said. ``When you're around the language, you learn it better.'' Meanwhile, Lamar fishes a small recorder out of her pocket and turns it on. She speaks English words first, then the Wichita word follows. ``I have been doing this a lot, lately,'' she said, pressing play. ``I just put whatever words pop into my head.'' The tribal elder is aware that her language hangs on the precipice. She remembers the time when everyone around her spoke Wichita. Now, none of her children speak more than a few words, she said. ``They live in the white world,'' she said. ``I don't.'' -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From andrekar at NCIDC.ORG Sat Dec 8 21:10:07 2007 From: andrekar at NCIDC.ORG (Andre Cramblit) Date: Sat, 8 Dec 2007 13:10:07 -0800 Subject: Rosetta Stone Message-ID: panel of Navajo translators and linguists converged on Window Rock last weekend to begin a project to develop new Navajo language learning software. Rosetta Stone Ltd., based in Harrisonburg, Va., produces language- learning software in 30 languages. The company takes its name from an ancient stone artifact that provided the key for modern people to understand Egyptian hieroglyphics. Rosetta Stone does not use English translation at all but instead uses visual images to convey the word or phrase being taught. The Navajo software is being developed through the company's "endangered languages program," which means it will be owned by the sponsor organization and will be used as the tribe sees fit, said Marion Bittinger, manager of Rosetta Stone's endangered language program. Though the software will be modeled on the company's popular language- learning program, it will not be part of the commercial line of products, which typically run about $200 for the entry-level CD. Navajo Language Renaissance, a nonprofit organization based in Cornville, Ariz., organized the collaboration with Rosetta Stone and recruited seven Navajo language instructors to provide the translations. The Department of Din? Education is also participating and the project is endorsed by the Navajo Nation Board of Education. Clayton Long, president of NLR, directs bilingual education for the San Juan school district in San Juan County, Utah. He has taught Navajo language courses in high school and also developed a Navajo online course for students living off the reservation. Long said the new Rosetta Stone software will "probably take precedence" over what he developed because of the number of Navajo translators collaborating on it, coupled with Rosetta Stone's unique "dynamic immersion" method of teaching language. Besides Long, the translators involved in the project are Lucille Hunt, who writes and translates children's stories in Navajo; Navajo linguist Ellavina Perkins; Don Mose, Navajo languge curriculum specialist at the San Juan school district; Polly Bitsui, who teaches Navajo language in the Tsaile, Ariz., public schools; Jacqueline Jones, a technology specialist at IHS; and Lorraine Monavi, Navajo language instructor at San Juan College in Farmington. All are native speakers. The software program will not take the place of Navajo language teachers in reservation schools, Long added, but will provide a valuable supplement to existing courses. Most Rosetta Stone programs offer three levels of instruction, from the basics of a language to advanced conversation. The group hopes to have level one of Rosetta Stone Navajo ready by the end of 2008. Level one is divided into four units: language basics, greetings and introductions, work and school, and shopping. Each translator will take a section, providing words and phrases for the images that appear. They'll get together periodically to discuss their results and edit their work. When the group met Nov. 30 in the Navajo Nation Museum computer lab to see Rosetta Stone software in action, Navajo language was the dominant mode of communication as the translators talked amongst themselves. The only non-Navajos in the room were Bittinger and Betsy Cook, a board member with Navajo Language Renaissance. Bittinger presented tips on how to navigate instances when direct translation won't work, which requires "creative translation." Mose, who has created bilingual versions of Navajo coyote tales for print and video animation, said the Rosetta Stone software is a much needed addition to the tools for teaching Navajo language. "The whole idea is to use new media," Mose said. "The kids are glued to computers today - why not fuse language and technology to help them learn their culture?" "There are many good Navajo teachers out there, I know that," he said, "but we've been using old materials because there's nothing available that uses the current technology" Mose's first language is Navajo, but he learned English in boarding school and would like to see all Navajo youth be bilingual. "Why not be a doctor or lawyer and know the Navajo language as well?" he said. "You have every right to have both, and I'll think you'll be better off." Perkins, his colleague in the project, said the translations will be done with the utmost care. "As a linguist I want to make sure we use the right terms," said Perkins, who holds a Ph.D. in linguistics from the University of Arizona. Through its endangered language program, Rosetta Stone subsidizes the cost of producing the software. The applicant is asked to contribute 10 percent of the cost, which runs about $200,000. NLR's Cook noted that the idea to contact Rosetta Stone on a language collaboration first became serious three years ago. Finally in January of 2006 the agreement became official. The Navajo language application was one of two proposals picked from 20 applicants, and NLR is the most recent of five Native American groups to collaborate with Rosetta Stone. The Mohawk, Inupiat and Inuttitut tribes have all created level 1 courses in their respective languages. The Chitimacha tribe of Louisiana is also producing a level 1 course at this time. No release date has been set for the Rosetta Stone-Navajo level 1 CD, and distribution details are yet to be worked out. The CDs will be available to Navajo individuals for a fee, and NLR is hoping the Department of Din? Education will handle distribution of the program. But Cook noted that it is not certain the collaboration will continue beyond the level 1 program because much depends on funding. Rosetta Stone may extend its grant for level 2, but production of level 3 will not be subsidized so the nonprofit needs to come up with another source of money. In addition, Cook said, the subsidy does not include paying the translators for their work. Currently all are volunteering their time and must also pay their own travel costs to meetings. Money for such projects is supposed to be available under the federal Esther Martinez Native American Languages Preservation Act of 2006, but Congress has not appropriated any because of disagreement between the House and Senate over the amount. "We really need help," Cook said. "Right now everyone is going into their own pockets." Donations are tax-deductible and can be sent to Navajo Language Renaissance, P.O. Box 1111, Cornville, AZ 86325. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jcrippen at GMAIL.COM Mon Dec 10 21:19:38 2007 From: jcrippen at GMAIL.COM (James Crippen) Date: Mon, 10 Dec 2007 11:19:38 -1000 Subject: Rosetta Stone In-Reply-To: <049A95A2-A3A8-47F4-AE70-08F6F737D1AD@ncidc.org> Message-ID: On Dec 8, 2007 11:10 AM, Andre Cramblit wrote: [...] > But Cook noted that it is not certain the collaboration will continue beyond > the level 1 program because much depends on funding. Rosetta Stone may > extend its grant for level 2, but production of level 3 will not be > subsidized so the nonprofit needs to come up with another source of money. I have been somewhat suspicious about this effort by Rosetta Stone to promote their language learning software among endangered language communities. On the one hand they seem to be actively trying to help, but on the other they seem to be milking their effort for all the publicity that it is worth. I can't criticize their software or their efforts because I have not seen the software in person. However, learning that they only provide "level 1" (presumably the introductory and easiest materials to prepare) with their normal grant, and then "may" provide "level 2", but do not provide "level 3" as a free service makes me far more suspicious of their intentions. It sounds as if they are encouraging vendor lock-in so that the community will become dependent on their software and then force them to pay for further advancement. Why not just train community members to develop the materials themselves, rather than depend on the company for constant handholding? And what sort of nondisclosure agreements do they require participants to sign in order to protect Rosetta Stone's valuable intellectual property? > In addition, Cook said, the subsidy does not include paying the translators > for their work. Currently all are volunteering their time and must also pay > their own travel costs to meetings. This is even more suspicious to me. If the company is not willing to assist the translators, who among endangered languages are often frail and elderly, then what point is there in offering their software services? It does not take a large committee to develop language teaching materials, merely one or two native speakers suffices in my experience. I would be much more impressed by a nonprofit or academic organization which develops a framework and tools for designing language teaching software for endangered language communities. This whole Rosetta Stone business I keep hearing about sounds more and more like a publicity act rather than a serious effort to assist endangered languages in revitalization projects. Pardon me if I sit back and scowl at all of this news about Rosetta Stone. While they may have the best intentions in mind, their actions are not yet encouraging me to believe in them. James A. Crippen Student in the Department of Linguistics University of Hawai'i From phonosemantics at EARTHLINK.NET Mon Dec 10 21:56:22 2007 From: phonosemantics at EARTHLINK.NET (jess tauber) Date: Mon, 10 Dec 2007 16:56:22 -0500 Subject: Rosetta Stone Message-ID: First they try to take your language away, by force or other means for economic or political incentives. OK that's not PC anymore in many places... and- Then before it is too late the academics show up to take what's left of your language away, for their own economic incentives...also not PC anymore and so- Now the professionals show up to give you your language back, again for their own economic incentives... You had it- we took it- and now if you want it back you have to pay the ransom. And no cops- I mean it, or the language gets it. Jess 'Bugsy' Tauber phonosemantics at earthlink.net From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US Mon Dec 10 22:19:07 2007 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (Mia Kalish) Date: Mon, 10 Dec 2007 15:19:07 -0700 Subject: Rosetta Stone In-Reply-To: <10349767.1197323783213.JavaMail.root@elwamui-karabash.atl.sa.earthlink.net> Message-ID: This isn't exactly fair. Here's my 2 cents on why. First, lots of you know that a Mescalero friend - an adult who wanted to learn her language - and I developed some really good software, not very expensive, and wanted to introduce it to the Tribe, for adults who wanted to learn their language, and to help the teachers. The breakdown is about 80% people who don't speak, many of whom would like to learn, and 20% speakers. Many of the speakers are elderly, and can't sustain long teaching sessions. The politics became quite awful, the speakers vs. the want-to-speak, and the whole project went down the ditch, not once but 3 times. The issues - and they seem to occur in tribe after tribe after tribe - is pedagogy. Half the people think technology should be used, half not. Issues of sacredness come up. And issues of money. Yes, what sank the Mescalero project was the money that speakers were going to make from helping with the movie The Missing. My friend was very, very hurt, because she thought she was doing a wonderful thing. Now, academics did take over a lot of work with endangered languages. . . the NSF funds a lot of PhD linguists who want to work with endangered languages. Phil Cash Cash was funded (congrats, again), but I don't think there are many other Native linguists . . . I know we had a discussion about this . . . In Hawaii, there was a concerted grass-roots effort to save the language, and from what I hear, lots of different people work together to make it happen. Where I am, the issues are pretty complex. They are political, social, age-based, life-style based, as well as technologically-based . . . It isn't trivial. But if these languages are going to be saved, and the incredible thought complexes that inform them with them, SOMEONE has to do it. What'ch'all think of that? Mia -----Original Message----- From: Indigenous Languages and Technology [mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU] On Behalf Of jess tauber Sent: Monday, December 10, 2007 2:56 PM To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Subject: Re: [ILAT] Rosetta Stone First they try to take your language away, by force or other means for economic or political incentives. OK that's not PC anymore in many places... and- Then before it is too late the academics show up to take what's left of your language away, for their own economic incentives...also not PC anymore and so- Now the professionals show up to give you your language back, again for their own economic incentives... You had it- we took it- and now if you want it back you have to pay the ransom. And no cops- I mean it, or the language gets it. Jess 'Bugsy' Tauber phonosemantics at earthlink.net From dzo at BISHARAT.NET Tue Dec 11 00:53:24 2007 From: dzo at BISHARAT.NET (Don Osborn) Date: Mon, 10 Dec 2007 19:53:24 -0500 Subject: Rosetta Stone In-Reply-To: <009001c83b7a$b03855b0$8a3f14ac@LFPMIA> Message-ID: As I look at this thread several thoughts occur. One is Robert Chambers' discussion of "positive practitioners" and "negative academics" in international development. The former try to do something, whatever the agenda, and sometimes ineptly. The latter critique, sometimes insightfully and incisively and sometimes less so. That is not to say that one is right and the other wrong, but that in some ways they are like two different cultures. Jess Tauber is right to point out the ironies in the historical sweep. The same dominant culture that via education and technology tried to wipe out languages or systematically marginalize them (not just in the Americas), now is in part (at least the parts you see) trying to save them. It is natural to ask why. Part of it is the dynamic of power. I've noted - again in international development - that the people in positions to do so end up occupying or pre-empting both sides (or all positions) in many debates. Even about the nature of a people themselves. This was particularly striking in several decades of debates on pastoralism in Africa - an evolution of two opposing views on the rationality or not of transhumant (semi-nomadic) herding. An evolving debate entirely outside of the cultures discussed, with indirect and imperfect references to the herders' knowledge systems, and in terms totally outside pastoralists' languages, and totally immersed in Western terms of reference. I see a little of this in discussions on languages and on languages & technology. In part, this dynamic of power is just that way, like the wind just blows. It shifts too, and you can find a way to explain it, but in the end how do you protect yourself from it and better yet use its force to some advantage? So, on one level, Jess's generalizing about "they" responds to a real set of issues. However on another level it seems to blur some realities. When looking at the specific case of companies like Rosetta Stone (or for that matter bigger technology companies) part of what one must appreciate is the nature of the beast and the environment it is working in. The bottom line and survival in that environment is money. How to get it can raise issues, but without it, *poof*. James's suspicion is natural, but with a company, what else is new? But even that is more complex. I resist reifying the notion of corporation too far to the point of overlooking the agency of people in organizations like Rosetta Stone, who may be very sincerely devoted to somehow changing the world for better. The latter may end up being the "positive practitioners" per Chambers' dichotomy, with their more or less imperfect human (and culturally bound) understanding of what they are dealing with - and their own environment to survive in. >From what little I know of Rosetta Stone I see it as a business that is at least trying to do something. It's making good money, apparently, in general language learning with a product that has positive reviews. It's stepping outside of that market in an interesting way. Of course they are milking it for publicity too, but again, that is the nature of companies. I don't know enough about the program, its approach or results to judge it, but I'm absolutely not surprised if there are limits in terms of what they spend on it (anything has limits). Let me finish with another technology example. A company named Lancor just sued the One Laptop Per Child project for alleged use of codes in a patented keyboard. The object of both keyboards is to facilitate input of "extended Latin characters" and diacritics for West African languages. I don't know the technical or patent issues well enough, but whatever the merits of the case may or may not be, the ultimate victims will be people who might have been able to use the technology sooner for their languages. The collateral damage to common aims from disputes over methods can be considerable, and avoidable to the extent one accepts that everyone has honorable intent. (Maybe a key question is how to establish the latter and a sense of trust.) I'd agree with Mia's bottom line conclusion that someone has to do it. If you start subtracting potential partners from the equation, are you better off? Don Osborn From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US Tue Dec 11 01:19:31 2007 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (Mia Kalish) Date: Mon, 10 Dec 2007 18:19:31 -0700 Subject: Rosetta Stone In-Reply-To: <00eb01c83b90$3c17a0d0$b446e270$@net> Message-ID: What a lovely response, Don. I enjoyed the multiple perspectives and the thoughts that they engendered. And most of us have seen all of this, yes? By the way, a very nice lady from Rosetta Stone is on this list - or she used to be. Their technology is a lot like the technology we put together and researched. It is not exact; I don't want anyone to infer that I am implying any misbehavior on anyone's part. The point I want to make is that presenting the visual, the sound and the text simultaneously in what we did was 78% effective Across populations - that was, people who had heard Apache but were either not fluent or not literate, and people who had never been exposed to Apache ever. "Across populations" is a statistical characteristic that says that the populations are so alike they can be analyzed as a single group. This is rare in pedagogies. As for the publicity . . . Rosetta Stone advertises on television. They have lots of languages. I've lost track of how many. Publicity tells people what's happening. It tells People what Other People think is important. Right now, in New Mexico, there is a huge "DWI Blitz" (You drink; you drive; you lose.) This is telling people who drive that people are taking driving sober very seriously. And there are lots of billboards talking about DWI; it's in the papers, on the news. Now, is this a current issue in a lot of state? No-o-o-o-o-o. But, my point here is that Publicity is how you let people know what others are thinking. I saw another sign today, "Ron Paul for President . . . A new view" and I thought, Who is Ron Paul? There was just one sign, and I couldn't connect it to anything else I had seen or heard. One sign won't get me to vote for Ron Paul for president, but many, many signs will get a lot of drunk drivers off the road, and will change attitudes. So maybe all the publicity for Rosetta Stone will start to change attitudes about what is important about People. For a long time, there has been the "white ruling class" and everyone else. Like Don pointed out, there hasn't been much real knowledge about "everyone else." I am so happy to see even the little bits of beginnings where we start to know about Everyone Else, even the Everyone Elses of us :-) Thanks Don, Really, really good piece - I think, Mia -----Original Message----- From: Indigenous Languages and Technology [mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU] On Behalf Of Don Osborn Sent: Monday, December 10, 2007 5:53 PM To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Subject: Re: [ILAT] Rosetta Stone As I look at this thread several thoughts occur. One is Robert Chambers' discussion of "positive practitioners" and "negative academics" in international development. The former try to do something, whatever the agenda, and sometimes ineptly. The latter critique, sometimes insightfully and incisively and sometimes less so. That is not to say that one is right and the other wrong, but that in some ways they are like two different cultures. Jess Tauber is right to point out the ironies in the historical sweep. The same dominant culture that via education and technology tried to wipe out languages or systematically marginalize them (not just in the Americas), now is in part (at least the parts you see) trying to save them. It is natural to ask why. Part of it is the dynamic of power. I've noted - again in international development - that the people in positions to do so end up occupying or pre-empting both sides (or all positions) in many debates. Even about the nature of a people themselves. This was particularly striking in several decades of debates on pastoralism in Africa - an evolution of two opposing views on the rationality or not of transhumant (semi-nomadic) herding. An evolving debate entirely outside of the cultures discussed, with indirect and imperfect references to the herders' knowledge systems, and in terms totally outside pastoralists' languages, and totally immersed in Western terms of reference. I see a little of this in discussions on languages and on languages & technology. In part, this dynamic of power is just that way, like the wind just blows. It shifts too, and you can find a way to explain it, but in the end how do you protect yourself from it and better yet use its force to some advantage? So, on one level, Jess's generalizing about "they" responds to a real set of issues. However on another level it seems to blur some realities. When looking at the specific case of companies like Rosetta Stone (or for that matter bigger technology companies) part of what one must appreciate is the nature of the beast and the environment it is working in. The bottom line and survival in that environment is money. How to get it can raise issues, but without it, *poof*. James's suspicion is natural, but with a company, what else is new? But even that is more complex. I resist reifying the notion of corporation too far to the point of overlooking the agency of people in organizations like Rosetta Stone, who may be very sincerely devoted to somehow changing the world for better. The latter may end up being the "positive practitioners" per Chambers' dichotomy, with their more or less imperfect human (and culturally bound) understanding of what they are dealing with - and their own environment to survive in. >From what little I know of Rosetta Stone I see it as a business that is at least trying to do something. It's making good money, apparently, in general language learning with a product that has positive reviews. It's stepping outside of that market in an interesting way. Of course they are milking it for publicity too, but again, that is the nature of companies. I don't know enough about the program, its approach or results to judge it, but I'm absolutely not surprised if there are limits in terms of what they spend on it (anything has limits). Let me finish with another technology example. A company named Lancor just sued the One Laptop Per Child project for alleged use of codes in a patented keyboard. The object of both keyboards is to facilitate input of "extended Latin characters" and diacritics for West African languages. I don't know the technical or patent issues well enough, but whatever the merits of the case may or may not be, the ultimate victims will be people who might have been able to use the technology sooner for their languages. The collateral damage to common aims from disputes over methods can be considerable, and avoidable to the extent one accepts that everyone has honorable intent. (Maybe a key question is how to establish the latter and a sense of trust.) I'd agree with Mia's bottom line conclusion that someone has to do it. If you start subtracting potential partners from the equation, are you better off? Don Osborn From bernisantamaria at GMAIL.COM Tue Dec 11 17:01:30 2007 From: bernisantamaria at GMAIL.COM (Bernadette Santamaria) Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2007 10:01:30 -0700 Subject: Rosetta Stone In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Although I have many other thoughts/comments I could make, for now I just want to let you all know that I agree with you, James and Jess. I, too, am often suspicious of technological methods--but not for exactly the same reasons. I'm an older White Mountain Apache, worked on a doctoral dissertation on our Apache language in which I am fluent along with two other languages; therefore, i feel that I come at these issues from that perspective. There are many issues involved in our attempts at revitalizing our languages in local communities. I must state that in our tribe, we still have many speakers in comparison with other tribes that only have a few fluent speakers, and we also still have children speakers. But the percentages of children and younger people learning our language is decreasing year by year. That is our concern. I taught Apache at the University level and sometimes had non-Indian students and have been contacted by several non-Indian individuals who wished to learn Apache and I also had Apache students, some of whom grew up on their reservations and had been around spoken Apache all their lives and many have passive knowledge. Then there are the Apache students who never lived on the reservation and do not have speakers in their families; therefore, had language-learning results that were similar to the non-Indian students. The fastest learners are those with passive knowledge and written Apache is not very helpful to learners. I attempted to not stress reading & writing for those reasons. People do not have to learn to read and write Apache to learn it. I believe the total immersion method is best and that involves observational language situations for language learning. We will be utilizing that at the local level if we can get funded for immersion camps in future. The point that I wish to make is that some of us do not wish for our languages to be on Internets, websites, or even on CDs. These open learning of Apache to many who would misuse, misinterpret, mispronounce, and abuse our sacred language. I know that these things happen because of my teaching experience. The adult learners I have attempted to teach usually go off on their own tangents in learning methods, I cannot understand their spoken Apache (in many instances) even though I am a fluent speaker and I thought I had taught them the correct pronunciations by going over and over the alphabet used in written Apache. But I cannot understand them except for a very few words and a couple of them have been at it for years. Another attempts to sing but that is another whole topic concerning who should be singing our sacred songs. Abuse of our language is therefore, an issue with some of us--where would they use the language and why? Getting to the issue of the Rosetta Stone, I have often thought of misplaced trust that sometimes occurs in our native communities about so many things technology has to offer. There is also another company that has cassette tapes (and DVDs) for sale that features one Apache language and that would probably mean people would misconstrue that all Apaches speak that language when there once were more than ten Apache nations and languages. Now several of our nations no longer have fluent speakers left. For the reasons that are very close to our hearts and emotions, many of our community members wish for the children to learn and use our Apache languages but some of us do not want it abused by publication in various media. We should develop our own methods and total immersion and observational language learning are best taught intergenerationally within our homes. Language learning at schools is just a tool available at other domains but should not be the main or only place for our children to learn their first languages. Being bilingual is a great educational advantage. And speaking of PC, our Indigenous communities and histories pre-date the United States and its constitutional rights, and as polemic as the term is in contemporary US society, our traditional knowledge, beliefs, and values should definitely not be judged under such a new and ephemeral term. Thanks for all your points, I enjoyed reading them. Bernadette Adley-SantaMaria On 12/10/07, James Crippen wrote: > > On Dec 8, 2007 11:10 AM, Andre Cramblit wrote: > [...] > > But Cook noted that it is not certain the collaboration will continue > beyond > > the level 1 program because much depends on funding. Rosetta Stone may > > extend its grant for level 2, but production of level 3 will not be > > subsidized so the nonprofit needs to come up with another source of > money. > > I have been somewhat suspicious about this effort by Rosetta Stone to > promote their language learning software among endangered language > communities. On the one hand they seem to be actively trying to help, > but on the other they seem to be milking their effort for all the > publicity that it is worth. > > I can't criticize their software or their efforts because I have not > seen the software in person. However, learning that they only provide > "level 1" (presumably the introductory and easiest materials to > prepare) with their normal grant, and then "may" provide "level 2", > but do not provide "level 3" as a free service makes me far more > suspicious of their intentions. It sounds as if they are encouraging > vendor lock-in so that the community will become dependent on their > software and then force them to pay for further advancement. > > Why not just train community members to develop the materials > themselves, rather than depend on the company for constant > handholding? And what sort of nondisclosure agreements do they require > participants to sign in order to protect Rosetta Stone's valuable > intellectual property? > > > In addition, Cook said, the subsidy does not include paying the > translators > > for their work. Currently all are volunteering their time and must also > pay > > their own travel costs to meetings. > > This is even more suspicious to me. If the company is not willing to > assist the translators, who among endangered languages are often frail > and elderly, then what point is there in offering their software > services? It does not take a large committee to develop language > teaching materials, merely one or two native speakers suffices in my > experience. > > I would be much more impressed by a nonprofit or academic organization > which develops a framework and tools for designing language teaching > software for endangered language communities. This whole Rosetta Stone > business I keep hearing about sounds more and more like a publicity > act rather than a serious effort to assist endangered languages in > revitalization projects. > > Pardon me if I sit back and scowl at all of this news about Rosetta > Stone. While they may have the best intentions in mind, their actions > are not yet encouraging me to believe in them. > > James A. Crippen > Student in the Department of Linguistics > University of Hawai'i > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From andrekar at NCIDC.ORG Wed Dec 12 19:06:38 2007 From: andrekar at NCIDC.ORG (Andre Cramblit) Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2007 11:06:38 -0800 Subject: 12 Days of xmas Message-ID: Northern California Version On the Twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, Twelve Drummers Drumming, Eleven Salmon Swimming, Ten Hunters Hunting, Nine Brush Dancers, Eight Girls Singing, Seven Baby Baskets, Six Hawks Soaring, Five Redwood Homes, Four strands of dentalia calling, Three Elk Horn Purses, Two bundles of bear grass, and a Woodpecker in a huckleberry bush. (Idea ?borrowed? from Ivy and Yolanda Fulmer of Kirkland, Washington and Hoonah, Alaska) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From andrekar at NCIDC.ORG Wed Dec 12 19:13:57 2007 From: andrekar at NCIDC.ORG (Andre Cramblit) Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2007 11:13:57 -0800 Subject: Rosetta Stone In-Reply-To: <00b301c83b93$e24a4a90$8a3f14ac@LFPMIA> Message-ID: The arguments against Rosetta stone remind me of the complaints I have heard about the Phrasealator. Why do we need to pay so much money, people are just trying to get rich. I agree in a perfect world the items to help tribes recover and preserve their languages would be free to them (either through generosity, grants or other subsidy), but alas we are in less than a perfect world. The next best thing is to find out what works best (program, sytem, software, etc) regardless of costs and then work like the devil to get the costs covered. The paramount objective is preservation of my language. Profiteers have to face their music when creator chooses. On Dec 10, 2007, at 5:19 PM, Mia Kalish wrote: What a lovely response, Don. I enjoyed the multiple perspectives and the thoughts that they engendered. And most of us have seen all of this, yes? By the way, a very nice lady from Rosetta Stone is on this list - or she used to be. Their technology is a lot like the technology we put together and researched. It is not exact; I don't want anyone to infer that I am implying any misbehavior on anyone's part. The point I want to make is that presenting the visual, the sound and the text simultaneously in what we did was 78% effective Across populations - that was, people who had heard Apache but were either not fluent or not literate, and people who had never been exposed to Apache ever. "Across populations" is a statistical characteristic that says that the populations are so alike they can be analyzed as a single group. This is rare in pedagogies. As for the publicity . . . Rosetta Stone advertises on television. They have lots of languages. I've lost track of how many. Publicity tells people what's happening. It tells People what Other People think is important. Right now, in New Mexico, there is a huge "DWI Blitz" (You drink; you drive; you lose.) This is telling people who drive that people are taking driving sober very seriously. And there are lots of billboards talking about DWI; it's in the papers, on the news. Now, is this a current issue in a lot of state? No-o-o-o-o-o. But, my point here is that Publicity is how you let people know what others are thinking. I saw another sign today, "Ron Paul for President . . . A new view" and I thought, Who is Ron Paul? There was just one sign, and I couldn't connect it to anything else I had seen or heard. One sign won't get me to vote for Ron Paul for president, but many, many signs will get a lot of drunk drivers off the road, and will change attitudes. So maybe all the publicity for Rosetta Stone will start to change attitudes about what is important about People. For a long time, there has been the "white ruling class" and everyone else. Like Don pointed out, there hasn't been much real knowledge about "everyone else." I am so happy to see even the little bits of beginnings where we start to know about Everyone Else, even the Everyone Elses of us :-) Thanks Don, Really, really good piece - I think, Mia -----Original Message----- From: Indigenous Languages and Technology [mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU] On Behalf Of Don Osborn Sent: Monday, December 10, 2007 5:53 PM To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Subject: Re: [ILAT] Rosetta Stone As I look at this thread several thoughts occur. One is Robert Chambers' discussion of "positive practitioners" and "negative academics" in international development. The former try to do something, whatever the agenda, and sometimes ineptly. The latter critique, sometimes insightfully and incisively and sometimes less so. That is not to say that one is right and the other wrong, but that in some ways they are like two different cultures. Jess Tauber is right to point out the ironies in the historical sweep. The same dominant culture that via education and technology tried to wipe out languages or systematically marginalize them (not just in the Americas), now is in part (at least the parts you see) trying to save them. It is natural to ask why. Part of it is the dynamic of power. I've noted - again in international development - that the people in positions to do so end up occupying or pre-empting both sides (or all positions) in many debates. Even about the nature of a people themselves. This was particularly striking in several decades of debates on pastoralism in Africa - an evolution of two opposing views on the rationality or not of transhumant (semi-nomadic) herding. An evolving debate entirely outside of the cultures discussed, with indirect and imperfect references to the herders' knowledge systems, and in terms totally outside pastoralists' languages, and totally immersed in Western terms of reference. I see a little of this in discussions on languages and on languages & technology. In part, this dynamic of power is just that way, like the wind just blows. It shifts too, and you can find a way to explain it, but in the end how do you protect yourself from it and better yet use its force to some advantage? So, on one level, Jess's generalizing about "they" responds to a real set of issues. However on another level it seems to blur some realities. When looking at the specific case of companies like Rosetta Stone (or for that matter bigger technology companies) part of what one must appreciate is the nature of the beast and the environment it is working in. The bottom line and survival in that environment is money. How to get it can raise issues, but without it, *poof*. James's suspicion is natural, but with a company, what else is new? But even that is more complex. I resist reifying the notion of corporation too far to the point of overlooking the agency of people in organizations like Rosetta Stone, who may be very sincerely devoted to somehow changing the world for better. The latter may end up being the "positive practitioners" per Chambers' dichotomy, with their more or less imperfect human (and culturally bound) understanding of what they are dealing with - and their own environment to survive in. From what little I know of Rosetta Stone I see it as a business that is at least trying to do something. It's making good money, apparently, in general language learning with a product that has positive reviews. It's stepping outside of that market in an interesting way. Of course they are milking it for publicity too, but again, that is the nature of companies. I don't know enough about the program, its approach or results to judge it, but I'm absolutely not surprised if there are limits in terms of what they spend on it (anything has limits). Let me finish with another technology example. A company named Lancor just sued the One Laptop Per Child project for alleged use of codes in a patented keyboard. The object of both keyboards is to facilitate input of "extended Latin characters" and diacritics for West African languages. I don't know the technical or patent issues well enough, but whatever the merits of the case may or may not be, the ultimate victims will be people who might have been able to use the technology sooner for their languages. The collateral damage to common aims from disputes over methods can be considerable, and avoidable to the extent one accepts that everyone has honorable intent. (Maybe a key question is how to establish the latter and a sense of trust.) I'd agree with Mia's bottom line conclusion that someone has to do it. If you start subtracting potential partners from the equation, are you better off? Don Osborn From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Dec 12 19:37:53 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2007 12:37:53 -0700 Subject: Collaboration Between Lakehead University Faculty and Aboriginal Community Partners Leads to Substantial SSHRC Funding (fwd link) Message-ID: Dec 06, 2007 12:06 ET Collaboration Between Lakehead University Faculty and Aboriginal Community Partners Leads to Substantial SSHRC Funding Research Initiatives to Benefit Aboriginal Language and Learning THUNDER BAY, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Dec. 6, 2007) - In partnership with two Aboriginal organizations, four members of Lakehead University's Faculty of Education are pleased to announce a collective total of $436,000 in Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) funding for partner-based research which aims to benefit Aboriginal communities. Principal investigator Dr. Ethel Gardner, partners from the Grand Council of Treaty #3, and co-investigator Dr. John O'Meara have collaborated on a research plan to receive $225,000 in SSHRC funding which will develop a comprehensive, collaborative, and strategic plan for the retention and revitalization of the Anishinaabe language-more commonly known as Ojibwe. To acces full article, just follow the link below: http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release.do?id=800453 From awebster at SIU.EDU Wed Dec 12 19:40:14 2007 From: awebster at SIU.EDU (awebster@siu.edu) Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2007 14:40:14 -0500 Subject: Rosetta Stone In-Reply-To: <7C8FD959-D9E6-4BA4-9DED-181640E5C2F7@ncidc.org> Message-ID: To those of you who get the Navajo Times via mail, my Dec. 6, 2007 copy just came and there is an article on the Rosetta Stone on A-9. Best, akw ---------Included Message---------- >Date: 12-dec-2007 13:33:02 -0600 >From: "Andre Cramblit" >Reply-To: "Indigenous Languages and Technology" >To: >Subject: Re: [ILAT] Rosetta Stone > >The arguments against Rosetta stone remind me of the complaints I >have heard about the Phrasealator. Why do we need to pay so much >money, people are just trying to get rich. > >I agree in a perfect world the items to help tribes recover and >preserve their languages would be free to them (either through >generosity, grants or other subsidy), but alas we are in less than a >perfect world. The next best thing is to find out what works best >(program, sytem, software, etc) regardless of costs and then work >like the devil to get the costs covered. The paramount objective is >preservation of my language. Profiteers have to face their music >when creator chooses. > >On Dec 10, 2007, at 5:19 PM, Mia Kalish wrote: > >What a lovely response, Don. I enjoyed the multiple perspectives and the >thoughts that they engendered. And most of us have seen all of this, >yes? >By the way, a very nice lady from Rosetta Stone is on this list - or she >used to be. Their technology is a lot like the technology we put >together >and researched. It is not exact; I don't want anyone to infer that I am >implying any misbehavior on anyone's part. The point I want to make >is that >presenting the visual, the sound and the text simultaneously in what >we did >was 78% effective Across populations - that was, people who had heard >Apache >but were either not fluent or not literate, and people who had never >been >exposed to Apache ever. "Across populations" is a statistical >characteristic >that says that the populations are so alike they can be analyzed as a >single >group. This is rare in pedagogies. >As for the publicity . . . Rosetta Stone advertises on television. >They have >lots of languages. I've lost track of how many. Publicity tells people >what's happening. It tells People what Other People think is important. >Right now, in New Mexico, there is a huge "DWI Blitz" (You drink; you >drive; >you lose.) This is telling people who drive that people are taking >driving >sober very seriously. And there are lots of billboards talking about >DWI; >it's in the papers, on the news. Now, is this a current issue in a >lot of >state? No-o-o-o-o-o. But, my point here is that Publicity is how you let >people know what others are thinking. I saw another sign today, "Ron >Paul >for President . . . A new view" and I thought, Who is Ron Paul? There >was >just one sign, and I couldn't connect it to anything else I had seen or >heard. One sign won't get me to vote for Ron Paul for president, but >many, >many signs will get a lot of drunk drivers off the road, and will change >attitudes. >So maybe all the publicity for Rosetta Stone will start to change >attitudes >about what is important about People. For a long time, there has been >the >"white ruling class" and everyone else. Like Don pointed out, there >hasn't >been much real knowledge about "everyone else." I am so happy to see >even >the little bits of beginnings where we start to know about Everyone >Else, >even the Everyone Elses of us :-) > >Thanks Don, >Really, really good piece - I think, >Mia > > > >-----Original Message----- >From: Indigenous Languages and Technology >[mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU] >On Behalf Of Don Osborn >Sent: Monday, December 10, 2007 5:53 PM >To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU >Subject: Re: [ILAT] Rosetta Stone > >As I look at this thread several thoughts occur. One is Robert Chambers' >discussion of "positive practitioners" and "negative academics" in >international development. The former try to do something, whatever the >agenda, and sometimes ineptly. The latter critique, sometimes >insightfully >and incisively and sometimes less so. That is not to say that one is >right >and the other wrong, but that in some ways they are like two different >cultures. > >Jess Tauber is right to point out the ironies in the historical >sweep. The >same dominant culture that via education and technology tried to wipe >out >languages or systematically marginalize them (not just in the >Americas), now >is in part (at least the parts you see) trying to save them. It is >natural >to ask why. > >Part of it is the dynamic of power. I've noted - again in international >development - that the people in positions to do so end up occupying or >pre-empting both sides (or all positions) in many debates. Even about >the >nature of a people themselves. This was particularly striking in several >decades of debates on pastoralism in Africa - an evolution of two >opposing >views on the rationality or not of transhumant (semi-nomadic) >herding. An >evolving debate entirely outside of the cultures discussed, with >indirect >and imperfect references to the herders' knowledge systems, and in terms >totally outside pastoralists' languages, and totally immersed in Western >terms of reference. > >I see a little of this in discussions on languages and on languages & >technology. > >In part, this dynamic of power is just that way, like the wind just >blows. >It shifts too, and you can find a way to explain it, but in the end >how do >you protect yourself from it and better yet use its force to some >advantage? > >So, on one level, Jess's generalizing about "they" responds to a real >set of >issues. However on another level it seems to blur some realities. > >When looking at the specific case of companies like Rosetta Stone (or >for >that matter bigger technology companies) part of what one must >appreciate is >the nature of the beast and the environment it is working in. The bottom >line and survival in that environment is money. How to get it can raise >issues, but without it, *poof*. James's suspicion is natural, but with a >company, what else is new? > >But even that is more complex. I resist reifying the notion of >corporation >too far to the point of overlooking the agency of people in >organizations >like Rosetta Stone, who may be very sincerely devoted to somehow >changing >the world for better. The latter may end up being the "positive >practitioners" per Chambers' dichotomy, with their more or less >imperfect >human (and culturally bound) understanding of what they are dealing >with - >and their own environment to survive in. > > From what little I know of Rosetta Stone I see it as a business that >is at >least trying to do something. It's making good money, apparently, in >general >language learning with a product that has positive reviews. It's >stepping >outside of that market in an interesting way. Of course they are >milking it >for publicity too, but again, that is the nature of companies. I >don't know >enough about the program, its approach or results to judge it, but I'm >absolutely not surprised if there are limits in terms of what they >spend on >it (anything has limits). > >Let me finish with another technology example. A company named Lancor >just >sued the One Laptop Per Child project for alleged use of codes in a >patented >keyboard. The object of both keyboards is to facilitate input of >"extended >Latin characters" and diacritics for West African languages. I don't >know >the technical or patent issues well enough, but whatever the merits >of the >case may or may not be, the ultimate victims will be people who might >have >been able to use the technology sooner for their languages. > >The collateral damage to common aims from disputes over methods can be >considerable, and avoidable to the extent one accepts that everyone has >honorable intent. (Maybe a key question is how to establish the >latter and a >sense of trust.) > >I'd agree with Mia's bottom line conclusion that someone has to do >it. If >you start subtracting potential partners from the equation, are you >better >off? > >Don Osborn > > ---------End of Included Message---------- Anthony K. Webster, Ph.D. Department of Anthropology & Native American Studies Minor Southern Illinois University Mail Code 4502 Carbondale, IL 62901-4502 618-453-5027 From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Dec 12 19:33:36 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2007 12:33:36 -0700 Subject: Silent Night in four languages (fwd link) Message-ID: Silent Night in four languages Last Update: Monday, December 10, 2007. 9:28am ACST By Nicole Lee ?Inua indotai; Mungangka, miil-miilpa; Stille nacht, heilige nacht.? Even if the words seem foreign, the song will be familiar. These are the opening lines to the Christmas carol 'Silent Night' in Western Arrernte, Luritja and German. To access full article, juts follow the link below: http://www.abc.net.au/alicesprings/stories/s2114098.htm?backyard From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Dec 12 19:48:44 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2007 12:48:44 -0700 Subject: Yup’ik degree approved by UA Board of Regents (fwd link) Message-ID: Yup?ik degree approved by UA Board of Regents Staff Report Published December 7, 2007 A new bachelor?s degree in Yup?ik language and culture has been approved by the University of Alaska Board of Regents. The four-year program will be offered at the University of Alaska Fairbanks? Kuskokwim Campus in Bethel. ?In Yup?ik, the program is called ?Yupiit Nakmiin Qaneryaraat Piciryaraat-llu,?? Oscar Alexie, assistant professor of Yup?ik at the Bethel campus, said Thursday during the regent?s meeting in Anchorage. ?That means ?the very own language and culture of the Yup?ik people.?? To access full article, just follow the link below: http://newsminer.com/2007/12/07/10277/ From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Dec 12 19:54:17 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2007 12:54:17 -0700 Subject: "Every 14 Days a Language Dies." (fwd link) Message-ID: "Every 14 Days a Language Dies." IKLC and Game for Charity Launch Online Casual Game Tournament to Revitalize a Native American Language Press Release News | Home ATLANTA, GA -- 12/04/07 -- "Every 14 days a language dies" reports the National Geographic Enduring Voices project. In the United States' Pacific Northwest and Southwest regions, the danger of language extinction ranges from high to severe. That startling fact is why the Iiwas Katrutsini Learning Center (IKLC), a non-profit based in New Mexico, is launching a unique online fundraiser. This event will provide monies to help the Cochiti and Santo Domingo Pueblo Indians build a school for the preservation of their indigenous language. To access full article, just follow the link below: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/news_press_release,235100.shtml From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Dec 12 19:39:44 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2007 12:39:44 -0700 Subject: Aboriginal Languages Slowly Making Way into Australian Schools (fwd link) Message-ID: Aboriginal Languages Slowly Making Way into Australian Schools By Nicola Fell Sydney 04 December 2007 Fell report - Download MP3 (1.061 MB) audio clip Listen to Fell report audio clip On the eve of European settlement in Australia, around 250 indigenous languages were spoken. Today most of them have been lost, and only 17 are thought likely to survive for another generation. But in the state of New South Wales, the government is attempting to reverse this. In schools with a large indigenous population, learning an aboriginal language will be available to all students, as Nicola Fell reports from Sydney. To access full article, just follow the link below: http://www.voanews.com/english/2007-12-04-voa15.cfm From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Dec 12 19:35:59 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2007 12:35:59 -0700 Subject: Tough Nunavut language laws could be on the way: minister (fwd link) Message-ID: Tough Nunavut language laws could be on the way: minister Last Updated: Thursday, December 6, 2007 | 12:10 PM CT CBC News Nunavut's minister of culture, language, elders and youth says the territory is on the brink of enacting the toughest protection yet for an aboriginal language in Canada. Louis Tapardjuk said Bills 6 and 7, the proposed official languages act and Inuit language protection act, would be powerful legislation if made into law. To access full article, just follow the link below: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/north/story/2007/12/06/lang-bills.html From Jimrem at AOL.COM Wed Dec 12 20:42:48 2007 From: Jimrem at AOL.COM (Jimrem at AOL.COM) Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2007 15:42:48 EST Subject: Silent Night in four languages (fwd link) Message-ID: In a message dated 12/12/2007 1:53:27 PM Central Standard Time, cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU writes: Silent Night in four languages For Silent Night in several American Indian languages go to _http://silentnight.web.za/translate/_ (http://silentnight.web.za/translate/) . Some of the language versions are for Cheyenne, Cherokee, Hawaiian, Inuit, and Lenape. Jim Rementer Lenape Language Project **************************************See AOL's top rated recipes (http://food.aol.com/top-rated-recipes?NCID=aoltop00030000000004) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Dec 12 20:04:26 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2007 13:04:26 -0700 Subject: Gwich'in, Cree speakers very low in N.W.T., stats show (fwd link) Message-ID: Gwich'in, Cree speakers very low in N.W.T., stats show Last Updated: Tuesday, December 11, 2007 | 8:12 AM CT CBC News At least two northern aboriginal languages are at risk of dying off as mother tongues in the Northwest Territories, according to statistics released recently by Statistics Canada and the territory's Bureau of Statistics. The figures, which come from the 2006 census, show that about 20 per cent of N.W.T. residents speak a mother tongue that is neither English nor French. But when those respondents are broken down by language, Gwich'in and Cree came dead last, trailing behind even Chinese and Vietnamese in the number of mother-tongue speakers. To access full article, just follow the link below: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/north/story/2007/12/10/nwt-lang.html From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Dec 12 19:23:04 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2007 12:23:04 -0700 Subject: GUATEMALA: Teaching With Two Voices (fwd link) Message-ID: GUATEMALA: Teaching With Two Voices By In?s Ben?tez GUATEMALA CITY, DEC 4 (IPS) - IN THE XEPANIL VILLAGE SCHOOL IN SANTA APOLONIA, TO THE WEST OF THE GUATEMALAN CAPITAL, 20 CHILDREN ARE LEARNING BOTH SPANISH AND THE MAYAN INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE KAQCHIKEL. THEIR TEACHER, MARTA LIDIA RODR?GUEZ, ONE OF THOUSANDS OF BILINGUAL EDUCATION TEACHERS IN THIS COUNTRY TODAY, WALKS AN HOUR A DAY TO GET TO THE SCHOOL. "There are children in the village who don?t understand Spanish," Rodr?guez, who teaches primary-level students between the ages of seven and 12, explained to IPS. "Speaking to them in their own language at school is elemental and productive." In 1989, the literacy rate among indigenous people between the ages of 15 and 24 stood at 54 percent. By 2002, it had risen to 71 percent in this age group, according to the 2nd Millennium Development Goals Progress Report for Guatemala, released in 2006. Nevertheless, three out of every 10 adult Guatemalans do not know how to read or write, and among indigenous Guatemalans, the adult illiteracy rate is 48 percent, more than double the rate for the non-indigenous population, according to official figures. And among rural indigenous women, the illiteracy rate rises to 65 percent. To read full article, just access the link below: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40344 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Dec 12 19:29:23 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2007 12:29:23 -0700 Subject: First Nations languages at risk of extinction (fwd link) Message-ID: First Nations languages at risk of extinction Dec, 09 2007 - 10:10 PM VANCOUVER/CKNW(AM980) - Canada's indigenous languages are in "dire straights," according to the Regional Chief of the BC Assembly of First Nations. To access article, juts follow the link below: http://www.cknw.com/news/news_local.cfm?cat=7428109912&rem=81260&red=80110923aPBIny&wids=410&gi=1&gm=news_local.cfm From Rrlapier at AOL.COM Wed Dec 12 21:29:37 2007 From: Rrlapier at AOL.COM (Rrlapier at AOL.COM) Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2007 16:29:37 EST Subject: Rosetta Stone Message-ID: I have read ANA language grants for several years. In the last couple of years I have noticed more and more efforts to document language using technologies from outside of the community. Oftentimes the community does not articulate how they will incorporate these technologies into their whole language revitalization strategy or how it will build their community capcity. Rosetta Stone is one of those companies. In most cases the community knew very very little about the company (they would attach a brochure to their application) and so their grant would basically be asking for 90% to cover the cost of RS and 10% for at home. The question I always asked to the applicant is to show how this is "community capacity building" -- if all the dollars leave the community? I think tribes need to be proactive and require companies like RS to put most of the dollars back into the community, by training technicians, language specialists, etc. Tribes need to make this relationship a partnership. Rosalyn LaPier Piegan Institute In a message dated 12/12/2007 12:14:46 P.M. Mountain Standard Time, andrekar at NCIDC.ORG writes: The arguments against Rosetta stone remind me of the complaints I have heard about the Phrasealator. Why do we need to pay so much money, people are just trying to get rich. I agree in a perfect world the items to help tribes recover and preserve their languages would be free to them (either through generosity, grants or other subsidy), but alas we are in less than a perfect world. The next best thing is to find out what works best (program, sytem, software, etc) regardless of costs and then work like the devil to get the costs covered. The paramount objective is preservation of my language. Profiteers have to face their music when creator chooses. On Dec 10, 2007, at 5:19 PM, Mia Kalish wrote: What a lovely response, Don. I enjoyed the multiple perspectives and the thoughts that they engendered. And most of us have seen all of this, yes? By the way, a very nice lady from Rosetta Stone is on this list - or she used to be. Their technology is a lot like the technology we put together and researched. It is not exact; I don't want anyone to infer that I am implying any misbehavior on anyone's part. The point I want to make is that presenting the visual, the sound and the text simultaneously in what we did was 78% effective Across populations - that was, people who had heard Apache but were either not fluent or not literate, and people who had never been exposed to Apache ever. "Across populations" is a statistical characteristic that says that the populations are so alike they can be analyzed as a single group. This is rare in pedagogies. As for the publicity . . . Rosetta Stone advertises on television. They have lots of languages. I've lost track of how many. Publicity tells people what's happening. It tells People what Other People think is important. Right now, in New Mexico, there is a huge "DWI Blitz" (You drink; you drive; you lose.) This is telling people who drive that people are taking driving sober very seriously. And there are lots of billboards talking about DWI; it's in the papers, on the news. Now, is this a current issue in a lot of state? No-o-o-o-o-o. But, my point here is that Publicity is how you let people know what others are thinking. I saw another sign today, "Ron Paul for President . . . A new view" and I thought, Who is Ron Paul? There was just one sign, and I couldn't connect it to anything else I had seen or heard. One sign won't get me to vote for Ron Paul for president, but many, many signs will get a lot of drunk drivers off the road, and will change attitudes. So maybe all the publicity for Rosetta Stone will start to change attitudes about what is important about People. For a long time, there has been the "white ruling class" and everyone else. Like Don pointed out, there hasn't been much real knowledge about "everyone else." I am so happy to see even the little bits of beginnings where we start to know about Everyone Else, even the Everyone Elses of us :-) Thanks Don, Really, really good piece - I think, Mia -----Original Message----- From: Indigenous Languages and Technology [mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU] On Behalf Of Don Osborn Sent: Monday, December 10, 2007 5:53 PM To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Subject: Re: [ILAT] Rosetta Stone As I look at this thread several thoughts occur. One is Robert Chambers' discussion of "positive practitioners" and "negative academics" in international development. The former try to do something, whatever the agenda, and sometimes ineptly. The latter critique, sometimes insightfully and incisively and sometimes less so. That is not to say that one is right and the other wrong, but that in some ways they are like two different cultures. Jess Tauber is right to point out the ironies in the historical sweep. The same dominant culture that via education and technology tried to wipe out languages or systematically marginalize them (not just in the Americas), now is in part (at least the parts you see) trying to save them. It is natural to ask why. Part of it is the dynamic of power. I've noted - again in international development - that the people in positions to do so end up occupying or pre-empting both sides (or all positions) in many debates. Even about the nature of a people themselves. This was particularly striking in several decades of debates on pastoralism in Africa - an evolution of two opposing views on the rationality or not of transhumant (semi-nomadic) herding. An evolving debate entirely outside of the cultures discussed, with indirect and imperfect references to the herders' knowledge systems, and in terms totally outside pastoralists' languages, and totally immersed in Western terms of reference. I see a little of this in discussions on languages and on languages & technology. In part, this dynamic of power is just that way, like the wind just blows. It shifts too, and you can find a way to explain it, but in the end how do you protect yourself from it and better yet use its force to some advantage? So, on one level, Jess's generalizing about "they" responds to a real set of issues. However on another level it seems to blur some realities. When looking at the specific case of companies like Rosetta Stone (or for that matter bigger technology companies) part of what one must appreciate is the nature of the beast and the environment it is working in. The bottom line and survival in that environment is money. How to get it can raise issues, but without it, *poof*. James's suspicion is natural, but with a company, what else is new? But even that is more complex. I resist reifying the notion of corporation too far to the point of overlooking the agency of people in organizations like Rosetta Stone, who may be very sincerely devoted to somehow changing the world for better. The latter may end up being the "positive practitioners" per Chambers' dichotomy, with their more or less imperfect human (and culturally bound) understanding of what they are dealing with - and their own environment to survive in. >From what little I know of Rosetta Stone I see it as a business that is at least trying to do something. It's making good money, apparently, in general language learning with a product that has positive reviews. It's stepping outside of that market in an interesting way. Of course they are milking it for publicity too, but again, that is the nature of companies. I don't know enough about the program, its approach or results to judge it, but I'm absolutely not surprised if there are limits in terms of what they spend on it (anything has limits). Let me finish with another technology example. A company named Lancor just sued the One Laptop Per Child project for alleged use of codes in a patented keyboard. The object of both keyboards is to facilitate input of "extended Latin characters" and diacritics for West African languages. I don't know the technical or patent issues well enough, but whatever the merits of the case may or may not be, the ultimate victims will be people who might have been able to use the technology sooner for their languages. The collateral damage to common aims from disputes over methods can be considerable, and avoidable to the extent one accepts that everyone has honorable intent. (Maybe a key question is how to establish the latter and a sense of trust.) I'd agree with Mia's bottom line conclusion that someone has to do it. If you start subtracting potential partners from the equation, are you better off? Don Osborn **************************************See AOL's top rated recipes (http://food.aol.com/top-rated-recipes?NCID=aoltop00030000000004) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From andrekar at NCIDC.ORG Wed Dec 12 21:57:09 2007 From: andrekar at NCIDC.ORG (Andre Cramblit) Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2007 13:57:09 -0800 Subject: Yuman Lang. Summit ~ April 2008, Barona Message-ID: SAVE THE DATE ~ Yuman Language Summitt at Barona Rez, April 2008 -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: SAVE THE DATE.doc Type: application/msword Size: 26624 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Dec 12 22:01:39 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2007 15:01:39 -0700 Subject: Rosetta Stone In-Reply-To: <1197488414-519.00022.00507-smmsdV2.1.6@saluki-mailhub.siu.edu> Message-ID: I hope to someday buy me a Rosetta Stone package for say Spanish (Latin America) or some such language not just out of curiousity as I do really want to learn a "foreign language" (hehe...).? However, I am not too familiar with how the interface or content of Rosetta is organized.? But I would be concerned about "cookie cutter" approaches to content.? In some cases, what works for European languages may not work for indigenous ones.?? This is partly due to the unique structures many indigenous languages possess, such as free word order, head-dependent marking, complex verb and nominal morphology, etc, etc., (just to name a few from the syntax side of things, not to mention cultural pragmatic issues as well!).? These unique factors should challenge anybody who is not familiar with these kinds of languages.? With regard to a broader issue, I wonder if any 2nd Lang learning assessments have been published showing the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of Rosetta overall?? Let us know... l8ter, Phil UofA -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Dec 12 19:51:13 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2007 12:51:13 -0700 Subject: Sea ice may disappear, but native words linger (fwd link) Message-ID: Sea ice may disappear, but native words linger Program #5394 of the Earth & Sky Radio Series with hosts Deborah Byrd, Joel Block, # Lindsay Patterson and Jorge Salazar. Arctic sea ice is changing ? and so are traditional ways of knowing sea ice by the Eskimo or Inuit people of the far north. Igor Krupnik: As the practices of using and knowing sea ice are to change, so will the knowledge about sea ice. Let?s say if multi-year ice disappears, the language will be perhaps the last resort of any knowledge about multi-year ice. To access full article, just follow the link below: http://www.earthsky.org/radioshows/52040/sea-ice-may-disappear-but-native-words-linger From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Dec 12 19:41:29 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2007 12:41:29 -0700 Subject: Indigneous language program producing results (fwd link) Message-ID: Indigneous language program producing results Posted Tue Dec 4, 2007 8:34pm AEDT A high school in Western Sydney says its Aboriginal language program has lifted results and boosted the attendance rates of Indigenous students. To access full article, just follow the link below: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/12/04/2109727.htm From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US Thu Dec 13 01:21:33 2007 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (Mia Kalish) Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2007 18:21:33 -0700 Subject: Rosetta Stone In-Reply-To: Message-ID: I have a story to share. But first, let me build a little context. For as long as I have been doing this, there has been lots of to-ing and fro-ing about technology, and in our case, language revitalization. And there has been also some to-ing and fro-ing on revitalization pedagogies. And of course, dollars, where they come from, who gets them, how they are used. Arguments rage on; in some cases, very little happens as they rage. Now that everyone has the context, let me tell you what happened, and of course, how I saw it . . . :-) maybe it will bring some ideas into focus. On Monday, one of our professors went to the neighboring town, 25.5 miles away, to give the final exam for his class. It was a dark and snowy-rainy-wintry night. He gave his final, and 2 people saw him leave for home. On Tuesday, he hadn't made it, and people were worried; they were spreading the word, looking for him. Last year, one of his friends, also a friend of mine, was helping him with a car incident. I said, Why don't you call him? My friend said, He doesn't have a cell. So into the dark and stormy night - and I can tell you it was truly miserable: rain, sleet; snow; and, unrelenting cold - this man drove. There is a turn several - but not many - miles out of town, where one either goes up the mountain to Tsaile, and the warmth of the home fire - kuhg? - or follows the south rim of Canyon de Chelly. The two terrains are vastly different, one leading up the mountain, on paved road, with a few lights and homes, the other leading down, past the Inn, into the canyon. His car was found almost 8 miles along the rim highway, at the place where the paved road turns to dirt. His body was found a short ways from his car. The police think he died of exposure. This man had made a personal decision, not to have a cell phone. Can we challenge his right to make a personal decision not to adopt a technology that could have saved his life? I wonder if he would make a different decision today than he had a week ago, and the year before that, and the decade before that. Would his family encourage him to make a different decision today? Part of the problem with the passage of life is that sometimes, you can't go back and do it over. Sometimes, it seems to me, the risks of being wrong outweigh individual feelings and perspectives. It seems to me. I chose Rosalyn's email, of all the possible choices, to share this little story over, because I absolutely agree with her premise. I think that the bulk of the money Should go into the community, to develop people who can make more materials For the Community. In Ndn communities, "workforce development," even in the world of burgeoning technology, still means pipefitters and dental hygienists. Do we need people with these skills? Absolutely. Should "workforce development" be limited to this options? Absolutely not. Developing technology takes time, skill, and money in dynamic relationship. But if Tribes hire outside companies, no matter who they are, and abrogate their right and their responsibility to participate in their own advancement, or in this case, cultural and linguistic revitalization, where will they be when the money is gone and they need more materials? How will they pass the skills along? What about the pedagogical issues that Phil and Andre and others have brought up? Technology is not "easy" . . . but then, the people who lived here before Columbus arrived mastered pretty amazing technology (Petroglyph Calendars, mounds square to fractions of a degree; nautical navigation; sophisticated animal husbandry and plant genetics; sun daggers; and, my personal favorite, Chaco Canyon) so there isn't any reason why their descendants can't master a little simple computer technology. After all, graphics, sounds, language, and sophisticated knowledge representations are all in the blood. So I would like to end with Kaddish for my colleague, an ancient prayer. It will not save him, but merely send good wishes for his path. Would technology have saved him? I don't know. But the "Maybe it would have" haunts me, because here, we are sharing the tears of loss, of a pain too unexplained for words. When we lost Emmanuel, we lost his language, and the complex web of knowledge that made his language - his ideolect - his own. Is it really so different from what we fight for every day? Mia _____ From: Indigenous Languages and Technology [mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU] On Behalf Of Rrlapier at AOL.COM Sent: Wednesday, December 12, 2007 2:30 PM To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Subject: Re: [ILAT] Rosetta Stone I have read ANA language grants for several years. In the last couple of years I have noticed more and more efforts to document language using technologies from outside of the community. Oftentimes the community does not articulate how they will incorporate these technologies into their whole language revitalization strategy or how it will build their community capcity. Rosetta Stone is one of those companies. In most cases the community knew very very little about the company (they would attach a brochure to their application) and so their grant would basically be asking for 90% to cover the cost of RS and 10% for at home. The question I always asked to the applicant is to show how this is "community capacity building" -- if all the dollars leave the community? I think tribes need to be proactive and require companies like RS to put most of the dollars back into the community, by training technicians, language specialists, etc. Tribes need to make this relationship a partnership. Rosalyn LaPier Piegan Institute In a message dated 12/12/2007 12:14:46 P.M. Mountain Standard Time, andrekar at NCIDC.ORG writes: The arguments against Rosetta stone remind me of the complaints I have heard about the Phrasealator. Why do we need to pay so much money, people are just trying to get rich. I agree in a perfect world the items to help tribes recover and preserve their languages would be free to them (either through generosity, grants or other subsidy), but alas we are in less than a perfect world. The next best thing is to find out what works best (program, sytem, software, etc) regardless of costs and then work like the devil to get the costs covered. The paramount objective is preservation of my language. Profiteers have to face their music when creator chooses. On Dec 10, 2007, at 5:19 PM, Mia Kalish wrote: What a lovely response, Don. I enjoyed the multiple perspectives and the thoughts that they engendered. And most of us have seen all of this, yes? By the way, a very nice lady from Rosetta Stone is on this list - or she used to be. Their technology is a lot like the technology we put together and researched. It is not exact; I don't want anyone to infer that I am implying any misbehavior on anyone's part. The point I want to make is that presenting the visual, the sound and the text simultaneously in what we did was 78% effective Across populations - that was, people who had heard Apache but were either not fluent or not literate, and people who had never been exposed to Apache ever. "Across populations" is a statistical characteristic that says that the populations are so alike they can be analyzed as a single group. This is rare in pedagogies. As for the publicity . . . Rosetta Stone advertises on television. They have lots of languages. I've lost track of how many. Publicity tells people what's happening. It tells People what Other People think is important. Right now, in New Mexico, there is a huge "DWI Blitz" (You drink; you drive; you lose.) This is telling people who drive that people are taking driving sober very seriously. And there are lots of billboards talking about DWI; it's in the papers, on the news. Now, is this a current issue in a lot of state? No-o-o-o-o-o. But, my point here is that Publicity is how you let people know what others are thinking. I saw another sign today, "Ron Paul for President . . . A new view" and I thought, Who is Ron Paul? There was just one sign, and I couldn't connect it to anything else I had seen or heard. One sign won't get me to vote for Ron Paul for president, but many, many signs will get a lot of drunk drivers off the road, and will change attitudes. So maybe all the publicity for Rosetta Stone will start to change attitudes about what is important about People. For a long time, there has been the "white ruling class" and everyone else. Like Don pointed out, there hasn't been much real knowledge about "everyone else." I am so happy to see even the little bits of beginnings where we start to know about Everyone Else, even the Everyone Elses of us :-) Thanks Don, Really, really good piece - I think, Mia -----Original Message----- From: Indigenous Languages and Technology [mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU] On Behalf Of Don Osborn Sent: Monday, December 10, 2007 5:53 PM To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Subject: Re: [ILAT] Rosetta Stone As I look at this thread several thoughts occur. One is Robert Chambers' discussion of "positive practitioners" and "negative academics" in international development. The former try to do something, whatever the agenda, and sometimes ineptly. The latter critique, sometimes insightfully and incisively and sometimes less so. That is not to say that one is right and the other wrong, but that in some ways they are like two different cultures. Jess Tauber is right to point out the ironies in the historical sweep. The same dominant culture that via education and technology tried to wipe out languages or systematically marginalize them (not just in the Americas), now is in part (at least the parts you see) trying to save them. It is natural to ask why. Part of it is the dynamic of power. I've noted - again in international development - that the people in positions to do so end up occupying or pre-empting both sides (or all positions) in many debates. Even about the nature of a people themselves. This was particularly striking in several decades of debates on pastoralism in Africa - an evolution of two opposing views on the rationality or not of transhumant (semi-nomadic) herding. An evolving debate entirely outside of the cultures discussed, with indirect and imperfect references to the herders' knowledge systems, and in terms totally outside pastoralists' languages, and totally immersed in Western terms of reference. I see a little of this in discussions on languages and on languages & technology. In part, this dynamic of power is just that way, like the wind just blows. It shifts too, and you can find a way to explain it, but in the end how do you protect yourself from it and better yet use its force to some advantage? So, on one level, Jess's generalizing about "they" responds to a real set of issues. However on another level it seems to blur some realities. When looking at the specific case of companies like Rosetta Stone (or for that matter bigger technology companies) part of what one must appreciate is the nature of the beast and the environment it is working in. The bottom line and survival in that environment is money. How to get it can raise issues, but without it, *poof*. James's suspicion is natural, but with a company, what else is new? But even that is more complex. I resist reifying the notion of corporation too far to the point of overlooking the agency of people in organizations like Rosetta Stone, who may be very sincerely devoted to somehow changing the world for better. The latter may end up being the "positive practitioners" per Chambers' dichotomy, with their more or less imperfect human (and culturally bound) understanding of what they are dealing with - and their own environment to survive in. >From what little I know of Rosetta Stone I see it as a business that is at least trying to do something. It's making good money, apparently, in general language learning with a product that has positive reviews. It's stepping outside of that market in an interesting way. Of course they are milking it for publicity too, but again, that is the nature of companies. I don't know enough about the program, its approach or results to judge it, but I'm absolutely not surprised if there are limits in terms of what they spend on it (anything has limits). Let me finish with another technology example. A company named Lancor just sued the One Laptop Per Child project for alleged use of codes in a patented keyboard. The object of both keyboards is to facilitate input of "extended Latin characters" and diacritics for West African languages. I don't know the technical or patent issues well enough, but whatever the merits of the case may or may not be, the ultimate victims will be people who might have been able to use the technology sooner for their languages. The collateral damage to common aims from disputes over methods can be considerable, and avoidable to the extent one accepts that everyone has honorable intent. (Maybe a key question is how to establish the latter and a sense of trust.) I'd agree with Mia's bottom line conclusion that someone has to do it. If you start subtracting potential partners from the equation, are you better off? Don Osborn _____ See AOL's top rated recipes and easy ways to stay in shape for winter. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From phonosemantics at EARTHLINK.NET Thu Dec 13 15:17:51 2007 From: phonosemantics at EARTHLINK.NET (jess tauber) Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2007 10:17:51 -0500 Subject: Rosetta Stone Message-ID: Phil's last point (the 'cookie-cutter') is well taken- are all languages amenable to a 'one-size-fits-all' approach? It reminds me of the 'shell-books' concept I read about a couple of years ago. There may be more to resistance to writing one's oral language down than mere cultural inertia- perhaps the brain actually differently processes different types of language, and so some orthographical systems might clash with such processing differences. I remember reading something along these lines with regard to dyslexics. The same may go for different types of learning environments- for instance secret ritual languages in Australia (according to Dixon) aren't picked up the same way as the main language. And one runs into such issues all the time with regards to ideophones, which play important roles in some languages, yet are scarcely dealt with by linguists, let alone teaching aids. Creators of electronic tools may be paying way too much attention to the nuts and bolts of the system, and pretty packaging, which are fine in the context of dominant cultural/linguistic facts, and not enough to adapting their tools (or even perhaps shaping them from the beginning) around what may be different truths for other languages. Jess Tauber phonosemantics at earthlink.net From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Thu Dec 13 15:52:00 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2007 08:52:00 -0700 Subject: It isn't Greek, but everyone's loving this Zorba (fwd link) Message-ID: It isn't Greek, but everyone's loving this Zorba Lindsay Murdoch in Darwin December 12, 2007 ABORIGINAL teenagers on isolated Elcho Island, off the north-eastern coast of Northern Territory, got a few laughs late one night when they danced their version of Zorba The Greek with a sort of chook shuffle. Twelve months later the "Chooky Dancers" have become a world-wide hit on the internet. Yesterday their hilarious performance had been viewed by 364,773 people on YouTube. Get the full article here: http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/it-isnt-greek-but-everyones-loving-this-zorba/2007/12/11/1197135463482.html From dzo at BISHARAT.NET Thu Dec 13 16:06:47 2007 From: dzo at BISHARAT.NET (Don Osborn) Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2007 11:06:47 -0500 Subject: Linguapax Award 2008 Message-ID: I've just learned that the deadline for nominations has been extended to 21 December 2007. Don > -----Original Message----- > From: Don Osborn [mailto:dzo at bisharat.net] > Sent: Monday, December 03, 2007 1:19 PM > To: 'AfricanLanguages at yahoogroups.com'; 'Indigenous Languages and > Technology' > Subject: FW: Linguapax Award 2008 > > FYI, nominations are now being accepted for the Linguapax Award 2008. > Note the deadline of Dec. 15. Don > > > -------------------------------- > [from a letter with call for nominations] > > We are pleased to inform you that the call for candidates to the > Linguapax awards 2008 is open. Kindly send your nominees to the > secretariat of the Linguapax Institute ( info at linguapax.org ) before > December 15th 2007 along with their short biographical note if > possible. > > As in previous occasions, the name of the prize-winner will be made > public on February 21, coinciding with the International Mother > Language Day. The Linguapax Awardee will be granted the amount of 3,000 > ?. > > For more information about the awards, please visit: > > Catal? http://www.linguapax.org/ct/premisLPX.html > Espa?ol http://www.linguapax.org/es/premisLPXcas.html > English http://www.linguapax.org/en/premisLPXang.html > Fran?ais http://www.linguapax.org/fr/premisLPXfr.html > > -------------------------------- > > [from the Linguapax website] > > Linguapax Prize > > Rules > > 1. The Linguapax Prizes are awarded every year by the Linguapax > Institute. > > 2. The prizes are awarded to linguists, researchers, professors and > members of the civil society in acknowledgement of their outstanding > work in the field linguistic diversity and/or multilingual education. > Nominations of people having contributed to improve the linguistic > situation of a community or country will be specially appreciated. > > 3. The nominations for the Linguapax Prizes must be sent to the > secretariat of the Linguapax Institute along with a biographical note > of the candidate. The nominations will remain confidential among the > members of the jury. > > 4. The jury of the Linguapax Prizes will be formed by the members of > the Advisory Committee of the Linguapax Institute. > > 5. The Linguapax prizes can be declared void. The jury's decision will > be final. > > 6. The Linguapax Prize will be made public on February 21st of every > year, International Mother Language Day. > > 7. The awardee will be granted the amount of 3,000 ? From hardman at UFL.EDU Thu Dec 13 16:47:23 2007 From: hardman at UFL.EDU (MJ Hardman) Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2007 11:47:23 -0500 Subject: Jaqaru and the earthquake In-Reply-To: <20071212130426.pe1ivt6o0wc0gcg4@www.email.arizona.edu> Message-ID: The aftermath of the Earthquake has put the Jaqaru language in an even more precarious position. And just when we thought we had things going well! MJ http://txupi.org http://tupefund.org Markmashi, friends, colleagues, family ? It is now nearly four months since the earthquake of Aug. 15, 2007 destroyed Tupe. We have been most gratified by the many offers of help from so many of you. I thought it would take me a couple of days to arrange an easy conduit for such help. Unsurprisingly, but not anticipated, in a capitalistic society, charity giving is also a capitalistic enterprise. There is an old Spanish blessing of health, wealth, love and the time to enjoy them. In opening a direct path for help for Tupe it turned out that while Dimas and I had the love, we lacked the health, wealth and time to do so. http://tupefund.org We do have, however, a website, http://txupi.wordpress.com/ , as well as domain names as well as an email address (jaqaru at bellsouth.net ). We tell the story on the webiste http://txupi.wordpress.com/ as well as listing some of what has been done, what still needs to be done ? especially for the school, what we still hope to do in spite of it all, and how you can help. http://txupi.wordpress.com/ . The site is set up as a so that everyone can participate. We are hoping that people who are involved in the reconstruction will also tell their stories there which will help us in what we might attempt to do from here, as well as comments from here on what is feasible. Also, there are links to videos done after the earthquake as well as other documents and some material about and in Jaqaru. We are hoping to make this website http://txupi.org a central information site for the earthquake and for the reconstruction, with an idea to continuing for the preservation and revitalization of Jaqaru, http://txupi.wordpress.com/ . Everything is in both English and Spanish; which comes first varies, but if you don't find the language you want, please go to the bottom. Maybe there will be a volunteer out there who can think of a way of making it easier for those who want only one language. http://txupi.org There is another saying that the coffee is best drunk hot. Natural disasters have certainly not been lacking since August, the world over. Recovery, however, takes a very long time. In the case of Tupe the matter of the survival of Jaqaru complicates everything. One teacher, one who has been most active in bilingual education, was heard to remark, in the aftermath of the earthquake, that Jaqaru was going to die anyway so why try anymore. Since a year ago there has been a full time position for working with the teachers in Jaqaru. In the aftermath of the Earthquake that has now been cut to half-time. We have just received news that they are thinking of cutting it out entirely. We would so like to find the way to make the path to the preservation and revitalization of Jaqaru sustainable; it's loss as a consequence of the earthquake, after all it has been through to manage to still exist now, 500 years after conquest, would be a human loss indeed. Dr. MJ Hardman and Dr. Dimas Bauista Iturrizaga From donaghy at HAWAII.EDU Thu Dec 13 18:28:54 2007 From: donaghy at HAWAII.EDU (Keola Donaghy) Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2007 08:28:54 -1000 Subject: Rosetta Stone In-Reply-To: <003601c83d26$7ff20c40$8a3f14ac@LFPMIA> Message-ID: Aloha e Mia, and mahalo to all who have contributed thoughts on this topic. We had been approached by the Rosetta Stone folks to develop a Hawaiian version of RS, and nearly every concern I had about doing it has been echoed by someone in this thread. The commitment required in terms of not only dollars but the hours of our most valuable staff is difficult to justify. The inability to make significant changes to the structure of the lessons would make the product of dubious value in many of our programs. We're still looking at it and talking with other organizations that may be interested in collaborating on this, however, I would not characterize it as a high priority project at the moment. Regarding the use of technology overall in language instruction, it has been invaluable to us, but as been pointed out previously, it has worked because our needs are driving out technology use, not the technology driving our approach to language instruction, documentation and perpetuation. When we find a need that technology can help address we will find the appropriate technology and adopt it to our needs. Also important is our ability to do the work ourselves and not depend heavily on outside contractors and consultants to do the work for us. In the online Hawaiian classes we have taught, we have made it clear to our students that online learning is not the most effective way to teach the language, but for most of the students, it is either online learning or nothing. They live in areas where they do not people that they can learn the language from, or their work and personal commitments preclude their enrolling in formal classes. We do what we can to provide them the opportunity, and it certainly requires more of a commitment from then than simply buying a CD and hoping that it actually gets used. I've spoken to many students who have taken our online classes who related to me that they would never have gotten through the class if there had not been a real human being online to provide not only instruction but encouragement and even solace in difficult times. The online environment was not just a technology solution, but a community of language learners whose bonds to us and each other strengthen through their shared experience. I was saddened by the story of your colleague. I myself have been slow to adopt to mobile technology, however, have been warming up to its value only in life and death situations such as the one that you have shared, but in our work to keep the Hawaiian language moving forward. In some cases it may be for language instruction or documentation, and others simply a way of allowing us to do our work more effectively. Keola ======================================================================== Keola Donaghy Assistant Professor of Hawaiian Studies Ka Haka 'Ula O Ke'elikolani keola at leoki.uhh.hawaii.edu University of Hawai'i at Hilo http://www2.hawaii.edu/~donaghy/ "T?r gan teanga, t?r gan anam." (Irish Gaelic saying) A country without its language is a country without its soul. ======================================================================== On 12 Kek. 2007, at 3:21 PM, Mia Kalish wrote: > I have a story to share. But first, let me build a little context. > > For as long as I have been doing this, there has been lots of to- > ing and fro-ing about technology, and in our case, language > revitalization. And there has been also some to-ing and fro-ing on > revitalization pedagogies. And of course, dollars, where they come > from, who gets them, how they are used. Arguments rage on; in some > cases, very little happens as they rage. > > > > Now that everyone has the context, let me tell you what happened, > and of course, how I saw it . . . J maybe it will bring some ideas > into focus. > > > > On Monday, one of our professors went to the neighboring town, 25.5 > miles away, to give the final exam for his class. It was a dark and > snowy-rainy-wintry night. He gave his final, and 2 people saw him > leave for home. On Tuesday, he hadn?t made it, and people were > worried; they were spreading the word, looking for him. Last year, > one of his friends, also a friend of mine, was helping him with a > car incident. I said, Why don?t you call him? My friend said, He > doesn?t have a cell. > > > > So into the dark and stormy night ? and I can tell you it was > truly miserable: rain, sleet; snow; and, unrelenting cold ? this > man drove. There is a turn several ? but not many ? miles out of > town, where one either goes up the mountain to Tsaile, and the > warmth of the home fire ? kuhg? ? or follows the south rim of > Canyon de Chelly. The two terrains are vastly different, one > leading up the mountain, on paved road, with a few lights and > homes, the other leading down, past the Inn, into the canyon. > > > > His car was found almost 8 miles along the rim highway, at the > place where the paved road turns to dirt. His body was found a > short ways from his car. The police think he died of exposure. This > man had made a personal decision, not to have a cell phone. Can we > challenge his right to make a personal decision not to adopt a > technology that could have saved his life? I wonder if he would > make a different decision today than he had a week ago, and the > year before that, and the decade before that. Would his family > encourage him to make a different decision today? > > > > Part of the problem with the passage of life is that sometimes, you > can?t go back and do it over. Sometimes, it seems to me, the risks > of being wrong outweigh individual feelings and perspectives. It > seems to me. > > > > I chose Rosalyn?s email, of all the possible choices, to share > this little story over, because I absolutely agree with her > premise. I think that the bulk of the money Should go into the > community, to develop people who can make more materials For the > Community. In Ndn communities, ?workforce development,? even in > the world of burgeoning technology, still means pipefitters and > dental hygienists. Do we need people with these skills? Absolutely. > Should ?workforce development? be limited to this options? > Absolutely not. > > > > Developing technology takes time, skill, and money in dynamic > relationship. But if Tribes hire outside companies, no matter who > they are, and abrogate their right and their responsibility to > participate in their own advancement, or in this case, cultural and > linguistic revitalization, where will they be when the money is > gone and they need more materials? How will they pass the skills > along? What about the pedagogical issues that Phil and Andre and > others have brought up? Technology is not ?easy? . . . but > then, the people who lived here before Columbus arrived mastered > pretty amazing technology (Petroglyph Calendars, mounds square to > fractions of a degree; nautical navigation; sophisticated animal > husbandry and plant genetics; sun daggers; and, my personal > favorite, Chaco Canyon) so there isn?t any reason why their > descendants can?t master a little simple computer technology. > After all, graphics, sounds, language, and sophisticated knowledge > representations are all in the blood. > > > > So I would like to end with Kaddish for my colleague, an ancient > prayer. It will not save him, but merely send good wishes for his > path. Would technology have saved him? I don?t know. But the > ?Maybe it would have? haunts me, because here, we are sharing > the tears of loss, of a pain too unexplained for words. When we > lost Emmanuel, we lost his language, and the complex web of > knowledge that made his language ? his ideolect ? his own. Is it > really so different from what we fight for every day? > > > > Mia > > > > > > > > > > > > From: Indigenous Languages and Technology > [mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU] On Behalf Of Rrlapier at AOL.COM > Sent: Wednesday, December 12, 2007 2:30 PM > To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU > Subject: Re: [ILAT] Rosetta Stone > > > > I have read ANA language grants for several years. In the last > couple of years I have noticed more and more efforts to document > language using technologies from outside of the community. > Oftentimes the community does not articulate how they will > incorporate these technologies into their whole language > revitalization strategy or how it will build their community capcity. > > > > Rosetta Stone is one of those companies. In most cases the > community knew very very little about the company (they would > attach a brochure to their application) and so their grant would > basically be asking for 90% to cover the cost of RS and 10% for at > home. The question I always asked to the applicant is to show how > this is "community capacity building" -- if all the dollars leave > the community? > > > > I think tribes need to be proactive and require companies like RS > to put most of the dollars back into the community, by training > technicians, language specialists, etc. Tribes need to make this > relationship a partnership. > > > > Rosalyn LaPier > > Piegan Institute > > > > > > > > In a message dated 12/12/2007 12:14:46 P.M. Mountain Standard Time, > andrekar at NCIDC.ORG writes: > > The arguments against Rosetta stone remind me of the complaints I > have heard about the Phrasealator. Why do we need to pay so much > money, people are just trying to get rich. > > I agree in a perfect world the items to help tribes recover and > preserve their languages would be free to them (either through > generosity, grants or other subsidy), but alas we are in less than a > perfect world. The next best thing is to find out what works best > (program, sytem, software, etc) regardless of costs and then work > like the devil to get the costs covered. The paramount objective is > preservation of my language. Profiteers have to face their music > when creator chooses. > > On Dec 10, 2007, at 5:19 PM, Mia Kalish wrote: > > What a lovely response, Don. I enjoyed the multiple perspectives > and the > thoughts that they engendered. And most of us have seen all of this, > yes? > By the way, a very nice lady from Rosetta Stone is on this list - > or she > used to be. Their technology is a lot like the technology we put > together > and researched. It is not exact; I don't want anyone to infer that > I am > implying any misbehavior on anyone's part. The point I want to make > is that > presenting the visual, the sound and the text simultaneously in what > we did > was 78% effective Across populations - that was, people who had heard > Apache > but were either not fluent or not literate, and people who had never > been > exposed to Apache ever. "Across populations" is a statistical > characteristic > that says that the populations are so alike they can be analyzed as a > single > group. This is rare in pedagogies. > As for the publicity . . . Rosetta Stone advertises on television. > They have > lots of languages. I've lost track of how many. Publicity tells people > what's happening. It tells People what Other People think is > important. > Right now, in New Mexico, there is a huge "DWI Blitz" (You drink; you > drive; > you lose.) This is telling people who drive that people are taking > driving > sober very seriously. And there are lots of billboards talking about > DWI; > it's in the papers, on the news. Now, is this a current issue in a > lot of > state? No-o-o-o-o-o. But, my point here is that Publicity is how > you let > people know what others are thinking. I saw another sign today, "Ron > Paul > for President . . . A new view" and I thought, Who is Ron Paul? There > was > just one sign, and I couldn't connect it to anything else I had > seen or > heard. One sign won't get me to vote for Ron Paul for president, but > many, > many signs will get a lot of drunk drivers off the road, and will > change > attitudes. > So maybe all the publicity for Rosetta Stone will start to change > attitudes > about what is important about People. For a long time, there has been > the > "white ruling class" and everyone else. Like Don pointed out, there > hasn't > been much real knowledge about "everyone else." I am so happy to see > even > the little bits of beginnings where we start to know about Everyone > Else, > even the Everyone Elses of us :-) > > Thanks Don, > Really, really good piece - I think, > Mia > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Indigenous Languages and Technology > [mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU] > On Behalf Of Don Osborn > Sent: Monday, December 10, 2007 5:53 PM > To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU > Subject: Re: [ILAT] Rosetta Stone > > As I look at this thread several thoughts occur. One is Robert > Chambers' > discussion of "positive practitioners" and "negative academics" in > international development. The former try to do something, whatever > the > agenda, and sometimes ineptly. The latter critique, sometimes > insightfully > and incisively and sometimes less so. That is not to say that one is > right > and the other wrong, but that in some ways they are like two different > cultures. > > Jess Tauber is right to point out the ironies in the historical > sweep. The > same dominant culture that via education and technology tried to wipe > out > languages or systematically marginalize them (not just in the > Americas), now > is in part (at least the parts you see) trying to save them. It is > natural > to ask why. > > Part of it is the dynamic of power. I've noted - again in > international > development - that the people in positions to do so end up > occupying or > pre-empting both sides (or all positions) in many debates. Even about > the > nature of a people themselves. This was particularly striking in > several > decades of debates on pastoralism in Africa - an evolution of two > opposing > views on the rationality or not of transhumant (semi-nomadic) > herding. An > evolving debate entirely outside of the cultures discussed, with > indirect > and imperfect references to the herders' knowledge systems, and in > terms > totally outside pastoralists' languages, and totally immersed in > Western > terms of reference. > > I see a little of this in discussions on languages and on languages & > technology. > > In part, this dynamic of power is just that way, like the wind just > blows. > It shifts too, and you can find a way to explain it, but in the end > how do > you protect yourself from it and better yet use its force to some > advantage? > > So, on one level, Jess's generalizing about "they" responds to a real > set of > issues. However on another level it seems to blur some realities. > > When looking at the specific case of companies like Rosetta Stone (or > for > that matter bigger technology companies) part of what one must > appreciate is > the nature of the beast and the environment it is working in. The > bottom > line and survival in that environment is money. How to get it can > raise > issues, but without it, *poof*. James's suspicion is natural, but > with a > company, what else is new? > > But even that is more complex. I resist reifying the notion of > corporation > too far to the point of overlooking the agency of people in > organizations > like Rosetta Stone, who may be very sincerely devoted to somehow > changing > the world for better. The latter may end up being the "positive > practitioners" per Chambers' dichotomy, with their more or less > imperfect > human (and culturally bound) understanding of what they are dealing > with - > and their own environment to survive in. > > From what little I know of Rosetta Stone I see it as a business that > is at > least trying to do something. It's making good money, apparently, in > general > language learning with a product that has positive reviews. It's > stepping > outside of that market in an interesting way. Of course they are > milking it > for publicity too, but again, that is the nature of companies. I > don't know > enough about the program, its approach or results to judge it, but I'm > absolutely not surprised if there are limits in terms of what they > spend on > it (anything has limits). > > Let me finish with another technology example. A company named Lancor > just > sued the One Laptop Per Child project for alleged use of codes in a > patented > keyboard. The object of both keyboards is to facilitate input of > "extended > Latin characters" and diacritics for West African languages. I don't > know > the technical or patent issues well enough, but whatever the merits > of the > case may or may not be, the ultimate victims will be people who might > have > been able to use the technology sooner for their languages. > > The collateral damage to common aims from disputes over methods can be > considerable, and avoidable to the extent one accepts that everyone > has > honorable intent. (Maybe a key question is how to establish the > latter and a > sense of trust.) > > I'd agree with Mia's bottom line conclusion that someone has to do > it. If > you start subtracting potential partners from the equation, are you > better > off? > > Don Osborn > > > > > See AOL's top rated recipes and easy ways to stay in shape for winter. > ======================================================================== 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/ "T?r gan teanga, t?r gan anam." (Irish Gaelic saying) A country without its language is a country without its soul. ======================================================================== -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mona at ALLIESMEDIAART.COM Thu Dec 13 19:54:07 2007 From: mona at ALLIESMEDIAART.COM (Mona Smith) Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2007 13:54:07 -0600 Subject: [Fwd: "The Linguists" world premieres at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival] Message-ID: -------- Original Message -------- Subject: "The Linguists" world premieres at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2007 14:15:10 -0500 From: Daniel A. Miller Reply-To: Daniel A. Miller To: ENDANGERED-LANGUAGES-L at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG We are nothing short of elated to announce that our documentary feature THE LINGUISTS was selected to world premiere in the newly minted "Spectrum: Documentary Spotlight" category at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. THE LINGUISTS is the first documentary supported by the National Science Foundation to ever make it to Sundance. The trailer is at http://www.thelinguists.com. Here's a brief synopsis: It is estimated that of 7,000 languages in the world, half will be gone by the end of this century. THE LINGUISTS follows David Harrison and Gregory Anderson, scientists racing to document languages on the verge of extinction. In Siberia, India, and Bolivia, the linguists' resolve is tested by the very forces silencing languages: institutionalized racism and violent economic unrest. David and Greg's journey takes them deep into the heart of the cultures, knowledge, and communities at risk when a language dies. We hope you can join us in Utah for one (or maybe all) of the following screenings: Friday, January 18, 12 Noon - Egyptian Theatre, Park City Saturday, January 19, 12:45 PM - Broadway Centre Cinemas V, Salt Lake City Saturday, January 19, 11:30 PM - Prospector Square Theatre, Park City Wednesday, January 23, 9:00 AM, Holiday Village Cinema I, Park City - PRESS AND INDUSTRY ONLY Wednesday, January 23, 8:30 PM - Holiday Village Cinema II, Park City Tickets are available at http://www.sundance.org/festival/. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us or our publicist Winston Emano at wemano at tcdm-associates.com. We look forward to hearing you there, in all languages! Happy Holidays, Seth Kramer, Daniel A. Miller, and Jeremy Newberger Ironbound Films, Inc. PO Box 441 Garrison, NY 10524 T: 845.424.3700 F: 845.424.3753 news at ironboundfilms.com www.ironboundfilms.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mona at ALLIESMEDIAART.COM Thu Dec 13 19:58:49 2007 From: mona at ALLIESMEDIAART.COM (Mona Smith) Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2007 13:58:49 -0600 Subject: from the Westerman family Message-ID: > > ---------------------------- Original Message ---------------------------- > Subject: from the Westerman family > From: "Griffin, Gwen N" > Date: Thu, December 13, 2007 8:40 am > To: "vikki.howard at LLOJIBWE.COM" > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Floyd Red Crow Westerman passed to the spirit world this morning in Los > Angeles, California, with family at his side. Services are pending. We > thank you from our hearts for all the prayers and support and kindness and > love that you have shown him and us. > > Gwen Westerman Griffin > Mankato, MN > From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US Thu Dec 13 21:31:46 2007 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (Mia Kalish) Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2007 14:31:46 -0700 Subject: Rosetta Stone In-Reply-To: <5172F8C5-BD9D-485A-B6BD-2498A7F1D1A6@hawaii.edu> Message-ID: Thank you, Keola, It is always such a pleasure to hear from you. What a beautifully written email. I always think language learning should occur with, about, around, for and with People. After all, language doesn't talk to itself. Best wishes, and thanks again, Mia _____ From: Indigenous Languages and Technology [mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU] On Behalf Of Keola Donaghy Sent: Thursday, December 13, 2007 11:29 AM To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Subject: Re: [ILAT] Rosetta Stone Aloha e Mia, and mahalo to all who have contributed thoughts on this topic. We had been approached by the Rosetta Stone folks to develop a Hawaiian version of RS, and nearly every concern I had about doing it has been echoed by someone in this thread. The commitment required in terms of not only dollars but the hours of our most valuable staff is difficult to justify. The inability to make significant changes to the structure of the lessons would make the product of dubious value in many of our programs. We're still looking at it and talking with other organizations that may be interested in collaborating on this, however, I would not characterize it as a high priority project at the moment. Regarding the use of technology overall in language instruction, it has been invaluable to us, but as been pointed out previously, it has worked because our needs are driving out technology use, not the technology driving our approach to language instruction, documentation and perpetuation. When we find a need that technology can help address we will find the appropriate technology and adopt it to our needs. Also important is our ability to do the work ourselves and not depend heavily on outside contractors and consultants to do the work for us. In the online Hawaiian classes we have taught, we have made it clear to our students that online learning is not the most effective way to teach the language, but for most of the students, it is either online learning or nothing. They live in areas where they do not people that they can learn the language from, or their work and personal commitments preclude their enrolling in formal classes. We do what we can to provide them the opportunity, and it certainly requires more of a commitment from then than simply buying a CD and hoping that it actually gets used. I've spoken to many students who have taken our online classes who related to me that they would never have gotten through the class if there had not been a real human being online to provide not only instruction but encouragement and even solace in difficult times. The online environment was not just a technology solution, but a community of language learners whose bonds to us and each other strengthen through their shared experience. I was saddened by the story of your colleague. I myself have been slow to adopt to mobile technology, however, have been warming up to its value only in life and death situations such as the one that you have shared, but in our work to keep the Hawaiian language moving forward. In some cases it may be for language instruction or documentation, and others simply a way of allowing us to do our work more effectively. Keola ======================================================================== Keola Donaghy Assistant Professor of Hawaiian Studies Ka Haka 'Ula O Ke'elikolani keola at leoki.uhh.hawaii.edu University of Hawai'i at Hilo http://www2.hawaii.edu/~donaghy/ "T?r gan teanga, t?r gan anam." (Irish Gaelic saying) A country without its language is a country without its soul. ======================================================================== On 12 Kek. 2007, at 3:21 PM, Mia Kalish wrote: I have a story to share. But first, let me build a little context. For as long as I have been doing this, there has been lots of to-ing and fro-ing about technology, and in our case, language revitalization. And there has been also some to-ing and fro-ing on revitalization pedagogies. And of course, dollars, where they come from, who gets them, how they are used. Arguments rage on; in some cases, very little happens as they rage. Now that everyone has the context, let me tell you what happened, and of course, how I saw it . . . :-) maybe it will bring some ideas into focus. On Monday, one of our professors went to the neighboring town, 25.5 miles away, to give the final exam for his class. It was a dark and snowy-rainy-wintry night. He gave his final, and 2 people saw him leave for home. On Tuesday, he hadn't made it, and people were worried; they were spreading the word, looking for him. Last year, one of his friends, also a friend of mine, was helping him with a car incident. I said, Why don't you call him? My friend said, He doesn't have a cell. So into the dark and stormy night - and I can tell you it was truly miserable: rain, sleet; snow; and, unrelenting cold - this man drove. There is a turn several - but not many - miles out of town, where one either goes up the mountain to Tsaile, and the warmth of the home fire - kuhg? - or follows the south rim of Canyon de Chelly. The two terrains are vastly different, one leading up the mountain, on paved road, with a few lights and homes, the other leading down, past the Inn, into the canyon. His car was found almost 8 miles along the rim highway, at the place where the paved road turns to dirt. His body was found a short ways from his car. The police think he died of exposure. This man had made a personal decision, not to have a cell phone. Can we challenge his right to make a personal decision not to adopt a technology that could have saved his life? I wonder if he would make a different decision today than he had a week ago, and the year before that, and the decade before that. Would his family encourage him to make a different decision today? Part of the problem with the passage of life is that sometimes, you can't go back and do it over. Sometimes, it seems to me, the risks of being wrong outweigh individual feelings and perspectives. It seems to me. I chose Rosalyn's email, of all the possible choices, to share this little story over, because I absolutely agree with her premise. I think that the bulk of the money Should go into the community, to develop people who can make more materials For the Community. In Ndn communities, "workforce development," even in the world of burgeoning technology, still means pipefitters and dental hygienists. Do we need people with these skills? Absolutely. Should "workforce development" be limited to this options? Absolutely not. Developing technology takes time, skill, and money in dynamic relationship. But if Tribes hire outside companies, no matter who they are, and abrogate their right and their responsibility to participate in their own advancement, or in this case, cultural and linguistic revitalization, where will they be when the money is gone and they need more materials? How will they pass the skills along? What about the pedagogical issues that Phil and Andre and others have brought up? Technology is not "easy" . . . but then, the people who lived here before Columbus arrived mastered pretty amazing technology (Petroglyph Calendars, mounds square to fractions of a degree; nautical navigation; sophisticated animal husbandry and plant genetics; sun daggers; and, my personal favorite, Chaco Canyon) so there isn't any reason why their descendants can't master a little simple computer technology. After all, graphics, sounds, language, and sophisticated knowledge representations are all in the blood. So I would like to end with Kaddish for my colleague, an ancient prayer. It will not save him, but merely send good wishes for his path. Would technology have saved him? I don't know. But the "Maybe it would have" haunts me, because here, we are sharing the tears of loss, of a pain too unexplained for words. When we lost Emmanuel, we lost his language, and the complex web of knowledge that made his language - his ideolect - his own. Is it really so different from what we fight for every day? Mia _____ From: Indigenous Languages and Technology [mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU] On Behalf Of Rrlapier at AOL.COM Sent: Wednesday, December 12, 2007 2:30 PM To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Subject: Re: [ILAT] Rosetta Stone I have read ANA language grants for several years. In the last couple of years I have noticed more and more efforts to document language using technologies from outside of the community. Oftentimes the community does not articulate how they will incorporate these technologies into their whole language revitalization strategy or how it will build their community capcity. Rosetta Stone is one of those companies. In most cases the community knew very very little about the company (they would attach a brochure to their application) and so their grant would basically be asking for 90% to cover the cost of RS and 10% for at home. The question I always asked to the applicant is to show how this is "community capacity building" -- if all the dollars leave the community? I think tribes need to be proactive and require companies like RS to put most of the dollars back into the community, by training technicians, language specialists, etc. Tribes need to make this relationship a partnership. Rosalyn LaPier Piegan Institute In a message dated 12/12/2007 12:14:46 P.M. Mountain Standard Time, andrekar at NCIDC.ORG writes: The arguments against Rosetta stone remind me of the complaints I have heard about the Phrasealator. Why do we need to pay so much money, people are just trying to get rich. I agree in a perfect world the items to help tribes recover and preserve their languages would be free to them (either through generosity, grants or other subsidy), but alas we are in less than a perfect world. The next best thing is to find out what works best (program, sytem, software, etc) regardless of costs and then work like the devil to get the costs covered. The paramount objective is preservation of my language. Profiteers have to face their music when creator chooses. On Dec 10, 2007, at 5:19 PM, Mia Kalish wrote: What a lovely response, Don. I enjoyed the multiple perspectives and the thoughts that they engendered. And most of us have seen all of this, yes? By the way, a very nice lady from Rosetta Stone is on this list - or she used to be. Their technology is a lot like the technology we put together and researched. It is not exact; I don't want anyone to infer that I am implying any misbehavior on anyone's part. The point I want to make is that presenting the visual, the sound and the text simultaneously in what we did was 78% effective Across populations - that was, people who had heard Apache but were either not fluent or not literate, and people who had never been exposed to Apache ever. "Across populations" is a statistical characteristic that says that the populations are so alike they can be analyzed as a single group. This is rare in pedagogies. As for the publicity . . . Rosetta Stone advertises on television. They have lots of languages. I've lost track of how many. Publicity tells people what's happening. It tells People what Other People think is important. Right now, in New Mexico, there is a huge "DWI Blitz" (You drink; you drive; you lose.) This is telling people who drive that people are taking driving sober very seriously. And there are lots of billboards talking about DWI; it's in the papers, on the news. Now, is this a current issue in a lot of state? No-o-o-o-o-o. But, my point here is that Publicity is how you let people know what others are thinking. I saw another sign today, "Ron Paul for President . . . A new view" and I thought, Who is Ron Paul? There was just one sign, and I couldn't connect it to anything else I had seen or heard. One sign won't get me to vote for Ron Paul for president, but many, many signs will get a lot of drunk drivers off the road, and will change attitudes. So maybe all the publicity for Rosetta Stone will start to change attitudes about what is important about People. For a long time, there has been the "white ruling class" and everyone else. Like Don pointed out, there hasn't been much real knowledge about "everyone else." I am so happy to see even the little bits of beginnings where we start to know about Everyone Else, even the Everyone Elses of us :-) Thanks Don, Really, really good piece - I think, Mia -----Original Message----- From: Indigenous Languages and Technology [mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU] On Behalf Of Don Osborn Sent: Monday, December 10, 2007 5:53 PM To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Subject: Re: [ILAT] Rosetta Stone As I look at this thread several thoughts occur. One is Robert Chambers' discussion of "positive practitioners" and "negative academics" in international development. The former try to do something, whatever the agenda, and sometimes ineptly. The latter critique, sometimes insightfully and incisively and sometimes less so. That is not to say that one is right and the other wrong, but that in some ways they are like two different cultures. Jess Tauber is right to point out the ironies in the historical sweep. The same dominant culture that via education and technology tried to wipe out languages or systematically marginalize them (not just in the Americas), now is in part (at least the parts you see) trying to save them. It is natural to ask why. Part of it is the dynamic of power. I've noted - again in international development - that the people in positions to do so end up occupying or pre-empting both sides (or all positions) in many debates. Even about the nature of a people themselves. This was particularly striking in several decades of debates on pastoralism in Africa - an evolution of two opposing views on the rationality or not of transhumant (semi-nomadic) herding. An evolving debate entirely outside of the cultures discussed, with indirect and imperfect references to the herders' knowledge systems, and in terms totally outside pastoralists' languages, and totally immersed in Western terms of reference. I see a little of this in discussions on languages and on languages & technology. In part, this dynamic of power is just that way, like the wind just blows. It shifts too, and you can find a way to explain it, but in the end how do you protect yourself from it and better yet use its force to some advantage? So, on one level, Jess's generalizing about "they" responds to a real set of issues. However on another level it seems to blur some realities. When looking at the specific case of companies like Rosetta Stone (or for that matter bigger technology companies) part of what one must appreciate is the nature of the beast and the environment it is working in. The bottom line and survival in that environment is money. How to get it can raise issues, but without it, *poof*. James's suspicion is natural, but with a company, what else is new? But even that is more complex. I resist reifying the notion of corporation too far to the point of overlooking the agency of people in organizations like Rosetta Stone, who may be very sincerely devoted to somehow changing the world for better. The latter may end up being the "positive practitioners" per Chambers' dichotomy, with their more or less imperfect human (and culturally bound) understanding of what they are dealing with - and their own environment to survive in. >From what little I know of Rosetta Stone I see it as a business that is at least trying to do something. It's making good money, apparently, in general language learning with a product that has positive reviews. It's stepping outside of that market in an interesting way. Of course they are milking it for publicity too, but again, that is the nature of companies. I don't know enough about the program, its approach or results to judge it, but I'm absolutely not surprised if there are limits in terms of what they spend on it (anything has limits). Let me finish with another technology example. A company named Lancor just sued the One Laptop Per Child project for alleged use of codes in a patented keyboard. The object of both keyboards is to facilitate input of "extended Latin characters" and diacritics for West African languages. I don't know the technical or patent issues well enough, but whatever the merits of the case may or may not be, the ultimate victims will be people who might have been able to use the technology sooner for their languages. The collateral damage to common aims from disputes over methods can be considerable, and avoidable to the extent one accepts that everyone has honorable intent. (Maybe a key question is how to establish the latter and a sense of trust.) I'd agree with Mia's bottom line conclusion that someone has to do it. If you start subtracting potential partners from the equation, are you better off? Don Osborn _____ See AOL's top rated recipes and easy ways to stay in shape for winter. ======================================================================== 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/ "T?r gan teanga, t?r gan anam." (Irish Gaelic saying) A country without its language is a country without its soul. ======================================================================== -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US Thu Dec 13 21:33:23 2007 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (Mia Kalish) Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2007 14:33:23 -0700 Subject: Rosetta Stone In-Reply-To: <27501225.1197559071729.JavaMail.root@elwamui-little.atl.sa.earthlink.net> Message-ID: There is actually an interesting piece of recent research that I don't have time to find at the moment that says that sight and sound are processed together in the brain. Put simply, the Western dichotomy of eyes vs. ears is RONG. :-) Cool, enit? -----Original Message----- From: Indigenous Languages and Technology [mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU] On Behalf Of jess tauber Sent: Thursday, December 13, 2007 8:18 AM To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Subject: Re: [ILAT] Rosetta Stone Phil's last point (the 'cookie-cutter') is well taken- are all languages amenable to a 'one-size-fits-all' approach? It reminds me of the 'shell-books' concept I read about a couple of years ago. There may be more to resistance to writing one's oral language down than mere cultural inertia- perhaps the brain actually differently processes different types of language, and so some orthographical systems might clash with such processing differences. I remember reading something along these lines with regard to dyslexics. The same may go for different types of learning environments- for instance secret ritual languages in Australia (according to Dixon) aren't picked up the same way as the main language. And one runs into such issues all the time with regards to ideophones, which play important roles in some languages, yet are scarcely dealt with by linguists, let alone teaching aids. Creators of electronic tools may be paying way too much attention to the nuts and bolts of the system, and pretty packaging, which are fine in the context of dominant cultural/linguistic facts, and not enough to adapting their tools (or even perhaps shaping them from the beginning) around what may be different truths for other languages. Jess Tauber phonosemantics at earthlink.net From iackerman at ROSETTASTONE.COM Thu Dec 13 23:57:23 2007 From: iackerman at ROSETTASTONE.COM (Ackerman, Ilse) Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2007 18:57:23 -0500 Subject: Rosetta Stone In-Reply-To: A<5172F8C5-BD9D-485A-B6BD-2498A7F1D1A6@hawaii.edu> Message-ID: Hi All, It's me - sorry it's taken so long to chime in. I've appreciated the discussion sparked by the Navajo project, and you all have touched on a lot of the issues in language revitalization and technology that we confront at Rosetta Stone. I thought it might be interesting for you to hear how our approach has been shaped by these concerns.... The colleagues and discussions on this list have been really helpful in guiding our philosophy over the years, and I expect I'll continue to learn from this exchange as well.... Jess and Phil made good points about the cookie-cutter approach. In our case, we've chosen to do something of a hybrid between cookie cutter and starting from scratch. -We provide a template that's flexible, and each language team can take advantage of already-developed elements of the curriculum where they do apply, subtract the elements that don't apply, and add the elements that are missing. ...Recognizing that not starting from scratch means it won't be as perfectly suited to the language as it could be, while starting completely from scratch may render a project unviable economically or otherwise. Re: Phil and Jess's musings as to whether the method supports the intricacies and idiosyncrasies of certain languages... The method works for any vocabulary, syntax, or grammar that you can learn inductively by the juxtaposition of a visual context and context of known language.... We were all pretty successful at learning our first language by that method alone, if you think about it, and that was with a lot of chaotic input, while this is arranged in building block order.... Where this method is least suited is where there are very intricate rule exceptions that don't lend themselves to contrasting examples. However, so far we haven't run into a language that hasn't been able to use it to teach coursefuls of worthwhile content.... Rosalyn LaPier and others made an important point about training. Training our partners in developing the curriculum, using our development tools, recording the audio, doing voiceovers, etc. is one of the no-brainers. : ) The development of content belongs to the indigenous language team, and we don't have either the language expertise or the resources to do that work ourselves. Rosalyn and Keola's points about technology's place in the overall strategy of a revitalization program are really important, too-the last thing we want to happen is to devote the huge effort it takes to develop a new software product and have it end up on a shelf - or to displace other valuable efforts! So that's been an important part of the project application process-being assured that a community is set up to adopt and benefit from a software 'solution', should it be created. Intellectual property, per James. We haven't run into any fuzzy areas yet on this one. The custom language content (text, photos, audio) belong to the indigenous group, the software shell to Rosetta Stone. Our partners have consistently made considered decisions about to whom they'll make the software available. Economic profit. As follows from the intellectual property arrangement, Rosetta Stone doesn't sell or profit from the sale of any endangered language products. Whether to sell the product is up to the indigenous community. Rosetta Stone charges for the development of an endangered language product. This covers the direct costs but not much of the considerable opportunity cost of not putting those resources into making mainstream commercial products that can sell. The development cost means that some potential partners can't afford to do a project. We launched the subsidized program with that in mind, to make it more affordable. Where funds come from for language revitalization.... While I think governments probably should shoulder an enormous part of the responsibility to compensate for and reverse language loss (including by funding teaching methods training/teaching materials creation/teaching), I'm also afraid that won't happen in time. So we think meanwhile there's some logic behind a language-learning business putting some of its profit from sales of mainstream language products toward language diversity. Re: using technology you haven't developed yourself, per Mia. - This is interesting to me. I doubt anyone would argue that if a community wanted to print textbooks they might want to start with developing their own word processing and layout software to do so. I wonder what makes other uses of software feel different that way.... I guess our thinking on this is that we want to be an accessible choice to people who want to take advantage of the enormous R&D effort we were able to invest in developing a method, platform, development tool, and template that works. Or for people who want software, but want to prioritize their resources toward the development of content rather than technology. To Don's post, I think we're aspiring to be critical practitioners? That's somewhere between not being ignorant but also not being paralyzed by the imperfectness of all of this.... : ) ilse Ilse Ackerman Editor-in-chief Rosetta Stone T 540 | 236 5318 800 | 788 0822 F 540 | 432-0953 RosettaStone.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 2683 bytes Desc: image001.jpg URL: From daryn at ARWARBUKARL.COM.AU Fri Dec 14 06:06:57 2007 From: daryn at ARWARBUKARL.COM.AU (Daryn McKenny) Date: Fri, 14 Dec 2007 17:06:57 +1100 Subject: Zorba the Greek Yolngu Style - ABC TV News Story Message-ID: http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2007/12/13/2118191.htm The above link is a follow up story of the now famous boys which aired on our National ABC TV station last night. Enjoy them once again. Regards Daryn Arwarbukarl Cultural Resource Association Inc. Read our Indigenous Language BLOG at http://www.arwarbukarl.net.au/blog/ P | 02 4954 6899 F | 02 4954 3899 E | daryn at arwarbukarl.com.au W | www.arwarbukarl.com.au Please note that we have recently moved to our new location at Cardiff. P Please consider the environment before printing this email The Arwarbukarl Cultural Resource Association Inc. respects the privacy of individuals and strives to comply with all areas of the Privacy Act. The contents of this email are intended for the purpose of the person or persons named in either the "To" or "CC" boxes of the email. Any person not named in these boxes in receipt of this email should immediately delete this email and advise the sender accordingly. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From andrekar at NCIDC.ORG Sat Dec 15 04:41:30 2007 From: andrekar at NCIDC.ORG (Andre Cramblit) Date: Fri, 14 Dec 2007 20:41:30 -0800 Subject: Language Conference Message-ID: > Dear Friend of Indigenous Languages: > > The plans for the 15th Annual SILS Conference on May 2nd and 3rd > are moving along. You can read about the confirmed keynote > speakers, look at the conference schedule, and download > registration and other forms by going to our web site at http:// > nau.edu/TIL and clicking on "conference" on the menu bar at the top > of the page. The deadline for submitting presentation proposals is > January 30, 2008, and the pre-registration deadline is March 15, > 2008. For more information you can also contact me at > Jon.Reyhner at nau.edu > > I apologize if you already received this message. > > Jon Reyhner, SILS Steering Committee Coordinator From andrekar at NCIDC.ORG Sat Dec 15 06:16:52 2007 From: andrekar at NCIDC.ORG (Andre Cramblit) Date: Fri, 14 Dec 2007 22:16:52 -0800 Subject: My Bad March 17-19 2008 In-Reply-To: <001201c82efa$4c6be420$55c17b80@LFPMIA> Message-ID: No we are looking for presenters that can help tribal people save their languages. The conference is in Arcata, not Sausalito On Nov 24, 2007, at 4:29 PM, Mia Kalish wrote: Hi, Andre, I like your title, and your graphic. Don?t know where Sausalito is, but I would like to come. Also ? this isn?t quite about Ndn languages, but my friend Yolanda just did a study on why parents choose English Immersion for their Spanish-speaking children. The results aren?t totally earth-shaking, but they are interesting and to the point. Would people be interested in what she has to say? She?s Tejano. Her dad?s part Yaqui. Let me know what you think. Best always, Mia From: Indigenous Languages and Technology [mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU] On Behalf Of Andre Cramblit Sent: Saturday, November 24, 2007 1:17 PM To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Subject: [ILAT] My Bad March 17-19 2008 SAVE THE DATE- SAVE THE DATE- SAVE THE DATE- SAVE THE DATE- Live Your Language Alliance (LYLA) Invites you to join us in our 1st Annual Native Languages Conference: Shut Up & Talk*: Gathering The Tools To Live Our Languages March 17-19, 2008 @ Humboldt State University-Arcata, CA More information, call to conference and call for presenters available online after 12/01/07 * This theme was chosen not to offend but rather as an attempt to challenge people to make a commitment to developing the skills, knowledge and resources needed to preserve the vitality of our Native languages and to speak them in our daily lives. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Sat Dec 15 20:52:13 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Sat, 15 Dec 2007 13:52:13 -0700 Subject: The John Hope Franklin Dissertation Fellowship (fwd link) Message-ID: The John Hope Franklin Dissertation Fellowship http://www.amphilsoc.org/grants/johnhopefranklin.htm Deadline and Notification Applications are due April 1, 2008, with notification in May. Scope This fellowship, named in honor of a distinguished member of the American Philosophical Society, is designed to support an outstanding doctoral student at an American university who is conducting dissertation research. There are two special features to this fellowship. First, the objective of the John Hope Franklin Dissertation Fellowship is to help remedy the serious shortage of faculty of color in core fields in the arts and sciences, by supporting the Ph.D. projects of minority students of great promise (particularly African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans and Native Americans) as well as other talented students who have a demonstrated commitment to eradicating racial disparities and enlarging minority representation in academia. Second, the John Hope Franklin Fellow is expected to spend a significant amount of time in residence at the APS Library and therefore all applicants should be pursuing dissertation topics in which the holdings of the Library are especially strong, such as quantum mechanics, nuclear physics, computer development, the history of genetics and eugenics, the history of medicine, Early American political and cultural history, natural history in the 18th and 19th centuries, the development of cultural anthropology, or American Indian linguistics and culture. The APS Library's extensive collections in these and many other fields are fully described on our website at www.amphilsoc.org/library. Eligibility Candidates must have completed all course work and examinations preliminary to the doctoral dissertation and be prepared to devote full time for twelve months-with no teaching obligations-to research on their dissertation projects or the writing of their dissertations. The John Hope Franklin Fellow will also be expected to spend a minimum of three months in Philadelphia, in residence at the APS Library with full encouragement to conduct research at other libraries and archives in and around the city. Attractive office space will be provided for the Fellow. From dzo at BISHARAT.NET Sun Dec 16 03:14:43 2007 From: dzo at BISHARAT.NET (Don Osborn) Date: Sat, 15 Dec 2007 22:14:43 -0500 Subject: [Fwd: "The Linguists" world premieres at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival] In-Reply-To: <47618DDF.406@alliesmediaart.com> Message-ID: Congratulations on this. Will anything be made of the angle that 2008 is International Year of Languages? Seems like a nice and natural tie-in. (See http://www.unesco.ru/eng/articles/2004/Valya02112007175015.php ). Don From: Indigenous Languages and Technology [mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU] On Behalf Of Mona Smith Sent: Thursday, December 13, 2007 2:54 PM To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Subject: [ILAT] [Fwd: "The Linguists" world premieres at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival] -------- Original Message -------- Subject: "The Linguists" world premieres at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2007 14:15:10 -0500 From: Daniel A. Miller Reply-To: Daniel A. Miller To: ENDANGERED-LANGUAGES-L at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG We are nothing short of elated to announce that our documentary feature THE LINGUISTS was selected to world premiere in the newly minted "Spectrum: Documentary Spotlight" category at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. THE LINGUISTS is the first documentary supported by the National Science Foundation to ever make it to Sundance. The trailer is at http://www.thelinguists.com. Here's a brief synopsis: It is estimated that of 7,000 languages in the world, half will be gone by the end of this century. THE LINGUISTS follows David Harrison and Gregory Anderson, scientists racing to document languages on the verge of extinction. In Siberia, India, and Bolivia, the linguists' resolve is tested by the very forces silencing languages: institutionalized racism and violent economic unrest. David and Greg's journey takes them deep into the heart of the cultures, knowledge, and communities at risk when a language dies. We hope you can join us in Utah for one (or maybe all) of the following screenings: Friday, January 18, 12 Noon - Egyptian Theatre, Park City Saturday, January 19, 12:45 PM - Broadway Centre Cinemas V, Salt Lake City Saturday, January 19, 11:30 PM - Prospector Square Theatre, Park City Wednesday, January 23, 9:00 AM, Holiday Village Cinema I, Park City - PRESS AND INDUSTRY ONLY Wednesday, January 23, 8:30 PM - Holiday Village Cinema II, Park City Tickets are available at http://www.sundance.org/festival/. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us or our publicist Winston Emano at wemano at tcdm-associates.com. We look forward to hearing you there, in all languages! Happy Holidays, Seth Kramer, Daniel A. Miller, and Jeremy Newberger Ironbound Films, Inc. PO Box 441 Garrison, NY 10524 T: 845.424.3700 F: 845.424.3753 news at ironboundfilms.com www.ironboundfilms.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mona at ALLIESMEDIAART.COM Mon Dec 17 17:02:25 2007 From: mona at ALLIESMEDIAART.COM (Mona Smith) Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2007 11:02:25 -0600 Subject: [Fwd: Fwd: www.anishinaabemowin.org] Message-ID: -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Fwd: www.anishinaabemowin.org Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2007 10:56:22 -0600 From: Beth Brown Reply-To: Beth Brown To: MINN-IND at LISTS.UMN.EDU -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: file:///tmp/nsmail.tmp Type: text/enriched Size: 2872 bytes Desc: not available URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Dec 17 17:44:48 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2007 10:44:48 -0700 Subject: Tapardjuk: GN won’t change language laws (fwd link) Message-ID: Nunavat December 14, 2007 Tapardjuk: GN won?t change language laws Minister offers rebuttals to GN critics JIM BELL Louis Tapardjuk, Nunavut's culture and language minister, told MLAs last week that the Government of Nunavut will not cave in to critics who want big changes to its two proposed new language laws. The Ajauqtiit committee, chaired by Akulliq MLA Steve Mapsalak, is now studying Bill 6, which would create a revised Official Languages Act, and Bill 7, which would create a new law called the Inuit Language Protection Act. Groups such as Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. and the Qikiqtani Inuit Association have launched aggressive attacks on the two bills, citing numerous weaknesses. Get the full article here: http://www.nunatsiaq.com/news/nunavut/71214_780.html From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Dec 17 23:33:18 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2007 16:33:18 -0700 Subject: Language Documentation & Conservation (fwd link) Message-ID: Greetings, Please check this out, the December issue (Vol. 1, No. 2) of the Language Documentation & Conservation (LD&C) journal is now electronically available at the address below: http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/ldc/ Here you will find some useful articles and reviews on technology that might be of interest. Phil Cash Cash UofA From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US Wed Dec 19 17:18:19 2007 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (Mia Kalish) Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2007 10:18:19 -0700 Subject: Fonts article/Review of Fontographer In-Reply-To: <025d01c83f91$ce159d70$6a40d850$@net> Message-ID: Hi, Everyone; I am excited to share the link to my article on Fonts and Fontographer. Although this is a technical review, I took the time to establish the context for font issues as they pertain to representing Indigenous languages that have special characters. Southern Athapascan (Navajo & Apache) have 18 special characters, 35 if you count upper case, since the glottal does not have upper/lower, but everything else does. It is not too long, about 10 pages. Overall, it is pretty cool. (I think). Having an article published is so heady, you just have to share with your friends and colleagues. Happily, Mia _____ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From miroslawrajter at GMAIL.COM Wed Dec 19 17:21:34 2007 From: miroslawrajter at GMAIL.COM (Miroslaw Rajter) Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2007 12:21:34 -0500 Subject: Fonts article/Review of Fontographer In-Reply-To: <006701c84263$2705dbb0$881714ac@LFPMIA> Message-ID: Hi Mia, It is nice to meet you. Where is that link to your article? Greetings Miroslaw Polish Ethnolinguistic Expedition 2007/12/19, Mia Kalish : > > > > Hi, Everyone; > > > > I am excited to share the link to my article on Fonts and Fontographer. > Although this is a technical review, I took the time to establish the > context for font issues as they pertain to representing Indigenous languages > that have special characters. Southern Athapascan (Navajo & Apache) have 18 > special characters, 35 if you count upper case, since the glottal does not > have upper/lower, but everything else does. > > > > It is not too long, about 10 pages. Overall, it is pretty cool. (I think). > Having an article published is so heady, you just have to share with your > friends and colleagues. > > > > Happily, > > Mia > ------------------------------ > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US Wed Dec 19 17:35:32 2007 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (Mia Kalish) Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2007 10:35:32 -0700 Subject: Fonts article/Review of Fontographer: Real Link In-Reply-To: Message-ID: http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/ldc/December2007/techreviews/kalish.html Sorry! Too much excitement! Thanks, Miroslaw. Mia _____ From: Indigenous Languages and Technology [mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU] On Behalf Of Miroslaw Rajter Sent: Wednesday, December 19, 2007 10:22 AM To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Subject: Re: [ILAT] Fonts article/Review of Fontographer Hi Mia, It is nice to meet you. Where is that link to your article? Greetings Miroslaw Polish Ethnolinguistic Expedition 2007/12/19, Mia Kalish < MiaKalish at learningforpeople.us >: Hi, Everyone; I am excited to share the link to my article on Fonts and Fontographer. Although this is a technical review, I took the time to establish the context for font issues as they pertain to representing Indigenous languages that have special characters. Southern Athapascan (Navajo & Apache) have 18 special characters, 35 if you count upper case, since the glottal does not have upper/lower, but everything else does. It is not too long, about 10 pages. Overall, it is pretty cool. (I think). Having an article published is so heady, you just have to share with your friends and colleagues. Happily, Mia _____ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Thu Dec 20 19:12:19 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2007 12:12:19 -0700 Subject: The Government of Canada Supports Manitoba Métis Federation (fwd) Message-ID: The Government of Canada Supports Manitoba M?tis Federation http://news.gc.ca/web/view/en/index.jsp?articleid=369569 WINNIPEG, December 19, 2007 - On behalf of the Honourable Jos?e Verner, Minister of Canadian Heritage, Status of Women and Official Languages, the Honourable Vic Toews, President of the Treasury Board and Member of Parliament (Provencher), today announced funding for the Manitoba M?tis Federation (MMF). The Manitoba M?tis Federation will receive two contributions totalling more than $980,000. The $607,691 contribution for 2007-2008 will support 15 community-based projects for Aboriginal young people in all regions of Manitoba, centred on the themes of youth leadership, community involvement, and cultural, social, and health activities. The $375,000 contribution for 2007-2010 will go toward eight projects to preserve and promote the Michif language. "The Government of Canada is committed to improving the participation of First Nations, Inuit, and M?tis young people in Canadian society and to preserving and promoting Aboriginal languages," said Minister Verner. "These projects will give young people new opportunities to enhance their economic, social, and personal prospects and help M?tis communities to preserve their language," said Minister Toews. "The Manitoba M?tis Federation is dedicated to improving the lives of our people and is pleased to partner with Canadian Heritage on these important initiatives. The significant contribution of $982,691 will assist the MMF in revitalizing and strengthening our traditions and securing our future," said MMF President David Chartrand. "We are empowering our youth and the elderly with 15 essential community-based projects. We are inspiring hope with the preservation and revitalization of the Michif language of our ancestors. I thank Minister Verner and her colleagues for recognizing the need to preserve our culture as a part of a diverse Canada." The Government of Canada is providing the $607,691 investment under the Aboriginal Peoples' Program of the Department of Canadian Heritage. This program is aimed at increasing the participation of First Nations, Inuit, and M?tis people in Canadian society and strengthening their cultural revitalization. The contribution of $375,000 over three years is provided under the Aboriginal Languages Initiative of the Department of Canadian Heritage, which is aimed at preserving and promoting Aboriginal languages and culture. Information: Dominic Gosselin Press Secretary Office of the Minister of Canadian Heritage, Status of Women and Official Languages 819 997-7788 Donald Boulanger A/Chief, Media Relations Canadian Heritage From nflrc at HAWAII.EDU Thu Dec 20 21:32:26 2007 From: nflrc at HAWAII.EDU (National Foreign Language Resource Center) Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2007 11:32:26 -1000 Subject: 2008 SLRF Conference (Hawaii): Call for Proposals Message-ID: Our apologies for any cross-postings . . . * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The Department of Second Language Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa is pleased to announce. . . CALL FOR PROPOSALS: 31st Annual Second Language Research Forum (SLRF) October 17-19, 2008 University of Hawaii at Manoa Honolulu, Hawaii http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/slrf08/ Call begins: December 2007 (online proposal submissions - open mid-January, 2008) Call deadline: April 15, 2008 Notification of selection: Mid-May 2008 Theme: EXPLORING SLA: PERSPECTIVES, POSITIONS, AND PRACTICES Plenary speakers: - Dr. Harald Clahsen (University of Essex) - Dr. Alan Firth (Newcastle University) - Dr. Eva Lam (Northwestern University) - Dr. Richard Schmidt (University of Hawai'i at Manoa) We welcome all areas of second language research, including, but not limited to: - Instructed SLA - Acquisition of grammar and phonology - Child SLA - L2 Processing - Language and learner characteristics - Language and cognition - Discourse and interaction - Language and socialization - Bilingualism and multilingualism - Language and ideology - Literacy development - Learner corpora - Language learning and technology - Second language measurement 1) PAPERS: Individual papers will be allotted 20 minutes (plus 10 minutes for discussion). 2) POSTERS: Posters will be displayed for a full day. Posters are intended for one-on-one discussion or reports of work in progress. 3) COLLOQIUA: The colloquia/panels consist of individual paper presentations that relate to a specific or related topics of interest. They are offered in 2-hour sessions. Please see our website for submission instructions and additional updates: http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/slrf08/. Deadline for submissions is April 15, 2008. For any proposal submission questions, please contact the SLRF 2008 Program Chairs at slrf2008program at gmail.com. ************************************************************************* N National Foreign Language Resource Center F University of Hawai'i L 1859 East-West Road, #106 R Honolulu HI 96822 C voice: (808) 956-9424, fax: (808) 956-5983 email: nflrc at hawaii.edu VISIT OUR WEBSITE! http://nflrc.hawaii.edu ************************************************************************* From wjposer at LDC.UPENN.EDU Thu Dec 20 22:01:35 2007 From: wjposer at LDC.UPENN.EDU (William J Poser) Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2007 17:01:35 -0500 Subject: Rosetta Stone In-Reply-To: <003601c83d26$7ff20c40$8a3f14ac@LFPMIA> Message-ID: In principle I agree that it is desirable to train members of endangered language communities to do documentation and develop teaching materials. However, it is important to note that the relatively large groups with large numbers of speakers, are not a good model for the much smaller groups that are more typical at least in much of North America. Here in British Columbia, for example, with the exception of a few larger groups that spill over into BC, such as the Plains Cree, no indigenous language has more than 1,500 speakers and most have far fewer. Furthermore, dialects often differ considerably from community to community, and the people regard it as important to document and teach their particular dialect. In the case of the language that I mostly work with, Carrier, there are perhaps 1,000 total speakers, but they are very unevenly distributed. There are a couple of dialects that have perhaps 300 speakers each, and then a bunch of communities that have from a few dozen on down to four fluent speakers and a few semi-speakers. Not only are the speaker numbers small, so are the total populations. The Carrier band that has four fluent speakers left has a total membership of 266 people. It is also typical of language in BC that there are few if any young speakers, which means that the work must be done quickly if it is to be done at all. The upshot of this is that the people with the specialized skills to do the documentation and develop teaching materials are likely not to be available, and even if people with the right talents and motivation can be found, waiting for them to acquire the necessary training is undesirable. A further factor is that people with these talents will also likely be talented in other ways and may, out of community need, opportunity, or personal preference, spend their time doing something else. Granting that some tasks can be done by people without a lot of specialized training, you simply aren't going to get a good grammar, dictionary, or textbook from people without both a relatively rare set of talents and a considerable amount of training and experience. It is true that some people may acquire the necessary skills without formal education in linguistics and related fields, but even so, they are people with unusual talents and interests who have educated themselves over a considerable time. Given the relative rarity of people with these skills, the odds of finding even one such person in a group of a few hundred or even a few thousand people are poor. We can make a crude estimate on the basis of the Navajo Nation. Out of approximately 200,000 people, I would estimate that there are no more than 20 who have done serious work on documentation or the development of teaching materials. I won't list everyone I am thinking of so as not to insult anybody or trigger arguments about individuals, but I am including people with advanced degrees in linguistics like Elavina Tsosie Perkins and Mary Anne Willie, people like William Morgan, the co-author of the Navajo dictionary, and people more focussed on development of teaching materials, such as Irene Silentman. This yields a crude estimate of about one person in ten thousand. Even if this estimate is off by an order of magnitude, it means that in communities of the size typical in BC the odds of finding a good linguist/materials developer in the community are poor. Such smaller communities are likely to have to make use of people from outside the community. Bill From jgross at OREGONSTATE.EDU Thu Dec 20 22:44:15 2007 From: jgross at OREGONSTATE.EDU (Joan Gross) Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2007 14:44:15 -0800 Subject: 2008 SLRF Conference (Hawaii): Call for Proposals In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Unfortunate that this is exactly the same time as Lasso. jg On 12/20/07 1:32 PM, "National Foreign Language Resource Center" wrote: > Our apologies for any cross-postings . . . > > * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * > > The Department of Second Language Studies at the University of Hawaii at > Manoa is pleased to announce. . . > > CALL FOR PROPOSALS: > > 31st Annual Second Language Research Forum (SLRF) > October 17-19, 2008 > University of Hawaii at Manoa > Honolulu, Hawaii > http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/slrf08/ > > Call begins: December 2007 (online proposal submissions - open > mid-January, 2008) > Call deadline: April 15, 2008 > Notification of selection: Mid-May 2008 > > Theme: EXPLORING SLA: PERSPECTIVES, POSITIONS, AND PRACTICES > > Plenary speakers: > - Dr. Harald Clahsen (University of Essex) > - Dr. Alan Firth (Newcastle University) > - Dr. Eva Lam (Northwestern University) > - Dr. Richard Schmidt (University of Hawai'i at Manoa) > > > We welcome all areas of second language research, including, but not > limited to: > - Instructed SLA > - Acquisition of grammar and phonology > - Child SLA > - L2 Processing > - Language and learner characteristics > - Language and cognition > - Discourse and interaction > - Language and socialization > - Bilingualism and multilingualism > - Language and ideology > - Literacy development > - Learner corpora > - Language learning and technology > - Second language measurement > > > 1) PAPERS: > Individual papers will be allotted 20 minutes (plus 10 minutes for > discussion). > > 2) POSTERS: > Posters will be displayed for a full day. Posters are intended for > one-on-one discussion or reports of work in progress. > > 3) COLLOQIUA: > The colloquia/panels consist of individual paper presentations that relate > to a specific or related topics of interest. They are offered in 2-hour > sessions. > > > Please see our website for submission instructions and additional updates: > http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/slrf08/. > > Deadline for submissions is April 15, 2008. > > For any proposal submission questions, please contact the SLRF 2008 > Program Chairs at slrf2008program at gmail.com. > > > ************************************************************************* > N National Foreign Language Resource Center > F University of Hawai'i > L 1859 East-West Road, #106 > R Honolulu HI 96822 > C voice: (808) 956-9424, fax: (808) 956-5983 > email: nflrc at hawaii.edu > VISIT OUR WEBSITE! http://nflrc.hawaii.edu > ************************************************************************* From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Sat Dec 22 17:21:11 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Sat, 22 Dec 2007 10:21:11 -0700 Subject: Fwd: inquiry from Center for Applied Linguistics Message-ID: Greetings, I am forwarding an inquiry from Prof Frawley at CAL, UC Berkeley, regarding immersion camps.? He gave me his kind permission to post it here on ILAT.? So feel free to provide assistance if you are so inclined.? Let us know too!? Phil UofA ----- Forwarded message from billfrawley at gmail.com ----- Date: Fri, 21 Dec 2007 14:22:39 -0500 From: William Frawley We are writing to you under the aegis of the Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL) to ask your help with a CAL project involving Native American language immersion camps. CAL is one of several partners in the Alliance for the Advancement of Heritage Languages (http://www.cal.org/heritage/index.html), an organization devoted to the preservation, instruction, and advancement of heritage languages in the United States. Part of the Alliance's efforts is the inventory and documentation of US heritage language programs in all their forms - community-based, school-based, independent, etc. -- in order to have a comprehensive database to assist instruction, assessment, research, policy, and advocacy. We are having difficulty locating and documentingNative American language immersion camps, and to make the database as comprehensive as possible, we need information on them. Knowing your position in the field, we would like to ask you if you would be able to help us identify such camps. Would you be able to provide leads or introductions to the program directors and/or tribes running these camps? We have a standard set of questions that we ask about all heritage language programs, but to ask these questions of Native American language camps, we first need to locate them and then have contact with someone who administers them. Any help you might provide in this respect would be greatly appreciated. Please respond to Bill Frawley at bfrawley at cal.org. Bill Frawley, Center for Applied Linguistics Erin Haynes, Center for Applied Linguistics, UC Berkeley ----- End forwarded message ----- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Sun Dec 23 17:44:47 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Sun, 23 Dec 2007 10:44:47 -0700 Subject: Fwd: Donate a $200 computer to a child in a developing nation, get one yourself Message-ID: You may have heard about the $200 laptop computer designed to enable children in developing countries to have access to modern technology. There is a special offer going on now, in which you can donate to purchase a computer for a child and receive one yourself. The offer ends December 31. (The computers can be powered by winding them up, or connecting to solar panels, but these sources cost extra, at least for the computer you would receive.) Presumably you can get a tax break for a donation, and also get a computer your own child, or a child of a friend, could use, or you could simply make a donation. The link to their website is: http://www.laptopgiving.org/en/index.php Rudy P.S. You may want to pass this on to interested friends or other lists. ----- End forwarded message ----- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From andrekar at NCIDC.ORG Fri Dec 28 00:05:46 2007 From: andrekar at NCIDC.ORG (Andre Cramblit) Date: Thu, 27 Dec 2007 16:05:46 -0800 Subject: Harrington Project Message-ID: Preserving California's native languages DATABASE TEAM DECIPHERS A MILLION PAGES OF NOTES By Lisa Krieger Mercury News Article Launched: 12/24/2007 06:09:25 AM PST Click photo to enlarge ? Martha Macri holds up a reel of microfilm containing written notes by J.P.... ( Gary Reyes ) Bringing voices from the grave, volunteers at the University of California-Davis are working to decipher nearly a million pages of notes from conversations with long-gone Native Californians, reviving more than 100 languages from the distant past. Word by word, they type the scribbled and cryptic notes left by John Peabody Harrington, an eccentric and tireless linguist who in the early 1900s traveled throughout California interviewing the last surviving speakers of many native tongues, including the local Muwekma Ohlone tribe. Their effort to organize a database of Harrington's vast material will build a Rosetta Stone for these languages and their dialects, creating dictionaries of words, phrases and tribal tales and customs that were destined to disappear. "It is an enormous amount, and it is incredibly difficult to read," said Martha Macri, director of the UC-Davis Native American Language Center and co-director of the effort to computerize Harrington's papers. "He was totally obsessive. We've become a bit obsessive ourselves." His notes tell tales about rocks of gold discovered on Mount Diablo, superstitions ("If any man throws at this eagle rock and hits it, his wife will bear him twins") and ordinary customs ("The women are carrying tule on their backs.") Most are mere phrases ("itr-rezk, used to stab a pig" or "chiqueon, a person who hesitates taking food.") Harrington's Advertisement work San Jose native Margaret Cayward is using his notes to study native music as part of her doctoral thesis at UC-Davis. "It's helping us rediscover old knowledge and values in the music," she said. "Music was a major part of life for Californians, with ritual or sacred significance." In Fremont, descendants of the Muwekma Ohlone tribe used his notes to create Chochenyo flash cards, puzzles and bingo games for their children. In Macri's office, eight large file cabinets are filled with 182 reels of microfilmed images of Harrington's work, copied from his original papers that are stored at the Smithsonian Institution's warehouse in Silver Hill, Md. Each reel, costing $1,000, contains 500 to 2,000 pages of material. Seven years into the Harrington project, funded by the National Science Foundation, it is about two-thirds complete. Many of the project's most devoted volunteers are Native Californians; one person, alone, has transcribed over 3,000 pages. "They have changed my life," said Linda Yamane of Seaside, who based her book of Ohlone tales, called "The Snake That Lived in the Santa Cruz Mountains," on his notes. "Along with a lot of hard work and perseverance, they've made it possible to bring back my Rumsien (Monterey area) Ohlone language and other cultural traditions from the brink of extinction." Hired in 1915 by the Smithsonian Institution, Harrington spent four decades wandering California with unbounded freedom to document languages before they disappeared. It was a time when Native Californians faced fierce discrimination. Few elders spoke the languages to children, so little information was passed on for future generations. "They trusted him," said Bev Ortiz, an anthropologist at California State University-East Bay. "The tribal elders had the wisdom and courage to see that the time would come when it would not be bad to be an Indian - and the language would be there for their descendants." Harrington traveled by car and on foot to find surviving speakers, collecting maps, photographs, and plant and animal specimens along the way. One camping trip, on horseback, took him through the rugged Santa Lucia Mountains. Gifted in phonetics and lexicography, "he spent more of his waking hours, week in and week out, transcribing Indian languages than doing any other conscious thing," said Victor Golla of Humboldt State University. "No linguist, before or since, ever spent so much time engaged in the field collection of primary data." Hidden from colleagues Yet Harrington published little of his work. Although he sent back reports to the Smithsonian, many of his notes seem to have been deliberately hidden from colleagues. "I think he thought he'd get back to them," said Kathryn Klar, a UC- Berkeley anthropologist. "He was a top linguist of his time, and he didn't want to be under the thumb of those with lesser training." After his death in 1961, as Smithsonian curators began cataloging his papers, they discovered stockpiles of boxes stored in warehouses, garages and even chicken coops throughout the West. Six tons of material - among them Indian-made flutes, Kachina dolls, dead birds and tarantulas, baskets, rocks, empty soup cans, half- eaten sandwiches, dirty laundry and two shrunken heads from the Amazon - eventually arrived at the Smithsonian, filling two warehouses. Mixed with the squalor were invaluable photographs, sketches, maps, correspondence and expense accounts - along with extensive translations, a linguistic treasure of the highest order. "The collection is an American treasure," Klar said. For the Harrington project workers, the central challenge is understanding material that Harrington never meant to share. His translations of native words are littered with puzzling abbreviations. And his notations do not represent a standardized phonology, just impressionistic phonetics. Also troubling is his practice of shifting, over the years, the symbols used when transcribing sounds into words. The bilingual Harrington wrote many translations in old California Spanish, with idiosyncratic spelling. And much of his material is disorganized, with notes about one language interspersed with those of another. "There was a method in his madness. He was trying to get as much down as fast as could," Klar said. "But reading it takes endless patience." Despite the frustrations, the Harrington project team says its efforts are slowly shedding light on a long-lost way of life - and educating a proud new generation of Native Californians about the ways of their ancestors. "This is not an academic exercise. It is peoples' lives," said Sheri Tatsch, a Native American postdoctoral scholar with the project. "We're learning not only about the languages, but day-to-day life - the culture and customs, the politics. A language is a universe; it's family, society, religious practices. When you start pulling it out, you start to understand." "These languages never died," she said. "They were just sleeping." IF YOU'RE INTERESTED To learn more about the Harrington project, visit: nas.ucdavis.edu/ NALC/JPH.html. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: 20071224__language24~1_Viewer.JPG.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 6130 bytes Desc: not available URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Fri Dec 28 20:37:29 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2007 13:37:29 -0700 Subject: School board faces Native language issue (fwd link) Message-ID: School board faces Native language issue December 27, 2007 at 11:59AM AKST THE FISHERMAN STAFF Next year may see the return of instruction in Unangam Tunuu ? the Native language spoken by the indigenous people of the Aleutian Islands ? in the Unalaska City School District. That's the hope of Katherine McGlashan, an Unangan/Aleut herself, and an active group of Unalaska residents, including educators, former teachers, parents, the Museum of the Aleutians and Ounalashka Corp., the representative Alaska Native corporation. To access full article, follow the link below: http://www.thedutchharborfisherman.com/news/show/1049 From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Fri Dec 28 20:39:55 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2007 13:39:55 -0700 Subject: Protecting Native American Languages and Culture (fwd link) Message-ID: Protecting Native American Languages and Culture The last of our four-part series on keeping traditions alive. Transcript of radio broadcast: 25 December 2007 http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/2007-12-25-voa2.cfm From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Fri Dec 28 20:42:31 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2007 13:42:31 -0700 Subject: Apache language in home remains important for overall retention (fwd link) Message-ID: Apache language in home remains important for overall retention Published: Wednesday, December 26, 2007 11:43 AM CST (Second in five-part series) Last week I wrote about our Community Language Survey and what it shows about the rate of decline in people speaking Apache. This week I want to write about why. What did the survey reveal about people's reasons for not speaking Apache? The answers involve a ?vicious cycle? and a language program in Hawaii. The vicious cycle is this: people aren't learning Apache because they don't hear it at home, and they don't hear it at home because people aren't learning it. There are basically two types of non-speakers in our community. The first kind are the people who don't speak Apache because they don't know how. The second kind are the people who can speak Apache, but they speak English instead. Our program for language renewal needs to be aware of both of these groups, so that people who don't speak Apache can learn it, if they want, and people who do speak Apache will feel comfortable using their language skills. To access full article, follow the link below: http://www.silverbelt.com/articles/2007/12/26/apache_moccasin/apache04.txt From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Dec 31 01:47:39 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Sun, 30 Dec 2007 18:47:39 -0700 Subject: Henrietta Yurchenco, Pioneer Folklorist, Dies at 91 (fwd link) Message-ID: Henrietta Yurchenco, Pioneer Folklorist, Dies at 91 By DOUGLAS MARTIN Published: December 14, 2007 Henrietta Yurchenco, whose quest to save living music from the past took her from the mountains of Guatemala and southern Mexico to a New York City radio station to the Jewish community of Morocco, died Monday in Manhattan. She was 91. The cause was lung failure, her son, Peter, said. Like a linguist nailing down a dying language, Ms. Yurchenco, an ethnomusicologist, recorded music from long ago that faced an unclear tomorrow. In an interview, Pete Seeger said she ?went to places people didn?t believe she would be able to find.? Among her thousands of recordings are ritual songs from North, South and Central American Indians, including peyote chants, and music celebrating everything from love to agriculture, found from Eastern Europe to the Caribbean to Appalachia to Spain. To access the full article, just follow the link below: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/14/arts/14yurchenco.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin From MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US Mon Dec 31 18:21:45 2007 From: MiaKalish at LEARNINGFORPEOPLE.US (Mia Kalish) Date: Mon, 31 Dec 2007 11:21:45 -0700 Subject: Rosetta Stone In-Reply-To: <20071220220135.5F7D4B2572@lorax.ldc.upenn.edu> Message-ID: I have to agree with Bill on this, on all points. While I know that many people have been working on these issues for entire lifetimes, and that my 8 years or so is trifling in comparison, I have found that in the creation of language learning technology, the difficulties are compounded by issues of information "being snatched out of the air." However, on a new dimension, these issues are appearing to be relatively minor in comparison with the issue of preparing technical information in the Indigenous language. In this regard, I have started an iPod project at the College where all the information must be in Din? Bizaad. The struggles to speak the technology are enormous. Discussions of how to talk about "iPod" (just this one word) are ongoing, and no resolution has been reached. Shortly after the Maori announced the availability of Windows and MS Office, I spoke with the project director. She told me about the incredible effort they engaged in developing the technical vocabulary. They needed about 675,000 words to define that interface. Although this seems like an enormous number, this is - relatively speaking - a "small" interface. Imagine the effort necessary to create a domain lexicon for Cognitive Psychology, or Physics. How about Mathematics? Some (many) languages don't even seem to have a memory - or perhaps a cognitive concept - of numericalization and serialization. How do we go there? I once worked with an Elder, someone reasonably fluent in 3 related Amerind languages, and who had been a math teacher, who had difficulty counting to 100 in her first language. Personally, I think Powell did the world a huge injustice when his prescriptive document on words to be collected for Amerind languages did not include any technical, mathematical, or scientific lexicons. His anthropological focus on food, clothing, and puberty rites did both the civilizations and us an enormous disservice from which we may never recover. [I really think we should unname Lake Powell and rename it something like Lake Whalen. :-)] Bill talked about the speaker populations, but didn't mention that in immersion learning - as when we are children in a cultural and linguistic milieu - we hear the language being spoken around us. We see signs and cultural symbols, so we learn by having the information soak into us, so to speak. Multi-perceptual soaking is much faster, easier, and probably more reliable than the results of the linear cognitive efforts necessary to apprehend, relate and assimilate the typical text-based presentations used in language classes even today, in a world rich and rife with multimedia. I have a little vignette to share, one that in its many perspectives flashes brightly on the different issues we cope with today, not only in revitalization but also in education: One of my friends, who has a PhD in Linguistics, has a grandson in 1st grade. This child has been raised in a liberal, educated household with two older brothers, both of whom have sophisticated interests, and both of whom have found interests that allow them to be totally involved in spite of a genetic dyslexia that challenges their reading and spelling. This small grandchild has been presented with gray-on-sort-of-white "worksheets" - especially those things called "Fast Puppies" - in kindergarten, and in the fall semester of first grade. The child does between 3 and 6 of the 25 or so repetitive problems, and then stops. His teachers are frustrated because they can't threaten or intimidate him into finishing (word choice here - threaten or intimidate - is deliberate and sadly, accurate). How many people think the child stops because he is incapable of finishing? None. Good. The child stops because in 3-6 problems he has groked the entire learning goal of the unattractive, non-interactive and consequently non-responsive "worksheet." Put in common terminology, He stops because he is bored. There is nothing there to attract or hold his interest, and nothing to tell him why he might want to complete the 25 or so problems. I should probably now clue you in to the fact that the small child is also a computer whiz, for his age, and helps his grandmother figure out things. I will end here, because there are many, many entailments in this last statement. Best to everyone, Mia -----Original Message----- From: Indigenous Languages and Technology [mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU] On Behalf Of William J Poser Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2007 3:02 PM To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Subject: Re: [ILAT] Rosetta Stone In principle I agree that it is desirable to train members of endangered language communities to do documentation and develop teaching materials. However, it is important to note that the relatively large groups with large numbers of speakers, are not a good model for the much smaller groups that are more typical at least in much of North America. Here in British Columbia, for example, with the exception of a few larger groups that spill over into BC, such as the Plains Cree, no indigenous language has more than 1,500 speakers and most have far fewer. Furthermore, dialects often differ considerably from community to community, and the people regard it as important to document and teach their particular dialect. In the case of the language that I mostly work with, Carrier, there are perhaps 1,000 total speakers, but they are very unevenly distributed. There are a couple of dialects that have perhaps 300 speakers each, and then a bunch of communities that have from a few dozen on down to four fluent speakers and a few semi-speakers. Not only are the speaker numbers small, so are the total populations. The Carrier band that has four fluent speakers left has a total membership of 266 people. It is also typical of language in BC that there are few if any young speakers, which means that the work must be done quickly if it is to be done at all. The upshot of this is that the people with the specialized skills to do the documentation and develop teaching materials are likely not to be available, and even if people with the right talents and motivation can be found, waiting for them to acquire the necessary training is undesirable. A further factor is that people with these talents will also likely be talented in other ways and may, out of community need, opportunity, or personal preference, spend their time doing something else. Granting that some tasks can be done by people without a lot of specialized training, you simply aren't going to get a good grammar, dictionary, or textbook from people without both a relatively rare set of talents and a considerable amount of training and experience. It is true that some people may acquire the necessary skills without formal education in linguistics and related fields, but even so, they are people with unusual talents and interests who have educated themselves over a considerable time. Given the relative rarity of people with these skills, the odds of finding even one such person in a group of a few hundred or even a few thousand people are poor. We can make a crude estimate on the basis of the Navajo Nation. Out of approximately 200,000 people, I would estimate that there are no more than 20 who have done serious work on documentation or the development of teaching materials. I won't list everyone I am thinking of so as not to insult anybody or trigger arguments about individuals, but I am including people with advanced degrees in linguistics like Elavina Tsosie Perkins and Mary Anne Willie, people like William Morgan, the co-author of the Navajo dictionary, and people more focussed on development of teaching materials, such as Irene Silentman. This yields a crude estimate of about one person in ten thousand. Even if this estimate is off by an order of magnitude, it means that in communities of the size typical in BC the odds of finding a good linguist/materials developer in the community are poor. Such smaller communities are likely to have to make use of people from outside the community. Bill From dzo at BISHARAT.NET Mon Dec 31 18:55:21 2007 From: dzo at BISHARAT.NET (Don Osborn) Date: Mon, 31 Dec 2007 13:55:21 -0500 Subject: 2008 is "International Year of Languages" Message-ID: Greetings and Happy New Year to all, The year 2008 has been proclaimed International Year of Languages by the United Nations General Assembly. UNESCO, which has been entrusted with the task of coordinating activities for the Year, is determined to fulfill its role as lead agency. Message from Mr Ko?chiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO, on the celebration of 2008, International Year of Languages http://portal.unesco.org/culture/en/ev.php-URL_ID=35559 &URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html More than 50% of the 7,000 languages spoken in the world may disappear. Less than a quarter of those languages are currently used in schools and in cyberspace, and most are used only. We must act now as a matter of urgency. How? By encouraging and developing language policies that enable each linguistic community to use its first language, or mother tongue, as widely and as often as possible, including in education, while also mastering a national or regional language and an international language. Also by encouraging speakers of a dominant language to master another national or regional language and one or two international languages. Only if multilingualism is fully accepted can all languages find their place in our globalized world. sporadically. UNESCO therefore invites governments, United Nations organizations, civil society organizations, educational institutions, professional associations and all other stakeholders to increase their own activities to foster respect for, and the promotion and protection of all languages, particularly endangered languages, in all individual and collective contexts UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY PROCLAIMS 2008 INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF LANGUAGES TO PROMOTE UNITY IN DIVERSITY, GLOBAL UNDERSTANDING http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2007/ga10592.doc.htm 2008 International Year of Languages at Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Year_of_Languages 2008 International Year of Languages at Facebook http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=19666430768 [With thanks to Gustavo Lucardi for the formatting concept of this message] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dzo at BISHARAT.NET Mon Dec 31 19:04:02 2007 From: dzo at BISHARAT.NET (Don Osborn) Date: Mon, 31 Dec 2007 14:04:02 -0500 Subject: IYL 2008: Stop punishing kids for speaking mother tongue? Message-ID: Whatever else does or does not happen with International Year of Langauges 2008, it would be a success if it could achieve even this one result: That children are no longer beaten, shamed, or otherwise punished for speaking their mother tongue. Whatever this means for curricula or teaching methods is secondary - i.e., adapt to the learning approaches to the linguistic realities. Reason I bring this up is that I just received a letter from a Tanzanian working on a project in the north of that country who mentioned this practice. In this case it was children who speak Maasai being told in class that they'd be beaten if they spoke anything other than Swahili, but similar approaches still exist in lots of places (substitute the languages and perhaps the punishment). Don Osborn -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Dec 31 20:07:13 2007 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (phil cash cash) Date: Mon, 31 Dec 2007 13:07:13 -0700 Subject: more on "2008 - International Year of Languages" Message-ID: 2008 - International Year of Languages As we enter 2008, we are reminded to reflect on the unique status of human languages in the world. Never before has our humanity witnessed such a dramatic decline in our linguistic and cultural diversity. "The loss of local languages and of the cultural systems which they express, has meant irretrievable loss of diverse and interesting intellectual wealth. Only with diversity can it be guaranteed that all avenues of human intellectual progress will be traveled." Ken Hale, 1992. At the same time, we are also witness to the resurgence of indigenous/aboriginal activism with its emphasis on language revival, language maintenance, and the creation of new speakers. Around the world, linguists, linguistic anthropologists, and film makers are steadily embarking on documentation projects to record what may possibly be the last words of a uniquely spoken language. In 1996, it was estimated that at least 6,703 separate languages were spoken in the world (LSA web page). Elsewhere, it was also estimated that in every two weeks time, a language was known to lose its last speaker and thus become extinct (LT web page). Let's do a little math here. Every year 26 languages will go extinct. Every decade 260 languages will go extinct. So, in 2008, at least 312 languages have gone extinct since the 1996 census. This estimate leaves us with at least 6,391 viable languages yet existing in the world. Understandably though, these numbers are ONLY estimates and the realities of language loss are relatively unknown. The looming threat of losing one's language, however, is very real and for many indigenous/aboriginal communities the future is uncertain. Undeniably, most all of us--indigenous/aboriginal communities, linguists, anthropologists, students, & interested observers--recognize that our language(s) and culture matter. Further, UNESCO recognizes that our "cultural diversity is closely linked to linguistic diversity." So "How can one help?" you ask. Become an everyday language activist! 1) Get the message out concerning language endangerment. Create awareness. 2) Become an expert on the suppression of linguistic and cultural diversity. 3) Create your own web site, blog, and/or listserv supporting an endangered language. 4) Get media coverage and tell a dramatic human story on language endangerment & revitalization. 5) Raise money and contribute to foundations supporting language endangerment (ELF, FEL, ILI, etc)! 6) Raise money and contribute directly to community-based language documentation/revitalization projects. 7) Donate material resources or in-kind contributions directly to endangered language communities. 8) Devote part or all of your scholarly/graduate career on documenting an endangered language. 9) Support community advocacy and grass-roots efforts on language endangerment issues. 10) Organize a sponsored event supporting community advocacy or language endangerment issues. Take this moment in time to reflect upon the unlimited possibilities for change in the way we think about language endangerment and linguistic/cultural diversity. Can you make a difference? Yes, absolutely! Phil Cash Cash (Cayuse/Nez Perce) University of Arizona ps: feel free to distribute this email to your favorite list or blog! Web Pages Cited What Is an Endangered Language? Linguistic Society of America (LSA) http://www.lsadc.org/info/ling-faqs-endanger.cfm Living Tongues (LT) Institute for Endangered Languages http://www.livingtongues.org/ Message from Mr Ko?chiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO, on the celebration of 2008, International Year of Languages http://portal.unesco.org/culture/en/ev.php-URL_ID=35559&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html