LSA CELP: Native American language revitalization letter-writing campaign

[Linn, Mary S.]

Hello ILATers,

As a professional organization, the Linguistic Society of America (LSA) may not have much profile in indigenous communities, and this is too bad. The website for LSA is http://www.lsadc.org/. It is rather clunky now, but they are working to update its style and content.

Hopefully, the expanded activities of the LSA Committee on Endangered Languages and their Preservation (CELP) will have more relevance to the average person and to endangered language communities, including this writing campaign to get the president of the US to sign an executive order. The committee also sponsors more applied workshops at the LSA annual meeting, including workshops on language description and revitalization, and a retrospective of projects sponsored by NSF Documenting Endangered Languages grants in an effort to call to light the importance of these projects. CELP is working with another committee to start an LSA award that will honor indigenous language teachers/mentors/linguists around the world. The website for CELP is found at http://www.lsadc.org/info/lsa-comm-endanger.cfm

I hope this short introduction to LSA and CELP helps.

Mary


Mary S. Linn
Associate Curator, Native American Languages
Associate Professor, Anthropology
Adjunct Associate Professor, Native American Studies

Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History
University of Oklahoma
2401 Chautauqua Avenue
Norman, OK 73072
405-325-7588 (voice)
405-325-7699 (fax)

________________________________________
From: Indigenous Languages and Technology [ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU] on behalf of Phillip E Cash Cash [cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU]
Sent: Monday, November 28, 2011 3:01 PM
To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
Subject: Re: [ILAT] LSA CELP: Native American language revitalization letter-writing campaign

I have often heard/received the same question from within the native
community, "What is the LSA?"

Phil Cash Cash
UofA

On 11/28/2011, Carol Genetti <cgenetti at linguistics.ucsb.edu> wrote:
> It is the Linguistic Society of America -- I believe it is the largest
> professional organization of linguists in the world.
>
> Best,
> Carol
>
> --On Monday, November 28, 2011 11:21 AM -0600 Mary Hermes <mhermes at UMN.EDU>
> wrote:
>
>> Sorry, what is the LSA?
>>
>> --------------------------------------------
>> Mary Hermes, PhD
>> Associate and Visiting Professor, 2011-12
>> Curriculum and Instruction
>> University of Minnesota
>>
>>
>>
>> On Nov 28, 2011, at 11:19 AM, Andrea L. Berez wrote:
>>
>>> Dear ILAT List members,
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> The LSA Committee on Endangered Languages and their Preservation (CELP)
>>> is requesting the help of the entire linguistics and language activism
>>> community. You may recall that last April the LSA passed a resolution
>>> urging President Obama to sign an executive order on Native American
>>> language revitalization
>>> (http://www.lsadc.org/info/lsa-res-native-american.cfm). CELP is now
>>> following this up by instituting a letter-writing campaign to President
>>> Obama, in order to convey to the White House our support for this
>>> important issue.
>>>
>>>
>>> We are encouraging all of you to write letters and become agents of
>>> positive change. Writing a letter is easy ? it takes just a few clicks
>>> on the CELP website: www.lsacelp.org.
>>>
>>>
>>>  There are three ways to help!
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> 1. Simple, effective, and really fast:
>>>
>>> -Go to http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact
>>>
>>> -Fill out the form. In the drop-down list for ?> the Subject box, select
>>> ?Education.?
>>>
>>> -In the message box, copy and paste the ?> letter found at the bottom of
>>> our webpage http://lsacelp.org/take-action/ and type your name at the
>>> end.
>>>
>>> -Solve the captcha by typing the word or phrase given in the box. Press
>>> send, and you?re done!
>>>
>>>
>>> 2. More effective and almost as fast:
>>>
>>> -Copy and paste the letter found at http://lsacelp.org/take-action/ into
>>> a word processor such as Microsoft Word.
>>>
>>> -Type today?s date at the top of the letter.
>>>
>>> -Print it out and sign it.
>>>
>>> -Mail it to: ?> President Barack Obama?> The White House?> 1600
>>> Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20500
>>>
>>>
>>> 3. Most effective:
>>>
>>> -Write your own letter in your own words. Let President Obama and the
>>> Whtie House know why this issue is important to you!
>>>
>>> -Use the link above to send your letter electronically, or print and
>>> sign your letter and mail it to the White House.
>>>
>>>
>>> Thank you very much for your attention. We value your participation and
>>> all the work that you do in the furtherance of Indigenous language
>>> revitalization.
>>>
>>>
>>> Yours truly,
>>>
>>>
>>> Carol Genetti
>>>
>>> Chair
>>>
>>> LSA Committee on Endangered Languages and their Preservation
>>>
>