From susan.penfield at GMAIL.COM Thu Mar 1 02:28:36 2012 From: susan.penfield at GMAIL.COM (Susan Penfield) Date: Wed, 29 Feb 2012 19:28:36 -0700 Subject: Clan Conference Message-ID: *http://ankn.uaf.edu/ClanConference2/* * * ** *“Sharing Our Knowledge” is a multi-disciplinary conference that includes artists, academics, students and other learners meeting with Alaska Native tradition bearers, elders, and fluent speakers to discuss subjects such as linguistics, archaeology, art and music, Alaska Native history, museum studies, cultural anthropology, indigenous law and protocols, fisheries, and traditional ecological knowledge.* *For information: metcom at gci.net Tlingit Readers, Inc., 3740 N. Douglas Hwy, Juneau, AK 99801* -- ********************************************************************************************** *Susan D. Penfield, Ph.D. * Research Coordinator, CERCLL, Center for Educational Resources in Culture, Language and Literacy CONFLUENCE, Center for Creative Inquiry University of Arizona Phone: (520) 626-8071 Fax: (520) 626-3313 Website: cercll.arizona.edu -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jieikobu at HOTMAIL.COM Thu Mar 1 08:03:40 2012 From: jieikobu at HOTMAIL.COM (Derksen Jacob) Date: Thu, 1 Mar 2012 08:03:40 +0000 Subject: The fight for Irish language revitalization Message-ID: http://www.independent.ie/business/exboxer-dunne-fights-for-irish-3036572.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From susan.penfield at GMAIL.COM Fri Mar 2 04:12:46 2012 From: susan.penfield at GMAIL.COM (Susan Penfield) Date: Thu, 1 Mar 2012 21:12:46 -0700 Subject: Speaking Place.Org Message-ID: A new and useful resource: Speaking Place is at www.speakingplace.org -- ********************************************************************************************** *Susan D. Penfield, Ph.D. * Research Coordinator, CERCLL, Center for Educational Resources in Culture, Language and Literacy CONFLUENCE, Center for Creative Inquiry University of Arizona Phone: (520) 626-8071 Fax: (520) 626-3313 Website: cercll.arizona.edu -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From susan.penfield at GMAIL.COM Fri Mar 2 04:16:15 2012 From: susan.penfield at GMAIL.COM (Susan Penfield) Date: Thu, 1 Mar 2012 21:16:15 -0700 Subject: Passamaquoddy -Maliseet Language Portal Message-ID: A great new addition to Passamaquoddy efforts! www.PMPortal.org -- ********************************************************************************************** *Susan D. Penfield, Ph.D. * Research Coordinator, CERCLL, Center for Educational Resources in Culture, Language and Literacy CONFLUENCE, Center for Creative Inquiry University of Arizona Phone: (520) 626-8071 Fax: (520) 626-3313 Website: cercll.arizona.edu -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From renaewn at GMAIL.COM Fri Mar 2 22:45:42 2012 From: renaewn at GMAIL.COM (=?windows-1252?Q?Kathy_Wallen?=) Date: Fri, 2 Mar 2012 15:45:42 -0700 Subject: Native American Languages Could Count For Class Credit (fwd link) Message-ID: Dagoteh, It is great reading of all these different colleges and universities offering Native languages. Gonltee! In our community of Cibecue on the White Mountain Apache reservation. Our Dischii'bikoh High School requires Apache language to be taken in order to graduate. Nih yaa gozhoo doleel, Kathy Wallen K-8th Apache Language Teacher Dischii'bikoh Community School From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Sat Mar 3 06:30:40 2012 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phillip E Cash Cash) Date: Fri, 2 Mar 2012 23:30:40 -0700 Subject: Why Our Culture Is in Our Genes (fwd link) Message-ID: MIND & MATTER March 2, 2012, 6:31 p.m. ET Why Our Culture Is in Our Genes By MATT RIDLEY The island of Gaua, part of Vanuatu in the Pacific, is just 13 miles across, yet it has five distinct native languages. Papua New Guinea, an area only slightly bigger than Texas, has 800 languages, some spoken by just a few thousand people. "Wired for Culture," a remarkable new book by Mark Pagel, an American evolutionary biologist based in England, sets out to explain this peculiar human property of fragmenting into mutually uncomprehending cultural groups. His explanation is unsettling. Access full article below: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204653604577249464154315128.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Sat Mar 3 06:44:32 2012 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phillip E Cash Cash) Date: Fri, 2 Mar 2012 23:44:32 -0700 Subject: NW tribes strive to save disappearing languages (fwd link) Message-ID: NW tribes strive to save disappearing languages By Crystal Price KVAL News Published: Mar 2, 2012 at 10:08 PM PST EUGENE, Ore. - Virginia Beavert grew up in a little village just down the road from Yakima, Wash. Beavert did not go to government school. However, the Yakama native did learned to speak several different languages while growing up. "My first language was Nez Perce," Beavert said. "My father was from Umatilla, and I learned his language. My mother spoke Yakama, so I learned that, too." But now some of those languages she's learned have disappeared altogether. "Klickitat is no longer spoken," Beavert said. "I can read the language, but I'm the only one." According to the Northwest Indian Language Institute (NILI), only 5 out of the 26 original Native American languages in Oregon are still spoken. Access full article below: http://www.kval.com/news/local/NW-tribes--to-save-disappearing-languages-141255843.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From hsouter at GMAIL.COM Sat Mar 3 21:32:40 2012 From: hsouter at GMAIL.COM (Heather Souter) Date: Sat, 3 Mar 2012 15:32:40 -0600 Subject: Why Our Culture Is in Our Genes (fwd link) In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Taanshi.... Finally some scientific research that can link systemic depravation of indigenous languages to ethnic cleansing/genocide...?! Eekoshi pitamaa.... Heather Souter (Guiboche) Sent from my iPhone On 2012-03-03, at 12:30 AM, Phillip E Cash Cash wrote: > MIND & MATTER > March 2, 2012, 6:31 p.m. ET > > Why Our Culture Is in Our Genes > > By MATT RIDLEY > > The island of Gaua, part of Vanuatu in the Pacific, is just 13 miles across, yet it has five distinct native languages. Papua New Guinea, an area only slightly bigger than Texas, has 800 languages, some spoken by just a few thousand people. "Wired for Culture," a remarkable new book by Mark Pagel, an American evolutionary biologist based in England, sets out to explain this peculiar human property of fragmenting into mutually uncomprehending cultural groups. His explanation is unsettling. > > Access full article below: > http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204653604577249464154315128.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Mar 5 21:23:54 2012 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phillip E Cash Cash) Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2012 14:23:54 -0700 Subject: A Road Trip In Search Of America's Lost Languages (fwd link) Message-ID: A Road Trip In Search Of America's Lost Languages By NPR STAFF 6:57 - Listen [media link available] USA The vast majority of the 175 indigenous languages still spoken in the United States are on the verge of extinction. Linguist Elizabeth Little spent two years driving all over the country looking for the few remaining pockets where those languages are still spoken — from the scores of Native American tongues, to the Creole of Louisiana. The resulting book is Trip of the Tongue: Cross-Country Travels in Search of America's Lost Languages. "I put, I think, 25,000 miles on my poor, long-lost Subaru that has since been consigned to the afterlife for cars," she tells Jackie Lyden, guest host of weekends on All Things Considered. Access full article below: http://www.nhpr.org/post/road-trip-search-americas-lost-languages -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Mar 5 21:29:49 2012 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phillip E Cash Cash) Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2012 14:29:49 -0700 Subject: Technology Rescues Dying Languages (fwd link) Message-ID: March 05, 2012 Technology Rescues Dying Languages Tribal teens now texting in native tongue Tom Banse | Vancouver, Canada [media link available] In our interconnected world, global languages like English, Spanish and Chinese are increasingly dominant. But there are some 7,000 other languages spoken around the world and linguists say up to half of them are at risk of disappearing by the end of the century. That works out to one language going extinct every two weeks. Now, some defenders are turning to technology in hopes of reversing that trend. Access full article below: http://www.voanews.com/english/news/usa/Technology-Comes-to-Rescue-of-Dying-Languages-141414953.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Mar 5 21:32:06 2012 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phillip E Cash Cash) Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2012 14:32:06 -0700 Subject: IPhone app teaches language and culture to Lakota children (fwd link) Message-ID: IPhone app teaches language and culture to Lakota children Ruth Moon Journal staff | Posted: Monday, March 5, 2012 6:00 am USA A new iPhone application combines centuries-old Native American culture and cutting-edge smartphone technology to teach youngsters the Lakota language. The Lakota Toddler app, now available for free in the iTunes store, is the second app by software developers Isreal Shortman and Rusty Calder. The two developers worked with Arlo Iron Cloud, the morning radio announcer for KILI Radio in Porcupine, to create an app that teaches Lakota vocabulary through text, pictures and sounds. Read more: http://rapidcityjournal.com/news/iphone-app-teaches-language-and-culture-to-lakota-children/article_d80d5274-6669-11e1-a2d9-001871e3ce6c.html#ixzz1oHRRZPCM -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Mar 5 21:38:36 2012 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phillip E Cash Cash) Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2012 14:38:36 -0700 Subject: Statement on the doctrine of discovery and its enduring impact on Indigenous Peoples (fwd link) Message-ID: *Document date: *17.02.2012 Statement on the doctrine of discovery and its enduring impact on Indigenous Peoples WCC Executive Committee 14-17 February 2012 Bossey, Switzerland Access full article below: http://www.oikoumene.org/en/resources/documents/executive-committee/bossey-february-2012/statement-on-the-doctrine-of-discovery-and-its-enduring-impact-on-indigenous-peoples.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Mar 5 22:55:47 2012 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phillip E Cash Cash) Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2012 15:55:47 -0700 Subject: Northern Cree - Facebook Drama (fwd link) Message-ID: Greetings ILAT, The blending of cultures has always been most apparent in music composition. This is especially true for indigenous peoples where song composition in traditional mediums have often flourished far beyond their recognition by outsiders or mainstream cultures. You can get the pulse of the people simply by going to a local powwow and listening to the new song compositions that continually come out. The so-called Round Dance music is quite unique in this regard as song composers seem to have more creative freedoms than elsewhere. So I am quite excited to be able to share with you the following example of a recent song composition by a group called Northern Cree which describes the use of social media at the heart of a love relationship (round dance songs often speak of love won & lost). Northern Cree is a contemporary native drum group from Saddle Lake, Alberta, CA. They are a 6-time Grammy nominee and among the most celebrated drum groups across the North American powwow trail. Northern Cree - Facebook Drama Off of their new Round Dance CD “Dancerz Groove,” Canyon Records 2012. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=0fJX_QczU5w Song lyrics (in English): “I read your status last night. You posted that someone else was holding you tight. You shared it for all our friends to see. I don't wanna go through this FACEBOOK drama. So I pressed DELETE.” Here is a very brief Intro to Native Round Dance Music http://www.prairieedge.com/tribe-scribe/native-american-music-round-dance/ life and language always, Phil UofA -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Mar 5 23:11:30 2012 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phillip E Cash Cash) Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2012 16:11:30 -0700 Subject: Language of music has London calling (fwd link) Message-ID: Article quote: “The band is collaborating with Welsh group 9Bach on a work called Mother Tongue to be sung in Aboriginal and Welsh languages, which are under threat of extinction. Co-founder Lou Bennett said the cultures shared "a connection to country and have strong kinship laws and how they relate to each other".” Language of music has London calling Mark Ellis March 3, 2012 AUS Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/music/language-of-music-has-london-calling-20120302-1u8rl.html#ixzz1oHqjlMuD -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET Tue Mar 6 01:02:07 2012 From: pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET (Phil Cash Cash) Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2012 18:02:07 -0700 Subject: No subject In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Hi Ray, thanks for your email request. I hope by now someone has positively responded with some useful information. I just want to draw your attention to a technology conference happening this year in Portland Oregon USA. It might be of interest to you and your efforts. In particular pay attention to the Special Sessions which might address some of your concerns. 13th Annual Conference of the International Speech Communication Association September 9-13, 2012 Portland, Oregon http://interspeech2012.org/Special.html On Feb 19, 2012, at 7:47 AM, Ray wrote: > Dear all! > I hope this email finds you well. > My name is Raymond from Nairobi Kenya. > As part of my Msc project, I am interested in developing a text to > speech tool for a local indegenous language here in east africa. Its > called luhya and has 24 dialects spoken by the 24 subtribes in > Westerns Kenya and Eastern Uganda. > > With this, I would like to achieve the following goals, among many > others: > > 1. Use this tool to help village populations, who can't read and > write to access basic knowledge and materials in civil matters (e.g > HIV and aids awareness. > 2. Help indegenous people who cant read and write to access national > news in print (these are usually in English) > 3. Assist the blind in the villages easly access information on > various matters that is usually in print. > 4. Assist teaches in overpopulated rural classrooms in remote > schools to easily dictate class notes to their students. > > I would be very greatful if anyone of you has any ideas that would > help to contribute towards this project. My email address is ray.simbi at gmail.com > . > > Thanks and Regards, > Ray. > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Tue Mar 6 18:59:07 2012 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phillip E Cash Cash) Date: Tue, 6 Mar 2012 11:59:07 -0700 Subject: Social Innovation Saving 7,000 Vanishing Languages (fwd link) Message-ID: MAR 6, 2012 3:30 AM EST Social Innovation Saving 7,000 Vanishing Languages Social innovation might just save our planet's vanishing languages. Today, a staggering 7,000 or so languages are spoken around the globe, yet unfortunately, about half are expected to be extinct by end of this century. The good news is that linguists believe Facebook, YouTube and even texting could save many of the world's endangered languages. North American tribes are using social media to re-engage their young, while Tuvan, an indigenous tongue spoken by nomadic peoples in Siberia and Mongolia, has an iPhone app to teach the pronunciation of words to new students. Access full article below: http://www.justmeans.com/Social-Innovation-Saving-7-000-Vanishing-Languages/52479.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From clairebowern at GMAIL.COM Tue Mar 6 19:55:46 2012 From: clairebowern at GMAIL.COM (Claire Bowern) Date: Tue, 6 Mar 2012 14:55:46 -0500 Subject: Language Documentation videos In-Reply-To: Message-ID: > > From: Claire Bowern > > To: Indigenous Languages and Technology > > Date: Tuesday, March 6, 2012 2:54:40 PM > > Subject: Documentation Videos > > > > Hi all, > > A few weeks ago I asked for photos to illustrate some how-to language documentation podcasts. > > The first two videos on how to do language documentation are now up at http://www.youtube.com/user/clairebowern (You are welcome to adapt these for your own use; if you want the slides that underlie them, they are available from pamanyungan.sites.yale.edu/language-resources) > > Many thanks to everyone who sent photos (some I've been keeping for later episodes). Please send comments and suggestions for other topics. > > All the best, > > Claire > > > > ---- > > Claire Bowern > > Department of Linguistics > > Yale University > > 370 Temple St > > New Haven, CT > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From andrekaruk at NCIDC.ORG Tue Mar 6 20:00:39 2012 From: andrekaruk at NCIDC.ORG (Andre Cramblit) Date: Tue, 6 Mar 2012 12:00:39 -0800 Subject: Trip Of The Tongue (language) Message-ID: http://www.npr.org/2012/03/04/147728920/a-road-trip-in-search-of-americas-lost-languages LINK TO LISTEN TO THE STORY. The vast majority of the 175 indigenous languages still spoken in the United States are on the verge of extinction. Linguist Elizabeth Little spent two years driving all over the country looking for the few remaining pockets where those languages are still spoken — from the scores of Native American tongues, to the Creole of Louisiana. The resulting book is Trip of the Tongue: Cross-Country Travels in Search of America's Lost Languages. "I put, I think, 25,000 miles on my poor, long-lost Subaru that has since been consigned to the afterlife for cars," she tells Jackie Lyden, guest host of weekends on All Things Considered. The first part of the book deals with Native American languages such as Navajo. Little writes the language is disappearing fast. Among kindergartners in one reservation school district, fluency dropped from 89 percent at the beginning of the 1980s to just a few percent by the end of the decade. Little says one reason for its decline is that the Navajo community is less geographically and technologically isolated. "Once there is more television, you know, cable television and the Internet, and once younger members of the tribe have more ability to be exposed to the English language, the heritage language really drops off pretty quickly," she says. Another example is Gullah. Once spoken by slaves and emancipated African-Americans in the low country of South Carolina, for years it was reviled as simply a butchered version of English. Through the generations, speakers became increasingly ashamed of that characterization. But there is a distinct influence of West African languages in Gullah's structure, Little says, showing a depth and complexity that many Gullah-speakers themselves didn't appreciate. In her estimation, that loss of language serves as a break from identity. "The formation of our whole consciousness is framed by ... language," she said. "So when you take that language away, or even if it's forced out of a child or out of a adolescent ... that must be an incredible psychological trauma." -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Tue Mar 6 20:10:00 2012 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phillip E Cash Cash) Date: Tue, 6 Mar 2012 13:10:00 -0700 Subject: IndigiTUBE: Media Made By And For The Indigenous People In Remote Australia (fwd link) Message-ID: IndigiTUBE: Media Made By And For The Indigenous People In Remote Australia Written by Rezwan Posted 6 March 2012 1:15 GMT Aboriginal people in remote parts of Australia remain the most marginalized group in the country who face poverty and discrimination everyday. In general the perceptions are that Aboriginal Australians somehow get special treatment. But their history of dispossession and disadvantage shows the reality. IndigiTUBE is an online community for sharing and accessing media made by and for Indigenous people in remote Australia. It has been developed by Alice Springs based community funded organization, Indigenous Community Television (ICTV) & the national body - Indigenous Remote Communications Association (IRCA). IndigiTUBE includes both a radio portal and a video streaming service. Access full article below: http://rising.globalvoicesonline.org/blog/2012/03/05/indigitube-media-made-by-and-for-the-indigenous-people-in-remote-australia/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Tue Mar 6 20:12:54 2012 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phillip E Cash Cash) Date: Tue, 6 Mar 2012 13:12:54 -0700 Subject: Norway=?UTF-8?Q?=E2=80=99s_?=indigenous Sami people turn to Israel for help in reviving old tribal language (fwd link) Message-ID: Norway’s indigenous Sami people turn to Israel for help in reviving old tribal language By Associated Press, JERUSALEM — Norway’s Sami people, an indigenous community with roots as reindeer herders in the northern reaches of Scandinavia and Russia, are looking south to Israel for help preserving their fading native language. A Sami delegation spent five days in Israel recently, hoping the Jewish state’s experience reviving the once-dormant ancient Hebrew language can provide a blueprint for them. Access full article below: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/norways-indigenous-sami-people-turn-to-israel-for-help-in-reviving-old-tribal-language/2012/03/06/gIQAgqz4tR_story.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jelyn_gaskell at YAHOO.COM Tue Mar 6 20:53:43 2012 From: jelyn_gaskell at YAHOO.COM (Jelyn Gaskell) Date: Tue, 6 Mar 2012 12:53:43 -0800 Subject: Trip Of The Tongue (language) In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Thanks for your input, can't wait to buy her book. When I worked in a school district in Northern CA as Special Ed teacher, I had a 7th grade African American student whom the psych and speech path gave diagnosis on(mental retardation and other related speech issues). He was placed in my SDC class. I worked with him, and he was verbally unintelligible, however when I used Visuals and PECS he was quite intelligent. After I consulted with three of my professors, (at the time Dr. Rickford's were my prof's(Stanford and SJSU) in classes and Dr. Stuart Ritterman SLP speech scientist,(CS Fresno emeritus) I took language samples and we discovered his father was a Gullah speaker from deep down highway one in Louisiana. He had met a woman in Las Vegas and married her and moved his kids to Oakland,CA which is how I got his son in my classroom. This boy sat with me with the computer and I asked him using LA maps to show me where he was from, after that I found his former teacher in his old Parish there. There are still Gullah speakers around, but this is an example of language displacement and how teachers need to be aware of 1st language issues. Also, I blame NCLB and the English Language push without SIOP or Sheltered English, and bilingual language enhancement. Districts need to be sensitive to 1st language speakers of another language. --- On Tue, 3/6/12, Andre Cramblit wrote: From: Andre Cramblit Subject: [ILAT] Trip Of The Tongue (language) To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Date: Tuesday, March 6, 2012, 12:00 PM http://www.npr.org/2012/03/04/147728920/a-road-trip-in-search-of-americas-lost-languagesLINK TO LISTEN TO THE STORY.  The vast majority of the 175 indigenous languages still spoken in the United States are on the verge of extinction.Linguist Elizabeth Little spent two years driving all over the country looking for the few remaining pockets where those languages are still spoken — from the scores of Native American tongues, to the Creole of Louisiana. The resulting book is Trip of the Tongue: Cross-Country Travels in Search of America's Lost Languages."I put, I think, 25,000 miles on my poor, long-lost Subaru that has since been consigned to the afterlife for cars," she tells Jackie Lyden, guest host of weekends on All Things Considered.The first part of the book deals with Native American languages such as Navajo. Little writes the language is disappearing fast. Among kindergartners in one reservation school district, fluency dropped from 89 percent at the beginning of the 1980s to just a few percent by the end of the decade. Little says one reason for its decline is that the Navajo community is less geographically and technologically isolated."Once there is more television, you know, cable television and the Internet, and once younger members of the tribe have more ability to be exposed to the English language, the heritage language really drops off pretty quickly," she says.Another example is Gullah. Once spoken by slaves and emancipated African-Americans in the low country of South Carolina, for years it was reviled as simply a butchered version of English. Through the generations, speakers became increasingly ashamed of that characterization.But there is a distinct influence of West African languages in Gullah's structure, Little says, showing a depth and complexity that many Gullah-speakers themselves didn't appreciate.In her estimation, that loss of language serves as a break from identity."The formation of our whole consciousness is framed by ... language," she said. "So when you take that language away, or even if it's forced out of a child or out of a adolescent ... that must be an incredible psychological trauma." -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From Dave_Pearson at SIL.ORG Wed Mar 7 12:46:42 2012 From: Dave_Pearson at SIL.ORG (Dave Pearson) Date: Wed, 7 Mar 2012 15:46:42 +0300 Subject: New book on multilingualism in cyberspace In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Dear All, Next week will see the launch of a new book: NET.LANG: towards the multilingual cyberspace . You can download the pdf version either in English or French free of charge. I have pasted the table of contents below. Dave Pearson SIL International CONTENTS Forewords Irina Bokova, General Director, UNESCO 13 Abdou Diouf, General Secretary, La Francophonie 17 José Luis Dicenta, General Secretary, Union Latine 21 Dwayne Bailey, Research Director, ANLoc 23 Daniel Prado, Executive Secretary, Maaya Network 27 Part 1 - When Technology Meets Multilingualism Daniel Prado Language Presence in the Real World and Cyberspace 35 Michaël Oustinoff English Won’t be the Internet’s Lingua Franca 53 Éric Poncet Technological Innovation and Language Preservation 69 Maik Gibson Preserving the Heritage of Extinct or Endangered Languages 75 Marcel Diki-Kidiri Cyberspace and Mother Tongue Education 89 Part 2 - Digital Spaces Stéphane Bortzmeyer Multilingualism and the Internet’s Standardisation 105 Mikami Yoshiki & Shigeaki Kodama Measuring Linguistic Diversity on the Web 119 Joseph Mariani How Language Technologies Support Multilingualism 141 Vassili Rivron The Use of Facebook by the Eton of Cameroon 161 Pann Yu Mon & Madhukara Phatak Search Engines and Asian Languages 169 Hervé Le Crosnier Digital Libraries 185 Dwayne Bailey Software Localization: Open Source as a Major Tool for Digital Multilingualism 205 Mélanie Dulong De Rosnay Translation and Localization of Creative Commons Licenses 221 Part 3 - Digital Multilingualism: Building Inclusive Societies Viola Krebs & Vicent Climent-Ferrando Languages, Cyberspace, Migrations 229 Annelies Braffort & Patrice Dalle Accessibility in Cyberspace: Sign Languages 249 Tjeerd de Graaf How Oral Archives Benefit Endangered Languages 269 Evgeny Kuzmin Linguistic Policies to Counter Languages Marginalization 287 Tunde Adegbola Multimedia and Signed, Written or Oral Languages 311 Adel El Zaim Cyberactivism and Regional Languages in the 2011 Arab Spring 325 Adama Samassékou Multilingualism, the Millenium Development Goals, and Cyberspace 337 Part 4 Multilingualism on the Internet : a Multilateral Issue Isabella Pierangeli Borletti Describing the World: Multilingualism, the Internet, and Human Rights 351 Stéphane Bortzmeyer Multilingualism and Internet Governance 373 Marcel Diki-Kidiri Ethical Principles Required for an Equitable Language Presence in the Information Society 387 Stéphane Grumbach The Internet in China 401 Michaël Oustinoff The Economy of Languages 407 Daniel Prado & Daniel Pimienta Public Policies for Languages in Cyberspace 423 Conclusion the Future speaks, reads and writes in all languages Adama Samassékou President of Maaya -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From Dave_Pearson at SIL.ORG Wed Mar 7 12:48:11 2012 From: Dave_Pearson at SIL.ORG (Dave Pearson) Date: Wed, 7 Mar 2012 15:48:11 +0300 Subject: New book on multilingualism in cyberspace In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Dear All, Next week will see the launch of a new book: NET.LANG: towards the multilingual cyberspace . You can download the pdf version either in English or French free of charge. I have pasted the table of contents below. Dave Pearson SIL International CONTENTS Forewords Irina Bokova, General Director, UNESCO 13 Abdou Diouf, General Secretary, La Francophonie 17 José Luis Dicenta, General Secretary, Union Latine 21 Dwayne Bailey, Research Director, ANLoc 23 Daniel Prado, Executive Secretary, Maaya Network 27 Part 1 - When Technology Meets Multilingualism Daniel Prado Language Presence in the Real World and Cyberspace 35 Michaël Oustinoff English Won’t be the Internet’s Lingua Franca 53 Éric Poncet Technological Innovation and Language Preservation 69 Maik Gibson Preserving the Heritage of Extinct or Endangered Languages 75 Marcel Diki-Kidiri Cyberspace and Mother Tongue Education 89 Part 2 - Digital Spaces Stéphane Bortzmeyer Multilingualism and the Internet’s Standardisation 105 Mikami Yoshiki & Shigeaki Kodama Measuring Linguistic Diversity on the Web 119 Joseph Mariani How Language Technologies Support Multilingualism 141 Vassili Rivron The Use of Facebook by the Eton of Cameroon 161 Pann Yu Mon & Madhukara Phatak Search Engines and Asian Languages 169 Hervé Le Crosnier Digital Libraries 185 Dwayne Bailey Software Localization: Open Source as a Major Tool for Digital Multilingualism 205 Mélanie Dulong De Rosnay Translation and Localization of Creative Commons Licenses 221 Part 3 - Digital Multilingualism: Building Inclusive Societies Viola Krebs & Vicent Climent-Ferrando Languages, Cyberspace, Migrations 229 Annelies Braffort & Patrice Dalle Accessibility in Cyberspace: Sign Languages 249 Tjeerd de Graaf How Oral Archives Benefit Endangered Languages 269 Evgeny Kuzmin Linguistic Policies to Counter Languages Marginalization 287 Tunde Adegbola Multimedia and Signed, Written or Oral Languages 311 Adel El Zaim Cyberactivism and Regional Languages in the 2011 Arab Spring 325 Adama Samassékou Multilingualism, the Millenium Development Goals, and Cyberspace 337 Part 4 Multilingualism on the Internet : a Multilateral Issue Isabella Pierangeli Borletti Describing the World: Multilingualism, the Internet, and Human Rights 351 Stéphane Bortzmeyer Multilingualism and Internet Governance 373 Marcel Diki-Kidiri Ethical Principles Required for an Equitable Language Presence in the Information Society 387 Stéphane Grumbach The Internet in China 401 Michaël Oustinoff The Economy of Languages 407 Daniel Prado & Daniel Pimienta Public Policies for Languages in Cyberspace 423 Conclusion the Future speaks, reads and writes in all languages Adama Samassékou President of Maaya -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From fmarmole at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Mar 7 16:45:30 2012 From: fmarmole at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Marmolejo, Francisco J - (fmarmole)) Date: Wed, 7 Mar 2012 08:45:30 -0800 Subject: New book on multilingualism in cyberspace In-Reply-To: <000301ccfc60$612de740$2389b5c0$@org> Message-ID: Dear Dave: Thanks for sharing the information about the book. It is a great resource. Regards, Francisco Francisco Marmolejo Executive Director Consortium for North American Higher Education Collaboration CONAHEC - University of Arizona PO Box 210300 220 W. Sixth Street Tucson, AZ 85721-0300 USA Tel. +1 (520) 621-9080 / 621-7761 Fax +1 (520) 626-2675 Email: fmarmole at email.arizona.edu http://conahec.org Francisco Marmolejo Assistant Vice President University of Arizona Office of Western Hemispheric Programs PO Box 210158 888 N.Euclid Ave./Univ.Svcs. Bldg. Tucson, AZ 85721 USA Tel. +1 (520) 626-4258 Fax +1 (520) 621-6011 Email: fmarmole at email.arizona.edu http://www.whp.arizona.edu [cid:image001.png at 01CCFC47.08C41ED0] [cid:image002.gif at 01CCFC47.08C41ED0] [cid:image003.jpg at 01CCFC47.08C41ED0] Follow CONAHEC on Twitter! http://www.twitter.com/conahec [cid:image003.jpg at 01CCFC47.08C41ED0] Follow the University of Arizona on Twitter! http://www.twitter.com/uofa From: Indigenous Languages and Technology [mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU] On Behalf Of Dave Pearson Sent: Wednesday, March 07, 2012 5:47 AM To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Subject: [ILAT] New book on multilingualism in cyberspace Dear All, Next week will see the launch of a new book: NET.LANG: towards the multilingual cyberspace. You can download the pdf version either in English or French free of charge. I have pasted the table of contents below. Dave Pearson SIL International CONTENTS Forewords Irina Bokova, General Director, UNESCO 13 Abdou Diouf, General Secretary, La Francophonie 17 José Luis Dicenta, General Secretary, Union Latine 21 Dwayne Bailey, Research Director, ANLoc 23 Daniel Prado, Executive Secretary, Maaya Network 27 Part 1 - When Technology Meets Multilingualism Daniel Prado Language Presence in the Real World and Cyberspace 35 Michaël Oustinoff English Won’t be the Internet’s Lingua Franca 53 Éric Poncet Technological Innovation and Language Preservation 69 Maik Gibson Preserving the Heritage of Extinct or Endangered Languages 75 Marcel Diki-Kidiri Cyberspace and Mother Tongue Education 89 Part 2 - Digital Spaces Stéphane Bortzmeyer Multilingualism and the Internet’s Standardisation 105 Mikami Yoshiki & Shigeaki Kodama Measuring Linguistic Diversity on the Web 119 Joseph Mariani How Language Technologies Support Multilingualism 141 Vassili Rivron The Use of Facebook by the Eton of Cameroon 161 Pann Yu Mon & Madhukara Phatak Search Engines and Asian Languages 169 Hervé Le Crosnier Digital Libraries 185 Dwayne Bailey Software Localization: Open Source as a Major Tool for Digital Multilingualism 205 Mélanie Dulong De Rosnay Translation and Localization of Creative Commons Licenses 221 Part 3 - Digital Multilingualism: Building Inclusive Societies Viola Krebs & Vicent Climent-Ferrando Languages, Cyberspace, Migrations 229 Annelies Braffort & Patrice Dalle Accessibility in Cyberspace: Sign Languages 249 Tjeerd de Graaf How Oral Archives Benefit Endangered Languages 269 Evgeny Kuzmin Linguistic Policies to Counter Languages Marginalization 287 Tunde Adegbola Multimedia and Signed, Written or Oral Languages 311 Adel El Zaim Cyberactivism and Regional Languages in the 2011 Arab Spring 325 Adama Samassékou Multilingualism, the Millenium Development Goals, and Cyberspace 337 Part 4 Multilingualism on the Internet : a Multilateral Issue Isabella Pierangeli Borletti Describing the World: Multilingualism, the Internet, and Human Rights 351 Stéphane Bortzmeyer Multilingualism and Internet Governance 373 Marcel Diki-Kidiri Ethical Principles Required for an Equitable Language Presence in the Information Society 387 Stéphane Grumbach The Internet in China 401 Michaël Oustinoff The Economy of Languages 407 Daniel Prado & Daniel Pimienta Public Policies for Languages in Cyberspace 423 Conclusion the Future speaks, reads and writes in all languages Adama Samassékou President of Maaya -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.png Type: image/png Size: 12940 bytes Desc: image001.png URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image002.gif Type: image/gif Size: 4843 bytes Desc: image002.gif URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image003.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 1036 bytes Desc: image003.jpg URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Mar 7 17:43:12 2012 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phillip E Cash Cash) Date: Wed, 7 Mar 2012 10:43:12 -0700 Subject: Native language app code (fwd link) Message-ID: Greetings ILAT, I was just notified by a friend at Ogoki Learning Systems that you can now get their Native Language App code for free. Here is the link: http://www.ogokilearning.com/native-language-app-code/ Text from the web site... Download, share and distribute our Ojibway Language App version 1.1 software code. Create a universal App in 5 very simple steps. 1. Download our full App Source Code Zip File 2. Install Apple Xcode (Free download for Mac Computers) 3. Replace the Ojibway Audio files, pictures, and titles with your own files 4. Rename the App to your language 5. Upload the App to iTunes using your developer account life and language always, Phil ps: post a note here if you intend to use this code for your language! -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Mar 7 18:08:33 2012 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phillip E Cash Cash) Date: Wed, 7 Mar 2012 11:08:33 -0700 Subject: New book on multilingualism in cyberspace In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Thanks for sharing Dave! Phil On Wed, Mar 7, 2012 at 9:45 AM, Marmolejo, Francisco J - (fmarmole) < fmarmole at email.arizona.edu> wrote: > Dear Dave:**** > > Thanks for sharing the information about the book. It is a great resource. > **** > > Regards,**** > > Francisco**** > > ** ** > > ** ** > > Francisco Marmolejo**** > > Executive Director**** > > Consortium for North American Higher Education Collaboration**** > > CONAHEC - University of Arizona **** > > PO Box 210300 **** > > 220 W. Sixth Street**** > > Tucson, AZ 85721-0300 USA**** > > Tel. +1 (520) 621-9080 / 621-7761**** > > Fax +1 (520) 626-2675 **** > > Email: fmarmole at email.arizona.edu**** > > http://conahec.org**** > > ** ** > > Francisco Marmolejo**** > > Assistant Vice President**** > > University of Arizona**** > > Office of Western Hemispheric Programs **** > > PO Box 210158 **** > > 888 N.Euclid Ave./Univ.Svcs. Bldg. **** > > Tucson, AZ 85721 USA**** > > Tel. +1 (520) 626-4258**** > > Fax +1 (520) 621-6011 **** > > Email: fmarmole at email.arizona.edu **** > > http://www.whp.arizona.edu**** > > *[image: Description: Description: Description: > cid:image002.png at 01CBA11B.E7E62640]***** > > ** ** > > [image: Description: Description: Description: Description: Description: > Description: ua125-email] * ***** > > *[image: Description: Description: Description: Description: Description: > Description: Twitter bird]* ** > > *Follow CONAHEC on Twitter!* > > *http://www.twitter.com/conahec***** > > ** ** > > *[image: Description: Description: Description: Description: Description: > Description: Twitter bird]* ** > > *Follow the University of Arizona on Twitter! > **http://www.twitter.com/uofa*** > > ** ** > > ** ** > > ** ** > > *From:* Indigenous Languages and Technology [mailto: > ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU] *On Behalf Of *Dave Pearson > *Sent:* Wednesday, March 07, 2012 5:47 AM > *To:* ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU > *Subject:* [ILAT] New book on multilingualism in cyberspace**** > > ** ** > > Dear All,**** > > ** ** > > Next week will see the launch of a new book: *NET.LANG: towards the > multilingual cyberspace *. You can download > the pdf version either in Englishor > French free of > charge. I have pasted the table of contents below.**** > > ** ** > > Dave Pearson**** > > SIL International**** > > * * > > * * > > *CONTENTS* > > ** ** > > *Forewords * > > Irina Bokova, General Director, UNESCO 13**** > > Abdou Diouf, General Secretary, La Francophonie 17**** > > José Luis Dicenta, General Secretary, Union Latine 21**** > > Dwayne Bailey, Research Director, ANLoc 23**** > > Daniel Prado, Executive Secretary, Maaya Network 27**** > > ** ** > > *Part 1 - When Technology Meets Multilingualism * > > ** ** > > Daniel Prado**** > > Language Presence in the Real World and Cyberspace 35**** > > ** ** > > Michaël Oustinoff**** > > English Won’t be the Internet’s Lingua Franca 53**** > > ** ** > > Éric Poncet**** > > Technological Innovation and Language Preservation 69**** > > ** ** > > Maik Gibson**** > > Preserving the Heritage of Extinct or Endangered Languages 75**** > > ** ** > > Marcel Diki-Kidiri**** > > Cyberspace and Mother Tongue Education 89**** > > ** ** > > *Part 2 - Digital Spaces* > > * * > > Stéphane Bortzmeyer**** > > Multilingualism and the Internet’s Standardisation 105**** > > ** ** > > Mikami Yoshiki & Shigeaki Kodama**** > > Measuring Linguistic Diversity on the Web 119**** > > ** ** > > Joseph Mariani**** > > How Language Technologies Support Multilingualism 141**** > > ** ** > > Vassili Rivron**** > > The Use of Facebook by the Eton of Cameroon 161**** > > ** ** > > Pann Yu Mon & Madhukara Phatak**** > > Search Engines and Asian Languages 169**** > > ** ** > > Hervé Le Crosnier**** > > Digital Libraries 185**** > > ** ** > > Dwayne Bailey**** > > Software Localization: Open Source as a Major Tool for Digital > Multilingualism 205**** > > ** ** > > Mélanie Dulong De Rosnay**** > > Translation and Localization of Creative Commons Licenses 221**** > > * * > > *Part 3 - Digital Multilingualism: Building Inclusive Societies* > > ** ** > > Viola Krebs & Vicent Climent-Ferrando**** > > Languages, Cyberspace, Migrations 229**** > > ** ** > > Annelies Braffort & Patrice Dalle**** > > Accessibility in Cyberspace: Sign Languages 249**** > > ** ** > > Tjeerd de Graaf**** > > How Oral Archives Benefit Endangered Languages 269**** > > ** ** > > Evgeny Kuzmin**** > > Linguistic Policies to Counter Languages Marginalization 287**** > > ** ** > > Tunde Adegbola**** > > Multimedia and Signed, Written or Oral Languages 311**** > > ** ** > > Adel El Zaim**** > > Cyberactivism and Regional Languages in the 2011 Arab Spring 325**** > > ** ** > > Adama Samassékou**** > > Multilingualism, the Millenium Development Goals, and Cyberspace 337**** > > ** ** > > *Part 4 Multilingualism on the Internet : a Multilateral Issue***** > > ** ** > > Isabella Pierangeli Borletti**** > > Describing the World: Multilingualism, the Internet, and Human Rights 351* > *** > > ** ** > > Stéphane Bortzmeyer**** > > Multilingualism and Internet Governance 373**** > > ** ** > > Marcel Diki-Kidiri**** > > Ethical Principles Required for an Equitable Language Presence in the > Information Society 387**** > > ** ** > > Stéphane Grumbach**** > > The Internet in China 401**** > > ** ** > > Michaël Oustinoff**** > > The Economy of Languages 407**** > > ** ** > > Daniel Prado & Daniel Pimienta**** > > Public Policies for Languages in Cyberspace 423**** > > * * > > *Conclusion* > > the Future speaks, reads and writes in all languages**** > > Adama Samassékou President of Maaya**** > > ** ** > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.png Type: image/png Size: 12940 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image002.gif Type: image/gif Size: 4843 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image003.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 1036 bytes Desc: not available URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Thu Mar 8 21:59:50 2012 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phillip E Cash Cash) Date: Thu, 8 Mar 2012 14:59:50 -0700 Subject: Trip Of The Tongue (language) In-Reply-To: <1331067223.5677.YahooMailClassic@web162004.mail.bf1.yahoo.com> Message-ID: Hmm, I wonder what the difference might be with this book and a similar previous published volume entitled, "Spoken Here, Travels Among Threatened Languages" by Mark Abley (2003). Phil UofA On Tue, Mar 6, 2012 at 1:53 PM, Jelyn Gaskell wrote: > Thanks for your input, can't wait to buy her book. When I worked in a > school district in Northern CA as Special Ed teacher, I had a 7th grade > African American student whom the psych and speech path gave diagnosis > on(mental retardation and other related speech issues). He was placed in my > SDC class. I worked with him, and he was verbally unintelligible, however > when I used Visuals and PECS he was quite intelligent. After I consulted > with three of my professors, (at the time Dr. Rickford's were my > prof's(Stanford and SJSU) in classes and Dr. Stuart Ritterman SLP speech > scientist,(CS Fresno emeritus) I took language samples and we discovered > his father was a Gullah speaker from deep down highway one in Louisiana. He > had met a woman in Las Vegas and married her and moved his kids to > Oakland,CA which is how I got his son in my classroom. This boy sat with me > with the computer and I asked him using LA maps to show me where he was > from, after that I found his former teacher in his old Parish there. There > are still Gullah speakers around, but this is an example of language > displacement and how teachers need to be aware of 1st language issues. > Also, I blame NCLB and the English Language push without SIOP or Sheltered > English, and bilingual language enhancement. Districts need to be sensitive > to 1st language speakers of another language. > > --- On *Tue, 3/6/12, Andre Cramblit * wrote: > > > From: Andre Cramblit > Subject: [ILAT] Trip Of The Tongue (language) > To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU > Date: Tuesday, March 6, 2012, 12:00 PM > > > > http://www.npr.org/2012/03/04/147728920/a-road-trip-in-search-of-americas-lost-languages > LINK TO LISTEN TO THE STORY. > > > The vast majority of the 175 indigenous languages still spoken in the > United States are on the verge of extinction. > > Linguist Elizabeth Little spent two years driving all over the country > looking for the few remaining pockets where those languages are still > spoken — from the scores of Native American tongues, to the Creole of > Louisiana. The resulting book is *Trip of the Tongue: Cross-Country > Travels in Search of America's Lost Languages*. > > "I put, I think, 25,000 miles on my poor, long-lost Subaru that has since > been consigned to the afterlife for cars," she tells Jackie Lyden, guest > host of weekends on *All Things Considered*. > > The first part of the book deals with Native American languages such as > Navajo. Little writes the language is disappearing fast. Among > kindergartners in one reservation school district, fluency dropped from 89 > percent at the beginning of the 1980s to just a few percent by the end of > the decade. Little says one reason for its decline is that the Navajo > community is less geographically and technologically isolated. > > "Once there is more television, you know, cable television and the > Internet, and once younger members of the tribe have more ability to be > exposed to the English language, the heritage language really drops off > pretty quickly," she says. > > Another example is Gullah. Once spoken by slaves and emancipated > African-Americans in the low country of South Carolina, for years it was > reviled as simply a butchered version of English. Through the generations, > speakers became increasingly ashamed of that characterization. > > But there is a distinct influence of West African languages in Gullah's > structure, Little says, showing a depth and complexity that many > Gullah-speakers themselves didn't appreciate. > > In her estimation, that loss of language serves as a break from identity. > > "The formation of our whole consciousness is framed by ... language," she > said. "So when you take that language away, or even if it's forced out of a > child or out of a adolescent ... that must be an incredible psychological > trauma." > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Thu Mar 8 23:49:17 2012 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phillip E Cash Cash) Date: Thu, 8 Mar 2012 16:49:17 -0700 Subject: Senate Passes Bill to Protect Alaska Native Languages (fwd link) Message-ID: Senate Passes Bill to Protect Alaska Native Languages By Office of Senator Donald Olson 6 hours 2 minutes ago Bill establishes advisory council to preserve and restore Alaska's indigenous languages JUNEAU-The Alaska State Senate passed a bill on Tuesday aimed at protecting and restoring Alaska Native Languages. Senate Bill 130 will establish the Alaska Native Language Preservation and Advisory Council to assess the state of Alaska Native Languages, reevaluate the programs within the state, and make recommendations to the Governor and Legislature to establish new programs or reorganize the current programs. "Alaska Native Languages are threatened by extinction," said Senator Olson. "Indigenous languages are the most critical components in terms or preservation of cultural ideas and traditions and serve as the backbone of all cultural elements. Senate Bill 130 ensures that these important Alaska Native customs continue on." Access full article below: http://alaska-native-news.com/rural_news/4702-senate-passes-bill-to-protect-alaska-native-languages.html (ILAT note: although there is no date, this news article appeared in today's Mar 8th google news results.) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Thu Mar 8 23:52:38 2012 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phillip E Cash Cash) Date: Thu, 8 Mar 2012 16:52:38 -0700 Subject: =?UTF-8?Q?=E2=80=9CCornerstone_of_culture=E2=80=9D_?=threatened (fwd link) Message-ID: “Cornerstone of culture” threatened March 8, 2012 | Society and Culture| By Alina Mogilyanskaya “If your language is lost, what will you say?” A repeating refrain in the new film, “Languages Lost and Found: Speaking & Whistling the Mamma Tongue,” this question is posed directly to the camera – and to the film’s audiences – by speakers of endangered languages worldwide. Produced and directed by cultural reporters Iris Brooks and Jon H. Davis, the film was screened at United Nations headquarters in New York in honor of International Mother Language Day. Access full article below: http://www.mediaglobal.org/2012/03/08/cornerstone-of-culture-threatened/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Fri Mar 9 18:41:56 2012 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phillip E Cash Cash) Date: Fri, 9 Mar 2012 11:41:56 -0700 Subject: Language Plan and Tribal Efforts Praised (fwd link) Message-ID: Language Plan and Tribal Efforts Praised By Carol Berry March 9, 2012 USA The bipartisan Native American Caucus of State Legislatures in Colorado has given its support to a bill that would promote Native language learning in the state’s public schools by employing people fluent in languages of federally-recognized tribal nations. There was discussion of the bill in a caucus meeting March 7 convened by the Colorado Commission of Indian Affairs (CCIA). Members also proposed formal recognition for the economic and other achievements of Colorado’s two tribal nations, the Southern Ute Indian Tribe and Ute Mountain Ute Tribe. The Native language proposal was first introduced by Sen. Suzanne Williams (D-Aurora), a member of the Comanche Nation, to allow the language-speakers to teach under the supervision of qualified instructors and to receive a waiver from the Colorado Department of Education to exempt them from formal certification. Read more: http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/03/09/language-plan-and-tribal-efforts-praised-101960 http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/03/09/language-plan-and-tribal-efforts-praised-101960#ixzz1oe8uuO00 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From nflrc at HAWAII.EDU Sat Mar 10 04:52:39 2012 From: nflrc at HAWAII.EDU (National Foreign Language Resource Center) Date: Fri, 9 Mar 2012 18:52:39 -1000 Subject: FINAL REMINDER: TCLT7 early bird registration deadline March 15 Message-ID: Aloha! Just a final reminder - the deadline for early bird registration for the 7th International Conference and Workshops on Technology and Chinese Language Teaching in the 21st Century (TCLT7) is March 15, 2012 - http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/TCLT7/registration.html After March 15, the general registration rate will go up to $150. We hope you will be able to join us in Hawaii for this special event (see below for more details). Jim Yoshioka TCLT7 Organizing Committee * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 7th International Conference and Workshops on Technology and Chinese Language Teaching in the 21st Century (TCLT7) May 25-27, 2012 Hawai'i Imin International Conference Center University of Hawai'i at Manoa Honolulu, Hawaii, USA http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/TCLT7/ TCLT7 will place emphases on frontier research topics such as mobile learning, cloud technology, the digital classroom, and computational linguistics, as well as on general topics on the integration of technology in day-to-day usage. The program will include keynote speeches, paper presentations and panel discussions, hands-on workshops, computer program demonstration, and a technology-based educational product exhibition. HIGHLIGHTS: Plenary Speakers / 特邀主题演讲人: 1. Xie, Tianwei / 谢天蔚 California State University Long Beach / 長滩加州州立大學 Cloud Computing and Its Use in Teaching Chinese / 云端运算及其在中文教学中的应用 2. Lu, Jian Ming / 陆俭明 Peking University / 北京大学 The Current Situation and the Needs of Development of Internet-based Chinese Language Teaching in the Digital Age / (数码时代汉语网络教学的现状与发展需求 3. Huang, Chu Ren / 黃居仁 The Hong Kong Polytechnic University / 香港理工大學 Corpus-based Extraction of Chinese Grammatical Information / 漢語語法信息的語料庫提取 4. Hsin, Shi Chang / 信世昌 National Taiwang Normal University / 國立台灣師範大學 The Tech-based Chinese Teaching: Issues and Reflections about Design, Development and Implementation / 科技華語教學在設計,發展,應用方面的議題與省思 5. Sunaoka, Kazuko / 砂岡和子 Wasada University / 日本早稻田大学 Effects of Multilingual Chatting Support System, Chinese Distance Learning at Wasada University, Japan / 日本早稻田大学远程汉语课多语言聊天室的教学效果 6. Wang, Hong Jun / 王洪君 Peking University / 北京大学 The Treatment of Characters and Words in Chinese Language Information Processing and its Implications for Teaching Chinese as a Second Language / 汉语信息处理对字词的处理对汉语二语教学的启示 Workshops / 工作坊: 1. Cloud Computing and iPad Apps for Teaching and Learning Chinese / 雲端工具與iPad應用程序 Xie, Tianwei, California State University, Long Beach / 谢天蔚, 长堤加州州立大学 Lin, Chin-Hsi University of California, Irvine 2. Interactive fun with Google Form and Google Chart / 谷歌 Form 与 Chart 的互动 Chang, John / 张文光 University of Southern California / 南加州州立大学 3. Simple Solutions to Daily Tasks: Screen Movies for Teaching/Learning Activities/ 屏幕录像教学活动 Zhang, Phyllis / 张霓 The George Washington University / 乔治华盛顿大学 4. Peking University Modern Chinese Treebank and its Application on Language Teaching / 树库在汉语句型辅助教学中的应用 Zhan, Weidong / 詹卫东 Peking University / 北京大学 5. Free Online Tools and Resources for Beginning Level Chinese Courses / 适用于初级汉语课程的免费在线工具与资源 Liu, Shijuan / 刘士娟 Indiana University of Pennsylvania / 宾夕法尼亚印第安纳大学 6. Creating Online Learning Materials with an Advanced Chinese Annotator / 利用高级汉语注释软件编写在线汉语学习材料 Zhang, Jin / 张锦 Massachussetts Institute of Technology / 麻省理工学院 For information about lodging, registration, general schedule, transportation, and social events (including the Waikiki Aquarium reception), see the conference website: http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/TCLT7/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Mar 12 18:04:18 2012 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phillip E Cash Cash) Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2012 11:04:18 -0700 Subject: An Indigenous Language With Unique Staying Power (fwd link) Message-ID: MEMO FROM PARAGUAY An Indigenous Language With Unique Staying Power By SIMON ROMERO Published: March 12, 2012 ASUNCIÓN, Paraguay — Legislators on the floor of Congress deliver speeches in it. Lovers entwined on Asunción’s park benches murmur sweet nothings with its high-pitched, nasal and guttural sounds. Soccer fans use it when insulting referees. Elementary school students learning Guaraní, which is a required subject in Paraguay. To this day, Paraguay remains the only country in the Americas where a majority of the population speaks one indigenous language: Guaraní. It is enshrined in the Constitution, officially giving it equal footing with the language of European conquest, Spanish. And in the streets, it is a source of national pride. Access full article below: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/12/world/americas/in-paraguay-indigenous-language-with-unique-staying-power.html?_r=1 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Mar 12 18:06:33 2012 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phillip E Cash Cash) Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2012 11:06:33 -0700 Subject: iPhone app teaches language, culture to Lakota children (fwd link) Message-ID: iPhone app teaches language, culture to Lakota children By RUTH MOON Rapid City Journal | Posted: Sunday, March 11, 2012 8:00 pm RAPID CITY, S.D. -- A new iPhone application combines centuries-old Native American culture and cutting-edge smartphone technology to teach youngsters the Lakota language. The Lakota Toddler app, now available for free in the iTunes store, is the second app by software developers Isreal Shortman and Rusty Calder. The two developers worked with Arlo Iron Cloud, the morning radio announcer for KILI Radio in Porcupine, to create an app that teaches Lakota vocabulary through text, pictures and sounds. Read more: http://siouxcityjournal.com/news/state-and-regional/south-dakota/iphone-app-teaches-language-culture-to-lakota-children/article_e7fe8945-d631-5326-ad05-57fd6a5b4047.html#ixzz1ovXbK7Xt -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From annaluisa at LIVINGTONGUES.ORG Mon Mar 12 18:50:27 2012 From: annaluisa at LIVINGTONGUES.ORG (Anna Luisa Daigneault) Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2012 14:50:27 -0400 Subject: Livestream: Truth and Reconciliation events in BC, Canada Message-ID: Hello all, One of the most important steps toward language revitalization in Canada is healing for the First Nations survivors of residential schools. The "Truth and Reconciliation Commission" is organizing many events in First Nations communities in Canada this month, so that elders can give their statements concerning their experiences. http://www.trc.ca/websites/trcinstitution/index.php?p=3 Here is the link to watch the livestream video of the events currently going on today and tomorrow in Port Alberni, Vancouver Island, BC. http://www.livestream.com/trc_cvr ~ Anna -- Anna Luisa Daigneault, M.Sc Latin America Projects Coordinator & Organizational Fellow Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages Enduring Voices Project @livingtongues The Yanesha Oral History Archives Arr Añño'tena Poeñotenaxhno Yanesha www.yanesha.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From clairebowern at GMAIL.COM Tue Mar 13 15:28:38 2012 From: clairebowern at GMAIL.COM (Claire Bowern) Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2012 11:28:38 -0400 Subject: Post-doc in historical linguistics: Yale University Message-ID: Apologies for cross-posting. The Department of Linguistics at Yale University invites applications for a one-year (non-renewable) Postdoctoral Associate position in historical linguistics. Duties include both research and teaching (one course in each semester, including an introduction to historical linguistics in Fall, 2012). The position is partially funded through NSF grant BCS-920114 "Dynamics of Hunter-Gatherer Language Change". This interdisciplinary project compares language histories from Northern Australia, California and the Great Basin, and Northern Amazonia in order to test claims about correlates between aspects of language change and social and demographic features. The Postdoctoral Associate will be joining the project in the final year of the grant, and will contribute as an author to the preparation of grant-related publications. The successful candidate will have experience in historical reconstruction. Preference will be given to candidates with experience in quantitative methodologies and/or first-hand experience with languages in (or near) one of the case study regions. Strong writing skills are essential. The starting date for this position is July 1 or soon thereafter. Requirements for the PhD must be completed by the start date. Review of applicants will begin on April 2 and will continue until the position is filled. For full consideration, by April 2 please submit to https://academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/1473 a letter of application which addresses research experience, current research goals, teaching experience, and how you see yourself contributing to the project; please also submit a current CV and 2 writing samples, and arrange for two letters of reference to be sent to academicjobsonline.org website. Yale University is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer, and especially encourages applications from women and members of underrepresented minorities. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Mar 14 19:58:30 2012 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phillip E Cash Cash) Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2012 12:58:30 -0700 Subject: Elders share language and culture (fwd link) Message-ID: Elders share language and culture By Cara Brady - Vernon Morning Star Published: March 14, 2012 6:00 AM USA The name, Nkm’aplqs isn’ma’ma’ya’tn klsqilxwtet Language and Cultural Immersion School, means “a learning place towards and in the direction of our indigenous Okanagan ways.” The idea started in 2001 when Bill Cohen, one of the school organizers, was doing a research project and saw how students who learned in their indigenous languages in New Zealand and Hawaii, improved their academic performance. “The first reaction to the idea of an Okanagan immersion school was that some people were very interested and some thought we were crazy,” he said. Access full article below: http://www.vernonmorningstar.com/lifestyles/142616096.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Mar 14 20:00:37 2012 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phillip E Cash Cash) Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2012 13:00:37 -0700 Subject: Oklahoma museum offers linguistics workshop focusing on indigenous communities (fwd link) Message-ID: Oklahoma museum offers linguistics workshop focusing on indigenous communities Registration is open for “Oklahoma Breath of Life — Silent No More,” a workshop at Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History in Norman. It is designed for indigenous communities that no longer have fluent first language speakers. FROM STAFF REPORTS | Published: March 14, 2012 USA NORMAN — Registration is open for a linguistic workshop May 20-25 at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History. “Oklahoma Breath of Life — Silent No More” is designed especially for indigenous people from communities that no longer have fluent first language speakers. The workshop offers five days of linguistic and language renewal immersion. Participants will learn how to find and use archived language materials and will work with a linguistic mentor to learn how to read phonetic writing, understand how their language works and how to begin the process of language renewal. Read more: http://newsok.com/oklahoma-museum-offers-linguistics-workshop-focusing-on-indigenous-communities/article/3657375#ixzz1p7hKZxcc -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Mar 14 19:56:08 2012 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phillip E Cash Cash) Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2012 12:56:08 -0700 Subject: Indigenous Language and AI/AN Student Success (fwd link) Message-ID: Indigenous Language and AI/AN Student Success Posted: 03/14/2012 1:04 pm The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) currently identifies more than 2,000 endangered indigenous languages. Nearly 200 of these endangered languages are listed in the United States; approximately 20 of those occur in Alaska. These numbers, although lamentable on their face, present a stirring testament to cultural persistence in the face of centuries of policies and actions designed to obliterate and assimilate Native peoples. Access full article below: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ernestine-hayes/endangered-indigenous-languages_b_1344862.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dwanders at SONIC.NET Wed Mar 14 21:36:27 2012 From: dwanders at SONIC.NET (Deborah W. Anderson) Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2012 14:36:27 -0700 Subject: Looking for native users of Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Dear List, I have been contacted by a colleague at Google who is trying to find native users of Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics in order to review a font being developed at Google. Ideally, the users should have a some basic familiarity with font design. This is not paid work, but the result of the effort will go into a high-quality font that will, I help, provide long-term benefits to the user communities. If you would be interested in participating and have the background (described above), please contact me off-list (dwanders at sonic.net). With many thanks, Deborah Anderson Researcher, Dept. of Linguistics UC Berkeley -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Sun Mar 18 21:48:57 2012 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phillip E Cash Cash) Date: Sun, 18 Mar 2012 14:48:57 -0700 Subject: Language preservation helps American Indian students stick with college (fwd link) Message-ID: Language preservation helps American Indian students stick with college By Marisa Agha Special to The Bee Published: Sunday, Mar. 18, 2012 - 12:00 am PAUMA VALLEY – Michael Murphy was a self-described "troublemaker" who wasn't sure about leaving the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians' reservation for college. He filled out only one application, to nearby California State University, San Marcos. Murphy, now a sophomore and chairman of the American Indian Student Alliance on that campus, credits the student group with helping him feel welcome and making him want to stay in college. "I would've dropped out the first semester" without that connection, said Murphy, a 20-year-old business major who plans to run for his tribe's council some day. Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/03/18/4346500/language-preservation-helps-american.html#storylink=cpy -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From rrlapier at AOL.COM Mon Mar 19 03:19:32 2012 From: rrlapier at AOL.COM (rrlapier at AOL.COM) Date: Sun, 18 Mar 2012 23:19:32 -0400 Subject: Why Bilinguals are Smarter Message-ID: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/18/opinion/sunday/the-benefits-of-bilingualism.html?src=me&ref=general -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From susan.penfield at GMAIL.COM Fri Mar 23 14:24:11 2012 From: susan.penfield at GMAIL.COM (Susan Penfield) Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2012 07:24:11 -0700 Subject: Launch of CTLDC - Consortium for Training in Language Documentation and Conservation Message-ID: Apologies for cross-posts! http://www.ctldc.org/ I am happy to announce that the Consortium is now officially launched! The CTLDC aims to bring together people who are working to preserve the world’s linguistic diversity by training others to document and revitalize their languages. Trainers can use the CTLDCT to work together, share materials, develop theory and practice, and promote their programs. As a member of the Planning Group, we would now like to encourage you and your organization to become a member of the organization itself. Benefits of membership include: · Access and share training materials, research, and practice in the area of language documentation and conservation. · Network with other individuals and organisations with a range of knowledge and skills in the area of training for language documentation and conservation. · Receive advocacy and support for training in language documentation and conservation. · Raise the profile of your organization and its activities; let others see what you are doing and learn from you. · Learn from language speakers, knowledge holders, and researchers through resource and knowledge sharing. · Participate in conferences and workshops organised by members of the CTLDC. · Contribute to discussions on training, and bring your own interests, expertise, and point of view into the public sphere. · Contribute to discussions on policy and lobby for better resourcing for training activities. · Help profile the importance of training activities as a core part of documentation and revitalization * * *Membership is free! Just participate!* There will be a number of upcoming CTLDC events, including meetings and workshops. We are also interested in developing regional networks and in planning training programs and other events at the regional level (for example: Southern Africa, Central America, and South Asia). If you would like to be part of planning such events and working to deliver training in language documentation and conservation to communities that currently do not have access to these resources, we strongly encourage you to join. Please visit the CTLDC website at www.ctldc.org for more information on membership and to sign up your organization. If you have questions or comments, please send us an email: contact at ctldc.org. We look forward to working with you into the future. Co-conveners: Carol Genetti and Margaret Florey -- ********************************************************************************************** *Susan D. Penfield, Ph.D. * Research Coordinator, CERCLL, Center for Educational Resources in Culture, Language and Literacy CONFLUENCE, Center for Creative Inquiry University of Arizona Fax: (520) 626-3313 Websites: CERCLL: cercll.arizona.edu Confluence Center: www.confluencecenter.arizona.edu -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From andrekaruk at NCIDC.ORG Fri Mar 23 18:23:41 2012 From: andrekaruk at NCIDC.ORG (Andre Cramblit) Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2012 11:23:41 -0700 Subject: I wonder if this would be true for Native languages Message-ID: Published Online: March 23, 2012 Momentum Builds for Dual-Language Learning By Lesli A. Maxwell San Jose, Calif. In a preschool class at Gardner Academy, a public elementary school near downtown San Jose, teacher Rosemary Zavala sketched a tree as she fired off questions about what plants need to grow. "¿Qué necesitan las plantas?" she asked her 4-year-old charges in Spanish. "Las flores toman agua" was the exuberant answer from one girl, who said that flowers drink water. A boy answered in English: "I saw a tree in my yard." The next day, Ms. Zavala's questions about plants would continue—but in English. This classroom, with its steady stream of lively, vocabulary-laden conversations in Spanish and in English, is what many educators and advocates hope represents the future of language instruction in the United States for both English-language learners and native English-speakers. The numbers of dual-language-immersion programs like this one have been steadily growing in public schools over the past decade or so, rising to more than 2,000 in 2011-12, according to estimates from national experts. That growth has come even as the numbers of transitional-bilingual-education programs shrank in the aftermath of heated, politically charged ballot initiatives pushing English immersion in states like Arizona, Massachusetts, and here in California. Experts say the interest in dual-language programs now is driven by an increased demand for bilingual and biliterate workers and by educators who see positive impacts on academic achievement for both English-learners and students already fluent in English. In California—home to more than 1 million ELL students and some of the fiercest battles over bilingual education—the earlier controversies are showing signs of ebbing. While the state's Proposition 227 ballot initiative, approved by voters in 1998, pushed districts to replace many bilingual education programs with English-immersion for English-learners, the state is now taking steps to encourage bilingualism for all students: Graduating seniors can earn a "seal of biliteracy" on their high school transcripts and diplomas, which signifies they have reached fluency in English and a second language. Last year, 6,000 graduates in the state earned the seal. "The momentum behind these programs is really amazing," said Virginia P. Collier, a professor emeritus of education at George Mason University, in Virginia, who has studied dual-language programs extensively. "And we are not talking about a remedial, separate program for English-learners or foreign-language programs just for students with picky parents," she said. "These are now mainstream programs where we’re seeing a lot of integration of native speakers of the second language with students who are native English-speakers." Types of Programs Part of the 33,000-student San Jose Unified School District, Gardner Academy offers a two-way immersion program, in which native speakers of English and native speakers of a second language—usually Spanish—learn both languages in the same classroom. Generally, to be considered a two-way program, at least one-third of the students must be native speakers of the second language. Many of Ms. Zavala's 4-year-olds will continue to receive at least half their instruction in Spanish as they move into kindergarten, 1st grade, and beyond. The goal is to establish strong literacy skills in English and Spanish in the early grades, and to produce fully bilingual, biliterate students by the end of elementary school. Because of the state’s Proposition 227 law, parents must "opt" for their children to enroll in the two-way program. In one-way immersion, another form of dual-language learning, either native English-speakers or native speakers of the second language make up all or most of the students enrolled and instruction takes place in two languages. First grade students in Gardner Academy's two-way, dual-language program in San Jose, Calif., take part in a classroom exercise. Even though California's Proposition 227 initiative effectively ended bilingual education in that state more than a decade ago, public dual-language programs are proving to be more politically palatable. The goal at Gardner is for both native English speakers and speakers of a second language to be fully biliterate and bilingual by the time they leave elementary school. —Manny Crisostomo for Education Week The number of one-way and two-way programs is roughly equal, according to Leonides Gómez, an education professor at the University of Texas-Pan American in Edinburg, Texas, who developed a two-way-immersion model that is widely used in the state’s public schools. There are variations in how dual-language programs work, but all of them share a few hallmark features. At least half the instructional time is spent in the second language, although in the early grades, it may take up as much as 90 percent. There must also be distinct separation of the two languages, unlike in transitional bilingual education, in which teachers and students alike mix their use of both languages. Spanish is by far the most prevalent second language taught in dual programs, followed by Mandarin Chinese and French, according to national language experts. For English-language learners, the dual-immersion experience is dramatically different from that in most other bilingual education programs, in which teachers use the native language to help teach English with the goal of moving students into regular classes as quickly as possible, said Mr. Gómez, who serves on the board of the National Association for Bilingual Education, or NABE. "The goal isn’t to run away from one language or another, but to really educate the child in both and to use the native language as a resource and an asset," said Mr. Gómez. "Content is content, and skills are skills. When you learn both in two or more languages, it moves you to a different level of comprehension, capacity, and brain elasticity." Role of Motivation Research examining the effects of dual-language programs has shown some promising results for years, although there is not consensus that it’s the best method for teaching English-language learners. One problem with discerning the effect of dual-language methods is determining how much self-selection is a factor. All such programs are programs of choice, with students and their families having the motivation to opt for the dual-language route. Another factor is the great variability among dual-language programs. "I think many of the new programs aren't able to achieve the ideal conditions for them to truly work, especially for English-learners," said Don Soifer, the executive vice president of the Lexington Institute, a think tank in Arlington, Va., that generally supports English immersion for the teaching of English-learners. For starters, Mr. Soifer said, finding teachers is a major challenge because they need strong skills in two languages, as well as subject-matter competence. He said it’s also necessary for two-way programs to have an even balance of native English-speakers, a feature that he says is difficult to achieve in some districts. Still, several studies in recent years have demonstrated that ELL students and other frequently low-performing groups, such as African-American students, do well in dual-language programs. Ms. Collier and her research partner, Wayne P. Thomas, found in a 2002 study that ELLs in dual-language programs were able to close the achievement gap with their native English-speaking peers, and that the programs achieved important intangible goals, such as increased parental involvement. The study examined 20 years of data on ELLs in 15 states who were enrolled in dual-language, transitional-bilingual-education, and English-only programs. North Carolina Results Ms. Collier and Mr. Thomas are also conducting an ongoing study of students in two-way dual-language programs, most of them in Spanish and English, in North Carolina. The researchers have found so far that gaps in reading and math achievement between English-learners enrolled in dual-language classes and their white peers who are native English-speakers are smaller than gaps between ELLs who are not in such classes and white students. Kindergartner Zharik Carranzo writes in Spanish at Gardner Academy, near San Jose, Calif., one of a growing number of schools offering dual-language programs. —Manny Crisostomo for Education Week The data are also showing that English-speaking African-American students who are in dual-language programs are outscoring black peers who are in non-dual classrooms, Ms. Collier said. Texas has more dual-language immersion programs than any other state—with between 700 and 800 of them in schools—including some of the most mature, according to several experts. One district in the state's Rio Grande Valley along the Mexican border—the Pharr-San Juan-Alamo Independent School District—is likely to become the nation's first to have dual-language programs in all its schools, including middle and high school, Mr. Gómez said. In June, the fourth cohort of students who have been in dual language since kindergarten will graduate from the district’s four high schools. In Utah, a statewide dual-language-immersion initiative funded through the legislature—the first such broad-scale effort in the United States, according to experts—is now in its third year, said Gregg Roberts, a specialist in world languages and dual-language immersion for the state office of education. By next fall, public elementary schools across Utah will offer 80 programs under the state initiative, with roughly 15,000 students enrolled in Spanish, Mandarin, French, and Portuguese. The goal is to have 30,000 students enrolled in 100 programs by 2014, Mr. Roberts said. "Utah is a small state and, for our future economic development and the national security of our country, we have to educate students who are multilingual," he said. "There is broad agreement in our state about that. It's not a red or a blue issue here." Many of Utah's programs so far are two-way Spanish-English immersion, drawing on the state's growing Latino immigrant community, said Myriam Met, an expert on immersion programs who is working closely with Utah officials on the initiative. But the most in-demand programs in Utah are Mandarin. Ms. Met said there were fewer than 10 Chinese immersion programs in the nation in 2000. The current estimate stands at 75 Chinese programs, and by next fall, roughly a quarter of those will be in Utah, she said. San Francisco's Approach Some of the nation’s oldest Chinese programs are offered in the 56,000-student San Francisco public schools. Most students start in one of the city's five elementary schools, where they split instructional time between English and Cantonese or English and Mandarin. Eventually, many end up at Abraham Lincoln High School, where a mix of native Chinese-speakers and students who have been in the immersion program since the early grades take advanced Chinese-language courses, in addition to at least two content-area courses each year in Cantonese. Amber Sevilla, a 14-year-old freshman in the Chinese-immersion program at Lincoln, is already fluent in Cantonese and Mandarin. She has been in Chinese immersion since kindergarten and learned some Chinese at home from her grandmother. Through middle school, nearly all of her instruction was conducted in Chinese, including math. Currently, she is taking health education and college and career education in Chinese. "I'm excited that I can count on being bilingual and biliterate as I go to college, and I know it's going to be an advantage for me even though I don't know yet what I want to do for my career," said Ms. Sevilla. "It’s hard work, but it’s worth it." Related Blog Visit this blog. Like nearly all her classmates in the immersion program, Ms. Sevilla is on track to earn California's new state seal of biliteracy. Rosa Molina, the executive director of Two-Way CABE, an advocacy group for dual-language programs that is an arm of the California Association for Bilingual Education, said students like Ms. Sevilla benefit in muliple ways. "They preserve their primary language or their heritage language, they develop a broader worldview that they take into college and the work world, and they gain huge advantages in their cognitive development that translates into flexibility in their thinking and the ability to successfully tackle really rigorous coursework," Ms. Molina said. Advocates for English-learners emphasize the importance of expanding programs that are truly two-way and fully accessible to ELLs. Laurie Olsen, a national expert on English-learners who designed the instructional model in use at the Gardner Academy in San Jose, cautions against allowing programs to become dominated by middle- and upper-income students whose parents want them to learn a second language. If that happens, she said, one of the most promising approaches to closing the achievement gap between English-learners and fluent English-speakers will be squandered. "We know that English-learners who develop proficiency in their home language do better in English and in accessing academic content," she said. "Yet we still live in a world where the belief is wide that English should be enough." Vol. 31, Issue 26 Kúmateech /Later André Cramblit, Operations Director Northern California Indian Development Council (NCIDC) (http://www.ncidc.org) 707.445.8451 To subscribe to a blog of interest to Natives send go to: http://andrekaruk.posterous.com/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Pasted Graphic.tiff Type: image/tiff Size: 9654 bytes Desc: not available URL: From rtroike at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Sun Mar 25 05:42:23 2012 From: rtroike at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Rudy Troike) Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2012 22:42:23 -0700 Subject: I wonder if this would be true for Native languages In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Re Andrew's question: Yes, dual language instruction would surely work, IF Native-language curricula were developed paralleling usual content in regular English-only classes. The situation vis-a-vis Spanish/English is that a weird backlash against 'bilingual education' developed, with opponents convincing the public that it was monolingual instruction in Spanish, dooming students to isolation from access to English (even a Yale professor of literature denounced bilingual education on these grounds, ignoring the obvious meaning of 'bi-', which was distorted to be interpreted as 'mono-'). Ronald Reagan campaigned against bilingual education on these grounds, and part of the legacy of the Reagan Revolution was to pervert support for bilingual education into support for English as a Second Language (ESL) support. In California, even native Spanish-speaking voters were intimidated into supporting a referendum funded by a zealous businessman named Unz, who later brought the same initiative to Arizona, to outlaw bilingual instruction. The label 'dual language' was developed as a workaround to avoid the taint of the perversion of 'bi-' to mean 'mono-'. Also, critically, it more actively sought to recruit native English- speaking children into classes, and was often installed in magnet schools, where dual language instruction was made attractive, rather than treated as a ghettoizing program designed as remedial instruction for immigrants. (The educationally preposterous nature of the Arizona law is that if a child enters school unable to comprehend English adequately, he/she is denied placement in a program utilizing the child's native language, and is can only be admitted into bi-/dual language instruction once his/her competence in English is deemed adequate.) I think the same irrational and discriminatory provision applies in California, so except in schools on a reservation, this absurdity would have to be factored -- Native language could NOT be used until a child had demonstrated an adequate level of proficiency in English, by which time it might be too late to take maximum advantage of children's natural language learning ability. Rudy From hardman at UFL.EDU Sun Mar 25 13:36:05 2012 From: hardman at UFL.EDU (Dr. MJ Hardman) Date: Sun, 25 Mar 2012 09:36:05 -0400 Subject: I wonder if this would be true for Native languages In-Reply-To: <20120324224223.hjb688o40s8owg80@www.email.arizona.edu> Message-ID: I remember way back when, after we from UF had helped install a genuinely bi-lingual program in Miami schools, it was destroyed by exactly the same logic. In that program English-speaking students went to Spanish class while Spanish-speaking students went to English class. The children loved it; they learned about language itself (very helpful for English-speaking students who spoke a discriminated variety of their own language), and they ended up bilingual in a city where it is necessary to be bilingual to get a job. It's gone. MJ On 3/25/12 1:42 AM, "Rudy Troike" wrote: > Re Andrew's question: > > Yes, dual language instruction would surely work, IF Native-language > curricula were developed paralleling usual content in regular English-only > classes. The situation vis-a-vis Spanish/English is that a weird backlash > against 'bilingual education' developed, with opponents convincing the > public that it was monolingual instruction in Spanish, dooming students > to isolation from access to English (even a Yale professor of literature > denounced bilingual education on these grounds, ignoring the obvious > meaning of 'bi-', which was distorted to be interpreted as 'mono-'). > Ronald Reagan campaigned against bilingual education on these grounds, > and part of the legacy of the Reagan Revolution was to pervert support > for bilingual education into support for English as a Second Language > (ESL) support. In California, even native Spanish-speaking voters were > intimidated into supporting a referendum funded by a zealous businessman > named Unz, who later brought the same initiative to Arizona, to outlaw > bilingual instruction. The label 'dual language' was developed as a > workaround to avoid the taint of the perversion of 'bi-' to mean 'mono-'. > Also, critically, it more actively sought to recruit native English- > speaking children into classes, and was often installed in magnet schools, > where dual language instruction was made attractive, rather than treated > as a ghettoizing program designed as remedial instruction for immigrants. > (The educationally preposterous nature of the Arizona law is that if a > child enters school unable to comprehend English adequately, he/she is > denied placement in a program utilizing the child's native language, and > is can only be admitted into bi-/dual language instruction once his/her > competence in English is deemed adequate.) I think the same irrational > and discriminatory provision applies in California, so except in schools > on a reservation, this absurdity would have to be factored -- Native > language could NOT be used until a child had demonstrated an adequate > level of proficiency in English, by which time it might be too late to > take maximum advantage of children's natural language learning ability. > > Rudy > Dr. MJ Hardman Professor of Linguistics and Anthropology Department of Linguistics University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida Doctora Honoris Causa UNMSM, Lima, Perú website: http://grove.ufl.edu/~hardman/ From evan at WHEREAREYOURKEYS.ORG Sun Mar 25 21:40:22 2012 From: evan at WHEREAREYOURKEYS.ORG (Evan Gardner) Date: Sun, 25 Mar 2012 14:40:22 -0700 Subject: I wonder if this would be true for Native languages In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Could this work for Native Languages? I am betting my life on it! On Mar 25, 2012 5:36 AM, "Dr. MJ Hardman" wrote: > I remember way back when, after we from UF had helped install a genuinely > bi-lingual program in Miami schools, it was destroyed by exactly the same > logic. In that program English-speaking students went to Spanish class > while Spanish-speaking students went to English class. The children loved > it; they learned about language itself (very helpful for English-speaking > students who spoke a discriminated variety of their own language), and they > ended up bilingual in a city where it is necessary to be bilingual to get a > job. It's gone. MJ > > On 3/25/12 1:42 AM, "Rudy Troike" wrote: > > > Re Andrew's question: > > > > Yes, dual language instruction would surely work, IF Native-language > > curricula were developed paralleling usual content in regular > English-only > > classes. The situation vis-a-vis Spanish/English is that a weird backlash > > against 'bilingual education' developed, with opponents convincing the > > public that it was monolingual instruction in Spanish, dooming students > > to isolation from access to English (even a Yale professor of literature > > denounced bilingual education on these grounds, ignoring the obvious > > meaning of 'bi-', which was distorted to be interpreted as 'mono-'). > > Ronald Reagan campaigned against bilingual education on these grounds, > > and part of the legacy of the Reagan Revolution was to pervert support > > for bilingual education into support for English as a Second Language > > (ESL) support. In California, even native Spanish-speaking voters were > > intimidated into supporting a referendum funded by a zealous businessman > > named Unz, who later brought the same initiative to Arizona, to outlaw > > bilingual instruction. The label 'dual language' was developed as a > > workaround to avoid the taint of the perversion of 'bi-' to mean 'mono-'. > > Also, critically, it more actively sought to recruit native English- > > speaking children into classes, and was often installed in magnet > schools, > > where dual language instruction was made attractive, rather than treated > > as a ghettoizing program designed as remedial instruction for immigrants. > > (The educationally preposterous nature of the Arizona law is that if a > > child enters school unable to comprehend English adequately, he/she is > > denied placement in a program utilizing the child's native language, and > > is can only be admitted into bi-/dual language instruction once his/her > > competence in English is deemed adequate.) I think the same irrational > > and discriminatory provision applies in California, so except in schools > > on a reservation, this absurdity would have to be factored -- Native > > language could NOT be used until a child had demonstrated an adequate > > level of proficiency in English, by which time it might be too late to > > take maximum advantage of children's natural language learning ability. > > > > Rudy > > > > Dr. MJ Hardman > Professor of Linguistics and Anthropology > Department of Linguistics > University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida > Doctora Honoris Causa UNMSM, Lima, Perú > website: http://grove.ufl.edu/~hardman/ > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Mar 26 22:09:42 2012 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phillip E Cash Cash) Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2012 15:09:42 -0700 Subject: Online tool aims to save Hmong language (fwd link) Message-ID: Monday, Mar. 26, 2012 Online tool aims to save Hmong language Hmong translator latest effort to preserve culture. The Associated Press USA FRESNO -- When Phong Yang, a Hmong refugee from Laos, landed in California's Central Valley -- via stops in Thailand and France -- he was 14 years old. He learned to speak Hmong from his parents, but today he has a hard time teaching the language to his children, who are distracted by cell phones and computers. Many Hmong are losing their language, Yang said, leading to fears that their cultural identity will be lost. A new technological tool may help bridge generation gaps and encourage preservation of their language among the Hmong. The community in Fresno, in partnership with researchers at Microsoft, has launched an online Hmong translator. Read more here: http://www.mercedsunstar.com/2012/03/26/2283667/online-tool-aims-to-save-hmong.html#storylink=cpy -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Mar 26 22:08:28 2012 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phillip E Cash Cash) Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2012 15:08:28 -0700 Subject: Little River Band of Ottawa Indians offers language education tool (fwd link) Message-ID: Little River Band of Ottawa Indians offers language education tool Monday, March 26, 2012 USA MANISTEE —Tribal languages are an important part of the culture and the life of the Native American tribal nations. Many of these languages are in danger of being lost while at the same time a number of the nations are actively engaged in teaching their language to their people and others who are interested. The Little River Band of Ottawa Indians based in Manistee ihas invested heavily in preserving and protecting Anishinaabemowin, the language of the Ottawa people. Access full article below: http://www.ludingtondailynews.com/news/64532-little-river-band-of-ottawa-indians-offers-language-education-tool -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Mar 26 22:11:44 2012 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phillip E Cash Cash) Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2012 15:11:44 -0700 Subject: Native Languages Bill Takes Another Step Forward (fwd link) Message-ID: Native Languages Bill Takes Another Step Forward By Carol Berry March 24, 2012 USA Native American language teaching won a victory March 21 when a bill that would help to preserve tribal languages sailed through an education committee of the Colorado House of Representatives by unanimous vote. The bill, already approved in a Senate hearing, appears destined for the governor’s signature and enactment. The bill would allow tribal elders and other fluent speakers of the Native languages of federally recognized tribes to teach the languages even though they may not have teaching licenses. They would be under the supervision of qualified teachers in order to obtain license waivers from the Colorado Department of Education (CDE). Read more: http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/03/24/native-languages-bill-takes-another-step-forward-104299 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jcrippen at GMAIL.COM Tue Mar 27 00:07:02 2012 From: jcrippen at GMAIL.COM (James Crippen) Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2012 17:07:02 -0700 Subject: I wonder if this would be true for Native languages In-Reply-To: <20120324224223.hjb688o40s8owg80@www.email.arizona.edu> Message-ID: On Sat, Mar 24, 2012 at 22:42, Rudy Troike wrote: > Re Andrew's question: > >  Yes, dual language instruction would surely work, IF Native-language > curricula were developed paralleling usual content in regular English-only > classes. I beg to differ, at least for highly endangered or extinct languages. I won’t generalize about other situations because I’m not familiar with them. People who do 12 years of primary and secondary schooling in the well known kinds of dual language programs for big languages (e.g. French or Spanish) do not necessarily graduate with fluency in the ‘foreign’ language if their parents do not also speak it at home. In such cases, though they may be adequate in paper testing, the students’ speech is typically heavily influenced by the local majority language (e.g. English) and they often have impractical gaps in their mental lexica, among other assorted handicaps. There is a good bit of documentation on this in the second language acquisition research community, as I recall from my classes in second language acquisition and bilingualism. Students do have the chance to dramatically improve their fluency by spending time somewhere that the language is spoken by the majority. But in the case of endangered languages, there *is* no place to go where the majority speaks the language. So the situations aren’t parallel and really shouldn’t be equated. Instead of focusing on schools and education, the first place that endangered languages need to be supported is in the home. No amount of schooling will replace real-life use at home. If education in the language is an adjunct to home use then success is vastly improved, but the converse is not true at all. Space must be made for the language to exist in real life, outside of institutions, before people should worry about institutional use. If you look at the few successful language revitalization programs for highly endangered or extinct languages, they’ve all begun in private homes among families, not in schools. There’s a dangerous temptation to somehow make schooling into the saviour for highly endangered languages. I think this is partly because it obviates personal responsibilities and provides a convenient scapegoat for failure in the guise of ‘the institution’, ‘the administration’, ‘the bureaucracy’, or worst of all ‘those teachers’. Depending solely on education institutions to solve language decline just seems to make things worse, not better, because it encourages people to *not* take an active role in keeping the language alive. “I don’t have to worry anymore because they’re teaching it in school.” On the other hand, if children and teachers are supported by enthusiastic and engaged parents who immerse their children in the language at home, then it seems that success can almost be guaranteed. So language revitalization should start at home, not at school. Education programs modelled on bilingual education for big languages should only be put in place once there are a reasonable number of families with young children who are already fluent. Institutions should support home use, not the other way around. If people are concerned about educational programs, these should instead first be targeted at adults who can have kids and make homes where the language can be spoken with their children. The children need to start with a natural, ordinary environment where their language can be nurtured by their own parents and families. Think small, not big. Revitalization is not a huge change in the world done all at once by legislative or administrative actions, it’s a long, involved series of small changes done at home and in the neighbourhood that most people never notice happening. From chimiskwew at HOTMAIL.COM Tue Mar 27 00:31:28 2012 From: chimiskwew at HOTMAIL.COM (Cathy Wheaton) Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2012 18:31:28 -0600 Subject: I wonder if this would be true for Native languages In-Reply-To: Message-ID: I couldn't agree more! That is a part of language we need to work on in our communities, we need more Cree spoken in our homes and for that to become more prevalent! It is so important and yet I hear language institutions focused on schools to revive language while forgetting how important home language usage is for the whole community! -----Original Message----- From: James Crippen Sent: Monday, March 26, 2012 6:07 PM To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Subject: Re: [ILAT] I wonder if this would be true for Native languages On Sat, Mar 24, 2012 at 22:42, Rudy Troike wrote: > Re Andrew's question: > > Yes, dual language instruction would surely work, IF Native-language > curricula were developed paralleling usual content in regular English-only > classes. I beg to differ, at least for highly endangered or extinct languages. I won’t generalize about other situations because I’m not familiar with them. People who do 12 years of primary and secondary schooling in the well known kinds of dual language programs for big languages (e.g. French or Spanish) do not necessarily graduate with fluency in the ‘foreign’ language if their parents do not also speak it at home. In such cases, though they may be adequate in paper testing, the students’ speech is typically heavily influenced by the local majority language (e.g. English) and they often have impractical gaps in their mental lexica, among other assorted handicaps. There is a good bit of documentation on this in the second language acquisition research community, as I recall from my classes in second language acquisition and bilingualism. Students do have the chance to dramatically improve their fluency by spending time somewhere that the language is spoken by the majority. But in the case of endangered languages, there *is* no place to go where the majority speaks the language. So the situations aren’t parallel and really shouldn’t be equated. Instead of focusing on schools and education, the first place that endangered languages need to be supported is in the home. No amount of schooling will replace real-life use at home. If education in the language is an adjunct to home use then success is vastly improved, but the converse is not true at all. Space must be made for the language to exist in real life, outside of institutions, before people should worry about institutional use. If you look at the few successful language revitalization programs for highly endangered or extinct languages, they’ve all begun in private homes among families, not in schools. There’s a dangerous temptation to somehow make schooling into the saviour for highly endangered languages. I think this is partly because it obviates personal responsibilities and provides a convenient scapegoat for failure in the guise of ‘the institution’, ‘the administration’, ‘the bureaucracy’, or worst of all ‘those teachers’. Depending solely on education institutions to solve language decline just seems to make things worse, not better, because it encourages people to *not* take an active role in keeping the language alive. “I don’t have to worry anymore because they’re teaching it in school.” On the other hand, if children and teachers are supported by enthusiastic and engaged parents who immerse their children in the language at home, then it seems that success can almost be guaranteed. So language revitalization should start at home, not at school. Education programs modelled on bilingual education for big languages should only be put in place once there are a reasonable number of families with young children who are already fluent. Institutions should support home use, not the other way around. If people are concerned about educational programs, these should instead first be targeted at adults who can have kids and make homes where the language can be spoken with their children. The children need to start with a natural, ordinary environment where their language can be nurtured by their own parents and families. Think small, not big. Revitalization is not a huge change in the world done all at once by legislative or administrative actions, it’s a long, involved series of small changes done at home and in the neighbourhood that most people never notice happening. From klokeid at UVIC.CA Tue Mar 27 01:55:45 2012 From: klokeid at UVIC.CA (Terry J. Klokeid) Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2012 18:55:45 -0700 Subject: I wonder if this would be true for Native languages In-Reply-To: Message-ID: On 26-03-2012, at 5:31 pm, Cathy Wheaton wrote: > how important home language usage is for the whole community! Language Recovery The following statement guides the language program of the Huu-ay-aht First Nations. Language Recovery is the process of restoring our Nuu-chah-nulth language to play a useful, functional role in community activities. The outcome of Language Recovery is achieved when families maintain the Nuu-chah-nulth language, when children learn the language from their parents, grandparents, siblings, and playmates. From rtroike at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Tue Mar 27 03:14:32 2012 From: rtroike at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Rudy Troike) Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2012 20:14:32 -0700 Subject: I wonder if this would be true for Native languages Message-ID: The most successful Native-English dual language program I know of was a truly bilingual Navajo-English program at Rock Point, Arizona. It was well-researched and had a strong academic curriculum, in which students outperformed those in purely ESL programs, and became highly literate in both Navajo and English, proving IT CAN BE DONE. I have met some of the graduates of the program here at the University of Arizona, and found them very impressive. Nothing has been said about the program here on ILAT, and I don't know if it is still continuing. Conversely, as I have mentioned before, a UNM dissertation some years ago showed that Navajo children who were placed in English-only Head Start programs in order for them to learn English before starting school, were found to perform LESS WELL by the 3rd grade than comparable students who began school monolingual in Navajo. The study also showed that the early exposure to English had degraded children's grammatical competence in Navajo, suggesting a cognitive connection between loss of native language competence and lower achievement in English-only schooling. --Rudy From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Tue Mar 27 22:20:05 2012 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phillip E Cash Cash) Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2012 15:20:05 -0700 Subject: April 1-7, 2012 Proclaimed Heritage Language Awareness Week (fwd link) Message-ID: APRIL 1-7, 2012 PROCLAIMED HERITAGE LANGUAGE AWARENESS WEEK March 27, 2012 Tuesday AM USA (SitNews) Ketchikan, Alaska - Ketchikan Indian Community Tribal Council is proclaiming April 1-7, 2012 Heritage Language Awareness Week. It is estimated that only 175 Native languages remain in the United States, three of which are languages indigenous to the Ketchikan area: Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian also known as Lingít, Xaad Kíl, and Shmalgyax. Access full article below: http://www.sitnews.us/0312News/032712/032712_heritage_week.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From rtroike at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Tue Mar 27 23:12:23 2012 From: rtroike at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Rudy Troike) Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2012 16:12:23 -0700 Subject: I wonder if this would be true for Native languages Message-ID: I agree with James Crippen's concerns about highly endangered languages: "There's a dangerous temptation to somehow make schooling into the saviour for highly endangered languages. ... Depending solely on education institutions to solve language decline just seems to make things worse, not better, because it encourages people to *not* take an active role in keeping the language alive." As I noted in a subsequent post, the Navajo bilingual program at Rock Point, before it declined, demonstrated that for a Native language, it IS possible to develop a thorough K-12 curriculum which matches the English curriculum (but includes native cultural and historical content, and even in math is sensitive to linguistic features of the language differing from or lacking in English). Where there are enough speakers to support the effort, it could be possible in communities like the Dakota to restore the level of literacy which once existed -- though the window of opportunity is rapidly closing down. But as James said, this cannot be carried just by the schools, since real language learning begins in the home and in interpersonal inter- action. However, thanks to the tradition of government and parochial schooling, many if not most parents are unable to provide that 'home nest' for the child. That is why a community effort like that in New Zealand and Hawaii, to place young children with older fluent speakers in 'nests' or day-care centers (better yet, for a whole summer) can be effective in establishing early natural (not formally instructed) acquisition, which can then be brought to school and reinforced. A holistic plan is needed which involves more than just individual families. One of the perennial problems in Native language maintenance is that 'higher-level' academic competence is non-existent, and community members and students perceive that there is 'no use' in learning the language since it has no further 'marketplace' value. Attitudes thus play an enormous role both in the perspective of the community and of students. Developing literacy in the Native language is empowering, and even at advanced (high school and college) levels, if academically advanced materials are developed, parallel literacy is possible. This is what the Rock Point program spectacularly demonstrated, and is showing some effect in Cherokee in Oklahoma as well. The use of Native languages in schools has, as the new Colorado law has shown, given institutional recognition to these languages and brought Native language speakers into the school setting for the first time. So it is not just an either/or situation -- meaningful school instruction can provide a mooring-post for communities and families to rally around. Communities, families, and individuals must ultimately take primary responsibility for language maintenance and preservation. It can't, as James says, just be pushed off to schools to somehow magically accomplish alone. Without motivation, buy-in, and active participation, endangered languages cannot survive on their own. Rudy Troike From mikinakn at SHAW.CA Wed Mar 28 01:26:47 2012 From: mikinakn at SHAW.CA (Rolland Nadjiwon) Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2012 21:26:47 -0400 Subject: I wonder if this would be true for Native languages In-Reply-To: <20120327161223.4mae9wogskw48gkc@www.email.arizona.edu> Message-ID: Another rant maybe. Perhaps 9/10ths of the unseen iceberg as a metaphor, is these languages were never meant to survive in a so called 'post colonial' New World. Their intentional destruction is 'fact' well known by the survivors and historically documented. Perhaps language loss is merely a symptom of why these languages are being lost. Perhaps the problem is not even with the 'peoples' but external to them and built into the fabric of what has become 'the Americas'. If there is such a great moral interest in the survival of endangered indigenous languages and the home and community are the conduits for language transmission then the family, people and the community must also be repaired from the ravaging destruction of both overt, covert and insidious colonialism. Perhaps the people and communities must be involved in the development of their own language survival programs in a manner which validates their own intelligence and worth, culture, cosmology and life paths. There is not much point bringing into the communities, 'for the people', a pre-formulated pedagogy for language skills when the real problem is their total cultural, linguistic and spiritual survival. All of the tribes survived with their myriad of languages until 'somebody done somebody wrong' and have never identified or corrected that wrong. It must be understood, accepted and dealt with that these 'tribal' languages have their own 'already there' which is as different from everyone else's 'already there'. Their 'already lived in languages' are as different from each tribe and the rest of the world as Chinese is from Gaelic. These tribal languages have absolutely no 'cognate' relationship to any other language than their own dialects and those languages are generated in a 'primary orality'. Any linguist must be aware of this...guess I should stop here before I am reminded I am off topic again...apologies. There is so much more can be said...I live 'inside' this destruction and loss. I deal with it every day and not from some evangelical ardor. I agree with many of the points you make Rudy outside the idea that institutionalization can be an solution. Institutions have not yet provided or even acted on any long term survival, a fact which is becoming even more apparent as we move with ever increasing speed toward the demise of this present civilization and perhaps even the earth itself. These endangered languages are symbiotically tied to the earth and the cosmos. Institutions have little if anything to offer them other than jobs teaching endangered languages. You cannot expect these peoples to embrace institutionalization which has no history of benefits to them...in fact documented evidence to the opposite. There has to be something new and innovative to accommodate a new and changed environment. Please don't ask me what it is...I have been working on it for almost 50 years. My greatest successes happened in the mid-60s and early 70s. During the early 70s, I was a coordinator for Keewatinung Institute, a cultural, educational and spiritual center for our people in our area. We were the very first of our kind in Canada. From that position, I had the absolutely fantastic opportunity of coordinating The Indian Ecumenical Conference...a gathering of spiritual leaders from as many tribes we could get representatives from. It was 'ecumenical' in the broader meaning of the term. We had a Steering Committee of elders and spiritual leaders to help with the development of logistics and content for the first great gathering at Morley, Alberta. During the planning sessions over many months and in many locations, the idea of an 'agenda' came up. The Steering Committee after thinking on it told us we didn't need an agenda. Those of us 'trained' to think 'inside the box' felt we had to have plans and objectives and to know what we were going to do. The elders and spiritual leaders told us what we would do is to look at how we were 500 years ago, how we look today and how we want to look in another 500 years. So, that was the 'gist' of our getting together. I still think of that especially when I hear out tribal councils and politicians speaking of five year plans, 10 year plans and sometimes a 20/25 year plan. Our gatherings were very, very successful and the spin off is still felt today...and we are still at it 40 some years later. You can read about it in a book entitled 'Around the sacred fire: a native religious activism in the Red Power era : a narrative map of the Indian Ecumenical Conference' by James Treat. I am adding a short review if anyone is interested. Around the sacred fire: a native religious activism in the Red Power era : a narrative map of the Indian Ecumenical Conference. James Treat . Palgrave Macmillan, 2003 - History - 376 pages Front Cover Around the Sacred Fire is a compelling cultural history of intertribal activism centered on the Indian Ecumenical Conference, an influential movement among native people in Canada and the U.S. during the Red Power era. Founded in 1969, the Conference began as an attempt at organizing grassroots spiritual leaders who were concerned about the conflict between tribal and Christian traditions throughout Indian country. By the mid-seventies thousands of people were gathering each summer in the foothills of the Rockies, where they participated in weeklong encampments promoting spiritual revitalization and religious self-determination. Most historical overviews of native affairs in the sixties and seventies emphasize the prominence of the American Indian Movement and the impact of highly publicized confrontations such as the Northwest Coast fish-ins, the Alcatraz occupation, and events at Wounded Knee. The Indian Ecumenical Conference played a central role in stimulating cultural revival among native people, partly because Conference leaders strategized for social change in ways that differed from the militant groups. Drawing on archival records, published accounts, oral histories, and field research, James Treat has written the first comprehensive study of this important but overlooked effort at postcolonial interreligious dialogue. The closing review statement may sound like it was a failure...it was not or there would be no global indigenous peoples movement and an increasingly unified global voice. Treat's book will be the most you ever find on it because, it was meant to be that way. Our only paper trails were briefs for funding and resulting financial statements. There were no native 'political' so called leaders, tribal councils or politicians...they didn't even know it was happening...not that any of them would have cared. Anyhow, I had best conclude my rant and thanks for listening...if you did so. I am turtle clan and usually have slow and sometimes lengthy excursions through my own thoughts. megwetch.... wahjeh rolland nadjiwon _____________________________________ "Political correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a piece of shit by the clean end." -----Original Message----- From: Indigenous Languages and Technology [mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU] On Behalf Of Rudy Troike Sent: March-27-12 7:12 PM To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Subject: Re: [ILAT] I wonder if this would be true for Native languages I agree with James Crippen's concerns about highly endangered languages: "There's a dangerous temptation to somehow make schooling into the saviour for highly endangered languages. ... Depending solely on education institutions to solve language decline just seems to make things worse, not better, because it encourages people to *not* take an active role in keeping the language alive." As I noted in a subsequent post, the Navajo bilingual program at Rock Point, before it declined, demonstrated that for a Native language, it IS possible to develop a thorough K-12 curriculum which matches the English curriculum (but includes native cultural and historical content, and even in math is sensitive to linguistic features of the language differing from or lacking in English). Where there are enough speakers to support the effort, it could be possible in communities like the Dakota to restore the level of literacy which once existed -- though the window of opportunity is rapidly closing down. But as James said, this cannot be carried just by the schools, since real language learning begins in the home and in interpersonal inter- action. However, thanks to the tradition of government and parochial schooling, many if not most parents are unable to provide that 'home nest' for the child. That is why a community effort like that in New Zealand and Hawaii, to place young children with older fluent speakers in 'nests' or day-care centers (better yet, for a whole summer) can be effective in establishing early natural (not formally instructed) acquisition, which can then be brought to school and reinforced. A holistic plan is needed which involves more than just individual families. One of the perennial problems in Native language maintenance is that 'higher-level' academic competence is non-existent, and community members and students perceive that there is 'no use' in learning the language since it has no further 'marketplace' value. Attitudes thus play an enormous role both in the perspective of the community and of students. Developing literacy in the Native language is empowering, and even at advanced (high school and college) levels, if academically advanced materials are developed, parallel literacy is possible. This is what the Rock Point program spectacularly demonstrated, and is showing some effect in Cherokee in Oklahoma as well. The use of Native languages in schools has, as the new Colorado law has shown, given institutional recognition to these languages and brought Native language speakers into the school setting for the first time. So it is not just an either/or situation -- meaningful school instruction can provide a mooring-post for communities and families to rally around. Communities, families, and individuals must ultimately take primary responsibility for language maintenance and preservation. It can't, as James says, just be pushed off to schools to somehow magically accomplish alone. Without motivation, buy-in, and active participation, endangered languages cannot survive on their own. Rudy Troike ----- No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 2012.0.1913 / Virus Database: 2114/4896 - Release Date: 03/26/12 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: books?id=r-0L3IUPDRQC&printsec=frontcover&img=1&zoom=1&edge=curl Type: application/octet-stream Size: 12347 bytes Desc: not available URL: From whalen at HASKINS.YALE.EDU Wed Mar 28 01:47:59 2012 From: whalen at HASKINS.YALE.EDU (Doug Whalen) Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2012 21:47:59 -0400 Subject: CoLang scholarships from ELF for tribal members Message-ID: Dear ILAT Community, The Endangered Language Fund would like to send out a reminder that registration for CoLang 2012 (Collaborative Language Research) is still underway. The CoLang Institute consists of a two-week series of courses and workshops in language documentation, and an optional four-week "practicum" working with native speakers of one of four languages (Cherokee, Tlingit, Uda or Amazigh (Berber)). The Institute will take place at the University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, from June 18 - July 27, 2012. For more information and registration, please visit the CoLang site here. There are two scholarships for CoLang 2012 available through the Endangered Language Fund. The first is for tribal members of those tribes that are eligible for the Native Voices Endowment. The list of eligible tribes for this funding can be found here. The second will be for an enrolled member of any other US tribe. For both funding opportunities, please send us an email stating your tribe and proof of enrollment; whether you want to take just the classes or the classes plus a language practicum; and what your expectations are for how the experience at CoLang might to affect your work with your language. Applications to ELF (just the brief email mentioned above) are due 20 April. We will announce awards by 23 April. Registration at CoLang must be completed by 30 April. Sincerely, Doug Whalen DhW The Endangered Language Fund elf at endangeredlanguagefund.org Douglas H. Whalen, President Endangered Language Fund 300 George St., Suite 900 New Haven, CT 06511 USA +1-203-865-6163, ext. 265 (or 234 for Whalen) elf at endangeredlanguagefund.org www.endangeredlanguagefund.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From rzs at WILDBLUE.NET Wed Mar 28 02:40:47 2012 From: rzs at WILDBLUE.NET (Richard Zane Smith) Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2012 21:40:47 -0500 Subject: I wonder if this would be true for Native languages In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Thanks Rolland, i feel it almost every day too..there is a heavy weight dragging on any attempt to revitalize our language, maintain ceremony or even gathering for social dance pot-lucks. One of the curses is "busyiness" and it has so infected us, that gatherings, for language practice or study or even sacred gatherings must be "fit into a schedule" . I doubt our ancient ancestors were idle much, but there were some things that weren't designed to fit in your schedule...you just were to be there. ske:noh Richard Zane Smith (Sohahiyoh) On Tue, Mar 27, 2012 at 8:26 PM, Rolland Nadjiwon wrote: > ** > > Another rant maybe. Perhaps 9/10ths of the unseen iceberg as a > metaphor, is these languages were never meant to survive in a so called > 'post colonial' New World. Their intentional destruction is 'fact' well > known by the survivors and historically documented. Perhaps language loss > is merely a symptom of why these languages are being lost. Perhaps the > problem is not even with the 'peoples' but external to them and built into > the fabric of what has become 'the Americas'. If there is such a great > moral interest in the survival of endangered indigenous languages and the > home and community are the conduits for language transmission then the > family, people and the community must also be repaired from the ravaging > destruction of both overt, covert and insidious colonialism. Perhaps the > people and communities must be involved in the development of their own > language survival programs in a manner which validates their own > intelligence and worth, culture, cosmology and life paths. There is not > much point bringing into the communities, 'for the people', a > pre-formulated pedagogy for language skills when the real problem is their > total cultural, linguistic and spiritual survival. All of the tribes > survived with their myriad of languages until 'somebody done somebody > wrong' and have never identified or corrected that wrong. It must be > understood, accepted and dealt with that these 'tribal' languages have > their own 'already there' which is as different from everyone else's > 'already there'. Their 'already lived in languages' are as different from > each tribe and the rest of the world as Chinese is from Gaelic. These > tribal languages have absolutely no 'cognate' relationship to any other > language than their own dialects and those languages are generated in a > 'primary orality'. Any linguist must be aware of this...guess I should stop > here before I am reminded I am off topic again...apologies. There is so > much more can be said...I live 'inside' this destruction and loss. I deal > with it every day and not from some evangelical ardor. > I agree with many of the points you make Rudy outside the idea > that institutionalization can be an solution. Institutions have not yet > provided or even acted on any long term survival, a fact which is becoming > even more apparent as we move with ever increasing speed toward the demise > of this present civilization and perhaps even the earth itself. These > endangered languages are symbiotically tied to the earth and the cosmos. > Institutions have little if anything to offer them other than jobs teaching > endangered languages. You cannot expect these peoples to embrace > institutionalization which has no history of benefits to them...in fact > documented evidence to the opposite. There has to be something new and > innovative to accommodate a new and changed environment. Please don't ask > me what it is...I have been working on it for almost 50 years. My greatest > successes happened in the mid-60s and early 70s. > During the early 70s, I was a coordinator for Keewatinung > Institute, a cultural, educational and spiritual center for our people in > our area. We were the very first of our kind in Canada. From that position, > I had the absolutely fantastic opportunity of coordinating The Indian > Ecumenical Conference...a gathering of spiritual leaders from as many > tribes we could get representatives from. It was 'ecumenical' in the > broader meaning of the term. We had a Steering Committee of elders and > spiritual leaders to help with the development of logistics and content for > the first great gathering at Morley, Alberta. During the planning sessions > over many months and in many locations, the idea of an 'agenda' came up. > The Steering Committee after thinking on it told us we didn't need an > agenda. Those of us 'trained' to think 'inside the box' felt we had to have > plans and objectives and to know what we were going to do. The elders and > spiritual leaders told us what we would do is to look at how we were 500 > years ago, how we look today and how we want to look in another 500 years. > So, that was the 'gist' of our getting together. I still think of that > especially when I hear out tribal councils and politicians speaking of five > year plans, 10 year plans and sometimes a 20/25 year plan. Our gatherings > were very, very successful and the spin off is still felt today...and we > are still at it 40 some years later. You can read about it in a book > entitled 'Around the sacred fire: a native religious activism in the Red > Power era : a narrative map of the Indian Ecumenical Conference' by James > Treat. I am adding a short review if anyone is interested. > > *Around the sacred fire*: a native religious activism in the Red Power > era : a narrative map of the Indian Ecumenical Conference. James Treat . > Palgrave Macmillan, 2003 - History- 376 > pages > [image: Front Cover] > > > Around the Sacred Fire is a compelling cultural history of intertribal > activism centered on the Indian Ecumenical Conference, an influential > movement among native people in Canada and the U.S. during the Red Power > era. Founded in 1969, the Conference began as an attempt at organizing > grassroots spiritual leaders who were concerned about the conflict between > tribal and Christian traditions throughout Indian country. By the > mid-seventies thousands of people were gathering each summer in the > foothills of the Rockies, where they participated in weeklong encampments > promoting spiritual revitalization and religious self-determination. Most > historical overviews of native affairs in the sixties and seventies > emphasize the prominence of the American Indian Movement and the impact of > highly publicized confrontations such as the Northwest Coast fish-ins, the > Alcatraz occupation, and events at Wounded Knee. The Indian Ecumenical > Conference played a central role in stimulating cultural revival among > native people, partly because Conference leaders strategized for social > change in ways that differed from the militant groups. Drawing on archival > records, published accounts, oral histories, and field research, James > Treat has written the first comprehensive study of this important but > overlooked effort at postcolonial interreligious dialogue. > > The closing review statement may sound like it was a failure...it was not > or there would be no global indigenous peoples movement and an increasingly > unified global voice. Treat's book will be the most you ever find on it > because, it was meant to be that way. Our only paper trails were briefs for > funding and resulting financial statements. There were no > native 'political' so called leaders, tribal councils or politicians...they > didn't even know it was happening...not that any of them would have cared. > Anyhow, I had best conclude my rant and thanks for listening...if you did > so. I am turtle clan and usually have slow and sometimes lengthy > excursions through my own thoughts. megwetch.... > > wahjeh > rolland nadjiwon > _____________________________________ > "Political correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, > illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream > media, > which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up > a piece of shit by the clean end." > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Indigenous Languages and Technology [ > mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU ] On Behalf > Of Rudy Troike > Sent: March-27-12 7:12 PM > To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU > Subject: Re: [ILAT] I wonder if this would be true for Native languages > > I agree with James Crippen's concerns about highly endangered languages: > > "There's a dangerous temptation to somehow make schooling into the saviour > for highly endangered languages. ... Depending solely on education > institutions to solve language decline just seems to make things worse, not > better, because it encourages people to *not* take an active role in > keeping the language alive." > > As I noted in a subsequent post, the Navajo bilingual program at Rock > Point, before it declined, demonstrated that for a Native language, it IS > possible to develop a thorough K-12 curriculum which matches the English > curriculum (but includes native cultural and historical content, and even > in math is sensitive to linguistic features of the language differing from > or lacking in English). Where there are enough speakers to support the > effort, it could be possible in communities like the Dakota to restore the > level of literacy which once existed -- though the window of opportunity is > rapidly closing down. > > But as James said, this cannot be carried just by the schools, since real > language learning begins in the home and in interpersonal inter- action. > However, thanks to the tradition of government and parochial schooling, > many if not most parents are unable to provide that 'home nest' for the > child. That is why a community effort like that in New Zealand and Hawaii, > to place young children with older fluent speakers in 'nests' or day-care > centers (better yet, for a whole summer) can be effective in establishing > early natural (not formally instructed) acquisition, which can then be > brought to school and reinforced. A holistic plan is needed which involves > more than just individual families. > > One of the perennial problems in Native language maintenance is that > 'higher-level' academic competence is non-existent, and community members > and students perceive that there is 'no use' in learning the language since > it has no further 'marketplace' value. Attitudes thus play an enormous role > both in the perspective of the community and of students. Developing > literacy in the Native language is empowering, and even at advanced (high > school and college) levels, if academically advanced materials are > developed, parallel literacy is possible. This is what the Rock Point > program spectacularly demonstrated, and is showing some effect in Cherokee > in Oklahoma as well. > > The use of Native languages in schools has, as the new Colorado law has > shown, given institutional recognition to these languages and brought > Native language speakers into the school setting for the first time. > So it is not just an either/or situation -- meaningful school instruction > can provide a mooring-post for communities and families to rally around. > > Communities, families, and individuals must ultimately take primary > responsibility for language maintenance and preservation. It can't, as > James says, just be pushed off to schools to somehow magically accomplish > alone. Without motivation, buy-in, and active participation, endangered > languages cannot survive on their own. > > Rudy Troike > > > ----- > No virus found in this message. > Checked by AVG - www.avg.com > Version: 2012.0.1913 / Virus Database: 2114/4896 - Release Date: 03/26/12 > > -- * "Think not forever of yourselves... nor of your own generation. Think of continuing generations of our families, think of our grandchildren and of those yet unborn, whose faces are coming from beneath the ground." The Peacemaker, richardzanesmith.wordpress.com ** ** * -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: books?id=r-0L3IUPDRQC&printsec=frontcover&img=1&zoom=1&edge=curl Type: application/octet-stream Size: 12347 bytes Desc: not available URL: From chimiskwew at HOTMAIL.COM Wed Mar 28 03:18:59 2012 From: chimiskwew at HOTMAIL.COM (Cathy Wheaton) Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2012 22:18:59 -0500 Subject: I wonder if this would be true for Native languages In-Reply-To: Message-ID: I had a great discussion this morning with a colleague about how we could bring culture and language as one as part of an educational program component where a cultural skill is passed on (eg fish preparation) which is taught hands on by a fluent speaker who teaches specific Cree words/phrases with the activity of preparing fish. Those same words then are added to the general langauge of instruction in other program components by staff to keep the langauge and skills relevant. This is a basic upgrading program. This appraoch would be repeated teaching other cultural skills with langauge as part of the program. These students then be able to teach their children these skills and words/phrases as so on-using the program as one possible entry point for cultural transmission. In today's world-our skills have been pushed aside as these skills were necessary everyday skills so now we have to find space them them somewhere. If we are open to b eing particularly creative in visualizing them being used in new contexts, we can still begin integrating them back into everyday practices so they again become the norm. People who are able to share their skills feel competent as their cultural skill is recognized while culture is being passed onto others. We have to nuture language where we have the flexibility to do so-make new educational models, adapt to continually changing cultural contexts and build teaching/learning approaches that are resilient for the next generation. Let's do what we can now-today-everyday we lose more and more fluent speakers and cultural skills yet every new action means the increased possibility of innovative appraoches which meet these challenges to cultural erosion. Certainly technology and change has given us digital tools that can make passing language and culture (videos, MP3 language audio, digital games, etc) The momentum created by digital communication has propelled the spread of music, English, western culture and other aspects of culture but it can be harnessed to do the same for the langauges and people's culture we are attempting to keep alive. I learned how to cut fish for smoking via a video on YouTube produced by our reserve's langauge department. Unfortunately few Elders have the stamina to take me out and teach me when I am not working which is a hectic schedule. But thanks to the video-i was still taught the skill which I then passed hands-on to my niece, daughter and son in law. This is a great discussion-i am so glad that some got this topic started, great ideas and thoughts I share also! Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2012 21:40:47 -0500 From: rzs at WILDBLUE.NET Subject: Re: [ILAT] I wonder if this would be true for Native languages To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Thanks Rolland, i feel it almost every day too..there is a heavy weight dragging on any attempt to revitalize our language, maintain ceremony or even gathering for social dance pot-lucks. One of the curses is "busyiness" and it has so infected us, that gatherings, for language practice or study or even sacred gatherings must be "fit into a schedule" . I doubt our ancient ancestors were idle much, but there were some things that weren't designed to fit in your schedule...you just were to be there. ske:noh Richard Zane Smith (Sohahiyoh) On Tue, Mar 27, 2012 at 8:26 PM, Rolland Nadjiwon wrote: Another rant maybe. Perhaps 9/10ths of the unseen iceberg as a metaphor, is these languages were never meant to survive in a so called 'post colonial' New World. Their intentional destruction is 'fact' well known by the survivors and historically documented. Perhaps language loss is merely a symptom of why these languages are being lost. Perhaps the problem is not even with the 'peoples' but external to them and built into the fabric of what has become 'the Americas'. If there is such a great moral interest in the survival of endangered indigenous languages and the home and community are the conduits for language transmission then the family, people and the community must also be repaired from the ravaging destruction of both overt, covert and insidious colonialism. Perhaps the people and communities must be involved in the development of their own language survival programs in a manner which validates their own intelligence and worth, culture, cosmology and life paths. There is not much point bringing into the communities, 'for the people', a pre-formulated pedagogy for language skills when the real problem is their total cultural, linguistic and spiritual survival. All of the tribes survived with their myriad of languages until 'somebody done somebody wrong' and have never identified or corrected that wrong. It must be understood, accepted and dealt with that these 'tribal' languages have their own 'already there' which is as different from everyone else's 'already there'. Their 'already lived in languages' are as different from each tribe and the rest of the world as Chinese is from Gaelic. These tribal languages have absolutely no 'cognate' relationship to any other language than their own dialects and those languages are generated in a 'primary orality'. Any linguist must be aware of this...guess I should stop here before I am reminded I am off topic again...apologies. There is so much more can be said...I live 'inside' this destruction and loss. I deal with it every day and not from some evangelical ardor. I agree with many of the points you make Rudy outside the idea that institutionalization can be an solution. Institutions have not yet provided or even acted on any long term survival, a fact which is becoming even more apparent as we move with ever increasing speed toward the demise of this present civilization and perhaps even the earth itself. These endangered languages are symbiotically tied to the earth and the cosmos. Institutions have little if anything to offer them other than jobs teaching endangered languages. You cannot expect these peoples to embrace institutionalization which has no history of benefits to them...in fact documented evidence to the opposite. There has to be something new and innovative to accommodate a new and changed environment. Please don't ask me what it is...I have been working on it for almost 50 years. My greatest successes happened in the mid-60s and early 70s. During the early 70s, I was a coordinator for Keewatinung Institute, a cultural, educational and spiritual center for our people in our area. We were the very first of our kind in Canada. >From that position, I had the absolutely fantastic opportunity of coordinating The Indian Ecumenical Conference...a gathering of spiritual leaders from as many tribes we could get representatives from. It was 'ecumenical' in the broader meaning of the term. We had a Steering Committee of elders and spiritual leaders to help with the development of logistics and content for the first great gathering at Morley, Alberta. During the planning sessions over many months and in many locations, the idea of an 'agenda' came up. The Steering Committee after thinking on it told us we didn't need an agenda. Those of us 'trained' to think 'inside the box' felt we had to have plans and objectives and to know what we were going to do. The elders and spiritual leaders told us what we would do is to look at how we were 500 years ago, how we look today and how we want to look in another 500 years. So, that was the 'gist' of our getting together. I still think of that especially when I hear out tribal councils and politicians speaking of five year plans, 10 year plans and sometimes a 20/25 year plan. Our gatherings were very, very successful and the spin off is still felt today...and we are still at it 40 some years later. You can read about it in a book entitled 'Around the sacred fire: a native religious activism in the Red Power era : a narrative map of the Indian Ecumenical Conference' by James Treat. I am adding a short review if anyone is interested. Around the sacred fire: a native religious activism in the Red Power era : a narrative map of the Indian Ecumenical Conference. James Treat . Palgrave Macmillan, 2003 - History - 376 pages Around the Sacred Fire is a compelling cultural history of intertribal activism centered on the Indian Ecumenical Conference, an influential movement among native people in Canada and the U.S. during the Red Power era. Founded in 1969, the Conference began as an attempt at organizing grassroots spiritual leaders who were concerned about the conflict between tribal and Christian traditions throughout Indian country. By the mid-seventies thousands of people were gathering each summer in the foothills of the Rockies, where they participated in weeklong encampments promoting spiritual revitalization and religious self-determination. Most historical overviews of native affairs in the sixties and seventies emphasize the prominence of the American Indian Movement and the impact of highly publicized confrontations such as the Northwest Coast fish-ins, the Alcatraz occupation, and events at Wounded Knee. The Indian Ecumenical Conference played a central role in stimulating cultural revival among native people, partly because Conference leaders strategized for social change in ways that differed from the militant groups. Drawing on archival records, published accounts, oral histories, and field research, James Treat has written the first comprehensive study of this important but overlooked effort at postcolonial interreligious dialogue. The closing review statement may sound like it was a failure...it was not or there would be no global indigenous peoples movement and an increasingly unified global voice. Treat's book will be the most you ever find on it because, it was meant to be that way. Our only paper trails were briefs for funding and resulting financial statements. There were no native 'political' so called leaders, tribal councils or politicians...they didn't even know it was happening...not that any of them would have cared. Anyhow, I had best conclude my rant and thanks for listening...if you did so. I am turtle clan and usually have slow and sometimes lengthy excursions through my own thoughts. megwetch.... wahjeh rolland nadjiwon _____________________________________ "Political correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a piece of shit by the clean end." -----Original Message----- From: Indigenous Languages and Technology [mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU] On Behalf Of Rudy Troike Sent: March-27-12 7:12 PM To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Subject: Re: [ILAT] I wonder if this would be true for Native languages I agree with James Crippen's concerns about highly endangered languages: "There's a dangerous temptation to somehow make schooling into the saviour for highly endangered languages. ... Depending solely on education institutions to solve language decline just seems to make things worse, not better, because it encourages people to *not* take an active role in keeping the language alive." As I noted in a subsequent post, the Navajo bilingual program at Rock Point, before it declined, demonstrated that for a Native language, it IS possible to develop a thorough K-12 curriculum which matches the English curriculum (but includes native cultural and historical content, and even in math is sensitive to linguistic features of the language differing from or lacking in English). Where there are enough speakers to support the effort, it could be possible in communities like the Dakota to restore the level of literacy which once existed -- though the window of opportunity is rapidly closing down. But as James said, this cannot be carried just by the schools, since real language learning begins in the home and in interpersonal inter- action. However, thanks to the tradition of government and parochial schooling, many if not most parents are unable to provide that 'home nest' for the child. That is why a community effort like that in New Zealand and Hawaii, to place young children with older fluent speakers in 'nests' or day-care centers (better yet, for a whole summer) can be effective in establishing early natural (not formally instructed) acquisition, which can then be brought to school and reinforced. A holistic plan is needed which involves more than just individual families. One of the perennial problems in Native language maintenance is that 'higher-level' academic competence is non-existent, and community members and students perceive that there is 'no use' in learning the language since it has no further 'marketplace' value. Attitudes thus play an enormous role both in the perspective of the community and of students. Developing literacy in the Native language is empowering, and even at advanced (high school and college) levels, if academically advanced materials are developed, parallel literacy is possible. This is what the Rock Point program spectacularly demonstrated, and is showing some effect in Cherokee in Oklahoma as well. The use of Native languages in schools has, as the new Colorado law has shown, given institutional recognition to these languages and brought Native language speakers into the school setting for the first time. So it is not just an either/or situation -- meaningful school instruction can provide a mooring-post for communities and families to rally around. Communities, families, and individuals must ultimately take primary responsibility for language maintenance and preservation. It can't, as James says, just be pushed off to schools to somehow magically accomplish alone. Without motivation, buy-in, and active participation, endangered languages cannot survive on their own. Rudy Troike ----- No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 2012.0.1913 / Virus Database: 2114/4896 - Release Date: 03/26/12 -- "Think not forever of yourselves... nor of your own generation. Think of continuing generations of our families, think of our grandchildren and of those yet unborn, whose faces are coming from beneath the ground." The Peacemaker, richardzanesmith.wordpress.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From rzs at WILDBLUE.NET Wed Mar 28 14:29:12 2012 From: rzs at WILDBLUE.NET (Richard Zane Smith) Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2012 09:29:12 -0500 Subject: I wonder if this would be true for Native languages In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Kweh kweh, yes, it is a great discussion and its always encouraging to find those with the same concerns! I like the idea of working on projects (in the language) even around food items when eating together. the video idea is great...video of a meal together, making pottery, baskets, washing a car, shopping... We can't rule out learning from mistakes too. its always easy to want to look at examples that seem to produce almost miraculous results. Some times these miraculous results happen more like a successful garden happens...MANY THINGS all have to be in place for that huge harvest. and we forget to include mentioning those that "don't work well" so others can learn from our "failures" I know of a nation that has kept a particular ceremony alive since its removal from ancestral homelands. but unfortunately it's evolved (devolved?) into an "american sports event" , highly competitive and has at times even become reduced to angry or name calling exchanges ...(all in *english*) Once these kind of directions have been taken..its very difficult to "bring it back" within a traditional paradigm .Especially if its been in motion for several years. Requiring the traditional language at the ceremonial ground might help here...if its not too late. As those of us prepare to establish our own ceremonies we can evaluate these natural tendencies and be alert to them, and be watchful for "drift". We want people to enjoy themselves but we also tend to bring our own habits that might be more colonized baggage. I guess If we aren't struggling somewhere ...*we might be drifting.* -Richard Zane Smith (Sohahiyoh) Wyandotte, Oklahoma On Tue, Mar 27, 2012 at 10:18 PM, Cathy Wheaton wrote: > I had a great discussion this morning with a colleague about how we could > bring culture and language as one as part of an educational program > component where a cultural skill is passed on (eg fish preparation) which > is taught hands on by a fluent speaker who teaches specific Cree > words/phrases with the activity of preparing fish. Those same words then > are added to the general langauge of instruction in other program > components by staff to keep the langauge and skills relevant. This is a > basic upgrading program. This appraoch would be repeated teaching other > cultural skills with langauge as part of the program. These students then > be able to teach their children these skills and words/phrases as so > on-using the program as one possible entry point for cultural transmission. > In today's world-our skills have been pushed aside as these skills were > necessary everyday skills so now we have to find space them them somewhere. > If we are open to b eing particularly creative in visualizing them being > used in new contexts, we can still begin integrating them back into > everyday practices so they again become the norm. People who are able to > share their skills feel competent as their cultural skill is recognized > while culture is being passed onto others. We have to nuture language where > we have the flexibility to do so-make new educational models, adapt to > continually changing cultural contexts and build teaching/learning > approaches that are resilient for the next generation. Let's do what we can > now-today-everyday we lose more and more fluent speakers and cultural > skills yet every new action means the increased possibility of innovative > appraoches which meet these challenges to cultural erosion. Certainly > technology and change has given us digital tools that can make passing > language and culture (videos, MP3 language audio, digital games, etc) The > momentum created by digital communication has propelled the spread of > music, English, western culture and other aspects of culture but it can be > harnessed to do the same for the langauges and people's culture we are > attempting to keep alive. I learned how to cut fish for smoking via a > video on YouTube produced by our reserve's langauge department. > Unfortunately few Elders have the stamina to take me out and teach me when > I am not working which is a hectic schedule. But thanks to the video-i was > still taught the skill which I then passed hands-on to my niece, daughter > and son in law. This is a great discussion-i am so glad that some got this > topic started, great ideas and thoughts I share also! > > ------------------------------ > Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2012 21:40:47 -0500 > From: rzs at WILDBLUE.NET > > Subject: Re: [ILAT] I wonder if this would be true for Native languages > To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU > > > Thanks Rolland, > > i feel it almost every day too..there is a heavy weight dragging on any > attempt to revitalize our language, > maintain ceremony or even gathering for social dance pot-lucks. One of > the curses is "busyiness" > and it has so infected us, that gatherings, for language practice or study > or even sacred gatherings > must be "fit into a schedule" . I doubt our ancient ancestors were idle > much, but there were some things that > weren't designed to fit in your schedule...you just were to be there. > > ske:noh > Richard Zane Smith > (Sohahiyoh) > > > On Tue, Mar 27, 2012 at 8:26 PM, Rolland Nadjiwon wrote: > > ** > Another rant maybe. Perhaps 9/10ths of the unseen iceberg as a > metaphor, is these languages were never meant to survive in a so called > 'post colonial' New World. Their intentional destruction is 'fact' well > known by the survivors and historically documented. Perhaps language loss > is merely a symptom of why these languages are being lost. Perhaps the > problem is not even with the 'peoples' but external to them and built into > the fabric of what has become 'the Americas'. If there is such a great > moral interest in the survival of endangered indigenous languages and the > home and community are the conduits for language transmission then the > family, people and the community must also be repaired from the ravaging > destruction of both overt, covert and insidious colonialism. Perhaps the > people and communities must be involved in the development of their own > language survival programs in a manner which validates their own > intelligence and worth, culture, cosmology and life paths. There is not > much point bringing into the communities, 'for the people', a > pre-formulated pedagogy for language skills when the real problem is their > total cultural, linguistic and spiritual survival. All of the tribes > survived with their myriad of languages until 'somebody done somebody > wrong' and have never identified or corrected that wrong. It must be > understood, accepted and dealt with that these 'tribal' languages have > their own 'already there' which is as different from everyone else's > 'already there'. Their 'already lived in languages' are as different from > each tribe and the rest of the world as Chinese is from Gaelic. These > tribal languages have absolutely no 'cognate' relationship to any other > language than their own dialects and those languages are generated in a > 'primary orality'. Any linguist must be aware of this...guess I should stop > here before I am reminded I am off topic again...apologies. There is so > much more can be said...I live 'inside' this destruction and loss. I deal > with it every day and not from some evangelical ardor. > I agree with many of the points you make Rudy outside the idea > that institutionalization can be an solution. Institutions have not yet > provided or even acted on any long term survival, a fact which is becoming > even more apparent as we move with ever increasing speed toward the demise > of this present civilization and perhaps even the earth itself. These > endangered languages are symbiotically tied to the earth and the cosmos. > Institutions have little if anything to offer them other than jobs teaching > endangered languages. You cannot expect these peoples to embrace > institutionalization which has no history of benefits to them...in fact > documented evidence to the opposite. There has to be something new and > innovative to accommodate a new and changed environment. Please don't ask > me what it is...I have been working on it for almost 50 years. My greatest > successes happened in the mid-60s and early 70s. > During the early 70s, I was a coordinator for Keewatinung > Institute, a cultural, educational and spiritual center for our people in > our area. We were the very first of our kind in Canada. From that position, > I had the absolutely fantastic opportunity of coordinating The Indian > Ecumenical Conference...a gathering of spiritual leaders from as many > tribes we could get representatives from. It was 'ecumenical' in the > broader meaning of the term. We had a Steering Committee of elders and > spiritual leaders to help with the development of logistics and content for > the first great gathering at Morley, Alberta. During the planning sessions > over many months and in many locations, the idea of an 'agenda' came up. > The Steering Committee after thinking on it told us we didn't need an > agenda. Those of us 'trained' to think 'inside the box' felt we had to have > plans and objectives and to know what we were going to do. The elders and > spiritual leaders told us what we would do is to look at how we were 500 > years ago, how we look today and how we want to look in another 500 years. > So, that was the 'gist' of our getting together. I still think of that > especially when I hear out tribal councils and politicians speaking of five > year plans, 10 year plans and sometimes a 20/25 year plan. Our gatherings > were very, very successful and the spin off is still felt today...and we > are still at it 40 some years later. You can read about it in a book > entitled 'Around the sacred fire: a native religious activism in the Red > Power era : a narrative map of the Indian Ecumenical Conference' by James > Treat. I am adding a short review if anyone is interested. > *Around the sacred fire*: a native religious activism in the Red Power > era : a narrative map of the Indian Ecumenical Conference. James Treat . > Palgrave Macmillan, 2003 - History- 376 > pages > [image: Front Cover] > > > Around the Sacred Fire is a compelling cultural history of intertribal > activism centered on the Indian Ecumenical Conference, an influential > movement among native people in Canada and the U.S. during the Red Power > era. Founded in 1969, the Conference began as an attempt at organizing > grassroots spiritual leaders who were concerned about the conflict between > tribal and Christian traditions throughout Indian country. By the > mid-seventies thousands of people were gathering each summer in the > foothills of the Rockies, where they participated in weeklong encampments > promoting spiritual revitalization and religious self-determination. Most > historical overviews of native affairs in the sixties and seventies > emphasize the prominence of the American Indian Movement and the impact of > highly publicized confrontations such as the Northwest Coast fish-ins, the > Alcatraz occupation, and events at Wounded Knee. The Indian Ecumenical > Conference played a central role in stimulating cultural revival among > native people, partly because Conference leaders strategized for social > change in ways that differed from the militant groups. Drawing on archival > records, published accounts, oral histories, and field research, James > Treat has written the first comprehensive study of this important but > overlooked effort at postcolonial interreligious dialogue. > The closing review statement may sound like it was a failure...it was not > or there would be no global indigenous peoples movement and an increasingly > unified global voice. Treat's book will be the most you ever find on it > because, it was meant to be that way. Our only paper trails were briefs for > funding and resulting financial statements. There were no > native 'political' so called leaders, tribal councils or politicians...they > didn't even know it was happening...not that any of them would have cared. > Anyhow, I had best conclude my rant and thanks for listening...if you did > so. I am turtle clan and usually have slow and sometimes lengthy > excursions through my own thoughts. megwetch.... > > wahjeh > rolland nadjiwon > _____________________________________ > "Political correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, > illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream > media, > which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up > a piece of shit by the clean end." > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Indigenous Languages and Technology [ > mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU ] On Behalf > Of Rudy Troike > Sent: March-27-12 7:12 PM > To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU > Subject: Re: [ILAT] I wonder if this would be true for Native languages > > I agree with James Crippen's concerns about highly endangered languages: > > "There's a dangerous temptation to somehow make schooling into the saviour > for highly endangered languages. ... Depending solely on education > institutions to solve language decline just seems to make things worse, not > better, because it encourages people to *not* take an active role in > keeping the language alive." > > As I noted in a subsequent post, the Navajo bilingual program at Rock > Point, before it declined, demonstrated that for a Native language, it IS > possible to develop a thorough K-12 curriculum which matches the English > curriculum (but includes native cultural and historical content, and even > in math is sensitive to linguistic features of the language differing from > or lacking in English). Where there are enough speakers to support the > effort, it could be possible in communities like the Dakota to restore the > level of literacy which once existed -- though the window of opportunity is > rapidly closing down. > > But as James said, this cannot be carried just by the schools, since real > language learning begins in the home and in interpersonal inter- action. > However, thanks to the tradition of government and parochial schooling, > many if not most parents are unable to provide that 'home nest' for the > child. That is why a community effort like that in New Zealand and Hawaii, > to place young children with older fluent speakers in 'nests' or day-care > centers (better yet, for a whole summer) can be effective in establishing > early natural (not formally instructed) acquisition, which can then be > brought to school and reinforced. A holistic plan is needed which involves > more than just individual families. > > One of the perennial problems in Native language maintenance is that > 'higher-level' academic competence is non-existent, and community members > and students perceive that there is 'no use' in learning the language since > it has no further 'marketplace' value. Attitudes thus play an enormous role > both in the perspective of the community and of students. Developing > literacy in the Native language is empowering, and even at advanced (high > school and college) levels, if academically advanced materials are > developed, parallel literacy is possible. This is what the Rock Point > program spectacularly demonstrated, and is showing some effect in Cherokee > in Oklahoma as well. > > The use of Native languages in schools has, as the new Colorado law has > shown, given institutional recognition to these languages and brought > Native language speakers into the school setting for the first time. > So it is not just an either/or situation -- meaningful school instruction > can provide a mooring-post for communities and families to rally around. > > Communities, families, and individuals must ultimately take primary > responsibility for language maintenance and preservation. It can't, as > James says, just be pushed off to schools to somehow magically accomplish > alone. Without motivation, buy-in, and active participation, endangered > languages cannot survive on their own. > > Rudy Troike > > > ----- > No virus found in this message. > Checked by AVG - www.avg.com > Version: 2012.0.1913 / Virus Database: 2114/4896 - Release Date: 03/26/12 > > > > > -- > * > > "Think not forever of yourselves... nor of your own generation. > > Think of continuing generations of our families, > > think of our grandchildren and of those yet unborn, > > whose faces are coming from beneath the ground." The > Peacemaker, > > richardzanesmith.wordpress.com > > > ** > ** > * > > -- * "Think not forever of yourselves... nor of your own generation. Think of continuing generations of our families, think of our grandchildren and of those yet unborn, whose faces are coming from beneath the ground." The Peacemaker, richardzanesmith.wordpress.com ** ** * -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From susan.penfield at GMAIL.COM Wed Mar 28 17:28:44 2012 From: susan.penfield at GMAIL.COM (Susan Penfield) Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2012 10:28:44 -0700 Subject: Dene-Yeniesian Conference Message-ID: This should be of broad general interest -- .."Geography, Demography and Time Depth: Explaining how Dene-­‐Yeniseian is possible." Presentation by Prof. Edward Vajda at the Dene-Yeniseian Workshop http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7M0QnAqQUmw&feature=youtu.be -- ********************************************************************************************** *Susan D. Penfield, Ph.D. * Research Coordinator, CERCLL, Center for Educational Resources in Culture, Language and Literacy CONFLUENCE, Center for Creative Inquiry University of Arizona Fax: (520) 626-3313 Websites: CERCLL: cercll.arizona.edu Confluence Center: www.confluencecenter.arizona.edu -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Mar 28 18:46:34 2012 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phillip E Cash Cash) Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2012 11:46:34 -0700 Subject: Amazing =?UTF-8?Q?=E2=80=98talking=E2=80=99_?=dictionary project helps prese rve Ojibwe language (fwd link) Message-ID: Amazing ‘talking’ dictionary project helps preserve Ojibwe language By Cynthia Boyd | 08:29 am USA There are many pathways to knowledge, including popular fiction. So I’ll admit unabashedly that my enticing introduction to some of Minnesota’s Ojibwe language comes not from a history text but from Cork O’Connor, lead character in some of local author William Kent Krueger’s best-selling novels. O’Connor, a detective, is both Irish and Ojibwe. I’m captivated especially by the Ojibwe’s spiritual practices and their reverence of nature. Yet I’ve wondered often how the Ojibwe words sprinkled through his books sound. Now, thanks to an amazing project in progress at the University of Minnesota and spearheaded by their Department of American Indian Studies, there’s a new online resource called “The Ojibwe Peoples Dictionary” that opens doors to the sounds and context of the indigenous Ojibwe language and will help preserve it. The dictionary officially launches with a celebration event from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. April 2 at the McNamara Alumni Center’s Maroon and Gold room at the University in Minneapolis. Access full article below: http://www.minnpost.com/community-sketchbook/2012/03/amazing-%E2%80%98talking%E2%80%99-dictionary-project-helps-preserve-ojibwe-language -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From andrekaruk at NCIDC.ORG Wed Mar 28 23:52:04 2012 From: andrekaruk at NCIDC.ORG (Andre Cramblit) Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2012 16:52:04 -0700 Subject: Language & College Retention (language) Message-ID: Language preservation helps American Indian students stick with college - The Sacramento Bee www.sacbee.com Michael Murphy was a self-described %22troublemaker%22 who wasn't sure about leaving the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians' reservation for college. He filled out only one application, to nearby California State University, San Marcos. Súva Nik /So Long, See You Later André Cramblit, Operations Director andrekaruk at ncidc.org Northern California Indian Development Council (NCIDC) (http://www.ncidc.org) 707.445.8451 To subscribe to a blog of interest to Natives send go to: http://andrekaruk.posterous.com/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: pastedGraphic.tiff Type: image/tiff Size: 6940 bytes Desc: not available URL: From dzo at BISHARAT.NET Thu Mar 29 11:37:21 2012 From: dzo at BISHARAT.NET (dzo at BISHARAT.NET) Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2012 11:37:21 +0000 Subject: Amazing =?Windows-1252?Q?=91talking=92_?=dictionary project helps preserve Ojibwe language (fwd link) In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Quick aside: I remember the prof of my first anthropology class, Emily Ahern, mentioning fiction along with anthro as another way to learn about cultures. Obviously deeper study requires method, but as we see here, even popular literature may have value in this regard. Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T -----Original Message----- From: Phillip E Cash Cash Sender: Indigenous Languages and Technology Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2012 11:46:34 To: Reply-To: Indigenous Languages and Technology Subject: [ILAT] Amazing ‘talking’ dictionary project helps prese rve Ojibwe language (fwd link) Amazing ‘talking’ dictionary project helps preserve Ojibwe language By Cynthia Boyd | 08:29 am USA There are many pathways to knowledge, including popular fiction. So I’ll admit unabashedly that my enticing introduction to some of Minnesota’s Ojibwe language comes not from a history text but from Cork O’Connor, lead character in some of local author William Kent Krueger’s best-selling novels. O’Connor, a detective, is both Irish and Ojibwe. I’m captivated especially by the Ojibwe’s spiritual practices and their reverence of nature. Yet I’ve wondered often how the Ojibwe words sprinkled through his books sound. Now, thanks to an amazing project in progress at the University of Minnesota and spearheaded by their Department of American Indian Studies, there’s a new online resource called “The Ojibwe Peoples Dictionary” that opens doors to the sounds and context of the indigenous Ojibwe language and will help preserve it. The dictionary officially launches with a celebration event from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. April 2 at the McNamara Alumni Center’s Maroon and Gold room at the University in Minneapolis. Access full article below: http://www.minnpost.com/community-sketchbook/2012/03/amazing-%E2%80%98talking%E2%80%99-dictionary-project-helps-preserve-ojibwe-language -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From rtroike at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Thu Mar 29 17:54:05 2012 From: rtroike at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Rudolph C Troike/LingFacultyRetired/UA) Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2012 10:54:05 -0700 Subject: I wonder if this would be true for Native languages Message-ID: Rolland's rant is right on the mark -- don't apologize! The 70's were a great period of optimism and hope, once the Viet Nam war was over, but brought to an end by the Reagan Revolution. Certainly great things seemed possible, and were, but the possibilities were rarely realized, or at least sustained. Germane to Rolland's point that language loss is just a symptom, some of you may have seen the program "The Corporation" on LinkTV -- it you haven't you should try to find it on LinkTV.org. In the early part, the narrator tells of her experience living with an isolated group high in the Himalayas, who carried on a millenia-old self-sufficient and self-satisfying culture, until the government built a road into the area so that the 'benefits' of commerce and 'civilization' could be brought to the people. The result has been a loss of self-sufficiency, dependence on imported foods and drinks, division of the egalitarian society into better-off and poor, development of crime, etc., etc. And of course, a decline in the language, as the national language and English (for tourists) intrudes and marginalizes the language along with the culture. As the program shows, the massive international financial and commercial forces act as a juggernaut which overwhelms local traditional cultures (even long-established cultures like the Chinese -- most young Chinese have lost a huge amount of everyday traditional Chinese culture, so it is not just small traditional societies which are caught up in this gigantic process). How to resist -- to fight back? Rolland and Richard and others on this list have been there, and bravely done that, but it takes more than one, though the perseverance of one person can change the world. We can't stop techno- logical change or urbanization, both alienating forces vis-a-vis traditional technology and culture, which also erode language vitality when the language is seen as no longer functional. If one said that English should only be used for talking about pre-Industrial Revolution topics, and vocabulary should be limited to that in use in 1500, the language would quickly become moribund, retained only be antiquarians and used only in religious services and for Shakespearean plays. If a Native language is actively made functional to use for currently relevant purposes, young people can see it as meaningful and worth learning. The history of English itself shows that openness to borrowing vocabulary does not pose a threat to the language itself. Native English words are still dominant for use around the house and for family matters, but in any advanced text, 80% or more of the vocabulary is borrowed. In Bolivia and Peru, Quechua (and Aymara) still enjoys functionality -- despite threats from Spanish -- in part because many vocabulary items have been incorporated over the centuries from Spanish. Functionality -- and the perception of functionality -- is a key factor. I like Cathy's experience of learning how to prepare fish for smoking from a YouTube demonstration -- that's embracing and utilizing technology in a functional way, not just relegating the culture and language to a dusty museum. The ILAT list, thanks to Phil Cash Cash, is THE place to share ideas and even come up with new ones. Rudy From jelyn_gaskell at YAHOO.COM Thu Mar 29 18:26:58 2012 From: jelyn_gaskell at YAHOO.COM (Jelyn Gaskell) Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2012 11:26:58 -0700 Subject: I wonder if this would be true for Native languages In-Reply-To: <20120329105405.o3jzy84ks88cs0wk@www.email.arizona.edu> Message-ID: http://www.thickdarkfog.com/?page_id=11 watch the thick dark fog trailer it says alot on the why's of this topic. --- On Thu, 3/29/12, Rudolph C Troike/LingFacultyRetired/UA wrote: From: Rudolph C Troike/LingFacultyRetired/UA Subject: Re: [ILAT] I wonder if this would be true for Native languages To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Date: Thursday, March 29, 2012, 10:54 AM Rolland's rant is right on the mark -- don't apologize! The 70's were a great period of optimism and hope, once the Viet Nam war was over, but brought to an end by the Reagan Revolution. Certainly great things seemed possible, and were, but the possibilities were rarely realized, or at least sustained. Germane to Rolland's point that language loss is just a symptom, some of you may have seen the program "The Corporation" on LinkTV -- it you haven't you should try to find it on LinkTV.org. In the early part, the narrator tells of her experience living with an isolated group high in the Himalayas, who carried on a millenia-old self-sufficient and self-satisfying culture, until the government built a road into the area so that the 'benefits' of commerce and 'civilization' could be brought to the people. The result has been a loss of self-sufficiency, dependence on imported foods and drinks, division of the egalitarian society into better-off and poor, development of crime, etc., etc. And of course, a decline in the language, as the national language and English (for tourists) intrudes and marginalizes the language along with the culture. As the program shows, the massive international financial and commercial forces act as a juggernaut which overwhelms local traditional cultures (even long-established cultures like the Chinese -- most young Chinese have lost a huge amount of everyday traditional Chinese culture, so it is not just small traditional societies which are caught up in this gigantic process). How to resist -- to fight back? Rolland and Richard and others on this list have been there, and bravely done that, but it takes more than one, though the perseverance of one person can change the world. We can't stop techno- logical change or urbanization, both alienating forces vis-a-vis traditional technology and culture, which also erode language vitality when the language is seen as no longer functional. If one said that English should only be used for talking about pre-Industrial Revolution topics, and vocabulary should be limited to that in use in 1500, the language would quickly become moribund, retained only be antiquarians and used only in religious services and for Shakespearean plays. If a Native language is actively made functional to use for currently relevant purposes, young people can see it as meaningful and worth learning. The history of English itself shows that openness to borrowing vocabulary does not pose a threat to the language itself. Native English words are still dominant for use around the house and for family matters, but in any advanced text, 80% or more of the vocabulary is borrowed. In Bolivia and Peru, Quechua (and Aymara) still enjoys functionality -- despite threats from Spanish -- in part because many vocabulary items have been incorporated over the centuries from Spanish. Functionality -- and the perception of functionality -- is a key factor. I like Cathy's experience of learning how to prepare fish for smoking from a YouTube demonstration -- that's embracing and utilizing technology in a functional way, not just relegating the culture and language to a dusty museum. The ILAT list, thanks to Phil Cash Cash, is THE place to share ideas and even come up with new ones.   Rudy -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From rzs at WILDBLUE.NET Thu Mar 29 18:37:02 2012 From: rzs at WILDBLUE.NET (Richard Zane Smith) Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2012 13:37:02 -0500 Subject: I wonder if this would be true for Native languages In-Reply-To: <20120329105405.o3jzy84ks88cs0wk@www.email.arizona.edu> Message-ID: Revitalizing Lifeways of sustainability should probably be our focus. Linguists have to learn that EVERYTHING in a culture is connected together. Technology is as basic as starting a fire with friction by spinning a spindle into a dry piece of cedar. "Primitive" is often a degrading word. How many hundreds of people are involved in the making of a box of matches and getting that box delivered to us? This illustrates a weakness within ultra-technology ONE person uses sustainable technology with two pieces of wood,a spindle and fireboard can do the same task that now takes 1000's to deliver our cardboard box of dry matches. Matches that are made useless when wet. A simple fireboard thats wet is revived by sunshine. Which is the truly superior (and sustainable) technology? A HIGHtech driven world seems bent on creating *further complexity* to solve problems. (thus more fragile and more dependent on experts) tinier and tinier becomes the computer chip. HI-TECH gadgets are cool (just bought a zoomH4n) but their work life and shelf life is undetermined. Our Languages have got to get back under our skin, under our fingernails, in our joints. It needs to stop being treated as "classroom special" it needs to become like a sunrise, a sunset, or a callous on our hands from turning the spindle, as the rising smoke makes our eyes tear up. ske:noh Richard Zane Smith Wyandotte, Oklahoma On Thu, Mar 29, 2012 at 12:54 PM, Rudolph C Troike/LingFacultyRetired/UA < rtroike at email.arizona.edu> wrote: > Rolland's rant is right on the mark -- don't apologize! The 70's were a > great > period of optimism and hope, once the Viet Nam war was over, but brought to > an end by the Reagan Revolution. Certainly great things seemed possible, > and > were, but the possibilities were rarely realized, or at least sustained. > > Germane to Rolland's point that language loss is just a symptom, some of > you > may have seen the program "The Corporation" on LinkTV -- it you haven't you > should try to find it on LinkTV.org. In the early part, the narrator tells > of her experience living with an isolated group high in the Himalayas, who > carried on a millenia-old self-sufficient and self-satisfying culture, > until > the government built a road into the area so that the 'benefits' of > commerce > and 'civilization' could be brought to the people. The result has been a > loss > of self-sufficiency, dependence on imported foods and drinks, division of > the > egalitarian society into better-off and poor, development of crime, etc., > etc. > And of course, a decline in the language, as the national language and > English > (for tourists) intrudes and marginalizes the language along with the > culture. > > As the program shows, the massive international financial and commercial > forces act as a juggernaut which overwhelms local traditional cultures > (even > long-established cultures like the Chinese -- most young Chinese have lost > a huge amount of everyday traditional Chinese culture, so it is not just > small traditional societies which are caught up in this gigantic process). > > How to resist -- to fight back? Rolland and Richard and others on this list > have been there, and bravely done that, but it takes more than one, though > the perseverance of one person can change the world. We can't stop techno- > logical change or urbanization, both alienating forces vis-a-vis > traditional > technology and culture, which also erode language vitality when the > language > is seen as no longer functional. If one said that English should only be > used > for talking about pre-Industrial Revolution topics, and vocabulary should > be > limited to that in use in 1500, the language would quickly become moribund, > retained only be antiquarians and used only in religious services and for > Shakespearean plays. If a Native language is actively made functional to > use > for currently relevant purposes, young people can see it as meaningful and > worth learning. > > The history of English itself shows that openness to borrowing vocabulary > does not pose a threat to the language itself. Native English words are > still dominant for use around the house and for family matters, but in any > advanced text, 80% or more of the vocabulary is borrowed. In Bolivia and > Peru, Quechua (and Aymara) still enjoys functionality -- despite threats > from Spanish -- in part because many vocabulary items have been > incorporated > over the centuries from Spanish. Functionality -- and the perception of > functionality -- is a key factor. > > I like Cathy's experience of learning how to prepare fish for smoking from > a YouTube demonstration -- that's embracing and utilizing technology in a > functional way, not just relegating the culture and language to a dusty > museum. The ILAT list, thanks to Phil Cash Cash, is THE place to share > ideas > and even come up with new ones. > > Rudy > -- * "Think not forever of yourselves... nor of your own generation. Think of continuing generations of our families, think of our grandchildren and of those yet unborn, whose faces are coming from beneath the ground." The Peacemaker, richardzanesmith.wordpress.com ** ** * -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jelyn_gaskell at YAHOO.COM Thu Mar 29 18:46:43 2012 From: jelyn_gaskell at YAHOO.COM (Jelyn Gaskell) Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2012 11:46:43 -0700 Subject: I wonder if this would be true for Native languages Message-ID: Pausauraq Harcharek was my teacher atIlisagvik College in Barrow AK. http://www.ilisagvik.edu/ She is in charge of setting up Inupiaq language programs. She recently shared this with us. Go to the video link below. http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/03/18/keeping-inuit-students-engaged-school-programs-incorporate-inuktitut-day-care-103294 Keeping Inuit Students Engaged: School Programs Incorporate Inuktitut, Day Care indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com Inuit taking control over education. I'm proud to say that we are on that road with the adoption of the Iñupiaq Learning Framework and subsequent development of accompanying Performance Expectations. http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/03/18/keeping-inuit-students-engaged-school-programs-incorporate-inuktitut-day-care-103294 --- On Thu, 3/29/12, Rudolph C Troike/LingFacultyRetired/UA wrote: From: Rudolph C Troike/LingFacultyRetired/UA Subject: Re: [ILAT] I wonder if this would be true for Native languages To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Date: Thursday, March 29, 2012, 10:54 AM Rolland's rant is right on the mark -- don't apologize! The 70's were a great period of optimism and hope, once the Viet Nam war was over, but brought to an end by the Reagan Revolution. Certainly great things seemed possible, and were, but the possibilities were rarely realized, or at least sustained. Germane to Rolland's point that language loss is just a symptom, some of you may have seen the program "The Corporation" on LinkTV -- it you haven't you should try to find it on LinkTV.org. In the early part, the narrator tells of her experience living with an isolated group high in the Himalayas, who carried on a millenia-old self-sufficient and self-satisfying culture, until the government built a road into the area so that the 'benefits' of commerce and 'civilization' could be brought to the people. The result has been a loss of self-sufficiency, dependence on imported foods and drinks, division of the egalitarian society into better-off and poor, development of crime, etc., etc. And of course, a decline in the language, as the national language and English (for tourists) intrudes and marginalizes the language along with the culture. As the program shows, the massive international financial and commercial forces act as a juggernaut which overwhelms local traditional cultures (even long-established cultures like the Chinese -- most young Chinese have lost a huge amount of everyday traditional Chinese culture, so it is not just small traditional societies which are caught up in this gigantic process). How to resist -- to fight back? Rolland and Richard and others on this list have been there, and bravely done that, but it takes more than one, though the perseverance of one person can change the world. We can't stop techno- logical change or urbanization, both alienating forces vis-a-vis traditional technology and culture, which also erode language vitality when the language is seen as no longer functional. If one said that English should only be used for talking about pre-Industrial Revolution topics, and vocabulary should be limited to that in use in 1500, the language would quickly become moribund, retained only be antiquarians and used only in religious services and for Shakespearean plays. If a Native language is actively made functional to use for currently relevant purposes, young people can see it as meaningful and worth learning. The history of English itself shows that openness to borrowing vocabulary does not pose a threat to the language itself. Native English words are still dominant for use around the house and for family matters, but in any advanced text, 80% or more of the vocabulary is borrowed. In Bolivia and Peru, Quechua (and Aymara) still enjoys functionality -- despite threats from Spanish -- in part because many vocabulary items have been incorporated over the centuries from Spanish. Functionality -- and the perception of functionality -- is a key factor. I like Cathy's experience of learning how to prepare fish for smoking from a YouTube demonstration -- that's embracing and utilizing technology in a functional way, not just relegating the culture and language to a dusty museum. The ILAT list, thanks to Phil Cash Cash, is THE place to share ideas and even come up with new ones.   Rudy -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From susan.penfield at GMAIL.COM Thu Mar 1 02:28:36 2012 From: susan.penfield at GMAIL.COM (Susan Penfield) Date: Wed, 29 Feb 2012 19:28:36 -0700 Subject: Clan Conference Message-ID: *http://ankn.uaf.edu/ClanConference2/* * * ** *?Sharing Our Knowledge? is a multi-disciplinary conference that includes artists, academics, students and other learners meeting with Alaska Native tradition bearers, elders, and fluent speakers to discuss subjects such as linguistics, archaeology, art and music, Alaska Native history, museum studies, cultural anthropology, indigenous law and protocols, fisheries, and traditional ecological knowledge.* *For information: metcom at gci.net Tlingit Readers, Inc., 3740 N. Douglas Hwy, Juneau, AK 99801* -- ********************************************************************************************** *Susan D. Penfield, Ph.D. * Research Coordinator, CERCLL, Center for Educational Resources in Culture, Language and Literacy CONFLUENCE, Center for Creative Inquiry University of Arizona Phone: (520) 626-8071 Fax: (520) 626-3313 Website: cercll.arizona.edu -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jieikobu at HOTMAIL.COM Thu Mar 1 08:03:40 2012 From: jieikobu at HOTMAIL.COM (Derksen Jacob) Date: Thu, 1 Mar 2012 08:03:40 +0000 Subject: The fight for Irish language revitalization Message-ID: http://www.independent.ie/business/exboxer-dunne-fights-for-irish-3036572.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From susan.penfield at GMAIL.COM Fri Mar 2 04:12:46 2012 From: susan.penfield at GMAIL.COM (Susan Penfield) Date: Thu, 1 Mar 2012 21:12:46 -0700 Subject: Speaking Place.Org Message-ID: A new and useful resource: Speaking Place is at www.speakingplace.org -- ********************************************************************************************** *Susan D. Penfield, Ph.D. * Research Coordinator, CERCLL, Center for Educational Resources in Culture, Language and Literacy CONFLUENCE, Center for Creative Inquiry University of Arizona Phone: (520) 626-8071 Fax: (520) 626-3313 Website: cercll.arizona.edu -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From susan.penfield at GMAIL.COM Fri Mar 2 04:16:15 2012 From: susan.penfield at GMAIL.COM (Susan Penfield) Date: Thu, 1 Mar 2012 21:16:15 -0700 Subject: Passamaquoddy -Maliseet Language Portal Message-ID: A great new addition to Passamaquoddy efforts! www.PMPortal.org -- ********************************************************************************************** *Susan D. Penfield, Ph.D. * Research Coordinator, CERCLL, Center for Educational Resources in Culture, Language and Literacy CONFLUENCE, Center for Creative Inquiry University of Arizona Phone: (520) 626-8071 Fax: (520) 626-3313 Website: cercll.arizona.edu -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From renaewn at GMAIL.COM Fri Mar 2 22:45:42 2012 From: renaewn at GMAIL.COM (=?windows-1252?Q?Kathy_Wallen?=) Date: Fri, 2 Mar 2012 15:45:42 -0700 Subject: Native American Languages Could Count For Class Credit (fwd link) Message-ID: Dagoteh, It is great reading of all these different colleges and universities offering Native languages. Gonltee! In our community of Cibecue on the White Mountain Apache reservation. Our Dischii'bikoh High School requires Apache language to be taken in order to graduate. Nih yaa gozhoo doleel, Kathy Wallen K-8th Apache Language Teacher Dischii'bikoh Community School From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Sat Mar 3 06:30:40 2012 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phillip E Cash Cash) Date: Fri, 2 Mar 2012 23:30:40 -0700 Subject: Why Our Culture Is in Our Genes (fwd link) Message-ID: MIND & MATTER March 2, 2012, 6:31 p.m. ET Why Our Culture Is in Our Genes By MATT RIDLEY The island of Gaua, part of Vanuatu in the Pacific, is just 13 miles across, yet it has five distinct native languages. Papua New Guinea, an area only slightly bigger than Texas, has 800 languages, some spoken by just a few thousand people. "Wired for Culture," a remarkable new book by Mark Pagel, an American evolutionary biologist based in England, sets out to explain this peculiar human property of fragmenting into mutually uncomprehending cultural groups. His explanation is unsettling. Access full article below: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204653604577249464154315128.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Sat Mar 3 06:44:32 2012 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phillip E Cash Cash) Date: Fri, 2 Mar 2012 23:44:32 -0700 Subject: NW tribes strive to save disappearing languages (fwd link) Message-ID: NW tribes strive to save disappearing languages By Crystal Price KVAL News Published: Mar 2, 2012 at 10:08 PM PST EUGENE, Ore. - Virginia Beavert grew up in a little village just down the road from Yakima, Wash. Beavert did not go to government school. However, the Yakama native did learned to speak several different languages while growing up. "My first language was Nez Perce," Beavert said. "My father was from Umatilla, and I learned his language. My mother spoke Yakama, so I learned that, too." But now some of those languages she's learned have disappeared altogether. "Klickitat is no longer spoken," Beavert said. "I can read the language, but I'm the only one." According to the Northwest Indian Language Institute (NILI), only 5 out of the 26 original Native American languages in Oregon are still spoken. Access full article below: http://www.kval.com/news/local/NW-tribes--to-save-disappearing-languages-141255843.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From hsouter at GMAIL.COM Sat Mar 3 21:32:40 2012 From: hsouter at GMAIL.COM (Heather Souter) Date: Sat, 3 Mar 2012 15:32:40 -0600 Subject: Why Our Culture Is in Our Genes (fwd link) In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Taanshi.... Finally some scientific research that can link systemic depravation of indigenous languages to ethnic cleansing/genocide...?! Eekoshi pitamaa.... Heather Souter (Guiboche) Sent from my iPhone On 2012-03-03, at 12:30 AM, Phillip E Cash Cash wrote: > MIND & MATTER > March 2, 2012, 6:31 p.m. ET > > Why Our Culture Is in Our Genes > > By MATT RIDLEY > > The island of Gaua, part of Vanuatu in the Pacific, is just 13 miles across, yet it has five distinct native languages. Papua New Guinea, an area only slightly bigger than Texas, has 800 languages, some spoken by just a few thousand people. "Wired for Culture," a remarkable new book by Mark Pagel, an American evolutionary biologist based in England, sets out to explain this peculiar human property of fragmenting into mutually uncomprehending cultural groups. His explanation is unsettling. > > Access full article below: > http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204653604577249464154315128.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Mar 5 21:23:54 2012 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phillip E Cash Cash) Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2012 14:23:54 -0700 Subject: A Road Trip In Search Of America's Lost Languages (fwd link) Message-ID: A Road Trip In Search Of America's Lost Languages By NPR STAFF 6:57 - Listen [media link available] USA The vast majority of the 175 indigenous languages still spoken in the United States are on the verge of extinction. Linguist Elizabeth Little spent two years driving all over the country looking for the few remaining pockets where those languages are still spoken ? from the scores of Native American tongues, to the Creole of Louisiana. The resulting book is Trip of the Tongue: Cross-Country Travels in Search of America's Lost Languages. "I put, I think, 25,000 miles on my poor, long-lost Subaru that has since been consigned to the afterlife for cars," she tells Jackie Lyden, guest host of weekends on All Things Considered. Access full article below: http://www.nhpr.org/post/road-trip-search-americas-lost-languages -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Mar 5 21:29:49 2012 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phillip E Cash Cash) Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2012 14:29:49 -0700 Subject: Technology Rescues Dying Languages (fwd link) Message-ID: March 05, 2012 Technology Rescues Dying Languages Tribal teens now texting in native tongue Tom Banse | Vancouver, Canada [media link available] In our interconnected world, global languages like English, Spanish and Chinese are increasingly dominant. But there are some 7,000 other languages spoken around the world and linguists say up to half of them are at risk of disappearing by the end of the century. That works out to one language going extinct every two weeks. Now, some defenders are turning to technology in hopes of reversing that trend. Access full article below: http://www.voanews.com/english/news/usa/Technology-Comes-to-Rescue-of-Dying-Languages-141414953.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Mar 5 21:32:06 2012 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phillip E Cash Cash) Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2012 14:32:06 -0700 Subject: IPhone app teaches language and culture to Lakota children (fwd link) Message-ID: IPhone app teaches language and culture to Lakota children Ruth Moon Journal staff | Posted: Monday, March 5, 2012 6:00 am USA A new iPhone application combines centuries-old Native American culture and cutting-edge smartphone technology to teach youngsters the Lakota language. The Lakota Toddler app, now available for free in the iTunes store, is the second app by software developers Isreal Shortman and Rusty Calder. The two developers worked with Arlo Iron Cloud, the morning radio announcer for KILI Radio in Porcupine, to create an app that teaches Lakota vocabulary through text, pictures and sounds. Read more: http://rapidcityjournal.com/news/iphone-app-teaches-language-and-culture-to-lakota-children/article_d80d5274-6669-11e1-a2d9-001871e3ce6c.html#ixzz1oHRRZPCM -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Mar 5 21:38:36 2012 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phillip E Cash Cash) Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2012 14:38:36 -0700 Subject: Statement on the doctrine of discovery and its enduring impact on Indigenous Peoples (fwd link) Message-ID: *Document date: *17.02.2012 Statement on the doctrine of discovery and its enduring impact on Indigenous Peoples WCC Executive Committee 14-17 February 2012 Bossey, Switzerland Access full article below: http://www.oikoumene.org/en/resources/documents/executive-committee/bossey-february-2012/statement-on-the-doctrine-of-discovery-and-its-enduring-impact-on-indigenous-peoples.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Mar 5 22:55:47 2012 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phillip E Cash Cash) Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2012 15:55:47 -0700 Subject: Northern Cree - Facebook Drama (fwd link) Message-ID: Greetings ILAT, The blending of cultures has always been most apparent in music composition. This is especially true for indigenous peoples where song composition in traditional mediums have often flourished far beyond their recognition by outsiders or mainstream cultures. You can get the pulse of the people simply by going to a local powwow and listening to the new song compositions that continually come out. The so-called Round Dance music is quite unique in this regard as song composers seem to have more creative freedoms than elsewhere. So I am quite excited to be able to share with you the following example of a recent song composition by a group called Northern Cree which describes the use of social media at the heart of a love relationship (round dance songs often speak of love won & lost). Northern Cree is a contemporary native drum group from Saddle Lake, Alberta, CA. They are a 6-time Grammy nominee and among the most celebrated drum groups across the North American powwow trail. Northern Cree - Facebook Drama Off of their new Round Dance CD ?Dancerz Groove,? Canyon Records 2012. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=0fJX_QczU5w Song lyrics (in English): ?I read your status last night. You posted that someone else was holding you tight. You shared it for all our friends to see. I don't wanna go through this FACEBOOK drama. So I pressed DELETE.? Here is a very brief Intro to Native Round Dance Music http://www.prairieedge.com/tribe-scribe/native-american-music-round-dance/ life and language always, Phil UofA -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Mar 5 23:11:30 2012 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phillip E Cash Cash) Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2012 16:11:30 -0700 Subject: Language of music has London calling (fwd link) Message-ID: Article quote: ?The band is collaborating with Welsh group 9Bach on a work called Mother Tongue to be sung in Aboriginal and Welsh languages, which are under threat of extinction. Co-founder Lou Bennett said the cultures shared "a connection to country and have strong kinship laws and how they relate to each other".? Language of music has London calling Mark Ellis March 3, 2012 AUS Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/music/language-of-music-has-london-calling-20120302-1u8rl.html#ixzz1oHqjlMuD -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET Tue Mar 6 01:02:07 2012 From: pasxapu at DAKOTACOM.NET (Phil Cash Cash) Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2012 18:02:07 -0700 Subject: No subject In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Hi Ray, thanks for your email request. I hope by now someone has positively responded with some useful information. I just want to draw your attention to a technology conference happening this year in Portland Oregon USA. It might be of interest to you and your efforts. In particular pay attention to the Special Sessions which might address some of your concerns. 13th Annual Conference of the International Speech Communication Association September 9-13, 2012 Portland, Oregon http://interspeech2012.org/Special.html On Feb 19, 2012, at 7:47 AM, Ray wrote: > Dear all! > I hope this email finds you well. > My name is Raymond from Nairobi Kenya. > As part of my Msc project, I am interested in developing a text to > speech tool for a local indegenous language here in east africa. Its > called luhya and has 24 dialects spoken by the 24 subtribes in > Westerns Kenya and Eastern Uganda. > > With this, I would like to achieve the following goals, among many > others: > > 1. Use this tool to help village populations, who can't read and > write to access basic knowledge and materials in civil matters (e.g > HIV and aids awareness. > 2. Help indegenous people who cant read and write to access national > news in print (these are usually in English) > 3. Assist the blind in the villages easly access information on > various matters that is usually in print. > 4. Assist teaches in overpopulated rural classrooms in remote > schools to easily dictate class notes to their students. > > I would be very greatful if anyone of you has any ideas that would > help to contribute towards this project. My email address is ray.simbi at gmail.com > . > > Thanks and Regards, > Ray. > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Tue Mar 6 18:59:07 2012 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phillip E Cash Cash) Date: Tue, 6 Mar 2012 11:59:07 -0700 Subject: Social Innovation Saving 7,000 Vanishing Languages (fwd link) Message-ID: MAR 6, 2012 3:30 AM EST Social Innovation Saving 7,000 Vanishing Languages Social innovation might just save our planet's vanishing languages. Today, a staggering 7,000 or so languages are spoken around the globe, yet unfortunately, about half are expected to be extinct by end of this century. The good news is that linguists believe Facebook, YouTube and even texting could save many of the world's endangered languages. North American tribes are using social media to re-engage their young, while Tuvan, an indigenous tongue spoken by nomadic peoples in Siberia and Mongolia, has an iPhone app to teach the pronunciation of words to new students. Access full article below: http://www.justmeans.com/Social-Innovation-Saving-7-000-Vanishing-Languages/52479.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From clairebowern at GMAIL.COM Tue Mar 6 19:55:46 2012 From: clairebowern at GMAIL.COM (Claire Bowern) Date: Tue, 6 Mar 2012 14:55:46 -0500 Subject: Language Documentation videos In-Reply-To: Message-ID: > > From: Claire Bowern > > To: Indigenous Languages and Technology > > Date: Tuesday, March 6, 2012 2:54:40 PM > > Subject: Documentation Videos > > > > Hi all, > > A few weeks ago I asked for photos to illustrate some how-to language documentation podcasts. > > The first two videos on how to do language documentation are now up at http://www.youtube.com/user/clairebowern (You are welcome to adapt these for your own use; if you want the slides that underlie them, they are available from pamanyungan.sites.yale.edu/language-resources) > > Many thanks to everyone who sent photos (some I've been keeping for later episodes). Please send comments and suggestions for other topics. > > All the best, > > Claire > > > > ---- > > Claire Bowern > > Department of Linguistics > > Yale University > > 370 Temple St > > New Haven, CT > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From andrekaruk at NCIDC.ORG Tue Mar 6 20:00:39 2012 From: andrekaruk at NCIDC.ORG (Andre Cramblit) Date: Tue, 6 Mar 2012 12:00:39 -0800 Subject: Trip Of The Tongue (language) Message-ID: http://www.npr.org/2012/03/04/147728920/a-road-trip-in-search-of-americas-lost-languages LINK TO LISTEN TO THE STORY. The vast majority of the 175 indigenous languages still spoken in the United States are on the verge of extinction. Linguist Elizabeth Little spent two years driving all over the country looking for the few remaining pockets where those languages are still spoken ? from the scores of Native American tongues, to the Creole of Louisiana. The resulting book is Trip of the Tongue: Cross-Country Travels in Search of America's Lost Languages. "I put, I think, 25,000 miles on my poor, long-lost Subaru that has since been consigned to the afterlife for cars," she tells Jackie Lyden, guest host of weekends on All Things Considered. The first part of the book deals with Native American languages such as Navajo. Little writes the language is disappearing fast. Among kindergartners in one reservation school district, fluency dropped from 89 percent at the beginning of the 1980s to just a few percent by the end of the decade. Little says one reason for its decline is that the Navajo community is less geographically and technologically isolated. "Once there is more television, you know, cable television and the Internet, and once younger members of the tribe have more ability to be exposed to the English language, the heritage language really drops off pretty quickly," she says. Another example is Gullah. Once spoken by slaves and emancipated African-Americans in the low country of South Carolina, for years it was reviled as simply a butchered version of English. Through the generations, speakers became increasingly ashamed of that characterization. But there is a distinct influence of West African languages in Gullah's structure, Little says, showing a depth and complexity that many Gullah-speakers themselves didn't appreciate. In her estimation, that loss of language serves as a break from identity. "The formation of our whole consciousness is framed by ... language," she said. "So when you take that language away, or even if it's forced out of a child or out of a adolescent ... that must be an incredible psychological trauma." -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Tue Mar 6 20:10:00 2012 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phillip E Cash Cash) Date: Tue, 6 Mar 2012 13:10:00 -0700 Subject: IndigiTUBE: Media Made By And For The Indigenous People In Remote Australia (fwd link) Message-ID: IndigiTUBE: Media Made By And For The Indigenous People In Remote Australia Written by Rezwan Posted 6 March 2012 1:15 GMT Aboriginal people in remote parts of Australia remain the most marginalized group in the country who face poverty and discrimination everyday. In general the perceptions are that Aboriginal Australians somehow get special treatment. But their history of dispossession and disadvantage shows the reality. IndigiTUBE is an online community for sharing and accessing media made by and for Indigenous people in remote Australia. It has been developed by Alice Springs based community funded organization, Indigenous Community Television (ICTV) & the national body - Indigenous Remote Communications Association (IRCA). IndigiTUBE includes both a radio portal and a video streaming service. Access full article below: http://rising.globalvoicesonline.org/blog/2012/03/05/indigitube-media-made-by-and-for-the-indigenous-people-in-remote-australia/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Tue Mar 6 20:12:54 2012 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phillip E Cash Cash) Date: Tue, 6 Mar 2012 13:12:54 -0700 Subject: Norway=?UTF-8?Q?=E2=80=99s_?=indigenous Sami people turn to Israel for help in reviving old tribal language (fwd link) Message-ID: Norway?s indigenous Sami people turn to Israel for help in reviving old tribal language By Associated Press, JERUSALEM ? Norway?s Sami people, an indigenous community with roots as reindeer herders in the northern reaches of Scandinavia and Russia, are looking south to Israel for help preserving their fading native language. A Sami delegation spent five days in Israel recently, hoping the Jewish state?s experience reviving the once-dormant ancient Hebrew language can provide a blueprint for them. Access full article below: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/norways-indigenous-sami-people-turn-to-israel-for-help-in-reviving-old-tribal-language/2012/03/06/gIQAgqz4tR_story.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jelyn_gaskell at YAHOO.COM Tue Mar 6 20:53:43 2012 From: jelyn_gaskell at YAHOO.COM (Jelyn Gaskell) Date: Tue, 6 Mar 2012 12:53:43 -0800 Subject: Trip Of The Tongue (language) In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Thanks for your input, can't wait to buy her book. When I worked in a school district in Northern CA as Special Ed teacher, I had a 7th grade African American student whom the psych and speech path gave diagnosis on(mental retardation and other related speech issues). He was placed in my SDC class. I worked with him, and he was verbally unintelligible, however when I used Visuals and PECS he was quite intelligent. After I consulted with three of my professors, (at the time Dr. Rickford's were my prof's(Stanford and SJSU) in classes and Dr. Stuart Ritterman SLP speech scientist,(CS Fresno emeritus) I took language samples and we discovered his father was a Gullah speaker from deep down highway one in Louisiana. He had met a woman in Las Vegas and married her and moved his kids to Oakland,CA which is how I got his son in my classroom. This boy sat with me with the computer and I asked him using LA maps to show me where he was from, after that I found his former teacher in his old Parish there. There are still Gullah speakers around, but this is an example of language displacement and how teachers need to be aware of 1st language issues. Also, I blame NCLB and the English Language push without SIOP or Sheltered English, and bilingual language enhancement. Districts need to be sensitive to 1st language speakers of another language. --- On Tue, 3/6/12, Andre Cramblit wrote: From: Andre Cramblit Subject: [ILAT] Trip Of The Tongue (language) To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Date: Tuesday, March 6, 2012, 12:00 PM http://www.npr.org/2012/03/04/147728920/a-road-trip-in-search-of-americas-lost-languagesLINK TO LISTEN TO THE STORY. ?The vast majority of the 175 indigenous languages still spoken in the United States are on the verge of extinction.Linguist Elizabeth Little spent two years driving all over the country looking for the few remaining pockets where those languages are still spoken ? from the scores of Native American tongues, to the Creole of Louisiana. The resulting book is?Trip of the Tongue: Cross-Country Travels in Search of America's Lost Languages."I put, I think, 25,000 miles on my poor, long-lost Subaru that has since been consigned to the afterlife for cars," she tells Jackie Lyden, guest host of weekends on?All Things Considered.The first part of the book deals with Native American languages such as Navajo. Little writes the language is disappearing fast. Among kindergartners in one reservation school district, fluency dropped from 89 percent at the beginning of the 1980s to just a few percent by the end of the decade. Little says one reason for its decline is that the Navajo community is less geographically and technologically isolated."Once there is more television, you know, cable television and the Internet, and once younger members of the tribe have more ability to be exposed to the English language, the heritage language really drops off pretty quickly," she says.Another example is Gullah. Once spoken by slaves and emancipated African-Americans in the low country of South Carolina, for years it was reviled as simply a butchered version of English. Through the generations, speakers became increasingly ashamed of that characterization.But there is a distinct influence of West African languages in Gullah's structure, Little says, showing a depth and complexity that many Gullah-speakers themselves didn't appreciate.In her estimation, that loss of language serves as a break from identity."The formation of our whole consciousness is framed by ... language," she said. "So when you take that language away, or even if it's forced out of a child or out of a adolescent ... that must be an incredible psychological trauma." -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From Dave_Pearson at SIL.ORG Wed Mar 7 12:46:42 2012 From: Dave_Pearson at SIL.ORG (Dave Pearson) Date: Wed, 7 Mar 2012 15:46:42 +0300 Subject: New book on multilingualism in cyberspace In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Dear All, Next week will see the launch of a new book: NET.LANG: towards the multilingual cyberspace . You can download the pdf version either in English or French free of charge. I have pasted the table of contents below. Dave Pearson SIL International CONTENTS Forewords Irina Bokova, General Director, UNESCO 13 Abdou Diouf, General Secretary, La Francophonie 17 Jos? Luis Dicenta, General Secretary, Union Latine 21 Dwayne Bailey, Research Director, ANLoc 23 Daniel Prado, Executive Secretary, Maaya Network 27 Part 1 - When Technology Meets Multilingualism Daniel Prado Language Presence in the Real World and Cyberspace 35 Micha?l Oustinoff English Won?t be the Internet?s Lingua Franca 53 ?ric Poncet Technological Innovation and Language Preservation 69 Maik Gibson Preserving the Heritage of Extinct or Endangered Languages 75 Marcel Diki-Kidiri Cyberspace and Mother Tongue Education 89 Part 2 - Digital Spaces St?phane Bortzmeyer Multilingualism and the Internet?s Standardisation 105 Mikami Yoshiki & Shigeaki Kodama Measuring Linguistic Diversity on the Web 119 Joseph Mariani How Language Technologies Support Multilingualism 141 Vassili Rivron The Use of Facebook by the Eton of Cameroon 161 Pann Yu Mon & Madhukara Phatak Search Engines and Asian Languages 169 Herv? Le Crosnier Digital Libraries 185 Dwayne Bailey Software Localization: Open Source as a Major Tool for Digital Multilingualism 205 M?lanie Dulong De Rosnay Translation and Localization of Creative Commons Licenses 221 Part 3 - Digital Multilingualism: Building Inclusive Societies Viola Krebs & Vicent Climent-Ferrando Languages, Cyberspace, Migrations 229 Annelies Braffort & Patrice Dalle Accessibility in Cyberspace: Sign Languages 249 Tjeerd de Graaf How Oral Archives Benefit Endangered Languages 269 Evgeny Kuzmin Linguistic Policies to Counter Languages Marginalization 287 Tunde Adegbola Multimedia and Signed, Written or Oral Languages 311 Adel El Zaim Cyberactivism and Regional Languages in the 2011 Arab Spring 325 Adama Samass?kou Multilingualism, the Millenium Development Goals, and Cyberspace 337 Part 4 Multilingualism on the Internet : a Multilateral Issue Isabella Pierangeli Borletti Describing the World: Multilingualism, the Internet, and Human Rights 351 St?phane Bortzmeyer Multilingualism and Internet Governance 373 Marcel Diki-Kidiri Ethical Principles Required for an Equitable Language Presence in the Information Society 387 St?phane Grumbach The Internet in China 401 Micha?l Oustinoff The Economy of Languages 407 Daniel Prado & Daniel Pimienta Public Policies for Languages in Cyberspace 423 Conclusion the Future speaks, reads and writes in all languages Adama Samass?kou President of Maaya -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From Dave_Pearson at SIL.ORG Wed Mar 7 12:48:11 2012 From: Dave_Pearson at SIL.ORG (Dave Pearson) Date: Wed, 7 Mar 2012 15:48:11 +0300 Subject: New book on multilingualism in cyberspace In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Dear All, Next week will see the launch of a new book: NET.LANG: towards the multilingual cyberspace . You can download the pdf version either in English or French free of charge. I have pasted the table of contents below. Dave Pearson SIL International CONTENTS Forewords Irina Bokova, General Director, UNESCO 13 Abdou Diouf, General Secretary, La Francophonie 17 Jos? Luis Dicenta, General Secretary, Union Latine 21 Dwayne Bailey, Research Director, ANLoc 23 Daniel Prado, Executive Secretary, Maaya Network 27 Part 1 - When Technology Meets Multilingualism Daniel Prado Language Presence in the Real World and Cyberspace 35 Micha?l Oustinoff English Won?t be the Internet?s Lingua Franca 53 ?ric Poncet Technological Innovation and Language Preservation 69 Maik Gibson Preserving the Heritage of Extinct or Endangered Languages 75 Marcel Diki-Kidiri Cyberspace and Mother Tongue Education 89 Part 2 - Digital Spaces St?phane Bortzmeyer Multilingualism and the Internet?s Standardisation 105 Mikami Yoshiki & Shigeaki Kodama Measuring Linguistic Diversity on the Web 119 Joseph Mariani How Language Technologies Support Multilingualism 141 Vassili Rivron The Use of Facebook by the Eton of Cameroon 161 Pann Yu Mon & Madhukara Phatak Search Engines and Asian Languages 169 Herv? Le Crosnier Digital Libraries 185 Dwayne Bailey Software Localization: Open Source as a Major Tool for Digital Multilingualism 205 M?lanie Dulong De Rosnay Translation and Localization of Creative Commons Licenses 221 Part 3 - Digital Multilingualism: Building Inclusive Societies Viola Krebs & Vicent Climent-Ferrando Languages, Cyberspace, Migrations 229 Annelies Braffort & Patrice Dalle Accessibility in Cyberspace: Sign Languages 249 Tjeerd de Graaf How Oral Archives Benefit Endangered Languages 269 Evgeny Kuzmin Linguistic Policies to Counter Languages Marginalization 287 Tunde Adegbola Multimedia and Signed, Written or Oral Languages 311 Adel El Zaim Cyberactivism and Regional Languages in the 2011 Arab Spring 325 Adama Samass?kou Multilingualism, the Millenium Development Goals, and Cyberspace 337 Part 4 Multilingualism on the Internet : a Multilateral Issue Isabella Pierangeli Borletti Describing the World: Multilingualism, the Internet, and Human Rights 351 St?phane Bortzmeyer Multilingualism and Internet Governance 373 Marcel Diki-Kidiri Ethical Principles Required for an Equitable Language Presence in the Information Society 387 St?phane Grumbach The Internet in China 401 Micha?l Oustinoff The Economy of Languages 407 Daniel Prado & Daniel Pimienta Public Policies for Languages in Cyberspace 423 Conclusion the Future speaks, reads and writes in all languages Adama Samass?kou President of Maaya -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From fmarmole at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Mar 7 16:45:30 2012 From: fmarmole at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Marmolejo, Francisco J - (fmarmole)) Date: Wed, 7 Mar 2012 08:45:30 -0800 Subject: New book on multilingualism in cyberspace In-Reply-To: <000301ccfc60$612de740$2389b5c0$@org> Message-ID: Dear Dave: Thanks for sharing the information about the book. It is a great resource. Regards, Francisco Francisco Marmolejo Executive Director Consortium for North American Higher Education Collaboration CONAHEC - University of Arizona PO Box 210300 220 W. Sixth Street Tucson, AZ 85721-0300 USA Tel. +1 (520) 621-9080 / 621-7761 Fax +1 (520) 626-2675 Email: fmarmole at email.arizona.edu http://conahec.org Francisco Marmolejo Assistant Vice President University of Arizona Office of Western Hemispheric Programs PO Box 210158 888 N.Euclid Ave./Univ.Svcs. Bldg. Tucson, AZ 85721 USA Tel. +1 (520) 626-4258 Fax +1 (520) 621-6011 Email: fmarmole at email.arizona.edu http://www.whp.arizona.edu [cid:image001.png at 01CCFC47.08C41ED0] [cid:image002.gif at 01CCFC47.08C41ED0] [cid:image003.jpg at 01CCFC47.08C41ED0] Follow CONAHEC on Twitter! http://www.twitter.com/conahec [cid:image003.jpg at 01CCFC47.08C41ED0] Follow the University of Arizona on Twitter! http://www.twitter.com/uofa From: Indigenous Languages and Technology [mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU] On Behalf Of Dave Pearson Sent: Wednesday, March 07, 2012 5:47 AM To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Subject: [ILAT] New book on multilingualism in cyberspace Dear All, Next week will see the launch of a new book: NET.LANG: towards the multilingual cyberspace. You can download the pdf version either in English or French free of charge. I have pasted the table of contents below. Dave Pearson SIL International CONTENTS Forewords Irina Bokova, General Director, UNESCO 13 Abdou Diouf, General Secretary, La Francophonie 17 Jos? Luis Dicenta, General Secretary, Union Latine 21 Dwayne Bailey, Research Director, ANLoc 23 Daniel Prado, Executive Secretary, Maaya Network 27 Part 1 - When Technology Meets Multilingualism Daniel Prado Language Presence in the Real World and Cyberspace 35 Micha?l Oustinoff English Won?t be the Internet?s Lingua Franca 53 ?ric Poncet Technological Innovation and Language Preservation 69 Maik Gibson Preserving the Heritage of Extinct or Endangered Languages 75 Marcel Diki-Kidiri Cyberspace and Mother Tongue Education 89 Part 2 - Digital Spaces St?phane Bortzmeyer Multilingualism and the Internet?s Standardisation 105 Mikami Yoshiki & Shigeaki Kodama Measuring Linguistic Diversity on the Web 119 Joseph Mariani How Language Technologies Support Multilingualism 141 Vassili Rivron The Use of Facebook by the Eton of Cameroon 161 Pann Yu Mon & Madhukara Phatak Search Engines and Asian Languages 169 Herv? Le Crosnier Digital Libraries 185 Dwayne Bailey Software Localization: Open Source as a Major Tool for Digital Multilingualism 205 M?lanie Dulong De Rosnay Translation and Localization of Creative Commons Licenses 221 Part 3 - Digital Multilingualism: Building Inclusive Societies Viola Krebs & Vicent Climent-Ferrando Languages, Cyberspace, Migrations 229 Annelies Braffort & Patrice Dalle Accessibility in Cyberspace: Sign Languages 249 Tjeerd de Graaf How Oral Archives Benefit Endangered Languages 269 Evgeny Kuzmin Linguistic Policies to Counter Languages Marginalization 287 Tunde Adegbola Multimedia and Signed, Written or Oral Languages 311 Adel El Zaim Cyberactivism and Regional Languages in the 2011 Arab Spring 325 Adama Samass?kou Multilingualism, the Millenium Development Goals, and Cyberspace 337 Part 4 Multilingualism on the Internet : a Multilateral Issue Isabella Pierangeli Borletti Describing the World: Multilingualism, the Internet, and Human Rights 351 St?phane Bortzmeyer Multilingualism and Internet Governance 373 Marcel Diki-Kidiri Ethical Principles Required for an Equitable Language Presence in the Information Society 387 St?phane Grumbach The Internet in China 401 Micha?l Oustinoff The Economy of Languages 407 Daniel Prado & Daniel Pimienta Public Policies for Languages in Cyberspace 423 Conclusion the Future speaks, reads and writes in all languages Adama Samass?kou President of Maaya -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.png Type: image/png Size: 12940 bytes Desc: image001.png URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image002.gif Type: image/gif Size: 4843 bytes Desc: image002.gif URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image003.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 1036 bytes Desc: image003.jpg URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Mar 7 17:43:12 2012 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phillip E Cash Cash) Date: Wed, 7 Mar 2012 10:43:12 -0700 Subject: Native language app code (fwd link) Message-ID: Greetings ILAT, I was just notified by a friend at Ogoki Learning Systems that you can now get their Native Language App code for free. Here is the link: http://www.ogokilearning.com/native-language-app-code/ Text from the web site... Download, share and distribute our Ojibway Language App version 1.1 software code. Create a universal App in 5 very simple steps. 1. Download our full App Source Code Zip File 2. Install Apple Xcode (Free download for Mac Computers) 3. Replace the Ojibway Audio files, pictures, and titles with your own files 4. Rename the App to your language 5. Upload the App to iTunes using your developer account life and language always, Phil ps: post a note here if you intend to use this code for your language! -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Mar 7 18:08:33 2012 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phillip E Cash Cash) Date: Wed, 7 Mar 2012 11:08:33 -0700 Subject: New book on multilingualism in cyberspace In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Thanks for sharing Dave! Phil On Wed, Mar 7, 2012 at 9:45 AM, Marmolejo, Francisco J - (fmarmole) < fmarmole at email.arizona.edu> wrote: > Dear Dave:**** > > Thanks for sharing the information about the book. It is a great resource. > **** > > Regards,**** > > Francisco**** > > ** ** > > ** ** > > Francisco Marmolejo**** > > Executive Director**** > > Consortium for North American Higher Education Collaboration**** > > CONAHEC - University of Arizona **** > > PO Box 210300 **** > > 220 W. Sixth Street**** > > Tucson, AZ 85721-0300 USA**** > > Tel. +1 (520) 621-9080 / 621-7761**** > > Fax +1 (520) 626-2675 **** > > Email: fmarmole at email.arizona.edu**** > > http://conahec.org**** > > ** ** > > Francisco Marmolejo**** > > Assistant Vice President**** > > University of Arizona**** > > Office of Western Hemispheric Programs **** > > PO Box 210158 **** > > 888 N.Euclid Ave./Univ.Svcs. Bldg. **** > > Tucson, AZ 85721 USA**** > > Tel. +1 (520) 626-4258**** > > Fax +1 (520) 621-6011 **** > > Email: fmarmole at email.arizona.edu **** > > http://www.whp.arizona.edu**** > > *[image: Description: Description: Description: > cid:image002.png at 01CBA11B.E7E62640]***** > > ** ** > > [image: Description: Description: Description: Description: Description: > Description: ua125-email] * ***** > > *[image: Description: Description: Description: Description: Description: > Description: Twitter bird]* ** > > *Follow CONAHEC on Twitter!* > > *http://www.twitter.com/conahec***** > > ** ** > > *[image: Description: Description: Description: Description: Description: > Description: Twitter bird]* ** > > *Follow the University of Arizona on Twitter! > **http://www.twitter.com/uofa*** > > ** ** > > ** ** > > ** ** > > *From:* Indigenous Languages and Technology [mailto: > ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU] *On Behalf Of *Dave Pearson > *Sent:* Wednesday, March 07, 2012 5:47 AM > *To:* ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU > *Subject:* [ILAT] New book on multilingualism in cyberspace**** > > ** ** > > Dear All,**** > > ** ** > > Next week will see the launch of a new book: *NET.LANG: towards the > multilingual cyberspace *. You can download > the pdf version either in Englishor > French free of > charge. I have pasted the table of contents below.**** > > ** ** > > Dave Pearson**** > > SIL International**** > > * * > > * * > > *CONTENTS* > > ** ** > > *Forewords * > > Irina Bokova, General Director, UNESCO 13**** > > Abdou Diouf, General Secretary, La Francophonie 17**** > > Jos? Luis Dicenta, General Secretary, Union Latine 21**** > > Dwayne Bailey, Research Director, ANLoc 23**** > > Daniel Prado, Executive Secretary, Maaya Network 27**** > > ** ** > > *Part 1 - When Technology Meets Multilingualism * > > ** ** > > Daniel Prado**** > > Language Presence in the Real World and Cyberspace 35**** > > ** ** > > Micha?l Oustinoff**** > > English Won?t be the Internet?s Lingua Franca 53**** > > ** ** > > ?ric Poncet**** > > Technological Innovation and Language Preservation 69**** > > ** ** > > Maik Gibson**** > > Preserving the Heritage of Extinct or Endangered Languages 75**** > > ** ** > > Marcel Diki-Kidiri**** > > Cyberspace and Mother Tongue Education 89**** > > ** ** > > *Part 2 - Digital Spaces* > > * * > > St?phane Bortzmeyer**** > > Multilingualism and the Internet?s Standardisation 105**** > > ** ** > > Mikami Yoshiki & Shigeaki Kodama**** > > Measuring Linguistic Diversity on the Web 119**** > > ** ** > > Joseph Mariani**** > > How Language Technologies Support Multilingualism 141**** > > ** ** > > Vassili Rivron**** > > The Use of Facebook by the Eton of Cameroon 161**** > > ** ** > > Pann Yu Mon & Madhukara Phatak**** > > Search Engines and Asian Languages 169**** > > ** ** > > Herv? Le Crosnier**** > > Digital Libraries 185**** > > ** ** > > Dwayne Bailey**** > > Software Localization: Open Source as a Major Tool for Digital > Multilingualism 205**** > > ** ** > > M?lanie Dulong De Rosnay**** > > Translation and Localization of Creative Commons Licenses 221**** > > * * > > *Part 3 - Digital Multilingualism: Building Inclusive Societies* > > ** ** > > Viola Krebs & Vicent Climent-Ferrando**** > > Languages, Cyberspace, Migrations 229**** > > ** ** > > Annelies Braffort & Patrice Dalle**** > > Accessibility in Cyberspace: Sign Languages 249**** > > ** ** > > Tjeerd de Graaf**** > > How Oral Archives Benefit Endangered Languages 269**** > > ** ** > > Evgeny Kuzmin**** > > Linguistic Policies to Counter Languages Marginalization 287**** > > ** ** > > Tunde Adegbola**** > > Multimedia and Signed, Written or Oral Languages 311**** > > ** ** > > Adel El Zaim**** > > Cyberactivism and Regional Languages in the 2011 Arab Spring 325**** > > ** ** > > Adama Samass?kou**** > > Multilingualism, the Millenium Development Goals, and Cyberspace 337**** > > ** ** > > *Part 4 Multilingualism on the Internet : a Multilateral Issue***** > > ** ** > > Isabella Pierangeli Borletti**** > > Describing the World: Multilingualism, the Internet, and Human Rights 351* > *** > > ** ** > > St?phane Bortzmeyer**** > > Multilingualism and Internet Governance 373**** > > ** ** > > Marcel Diki-Kidiri**** > > Ethical Principles Required for an Equitable Language Presence in the > Information Society 387**** > > ** ** > > St?phane Grumbach**** > > The Internet in China 401**** > > ** ** > > Micha?l Oustinoff**** > > The Economy of Languages 407**** > > ** ** > > Daniel Prado & Daniel Pimienta**** > > Public Policies for Languages in Cyberspace 423**** > > * * > > *Conclusion* > > the Future speaks, reads and writes in all languages**** > > Adama Samass?kou President of Maaya**** > > ** ** > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.png Type: image/png Size: 12940 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image002.gif Type: image/gif Size: 4843 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image003.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 1036 bytes Desc: not available URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Thu Mar 8 21:59:50 2012 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phillip E Cash Cash) Date: Thu, 8 Mar 2012 14:59:50 -0700 Subject: Trip Of The Tongue (language) In-Reply-To: <1331067223.5677.YahooMailClassic@web162004.mail.bf1.yahoo.com> Message-ID: Hmm, I wonder what the difference might be with this book and a similar previous published volume entitled, "Spoken Here, Travels Among Threatened Languages" by Mark Abley (2003). Phil UofA On Tue, Mar 6, 2012 at 1:53 PM, Jelyn Gaskell wrote: > Thanks for your input, can't wait to buy her book. When I worked in a > school district in Northern CA as Special Ed teacher, I had a 7th grade > African American student whom the psych and speech path gave diagnosis > on(mental retardation and other related speech issues). He was placed in my > SDC class. I worked with him, and he was verbally unintelligible, however > when I used Visuals and PECS he was quite intelligent. After I consulted > with three of my professors, (at the time Dr. Rickford's were my > prof's(Stanford and SJSU) in classes and Dr. Stuart Ritterman SLP speech > scientist,(CS Fresno emeritus) I took language samples and we discovered > his father was a Gullah speaker from deep down highway one in Louisiana. He > had met a woman in Las Vegas and married her and moved his kids to > Oakland,CA which is how I got his son in my classroom. This boy sat with me > with the computer and I asked him using LA maps to show me where he was > from, after that I found his former teacher in his old Parish there. There > are still Gullah speakers around, but this is an example of language > displacement and how teachers need to be aware of 1st language issues. > Also, I blame NCLB and the English Language push without SIOP or Sheltered > English, and bilingual language enhancement. Districts need to be sensitive > to 1st language speakers of another language. > > --- On *Tue, 3/6/12, Andre Cramblit * wrote: > > > From: Andre Cramblit > Subject: [ILAT] Trip Of The Tongue (language) > To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU > Date: Tuesday, March 6, 2012, 12:00 PM > > > > http://www.npr.org/2012/03/04/147728920/a-road-trip-in-search-of-americas-lost-languages > LINK TO LISTEN TO THE STORY. > > > The vast majority of the 175 indigenous languages still spoken in the > United States are on the verge of extinction. > > Linguist Elizabeth Little spent two years driving all over the country > looking for the few remaining pockets where those languages are still > spoken ? from the scores of Native American tongues, to the Creole of > Louisiana. The resulting book is *Trip of the Tongue: Cross-Country > Travels in Search of America's Lost Languages*. > > "I put, I think, 25,000 miles on my poor, long-lost Subaru that has since > been consigned to the afterlife for cars," she tells Jackie Lyden, guest > host of weekends on *All Things Considered*. > > The first part of the book deals with Native American languages such as > Navajo. Little writes the language is disappearing fast. Among > kindergartners in one reservation school district, fluency dropped from 89 > percent at the beginning of the 1980s to just a few percent by the end of > the decade. Little says one reason for its decline is that the Navajo > community is less geographically and technologically isolated. > > "Once there is more television, you know, cable television and the > Internet, and once younger members of the tribe have more ability to be > exposed to the English language, the heritage language really drops off > pretty quickly," she says. > > Another example is Gullah. Once spoken by slaves and emancipated > African-Americans in the low country of South Carolina, for years it was > reviled as simply a butchered version of English. Through the generations, > speakers became increasingly ashamed of that characterization. > > But there is a distinct influence of West African languages in Gullah's > structure, Little says, showing a depth and complexity that many > Gullah-speakers themselves didn't appreciate. > > In her estimation, that loss of language serves as a break from identity. > > "The formation of our whole consciousness is framed by ... language," she > said. "So when you take that language away, or even if it's forced out of a > child or out of a adolescent ... that must be an incredible psychological > trauma." > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Thu Mar 8 23:49:17 2012 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phillip E Cash Cash) Date: Thu, 8 Mar 2012 16:49:17 -0700 Subject: Senate Passes Bill to Protect Alaska Native Languages (fwd link) Message-ID: Senate Passes Bill to Protect Alaska Native Languages By Office of Senator Donald Olson 6 hours 2 minutes ago Bill establishes advisory council to preserve and restore Alaska's indigenous languages JUNEAU-The Alaska State Senate passed a bill on Tuesday aimed at protecting and restoring Alaska Native Languages. Senate Bill 130 will establish the Alaska Native Language Preservation and Advisory Council to assess the state of Alaska Native Languages, reevaluate the programs within the state, and make recommendations to the Governor and Legislature to establish new programs or reorganize the current programs. "Alaska Native Languages are threatened by extinction," said Senator Olson. "Indigenous languages are the most critical components in terms or preservation of cultural ideas and traditions and serve as the backbone of all cultural elements. Senate Bill 130 ensures that these important Alaska Native customs continue on." Access full article below: http://alaska-native-news.com/rural_news/4702-senate-passes-bill-to-protect-alaska-native-languages.html (ILAT note: although there is no date, this news article appeared in today's Mar 8th google news results.) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Thu Mar 8 23:52:38 2012 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phillip E Cash Cash) Date: Thu, 8 Mar 2012 16:52:38 -0700 Subject: =?UTF-8?Q?=E2=80=9CCornerstone_of_culture=E2=80=9D_?=threatened (fwd link) Message-ID: ?Cornerstone of culture? threatened March 8, 2012 | Society and Culture| By Alina Mogilyanskaya ?If your language is lost, what will you say?? A repeating refrain in the new film, ?Languages Lost and Found: Speaking & Whistling the Mamma Tongue,? this question is posed directly to the camera ? and to the film?s audiences ? by speakers of endangered languages worldwide. Produced and directed by cultural reporters Iris Brooks and Jon H. Davis, the film was screened at United Nations headquarters in New York in honor of International Mother Language Day. Access full article below: http://www.mediaglobal.org/2012/03/08/cornerstone-of-culture-threatened/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Fri Mar 9 18:41:56 2012 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phillip E Cash Cash) Date: Fri, 9 Mar 2012 11:41:56 -0700 Subject: Language Plan and Tribal Efforts Praised (fwd link) Message-ID: Language Plan and Tribal Efforts Praised By Carol Berry March 9, 2012 USA The bipartisan Native American Caucus of State Legislatures in Colorado has given its support to a bill that would promote Native language learning in the state?s public schools by employing people fluent in languages of federally-recognized tribal nations. There was discussion of the bill in a caucus meeting March 7 convened by the Colorado Commission of Indian Affairs (CCIA). Members also proposed formal recognition for the economic and other achievements of Colorado?s two tribal nations, the Southern Ute Indian Tribe and Ute Mountain Ute Tribe. The Native language proposal was first introduced by Sen. Suzanne Williams (D-Aurora), a member of the Comanche Nation, to allow the language-speakers to teach under the supervision of qualified instructors and to receive a waiver from the Colorado Department of Education to exempt them from formal certification. Read more: http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/03/09/language-plan-and-tribal-efforts-praised-101960 http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/03/09/language-plan-and-tribal-efforts-praised-101960#ixzz1oe8uuO00 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From nflrc at HAWAII.EDU Sat Mar 10 04:52:39 2012 From: nflrc at HAWAII.EDU (National Foreign Language Resource Center) Date: Fri, 9 Mar 2012 18:52:39 -1000 Subject: FINAL REMINDER: TCLT7 early bird registration deadline March 15 Message-ID: Aloha! Just a final reminder - the deadline for early bird registration for the 7th International Conference and Workshops on Technology and Chinese Language Teaching in the 21st Century (TCLT7) is March 15, 2012 - http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/TCLT7/registration.html After March 15, the general registration rate will go up to $150. We hope you will be able to join us in Hawaii for this special event (see below for more details). Jim Yoshioka TCLT7 Organizing Committee * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 7th International Conference and Workshops on Technology and Chinese Language Teaching in the 21st Century (TCLT7) May 25-27, 2012 Hawai'i Imin International Conference Center University of Hawai'i at Manoa Honolulu, Hawaii, USA http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/TCLT7/ TCLT7 will place emphases on frontier research topics such as mobile learning, cloud technology, the digital classroom, and computational linguistics, as well as on general topics on the integration of technology in day-to-day usage. The program will include keynote speeches, paper presentations and panel discussions, hands-on workshops, computer program demonstration, and a technology-based educational product exhibition. HIGHLIGHTS: Plenary Speakers / ???????: 1. Xie, Tianwei / ??? California State University Long Beach / ???????? Cloud Computing and Its Use in Teaching Chinese / ??????????????? 2. Lu, Jian Ming / ??? Peking University / ???? The Current Situation and the Needs of Development of Internet-based Chinese Language Teaching in the Digital Age / (?????????????????? 3. Huang, Chu Ren / ??? The Hong Kong Polytechnic University / ?????? Corpus-based Extraction of Chinese Grammatical Information / ???????????? 4. Hsin, Shi Chang / ??? National Taiwang Normal University / ???????? The Tech-based Chinese Teaching: Issues and Reflections about Design, Development and Implementation / ?????????,??,?????????? 5. Sunaoka, Kazuko / ???? Wasada University / ??????? Effects of Multilingual Chatting Support System, Chinese Distance Learning at Wasada University, Japan / ??????????????????????? 6. Wang, Hong Jun / ??? Peking University / ???? The Treatment of Characters and Words in Chinese Language Information Processing and its Implications for Teaching Chinese as a Second Language / ?????????????????????? Workshops / ???: 1. Cloud Computing and iPad Apps for Teaching and Learning Chinese / ?????iPad???? Xie, Tianwei, California State University, Long Beach / ???, ???????? Lin, Chin-Hsi University of California, Irvine 2. Interactive fun with Google Form and Google Chart / ?? Form ? Chart ??? Chang, John / ??? University of Southern California / ??????? 3. Simple Solutions to Daily Tasks: Screen Movies for Teaching/Learning Activities/ ???????? Zhang, Phyllis / ?? The George Washington University / ??????? 4. Peking University Modern Chinese Treebank and its Application on Language Teaching / ??????????????? Zhan, Weidong / ??? Peking University / ???? 5. Free Online Tools and Resources for Beginning Level Chinese Courses / ??????????????????? Liu, Shijuan / ??? Indiana University of Pennsylvania / ??????????? 6. Creating Online Learning Materials with an Advanced Chinese Annotator / ???????????????????? Zhang, Jin / ?? Massachussetts Institute of Technology / ?????? For information about lodging, registration, general schedule, transportation, and social events (including the Waikiki Aquarium reception), see the conference website: http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/TCLT7/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Mar 12 18:04:18 2012 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phillip E Cash Cash) Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2012 11:04:18 -0700 Subject: An Indigenous Language With Unique Staying Power (fwd link) Message-ID: MEMO FROM PARAGUAY An Indigenous Language With Unique Staying Power By SIMON ROMERO Published: March 12, 2012 ASUNCI?N, Paraguay ? Legislators on the floor of Congress deliver speeches in it. Lovers entwined on Asunci?n?s park benches murmur sweet nothings with its high-pitched, nasal and guttural sounds. Soccer fans use it when insulting referees. Elementary school students learning Guaran?, which is a required subject in Paraguay. To this day, Paraguay remains the only country in the Americas where a majority of the population speaks one indigenous language: Guaran?. It is enshrined in the Constitution, officially giving it equal footing with the language of European conquest, Spanish. And in the streets, it is a source of national pride. Access full article below: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/12/world/americas/in-paraguay-indigenous-language-with-unique-staying-power.html?_r=1 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Mar 12 18:06:33 2012 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phillip E Cash Cash) Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2012 11:06:33 -0700 Subject: iPhone app teaches language, culture to Lakota children (fwd link) Message-ID: iPhone app teaches language, culture to Lakota children By RUTH MOON Rapid City Journal | Posted: Sunday, March 11, 2012 8:00 pm RAPID CITY, S.D. -- A new iPhone application combines centuries-old Native American culture and cutting-edge smartphone technology to teach youngsters the Lakota language. The Lakota Toddler app, now available for free in the iTunes store, is the second app by software developers Isreal Shortman and Rusty Calder. The two developers worked with Arlo Iron Cloud, the morning radio announcer for KILI Radio in Porcupine, to create an app that teaches Lakota vocabulary through text, pictures and sounds. Read more: http://siouxcityjournal.com/news/state-and-regional/south-dakota/iphone-app-teaches-language-culture-to-lakota-children/article_e7fe8945-d631-5326-ad05-57fd6a5b4047.html#ixzz1ovXbK7Xt -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From annaluisa at LIVINGTONGUES.ORG Mon Mar 12 18:50:27 2012 From: annaluisa at LIVINGTONGUES.ORG (Anna Luisa Daigneault) Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2012 14:50:27 -0400 Subject: Livestream: Truth and Reconciliation events in BC, Canada Message-ID: Hello all, One of the most important steps toward language revitalization in Canada is healing for the First Nations survivors of residential schools. The "Truth and Reconciliation Commission" is organizing many events in First Nations communities in Canada this month, so that elders can give their statements concerning their experiences. http://www.trc.ca/websites/trcinstitution/index.php?p=3 Here is the link to watch the livestream video of the events currently going on today and tomorrow in Port Alberni, Vancouver Island, BC. http://www.livestream.com/trc_cvr ~ Anna -- Anna Luisa Daigneault, M.Sc Latin America Projects Coordinator & Organizational Fellow Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages Enduring Voices Project @livingtongues The Yanesha Oral History Archives Arr A??o'tena Poe?otenaxhno Yanesha www.yanesha.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From clairebowern at GMAIL.COM Tue Mar 13 15:28:38 2012 From: clairebowern at GMAIL.COM (Claire Bowern) Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2012 11:28:38 -0400 Subject: Post-doc in historical linguistics: Yale University Message-ID: Apologies for cross-posting. The Department of Linguistics at Yale University invites applications for a one-year (non-renewable) Postdoctoral Associate position in historical linguistics. Duties include both research and teaching (one course in each semester, including an introduction to historical linguistics in Fall, 2012). The position is partially funded through NSF grant BCS-920114 "Dynamics of Hunter-Gatherer Language Change". This interdisciplinary project compares language histories from Northern Australia, California and the Great Basin, and Northern Amazonia in order to test claims about correlates between aspects of language change and social and demographic features. The Postdoctoral Associate will be joining the project in the final year of the grant, and will contribute as an author to the preparation of grant-related publications. The successful candidate will have experience in historical reconstruction. Preference will be given to candidates with experience in quantitative methodologies and/or first-hand experience with languages in (or near) one of the case study regions. Strong writing skills are essential. The starting date for this position is July 1 or soon thereafter. Requirements for the PhD must be completed by the start date. Review of applicants will begin on April 2 and will continue until the position is filled. For full consideration, by April 2 please submit to https://academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/1473 a letter of application which addresses research experience, current research goals, teaching experience, and how you see yourself contributing to the project; please also submit a current CV and 2 writing samples, and arrange for two letters of reference to be sent to academicjobsonline.org website. Yale University is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer, and especially encourages applications from women and members of underrepresented minorities. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Mar 14 19:58:30 2012 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phillip E Cash Cash) Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2012 12:58:30 -0700 Subject: Elders share language and culture (fwd link) Message-ID: Elders share language and culture By Cara Brady - Vernon Morning Star Published: March 14, 2012 6:00 AM USA The name, Nkm?aplqs isn?ma?ma?ya?tn klsqilxwtet Language and Cultural Immersion School, means ?a learning place towards and in the direction of our indigenous Okanagan ways.? The idea started in 2001 when Bill Cohen, one of the school organizers, was doing a research project and saw how students who learned in their indigenous languages in New Zealand and Hawaii, improved their academic performance. ?The first reaction to the idea of an Okanagan immersion school was that some people were very interested and some thought we were crazy,? he said. Access full article below: http://www.vernonmorningstar.com/lifestyles/142616096.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Mar 14 20:00:37 2012 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phillip E Cash Cash) Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2012 13:00:37 -0700 Subject: Oklahoma museum offers linguistics workshop focusing on indigenous communities (fwd link) Message-ID: Oklahoma museum offers linguistics workshop focusing on indigenous communities Registration is open for ?Oklahoma Breath of Life ? Silent No More,? a workshop at Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History in Norman. It is designed for indigenous communities that no longer have fluent first language speakers. FROM STAFF REPORTS | Published: March 14, 2012 USA NORMAN ? Registration is open for a linguistic workshop May 20-25 at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History. ?Oklahoma Breath of Life ? Silent No More? is designed especially for indigenous people from communities that no longer have fluent first language speakers. The workshop offers five days of linguistic and language renewal immersion. Participants will learn how to find and use archived language materials and will work with a linguistic mentor to learn how to read phonetic writing, understand how their language works and how to begin the process of language renewal. Read more: http://newsok.com/oklahoma-museum-offers-linguistics-workshop-focusing-on-indigenous-communities/article/3657375#ixzz1p7hKZxcc -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Mar 14 19:56:08 2012 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phillip E Cash Cash) Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2012 12:56:08 -0700 Subject: Indigenous Language and AI/AN Student Success (fwd link) Message-ID: Indigenous Language and AI/AN Student Success Posted: 03/14/2012 1:04 pm The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) currently identifies more than 2,000 endangered indigenous languages. Nearly 200 of these endangered languages are listed in the United States; approximately 20 of those occur in Alaska. These numbers, although lamentable on their face, present a stirring testament to cultural persistence in the face of centuries of policies and actions designed to obliterate and assimilate Native peoples. Access full article below: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ernestine-hayes/endangered-indigenous-languages_b_1344862.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dwanders at SONIC.NET Wed Mar 14 21:36:27 2012 From: dwanders at SONIC.NET (Deborah W. Anderson) Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2012 14:36:27 -0700 Subject: Looking for native users of Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Dear List, I have been contacted by a colleague at Google who is trying to find native users of Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics in order to review a font being developed at Google. Ideally, the users should have a some basic familiarity with font design. This is not paid work, but the result of the effort will go into a high-quality font that will, I help, provide long-term benefits to the user communities. If you would be interested in participating and have the background (described above), please contact me off-list (dwanders at sonic.net). With many thanks, Deborah Anderson Researcher, Dept. of Linguistics UC Berkeley -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Sun Mar 18 21:48:57 2012 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phillip E Cash Cash) Date: Sun, 18 Mar 2012 14:48:57 -0700 Subject: Language preservation helps American Indian students stick with college (fwd link) Message-ID: Language preservation helps American Indian students stick with college By Marisa Agha Special to The Bee Published: Sunday, Mar. 18, 2012 - 12:00 am PAUMA VALLEY ? Michael Murphy was a self-described "troublemaker" who wasn't sure about leaving the Pechanga Band of Luise?o Indians' reservation for college. He filled out only one application, to nearby California State University, San Marcos. Murphy, now a sophomore and chairman of the American Indian Student Alliance on that campus, credits the student group with helping him feel welcome and making him want to stay in college. "I would've dropped out the first semester" without that connection, said Murphy, a 20-year-old business major who plans to run for his tribe's council some day. Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/03/18/4346500/language-preservation-helps-american.html#storylink=cpy -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From rrlapier at AOL.COM Mon Mar 19 03:19:32 2012 From: rrlapier at AOL.COM (rrlapier at AOL.COM) Date: Sun, 18 Mar 2012 23:19:32 -0400 Subject: Why Bilinguals are Smarter Message-ID: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/18/opinion/sunday/the-benefits-of-bilingualism.html?src=me&ref=general -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From susan.penfield at GMAIL.COM Fri Mar 23 14:24:11 2012 From: susan.penfield at GMAIL.COM (Susan Penfield) Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2012 07:24:11 -0700 Subject: Launch of CTLDC - Consortium for Training in Language Documentation and Conservation Message-ID: Apologies for cross-posts! http://www.ctldc.org/ I am happy to announce that the Consortium is now officially launched! The CTLDC aims to bring together people who are working to preserve the world?s linguistic diversity by training others to document and revitalize their languages. Trainers can use the CTLDCT to work together, share materials, develop theory and practice, and promote their programs. As a member of the Planning Group, we would now like to encourage you and your organization to become a member of the organization itself. Benefits of membership include: ? Access and share training materials, research, and practice in the area of language documentation and conservation. ? Network with other individuals and organisations with a range of knowledge and skills in the area of training for language documentation and conservation. ? Receive advocacy and support for training in language documentation and conservation. ? Raise the profile of your organization and its activities; let others see what you are doing and learn from you. ? Learn from language speakers, knowledge holders, and researchers through resource and knowledge sharing. ? Participate in conferences and workshops organised by members of the CTLDC. ? Contribute to discussions on training, and bring your own interests, expertise, and point of view into the public sphere. ? Contribute to discussions on policy and lobby for better resourcing for training activities. ? Help profile the importance of training activities as a core part of documentation and revitalization * * *Membership is free! Just participate!* There will be a number of upcoming CTLDC events, including meetings and workshops. We are also interested in developing regional networks and in planning training programs and other events at the regional level (for example: Southern Africa, Central America, and South Asia). If you would like to be part of planning such events and working to deliver training in language documentation and conservation to communities that currently do not have access to these resources, we strongly encourage you to join. Please visit the CTLDC website at www.ctldc.org for more information on membership and to sign up your organization. If you have questions or comments, please send us an email: contact at ctldc.org. We look forward to working with you into the future. Co-conveners: Carol Genetti and Margaret Florey -- ********************************************************************************************** *Susan D. Penfield, Ph.D. * Research Coordinator, CERCLL, Center for Educational Resources in Culture, Language and Literacy CONFLUENCE, Center for Creative Inquiry University of Arizona Fax: (520) 626-3313 Websites: CERCLL: cercll.arizona.edu Confluence Center: www.confluencecenter.arizona.edu -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From andrekaruk at NCIDC.ORG Fri Mar 23 18:23:41 2012 From: andrekaruk at NCIDC.ORG (Andre Cramblit) Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2012 11:23:41 -0700 Subject: I wonder if this would be true for Native languages Message-ID: Published Online: March 23, 2012 Momentum Builds for Dual-Language Learning By Lesli A. Maxwell San Jose, Calif. In a preschool class at Gardner Academy, a public elementary school near downtown San Jose, teacher Rosemary Zavala sketched a tree as she fired off questions about what plants need to grow. "?Qu? necesitan las plantas?" she asked her 4-year-old charges in Spanish. "Las flores toman agua" was the exuberant answer from one girl, who said that flowers drink water. A boy answered in English: "I saw a tree in my yard." The next day, Ms. Zavala's questions about plants would continue?but in English. This classroom, with its steady stream of lively, vocabulary-laden conversations in Spanish and in English, is what many educators and advocates hope represents the future of language instruction in the United States for both English-language learners and native English-speakers. The numbers of dual-language-immersion programs like this one have been steadily growing in public schools over the past decade or so, rising to more than 2,000 in 2011-12, according to estimates from national experts. That growth has come even as the numbers of transitional-bilingual-education programs shrank in the aftermath of heated, politically charged ballot initiatives pushing English immersion in states like Arizona, Massachusetts, and here in California. Experts say the interest in dual-language programs now is driven by an increased demand for bilingual and biliterate workers and by educators who see positive impacts on academic achievement for both English-learners and students already fluent in English. In California?home to more than 1 million ELL students and some of the fiercest battles over bilingual education?the earlier controversies are showing signs of ebbing. While the state's Proposition 227 ballot initiative, approved by voters in 1998, pushed districts to replace many bilingual education programs with English-immersion for English-learners, the state is now taking steps to encourage bilingualism for all students: Graduating seniors can earn a "seal of biliteracy" on their high school transcripts and diplomas, which signifies they have reached fluency in English and a second language. Last year, 6,000 graduates in the state earned the seal. "The momentum behind these programs is really amazing," said Virginia P. Collier, a professor emeritus of education at George Mason University, in Virginia, who has studied dual-language programs extensively. "And we are not talking about a remedial, separate program for English-learners or foreign-language programs just for students with picky parents," she said. "These are now mainstream programs where we?re seeing a lot of integration of native speakers of the second language with students who are native English-speakers." Types of Programs Part of the 33,000-student San Jose Unified School District, Gardner Academy offers a two-way immersion program, in which native speakers of English and native speakers of a second language?usually Spanish?learn both languages in the same classroom. Generally, to be considered a two-way program, at least one-third of the students must be native speakers of the second language. Many of Ms. Zavala's 4-year-olds will continue to receive at least half their instruction in Spanish as they move into kindergarten, 1st grade, and beyond. The goal is to establish strong literacy skills in English and Spanish in the early grades, and to produce fully bilingual, biliterate students by the end of elementary school. Because of the state?s Proposition 227 law, parents must "opt" for their children to enroll in the two-way program. In one-way immersion, another form of dual-language learning, either native English-speakers or native speakers of the second language make up all or most of the students enrolled and instruction takes place in two languages. First grade students in Gardner Academy's two-way, dual-language program in San Jose, Calif., take part in a classroom exercise. Even though California's Proposition 227 initiative effectively ended bilingual education in that state more than a decade ago, public dual-language programs are proving to be more politically palatable. The goal at Gardner is for both native English speakers and speakers of a second language to be fully biliterate and bilingual by the time they leave elementary school. ?Manny Crisostomo for Education Week The number of one-way and two-way programs is roughly equal, according to Leonides G?mez, an education professor at the University of Texas-Pan American in Edinburg, Texas, who developed a two-way-immersion model that is widely used in the state?s public schools. There are variations in how dual-language programs work, but all of them share a few hallmark features. At least half the instructional time is spent in the second language, although in the early grades, it may take up as much as 90 percent. There must also be distinct separation of the two languages, unlike in transitional bilingual education, in which teachers and students alike mix their use of both languages. Spanish is by far the most prevalent second language taught in dual programs, followed by Mandarin Chinese and French, according to national language experts. For English-language learners, the dual-immersion experience is dramatically different from that in most other bilingual education programs, in which teachers use the native language to help teach English with the goal of moving students into regular classes as quickly as possible, said Mr. G?mez, who serves on the board of the National Association for Bilingual Education, or NABE. "The goal isn?t to run away from one language or another, but to really educate the child in both and to use the native language as a resource and an asset," said Mr. G?mez. "Content is content, and skills are skills. When you learn both in two or more languages, it moves you to a different level of comprehension, capacity, and brain elasticity." Role of Motivation Research examining the effects of dual-language programs has shown some promising results for years, although there is not consensus that it?s the best method for teaching English-language learners. One problem with discerning the effect of dual-language methods is determining how much self-selection is a factor. All such programs are programs of choice, with students and their families having the motivation to opt for the dual-language route. Another factor is the great variability among dual-language programs. "I think many of the new programs aren't able to achieve the ideal conditions for them to truly work, especially for English-learners," said Don Soifer, the executive vice president of the Lexington Institute, a think tank in Arlington, Va., that generally supports English immersion for the teaching of English-learners. For starters, Mr. Soifer said, finding teachers is a major challenge because they need strong skills in two languages, as well as subject-matter competence. He said it?s also necessary for two-way programs to have an even balance of native English-speakers, a feature that he says is difficult to achieve in some districts. Still, several studies in recent years have demonstrated that ELL students and other frequently low-performing groups, such as African-American students, do well in dual-language programs. Ms. Collier and her research partner, Wayne P. Thomas, found in a 2002 study that ELLs in dual-language programs were able to close the achievement gap with their native English-speaking peers, and that the programs achieved important intangible goals, such as increased parental involvement. The study examined 20 years of data on ELLs in 15 states who were enrolled in dual-language, transitional-bilingual-education, and English-only programs. North Carolina Results Ms. Collier and Mr. Thomas are also conducting an ongoing study of students in two-way dual-language programs, most of them in Spanish and English, in North Carolina. The researchers have found so far that gaps in reading and math achievement between English-learners enrolled in dual-language classes and their white peers who are native English-speakers are smaller than gaps between ELLs who are not in such classes and white students. Kindergartner Zharik Carranzo writes in Spanish at Gardner Academy, near San Jose, Calif., one of a growing number of schools offering dual-language programs. ?Manny Crisostomo for Education Week The data are also showing that English-speaking African-American students who are in dual-language programs are outscoring black peers who are in non-dual classrooms, Ms. Collier said. Texas has more dual-language immersion programs than any other state?with between 700 and 800 of them in schools?including some of the most mature, according to several experts. One district in the state's Rio Grande Valley along the Mexican border?the Pharr-San Juan-Alamo Independent School District?is likely to become the nation's first to have dual-language programs in all its schools, including middle and high school, Mr. G?mez said. In June, the fourth cohort of students who have been in dual language since kindergarten will graduate from the district?s four high schools. In Utah, a statewide dual-language-immersion initiative funded through the legislature?the first such broad-scale effort in the United States, according to experts?is now in its third year, said Gregg Roberts, a specialist in world languages and dual-language immersion for the state office of education. By next fall, public elementary schools across Utah will offer 80 programs under the state initiative, with roughly 15,000 students enrolled in Spanish, Mandarin, French, and Portuguese. The goal is to have 30,000 students enrolled in 100 programs by 2014, Mr. Roberts said. "Utah is a small state and, for our future economic development and the national security of our country, we have to educate students who are multilingual," he said. "There is broad agreement in our state about that. It's not a red or a blue issue here." Many of Utah's programs so far are two-way Spanish-English immersion, drawing on the state's growing Latino immigrant community, said Myriam Met, an expert on immersion programs who is working closely with Utah officials on the initiative. But the most in-demand programs in Utah are Mandarin. Ms. Met said there were fewer than 10 Chinese immersion programs in the nation in 2000. The current estimate stands at 75 Chinese programs, and by next fall, roughly a quarter of those will be in Utah, she said. San Francisco's Approach Some of the nation?s oldest Chinese programs are offered in the 56,000-student San Francisco public schools. Most students start in one of the city's five elementary schools, where they split instructional time between English and Cantonese or English and Mandarin. Eventually, many end up at Abraham Lincoln High School, where a mix of native Chinese-speakers and students who have been in the immersion program since the early grades take advanced Chinese-language courses, in addition to at least two content-area courses each year in Cantonese. Amber Sevilla, a 14-year-old freshman in the Chinese-immersion program at Lincoln, is already fluent in Cantonese and Mandarin. She has been in Chinese immersion since kindergarten and learned some Chinese at home from her grandmother. Through middle school, nearly all of her instruction was conducted in Chinese, including math. Currently, she is taking health education and college and career education in Chinese. "I'm excited that I can count on being bilingual and biliterate as I go to college, and I know it's going to be an advantage for me even though I don't know yet what I want to do for my career," said Ms. Sevilla. "It?s hard work, but it?s worth it." Related Blog Visit this blog. Like nearly all her classmates in the immersion program, Ms. Sevilla is on track to earn California's new state seal of biliteracy. Rosa Molina, the executive director of Two-Way CABE, an advocacy group for dual-language programs that is an arm of the California Association for Bilingual Education, said students like Ms. Sevilla benefit in muliple ways. "They preserve their primary language or their heritage language, they develop a broader worldview that they take into college and the work world, and they gain huge advantages in their cognitive development that translates into flexibility in their thinking and the ability to successfully tackle really rigorous coursework," Ms. Molina said. Advocates for English-learners emphasize the importance of expanding programs that are truly two-way and fully accessible to ELLs. Laurie Olsen, a national expert on English-learners who designed the instructional model in use at the Gardner Academy in San Jose, cautions against allowing programs to become dominated by middle- and upper-income students whose parents want them to learn a second language. If that happens, she said, one of the most promising approaches to closing the achievement gap between English-learners and fluent English-speakers will be squandered. "We know that English-learners who develop proficiency in their home language do better in English and in accessing academic content," she said. "Yet we still live in a world where the belief is wide that English should be enough." Vol. 31, Issue 26 K?mateech /Later Andr? Cramblit, Operations Director Northern California Indian Development Council (NCIDC) (http://www.ncidc.org) 707.445.8451 To subscribe to a blog of interest to Natives send go to: http://andrekaruk.posterous.com/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Pasted Graphic.tiff Type: image/tiff Size: 9654 bytes Desc: not available URL: From rtroike at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Sun Mar 25 05:42:23 2012 From: rtroike at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Rudy Troike) Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2012 22:42:23 -0700 Subject: I wonder if this would be true for Native languages In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Re Andrew's question: Yes, dual language instruction would surely work, IF Native-language curricula were developed paralleling usual content in regular English-only classes. The situation vis-a-vis Spanish/English is that a weird backlash against 'bilingual education' developed, with opponents convincing the public that it was monolingual instruction in Spanish, dooming students to isolation from access to English (even a Yale professor of literature denounced bilingual education on these grounds, ignoring the obvious meaning of 'bi-', which was distorted to be interpreted as 'mono-'). Ronald Reagan campaigned against bilingual education on these grounds, and part of the legacy of the Reagan Revolution was to pervert support for bilingual education into support for English as a Second Language (ESL) support. In California, even native Spanish-speaking voters were intimidated into supporting a referendum funded by a zealous businessman named Unz, who later brought the same initiative to Arizona, to outlaw bilingual instruction. The label 'dual language' was developed as a workaround to avoid the taint of the perversion of 'bi-' to mean 'mono-'. Also, critically, it more actively sought to recruit native English- speaking children into classes, and was often installed in magnet schools, where dual language instruction was made attractive, rather than treated as a ghettoizing program designed as remedial instruction for immigrants. (The educationally preposterous nature of the Arizona law is that if a child enters school unable to comprehend English adequately, he/she is denied placement in a program utilizing the child's native language, and is can only be admitted into bi-/dual language instruction once his/her competence in English is deemed adequate.) I think the same irrational and discriminatory provision applies in California, so except in schools on a reservation, this absurdity would have to be factored -- Native language could NOT be used until a child had demonstrated an adequate level of proficiency in English, by which time it might be too late to take maximum advantage of children's natural language learning ability. Rudy From hardman at UFL.EDU Sun Mar 25 13:36:05 2012 From: hardman at UFL.EDU (Dr. MJ Hardman) Date: Sun, 25 Mar 2012 09:36:05 -0400 Subject: I wonder if this would be true for Native languages In-Reply-To: <20120324224223.hjb688o40s8owg80@www.email.arizona.edu> Message-ID: I remember way back when, after we from UF had helped install a genuinely bi-lingual program in Miami schools, it was destroyed by exactly the same logic. In that program English-speaking students went to Spanish class while Spanish-speaking students went to English class. The children loved it; they learned about language itself (very helpful for English-speaking students who spoke a discriminated variety of their own language), and they ended up bilingual in a city where it is necessary to be bilingual to get a job. It's gone. MJ On 3/25/12 1:42 AM, "Rudy Troike" wrote: > Re Andrew's question: > > Yes, dual language instruction would surely work, IF Native-language > curricula were developed paralleling usual content in regular English-only > classes. The situation vis-a-vis Spanish/English is that a weird backlash > against 'bilingual education' developed, with opponents convincing the > public that it was monolingual instruction in Spanish, dooming students > to isolation from access to English (even a Yale professor of literature > denounced bilingual education on these grounds, ignoring the obvious > meaning of 'bi-', which was distorted to be interpreted as 'mono-'). > Ronald Reagan campaigned against bilingual education on these grounds, > and part of the legacy of the Reagan Revolution was to pervert support > for bilingual education into support for English as a Second Language > (ESL) support. In California, even native Spanish-speaking voters were > intimidated into supporting a referendum funded by a zealous businessman > named Unz, who later brought the same initiative to Arizona, to outlaw > bilingual instruction. The label 'dual language' was developed as a > workaround to avoid the taint of the perversion of 'bi-' to mean 'mono-'. > Also, critically, it more actively sought to recruit native English- > speaking children into classes, and was often installed in magnet schools, > where dual language instruction was made attractive, rather than treated > as a ghettoizing program designed as remedial instruction for immigrants. > (The educationally preposterous nature of the Arizona law is that if a > child enters school unable to comprehend English adequately, he/she is > denied placement in a program utilizing the child's native language, and > is can only be admitted into bi-/dual language instruction once his/her > competence in English is deemed adequate.) I think the same irrational > and discriminatory provision applies in California, so except in schools > on a reservation, this absurdity would have to be factored -- Native > language could NOT be used until a child had demonstrated an adequate > level of proficiency in English, by which time it might be too late to > take maximum advantage of children's natural language learning ability. > > Rudy > Dr. MJ Hardman Professor of Linguistics and Anthropology Department of Linguistics University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida Doctora Honoris Causa UNMSM, Lima, Per? website: http://grove.ufl.edu/~hardman/ From evan at WHEREAREYOURKEYS.ORG Sun Mar 25 21:40:22 2012 From: evan at WHEREAREYOURKEYS.ORG (Evan Gardner) Date: Sun, 25 Mar 2012 14:40:22 -0700 Subject: I wonder if this would be true for Native languages In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Could this work for Native Languages? I am betting my life on it! On Mar 25, 2012 5:36 AM, "Dr. MJ Hardman" wrote: > I remember way back when, after we from UF had helped install a genuinely > bi-lingual program in Miami schools, it was destroyed by exactly the same > logic. In that program English-speaking students went to Spanish class > while Spanish-speaking students went to English class. The children loved > it; they learned about language itself (very helpful for English-speaking > students who spoke a discriminated variety of their own language), and they > ended up bilingual in a city where it is necessary to be bilingual to get a > job. It's gone. MJ > > On 3/25/12 1:42 AM, "Rudy Troike" wrote: > > > Re Andrew's question: > > > > Yes, dual language instruction would surely work, IF Native-language > > curricula were developed paralleling usual content in regular > English-only > > classes. The situation vis-a-vis Spanish/English is that a weird backlash > > against 'bilingual education' developed, with opponents convincing the > > public that it was monolingual instruction in Spanish, dooming students > > to isolation from access to English (even a Yale professor of literature > > denounced bilingual education on these grounds, ignoring the obvious > > meaning of 'bi-', which was distorted to be interpreted as 'mono-'). > > Ronald Reagan campaigned against bilingual education on these grounds, > > and part of the legacy of the Reagan Revolution was to pervert support > > for bilingual education into support for English as a Second Language > > (ESL) support. In California, even native Spanish-speaking voters were > > intimidated into supporting a referendum funded by a zealous businessman > > named Unz, who later brought the same initiative to Arizona, to outlaw > > bilingual instruction. The label 'dual language' was developed as a > > workaround to avoid the taint of the perversion of 'bi-' to mean 'mono-'. > > Also, critically, it more actively sought to recruit native English- > > speaking children into classes, and was often installed in magnet > schools, > > where dual language instruction was made attractive, rather than treated > > as a ghettoizing program designed as remedial instruction for immigrants. > > (The educationally preposterous nature of the Arizona law is that if a > > child enters school unable to comprehend English adequately, he/she is > > denied placement in a program utilizing the child's native language, and > > is can only be admitted into bi-/dual language instruction once his/her > > competence in English is deemed adequate.) I think the same irrational > > and discriminatory provision applies in California, so except in schools > > on a reservation, this absurdity would have to be factored -- Native > > language could NOT be used until a child had demonstrated an adequate > > level of proficiency in English, by which time it might be too late to > > take maximum advantage of children's natural language learning ability. > > > > Rudy > > > > Dr. MJ Hardman > Professor of Linguistics and Anthropology > Department of Linguistics > University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida > Doctora Honoris Causa UNMSM, Lima, Per? > website: http://grove.ufl.edu/~hardman/ > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Mar 26 22:09:42 2012 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phillip E Cash Cash) Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2012 15:09:42 -0700 Subject: Online tool aims to save Hmong language (fwd link) Message-ID: Monday, Mar. 26, 2012 Online tool aims to save Hmong language Hmong translator latest effort to preserve culture. The Associated Press USA FRESNO -- When Phong Yang, a Hmong refugee from Laos, landed in California's Central Valley -- via stops in Thailand and France -- he was 14 years old. He learned to speak Hmong from his parents, but today he has a hard time teaching the language to his children, who are distracted by cell phones and computers. Many Hmong are losing their language, Yang said, leading to fears that their cultural identity will be lost. A new technological tool may help bridge generation gaps and encourage preservation of their language among the Hmong. The community in Fresno, in partnership with researchers at Microsoft, has launched an online Hmong translator. Read more here: http://www.mercedsunstar.com/2012/03/26/2283667/online-tool-aims-to-save-hmong.html#storylink=cpy -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Mar 26 22:08:28 2012 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phillip E Cash Cash) Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2012 15:08:28 -0700 Subject: Little River Band of Ottawa Indians offers language education tool (fwd link) Message-ID: Little River Band of Ottawa Indians offers language education tool Monday, March 26, 2012 USA MANISTEE ?Tribal languages are an important part of the culture and the life of the Native American tribal nations. Many of these languages are in danger of being lost while at the same time a number of the nations are actively engaged in teaching their language to their people and others who are interested. The Little River Band of Ottawa Indians based in Manistee ihas invested heavily in preserving and protecting Anishinaabemowin, the language of the Ottawa people. Access full article below: http://www.ludingtondailynews.com/news/64532-little-river-band-of-ottawa-indians-offers-language-education-tool -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Mon Mar 26 22:11:44 2012 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phillip E Cash Cash) Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2012 15:11:44 -0700 Subject: Native Languages Bill Takes Another Step Forward (fwd link) Message-ID: Native Languages Bill Takes Another Step Forward By Carol Berry March 24, 2012 USA Native American language teaching won a victory March 21 when a bill that would help to preserve tribal languages sailed through an education committee of the Colorado House of Representatives by unanimous vote. The bill, already approved in a Senate hearing, appears destined for the governor?s signature and enactment. The bill would allow tribal elders and other fluent speakers of the Native languages of federally recognized tribes to teach the languages even though they may not have teaching licenses. They would be under the supervision of qualified teachers in order to obtain license waivers from the Colorado Department of Education (CDE). Read more: http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/03/24/native-languages-bill-takes-another-step-forward-104299 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jcrippen at GMAIL.COM Tue Mar 27 00:07:02 2012 From: jcrippen at GMAIL.COM (James Crippen) Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2012 17:07:02 -0700 Subject: I wonder if this would be true for Native languages In-Reply-To: <20120324224223.hjb688o40s8owg80@www.email.arizona.edu> Message-ID: On Sat, Mar 24, 2012 at 22:42, Rudy Troike wrote: > Re Andrew's question: > > ?Yes, dual language instruction would surely work, IF Native-language > curricula were developed paralleling usual content in regular English-only > classes. I beg to differ, at least for highly endangered or extinct languages. I won?t generalize about other situations because I?m not familiar with them. People who do 12 years of primary and secondary schooling in the well known kinds of dual language programs for big languages (e.g. French or Spanish) do not necessarily graduate with fluency in the ?foreign? language if their parents do not also speak it at home. In such cases, though they may be adequate in paper testing, the students? speech is typically heavily influenced by the local majority language (e.g. English) and they often have impractical gaps in their mental lexica, among other assorted handicaps. There is a good bit of documentation on this in the second language acquisition research community, as I recall from my classes in second language acquisition and bilingualism. Students do have the chance to dramatically improve their fluency by spending time somewhere that the language is spoken by the majority. But in the case of endangered languages, there *is* no place to go where the majority speaks the language. So the situations aren?t parallel and really shouldn?t be equated. Instead of focusing on schools and education, the first place that endangered languages need to be supported is in the home. No amount of schooling will replace real-life use at home. If education in the language is an adjunct to home use then success is vastly improved, but the converse is not true at all. Space must be made for the language to exist in real life, outside of institutions, before people should worry about institutional use. If you look at the few successful language revitalization programs for highly endangered or extinct languages, they?ve all begun in private homes among families, not in schools. There?s a dangerous temptation to somehow make schooling into the saviour for highly endangered languages. I think this is partly because it obviates personal responsibilities and provides a convenient scapegoat for failure in the guise of ?the institution?, ?the administration?, ?the bureaucracy?, or worst of all ?those teachers?. Depending solely on education institutions to solve language decline just seems to make things worse, not better, because it encourages people to *not* take an active role in keeping the language alive. ?I don?t have to worry anymore because they?re teaching it in school.? On the other hand, if children and teachers are supported by enthusiastic and engaged parents who immerse their children in the language at home, then it seems that success can almost be guaranteed. So language revitalization should start at home, not at school. Education programs modelled on bilingual education for big languages should only be put in place once there are a reasonable number of families with young children who are already fluent. Institutions should support home use, not the other way around. If people are concerned about educational programs, these should instead first be targeted at adults who can have kids and make homes where the language can be spoken with their children. The children need to start with a natural, ordinary environment where their language can be nurtured by their own parents and families. Think small, not big. Revitalization is not a huge change in the world done all at once by legislative or administrative actions, it?s a long, involved series of small changes done at home and in the neighbourhood that most people never notice happening. From chimiskwew at HOTMAIL.COM Tue Mar 27 00:31:28 2012 From: chimiskwew at HOTMAIL.COM (Cathy Wheaton) Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2012 18:31:28 -0600 Subject: I wonder if this would be true for Native languages In-Reply-To: Message-ID: I couldn't agree more! That is a part of language we need to work on in our communities, we need more Cree spoken in our homes and for that to become more prevalent! It is so important and yet I hear language institutions focused on schools to revive language while forgetting how important home language usage is for the whole community! -----Original Message----- From: James Crippen Sent: Monday, March 26, 2012 6:07 PM To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Subject: Re: [ILAT] I wonder if this would be true for Native languages On Sat, Mar 24, 2012 at 22:42, Rudy Troike wrote: > Re Andrew's question: > > Yes, dual language instruction would surely work, IF Native-language > curricula were developed paralleling usual content in regular English-only > classes. I beg to differ, at least for highly endangered or extinct languages. I won?t generalize about other situations because I?m not familiar with them. People who do 12 years of primary and secondary schooling in the well known kinds of dual language programs for big languages (e.g. French or Spanish) do not necessarily graduate with fluency in the ?foreign? language if their parents do not also speak it at home. In such cases, though they may be adequate in paper testing, the students? speech is typically heavily influenced by the local majority language (e.g. English) and they often have impractical gaps in their mental lexica, among other assorted handicaps. There is a good bit of documentation on this in the second language acquisition research community, as I recall from my classes in second language acquisition and bilingualism. Students do have the chance to dramatically improve their fluency by spending time somewhere that the language is spoken by the majority. But in the case of endangered languages, there *is* no place to go where the majority speaks the language. So the situations aren?t parallel and really shouldn?t be equated. Instead of focusing on schools and education, the first place that endangered languages need to be supported is in the home. No amount of schooling will replace real-life use at home. If education in the language is an adjunct to home use then success is vastly improved, but the converse is not true at all. Space must be made for the language to exist in real life, outside of institutions, before people should worry about institutional use. If you look at the few successful language revitalization programs for highly endangered or extinct languages, they?ve all begun in private homes among families, not in schools. There?s a dangerous temptation to somehow make schooling into the saviour for highly endangered languages. I think this is partly because it obviates personal responsibilities and provides a convenient scapegoat for failure in the guise of ?the institution?, ?the administration?, ?the bureaucracy?, or worst of all ?those teachers?. Depending solely on education institutions to solve language decline just seems to make things worse, not better, because it encourages people to *not* take an active role in keeping the language alive. ?I don?t have to worry anymore because they?re teaching it in school.? On the other hand, if children and teachers are supported by enthusiastic and engaged parents who immerse their children in the language at home, then it seems that success can almost be guaranteed. So language revitalization should start at home, not at school. Education programs modelled on bilingual education for big languages should only be put in place once there are a reasonable number of families with young children who are already fluent. Institutions should support home use, not the other way around. If people are concerned about educational programs, these should instead first be targeted at adults who can have kids and make homes where the language can be spoken with their children. The children need to start with a natural, ordinary environment where their language can be nurtured by their own parents and families. Think small, not big. Revitalization is not a huge change in the world done all at once by legislative or administrative actions, it?s a long, involved series of small changes done at home and in the neighbourhood that most people never notice happening. From klokeid at UVIC.CA Tue Mar 27 01:55:45 2012 From: klokeid at UVIC.CA (Terry J. Klokeid) Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2012 18:55:45 -0700 Subject: I wonder if this would be true for Native languages In-Reply-To: Message-ID: On 26-03-2012, at 5:31 pm, Cathy Wheaton wrote: > how important home language usage is for the whole community! Language Recovery The following statement guides the language program of the Huu-ay-aht First Nations. Language Recovery is the process of restoring our Nuu-chah-nulth language to play a useful, functional role in community activities. The outcome of Language Recovery is achieved when families maintain the Nuu-chah-nulth language, when children learn the language from their parents, grandparents, siblings, and playmates. From rtroike at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Tue Mar 27 03:14:32 2012 From: rtroike at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Rudy Troike) Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2012 20:14:32 -0700 Subject: I wonder if this would be true for Native languages Message-ID: The most successful Native-English dual language program I know of was a truly bilingual Navajo-English program at Rock Point, Arizona. It was well-researched and had a strong academic curriculum, in which students outperformed those in purely ESL programs, and became highly literate in both Navajo and English, proving IT CAN BE DONE. I have met some of the graduates of the program here at the University of Arizona, and found them very impressive. Nothing has been said about the program here on ILAT, and I don't know if it is still continuing. Conversely, as I have mentioned before, a UNM dissertation some years ago showed that Navajo children who were placed in English-only Head Start programs in order for them to learn English before starting school, were found to perform LESS WELL by the 3rd grade than comparable students who began school monolingual in Navajo. The study also showed that the early exposure to English had degraded children's grammatical competence in Navajo, suggesting a cognitive connection between loss of native language competence and lower achievement in English-only schooling. --Rudy From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Tue Mar 27 22:20:05 2012 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phillip E Cash Cash) Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2012 15:20:05 -0700 Subject: April 1-7, 2012 Proclaimed Heritage Language Awareness Week (fwd link) Message-ID: APRIL 1-7, 2012 PROCLAIMED HERITAGE LANGUAGE AWARENESS WEEK March 27, 2012 Tuesday AM USA (SitNews) Ketchikan, Alaska - Ketchikan Indian Community Tribal Council is proclaiming April 1-7, 2012 Heritage Language Awareness Week. It is estimated that only 175 Native languages remain in the United States, three of which are languages indigenous to the Ketchikan area: Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian also known as Ling?t, Xaad K?l, and Shmalgyax. Access full article below: http://www.sitnews.us/0312News/032712/032712_heritage_week.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From rtroike at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Tue Mar 27 23:12:23 2012 From: rtroike at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Rudy Troike) Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2012 16:12:23 -0700 Subject: I wonder if this would be true for Native languages Message-ID: I agree with James Crippen's concerns about highly endangered languages: "There's a dangerous temptation to somehow make schooling into the saviour for highly endangered languages. ... Depending solely on education institutions to solve language decline just seems to make things worse, not better, because it encourages people to *not* take an active role in keeping the language alive." As I noted in a subsequent post, the Navajo bilingual program at Rock Point, before it declined, demonstrated that for a Native language, it IS possible to develop a thorough K-12 curriculum which matches the English curriculum (but includes native cultural and historical content, and even in math is sensitive to linguistic features of the language differing from or lacking in English). Where there are enough speakers to support the effort, it could be possible in communities like the Dakota to restore the level of literacy which once existed -- though the window of opportunity is rapidly closing down. But as James said, this cannot be carried just by the schools, since real language learning begins in the home and in interpersonal inter- action. However, thanks to the tradition of government and parochial schooling, many if not most parents are unable to provide that 'home nest' for the child. That is why a community effort like that in New Zealand and Hawaii, to place young children with older fluent speakers in 'nests' or day-care centers (better yet, for a whole summer) can be effective in establishing early natural (not formally instructed) acquisition, which can then be brought to school and reinforced. A holistic plan is needed which involves more than just individual families. One of the perennial problems in Native language maintenance is that 'higher-level' academic competence is non-existent, and community members and students perceive that there is 'no use' in learning the language since it has no further 'marketplace' value. Attitudes thus play an enormous role both in the perspective of the community and of students. Developing literacy in the Native language is empowering, and even at advanced (high school and college) levels, if academically advanced materials are developed, parallel literacy is possible. This is what the Rock Point program spectacularly demonstrated, and is showing some effect in Cherokee in Oklahoma as well. The use of Native languages in schools has, as the new Colorado law has shown, given institutional recognition to these languages and brought Native language speakers into the school setting for the first time. So it is not just an either/or situation -- meaningful school instruction can provide a mooring-post for communities and families to rally around. Communities, families, and individuals must ultimately take primary responsibility for language maintenance and preservation. It can't, as James says, just be pushed off to schools to somehow magically accomplish alone. Without motivation, buy-in, and active participation, endangered languages cannot survive on their own. Rudy Troike From mikinakn at SHAW.CA Wed Mar 28 01:26:47 2012 From: mikinakn at SHAW.CA (Rolland Nadjiwon) Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2012 21:26:47 -0400 Subject: I wonder if this would be true for Native languages In-Reply-To: <20120327161223.4mae9wogskw48gkc@www.email.arizona.edu> Message-ID: Another rant maybe. Perhaps 9/10ths of the unseen iceberg as a metaphor, is these languages were never meant to survive in a so called 'post colonial' New World. Their intentional destruction is 'fact' well known by the survivors and historically documented. Perhaps language loss is merely a symptom of why these languages are being lost. Perhaps the problem is not even with the 'peoples' but external to them and built into the fabric of what has become 'the Americas'. If there is such a great moral interest in the survival of endangered indigenous languages and the home and community are the conduits for language transmission then the family, people and the community must also be repaired from the ravaging destruction of both overt, covert and insidious colonialism. Perhaps the people and communities must be involved in the development of their own language survival programs in a manner which validates their own intelligence and worth, culture, cosmology and life paths. There is not much point bringing into the communities, 'for the people', a pre-formulated pedagogy for language skills when the real problem is their total cultural, linguistic and spiritual survival. All of the tribes survived with their myriad of languages until 'somebody done somebody wrong' and have never identified or corrected that wrong. It must be understood, accepted and dealt with that these 'tribal' languages have their own 'already there' which is as different from everyone else's 'already there'. Their 'already lived in languages' are as different from each tribe and the rest of the world as Chinese is from Gaelic. These tribal languages have absolutely no 'cognate' relationship to any other language than their own dialects and those languages are generated in a 'primary orality'. Any linguist must be aware of this...guess I should stop here before I am reminded I am off topic again...apologies. There is so much more can be said...I live 'inside' this destruction and loss. I deal with it every day and not from some evangelical ardor. I agree with many of the points you make Rudy outside the idea that institutionalization can be an solution. Institutions have not yet provided or even acted on any long term survival, a fact which is becoming even more apparent as we move with ever increasing speed toward the demise of this present civilization and perhaps even the earth itself. These endangered languages are symbiotically tied to the earth and the cosmos. Institutions have little if anything to offer them other than jobs teaching endangered languages. You cannot expect these peoples to embrace institutionalization which has no history of benefits to them...in fact documented evidence to the opposite. There has to be something new and innovative to accommodate a new and changed environment. Please don't ask me what it is...I have been working on it for almost 50 years. My greatest successes happened in the mid-60s and early 70s. During the early 70s, I was a coordinator for Keewatinung Institute, a cultural, educational and spiritual center for our people in our area. We were the very first of our kind in Canada. From that position, I had the absolutely fantastic opportunity of coordinating The Indian Ecumenical Conference...a gathering of spiritual leaders from as many tribes we could get representatives from. It was 'ecumenical' in the broader meaning of the term. We had a Steering Committee of elders and spiritual leaders to help with the development of logistics and content for the first great gathering at Morley, Alberta. During the planning sessions over many months and in many locations, the idea of an 'agenda' came up. The Steering Committee after thinking on it told us we didn't need an agenda. Those of us 'trained' to think 'inside the box' felt we had to have plans and objectives and to know what we were going to do. The elders and spiritual leaders told us what we would do is to look at how we were 500 years ago, how we look today and how we want to look in another 500 years. So, that was the 'gist' of our getting together. I still think of that especially when I hear out tribal councils and politicians speaking of five year plans, 10 year plans and sometimes a 20/25 year plan. Our gatherings were very, very successful and the spin off is still felt today...and we are still at it 40 some years later. You can read about it in a book entitled 'Around the sacred fire: a native religious activism in the Red Power era : a narrative map of the Indian Ecumenical Conference' by James Treat. I am adding a short review if anyone is interested. Around the sacred fire: a native religious activism in the Red Power era : a narrative map of the Indian Ecumenical Conference. James Treat . Palgrave Macmillan, 2003 - History - 376 pages Front Cover Around the Sacred Fire is a compelling cultural history of intertribal activism centered on the Indian Ecumenical Conference, an influential movement among native people in Canada and the U.S. during the Red Power era. Founded in 1969, the Conference began as an attempt at organizing grassroots spiritual leaders who were concerned about the conflict between tribal and Christian traditions throughout Indian country. By the mid-seventies thousands of people were gathering each summer in the foothills of the Rockies, where they participated in weeklong encampments promoting spiritual revitalization and religious self-determination. Most historical overviews of native affairs in the sixties and seventies emphasize the prominence of the American Indian Movement and the impact of highly publicized confrontations such as the Northwest Coast fish-ins, the Alcatraz occupation, and events at Wounded Knee. The Indian Ecumenical Conference played a central role in stimulating cultural revival among native people, partly because Conference leaders strategized for social change in ways that differed from the militant groups. Drawing on archival records, published accounts, oral histories, and field research, James Treat has written the first comprehensive study of this important but overlooked effort at postcolonial interreligious dialogue. The closing review statement may sound like it was a failure...it was not or there would be no global indigenous peoples movement and an increasingly unified global voice. Treat's book will be the most you ever find on it because, it was meant to be that way. Our only paper trails were briefs for funding and resulting financial statements. There were no native 'political' so called leaders, tribal councils or politicians...they didn't even know it was happening...not that any of them would have cared. Anyhow, I had best conclude my rant and thanks for listening...if you did so. I am turtle clan and usually have slow and sometimes lengthy excursions through my own thoughts. megwetch.... wahjeh rolland nadjiwon _____________________________________ "Political correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a piece of shit by the clean end." -----Original Message----- From: Indigenous Languages and Technology [mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU] On Behalf Of Rudy Troike Sent: March-27-12 7:12 PM To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Subject: Re: [ILAT] I wonder if this would be true for Native languages I agree with James Crippen's concerns about highly endangered languages: "There's a dangerous temptation to somehow make schooling into the saviour for highly endangered languages. ... Depending solely on education institutions to solve language decline just seems to make things worse, not better, because it encourages people to *not* take an active role in keeping the language alive." As I noted in a subsequent post, the Navajo bilingual program at Rock Point, before it declined, demonstrated that for a Native language, it IS possible to develop a thorough K-12 curriculum which matches the English curriculum (but includes native cultural and historical content, and even in math is sensitive to linguistic features of the language differing from or lacking in English). Where there are enough speakers to support the effort, it could be possible in communities like the Dakota to restore the level of literacy which once existed -- though the window of opportunity is rapidly closing down. But as James said, this cannot be carried just by the schools, since real language learning begins in the home and in interpersonal inter- action. However, thanks to the tradition of government and parochial schooling, many if not most parents are unable to provide that 'home nest' for the child. That is why a community effort like that in New Zealand and Hawaii, to place young children with older fluent speakers in 'nests' or day-care centers (better yet, for a whole summer) can be effective in establishing early natural (not formally instructed) acquisition, which can then be brought to school and reinforced. A holistic plan is needed which involves more than just individual families. One of the perennial problems in Native language maintenance is that 'higher-level' academic competence is non-existent, and community members and students perceive that there is 'no use' in learning the language since it has no further 'marketplace' value. Attitudes thus play an enormous role both in the perspective of the community and of students. Developing literacy in the Native language is empowering, and even at advanced (high school and college) levels, if academically advanced materials are developed, parallel literacy is possible. This is what the Rock Point program spectacularly demonstrated, and is showing some effect in Cherokee in Oklahoma as well. The use of Native languages in schools has, as the new Colorado law has shown, given institutional recognition to these languages and brought Native language speakers into the school setting for the first time. So it is not just an either/or situation -- meaningful school instruction can provide a mooring-post for communities and families to rally around. Communities, families, and individuals must ultimately take primary responsibility for language maintenance and preservation. It can't, as James says, just be pushed off to schools to somehow magically accomplish alone. Without motivation, buy-in, and active participation, endangered languages cannot survive on their own. Rudy Troike ----- No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 2012.0.1913 / Virus Database: 2114/4896 - Release Date: 03/26/12 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: books?id=r-0L3IUPDRQC&printsec=frontcover&img=1&zoom=1&edge=curl Type: application/octet-stream Size: 12347 bytes Desc: not available URL: From whalen at HASKINS.YALE.EDU Wed Mar 28 01:47:59 2012 From: whalen at HASKINS.YALE.EDU (Doug Whalen) Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2012 21:47:59 -0400 Subject: CoLang scholarships from ELF for tribal members Message-ID: Dear ILAT Community, The Endangered Language Fund would like to send out a reminder that registration for CoLang 2012 (Collaborative Language Research) is still underway. The CoLang Institute consists of a two-week series of courses and workshops in language documentation, and an optional four-week "practicum" working with native speakers of one of four languages (Cherokee, Tlingit, Uda or Amazigh (Berber)). The Institute will take place at the University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, from June 18 - July 27, 2012. For more information and registration, please visit the CoLang site here. There are two scholarships for CoLang 2012 available through the Endangered Language Fund. The first is for tribal members of those tribes that are eligible for the Native Voices Endowment. The list of eligible tribes for this funding can be found here. The second will be for an enrolled member of any other US tribe. For both funding opportunities, please send us an email stating your tribe and proof of enrollment; whether you want to take just the classes or the classes plus a language practicum; and what your expectations are for how the experience at CoLang might to affect your work with your language. Applications to ELF (just the brief email mentioned above) are due 20 April. We will announce awards by 23 April. Registration at CoLang must be completed by 30 April. Sincerely, Doug Whalen DhW The Endangered Language Fund elf at endangeredlanguagefund.org Douglas H. Whalen, President Endangered Language Fund 300 George St., Suite 900 New Haven, CT 06511 USA +1-203-865-6163, ext. 265 (or 234 for Whalen) elf at endangeredlanguagefund.org www.endangeredlanguagefund.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From rzs at WILDBLUE.NET Wed Mar 28 02:40:47 2012 From: rzs at WILDBLUE.NET (Richard Zane Smith) Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2012 21:40:47 -0500 Subject: I wonder if this would be true for Native languages In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Thanks Rolland, i feel it almost every day too..there is a heavy weight dragging on any attempt to revitalize our language, maintain ceremony or even gathering for social dance pot-lucks. One of the curses is "busyiness" and it has so infected us, that gatherings, for language practice or study or even sacred gatherings must be "fit into a schedule" . I doubt our ancient ancestors were idle much, but there were some things that weren't designed to fit in your schedule...you just were to be there. ske:noh Richard Zane Smith (Sohahiyoh) On Tue, Mar 27, 2012 at 8:26 PM, Rolland Nadjiwon wrote: > ** > > Another rant maybe. Perhaps 9/10ths of the unseen iceberg as a > metaphor, is these languages were never meant to survive in a so called > 'post colonial' New World. Their intentional destruction is 'fact' well > known by the survivors and historically documented. Perhaps language loss > is merely a symptom of why these languages are being lost. Perhaps the > problem is not even with the 'peoples' but external to them and built into > the fabric of what has become 'the Americas'. If there is such a great > moral interest in the survival of endangered indigenous languages and the > home and community are the conduits for language transmission then the > family, people and the community must also be repaired from the ravaging > destruction of both overt, covert and insidious colonialism. Perhaps the > people and communities must be involved in the development of their own > language survival programs in a manner which validates their own > intelligence and worth, culture, cosmology and life paths. There is not > much point bringing into the communities, 'for the people', a > pre-formulated pedagogy for language skills when the real problem is their > total cultural, linguistic and spiritual survival. All of the tribes > survived with their myriad of languages until 'somebody done somebody > wrong' and have never identified or corrected that wrong. It must be > understood, accepted and dealt with that these 'tribal' languages have > their own 'already there' which is as different from everyone else's > 'already there'. Their 'already lived in languages' are as different from > each tribe and the rest of the world as Chinese is from Gaelic. These > tribal languages have absolutely no 'cognate' relationship to any other > language than their own dialects and those languages are generated in a > 'primary orality'. Any linguist must be aware of this...guess I should stop > here before I am reminded I am off topic again...apologies. There is so > much more can be said...I live 'inside' this destruction and loss. I deal > with it every day and not from some evangelical ardor. > I agree with many of the points you make Rudy outside the idea > that institutionalization can be an solution. Institutions have not yet > provided or even acted on any long term survival, a fact which is becoming > even more apparent as we move with ever increasing speed toward the demise > of this present civilization and perhaps even the earth itself. These > endangered languages are symbiotically tied to the earth and the cosmos. > Institutions have little if anything to offer them other than jobs teaching > endangered languages. You cannot expect these peoples to embrace > institutionalization which has no history of benefits to them...in fact > documented evidence to the opposite. There has to be something new and > innovative to accommodate a new and changed environment. Please don't ask > me what it is...I have been working on it for almost 50 years. My greatest > successes happened in the mid-60s and early 70s. > During the early 70s, I was a coordinator for Keewatinung > Institute, a cultural, educational and spiritual center for our people in > our area. We were the very first of our kind in Canada. From that position, > I had the absolutely fantastic opportunity of coordinating The Indian > Ecumenical Conference...a gathering of spiritual leaders from as many > tribes we could get representatives from. It was 'ecumenical' in the > broader meaning of the term. We had a Steering Committee of elders and > spiritual leaders to help with the development of logistics and content for > the first great gathering at Morley, Alberta. During the planning sessions > over many months and in many locations, the idea of an 'agenda' came up. > The Steering Committee after thinking on it told us we didn't need an > agenda. Those of us 'trained' to think 'inside the box' felt we had to have > plans and objectives and to know what we were going to do. The elders and > spiritual leaders told us what we would do is to look at how we were 500 > years ago, how we look today and how we want to look in another 500 years. > So, that was the 'gist' of our getting together. I still think of that > especially when I hear out tribal councils and politicians speaking of five > year plans, 10 year plans and sometimes a 20/25 year plan. Our gatherings > were very, very successful and the spin off is still felt today...and we > are still at it 40 some years later. You can read about it in a book > entitled 'Around the sacred fire: a native religious activism in the Red > Power era : a narrative map of the Indian Ecumenical Conference' by James > Treat. I am adding a short review if anyone is interested. > > *Around the sacred fire*: a native religious activism in the Red Power > era : a narrative map of the Indian Ecumenical Conference. James Treat . > Palgrave Macmillan, 2003 - History- 376 > pages > [image: Front Cover] > > > Around the Sacred Fire is a compelling cultural history of intertribal > activism centered on the Indian Ecumenical Conference, an influential > movement among native people in Canada and the U.S. during the Red Power > era. Founded in 1969, the Conference began as an attempt at organizing > grassroots spiritual leaders who were concerned about the conflict between > tribal and Christian traditions throughout Indian country. By the > mid-seventies thousands of people were gathering each summer in the > foothills of the Rockies, where they participated in weeklong encampments > promoting spiritual revitalization and religious self-determination. Most > historical overviews of native affairs in the sixties and seventies > emphasize the prominence of the American Indian Movement and the impact of > highly publicized confrontations such as the Northwest Coast fish-ins, the > Alcatraz occupation, and events at Wounded Knee. The Indian Ecumenical > Conference played a central role in stimulating cultural revival among > native people, partly because Conference leaders strategized for social > change in ways that differed from the militant groups. Drawing on archival > records, published accounts, oral histories, and field research, James > Treat has written the first comprehensive study of this important but > overlooked effort at postcolonial interreligious dialogue. > > The closing review statement may sound like it was a failure...it was not > or there would be no global indigenous peoples movement and an increasingly > unified global voice. Treat's book will be the most you ever find on it > because, it was meant to be that way. Our only paper trails were briefs for > funding and resulting financial statements. There were no > native 'political' so called leaders, tribal councils or politicians...they > didn't even know it was happening...not that any of them would have cared. > Anyhow, I had best conclude my rant and thanks for listening...if you did > so. I am turtle clan and usually have slow and sometimes lengthy > excursions through my own thoughts. megwetch.... > > wahjeh > rolland nadjiwon > _____________________________________ > "Political correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, > illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream > media, > which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up > a piece of shit by the clean end." > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Indigenous Languages and Technology [ > mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU ] On Behalf > Of Rudy Troike > Sent: March-27-12 7:12 PM > To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU > Subject: Re: [ILAT] I wonder if this would be true for Native languages > > I agree with James Crippen's concerns about highly endangered languages: > > "There's a dangerous temptation to somehow make schooling into the saviour > for highly endangered languages. ... Depending solely on education > institutions to solve language decline just seems to make things worse, not > better, because it encourages people to *not* take an active role in > keeping the language alive." > > As I noted in a subsequent post, the Navajo bilingual program at Rock > Point, before it declined, demonstrated that for a Native language, it IS > possible to develop a thorough K-12 curriculum which matches the English > curriculum (but includes native cultural and historical content, and even > in math is sensitive to linguistic features of the language differing from > or lacking in English). Where there are enough speakers to support the > effort, it could be possible in communities like the Dakota to restore the > level of literacy which once existed -- though the window of opportunity is > rapidly closing down. > > But as James said, this cannot be carried just by the schools, since real > language learning begins in the home and in interpersonal inter- action. > However, thanks to the tradition of government and parochial schooling, > many if not most parents are unable to provide that 'home nest' for the > child. That is why a community effort like that in New Zealand and Hawaii, > to place young children with older fluent speakers in 'nests' or day-care > centers (better yet, for a whole summer) can be effective in establishing > early natural (not formally instructed) acquisition, which can then be > brought to school and reinforced. A holistic plan is needed which involves > more than just individual families. > > One of the perennial problems in Native language maintenance is that > 'higher-level' academic competence is non-existent, and community members > and students perceive that there is 'no use' in learning the language since > it has no further 'marketplace' value. Attitudes thus play an enormous role > both in the perspective of the community and of students. Developing > literacy in the Native language is empowering, and even at advanced (high > school and college) levels, if academically advanced materials are > developed, parallel literacy is possible. This is what the Rock Point > program spectacularly demonstrated, and is showing some effect in Cherokee > in Oklahoma as well. > > The use of Native languages in schools has, as the new Colorado law has > shown, given institutional recognition to these languages and brought > Native language speakers into the school setting for the first time. > So it is not just an either/or situation -- meaningful school instruction > can provide a mooring-post for communities and families to rally around. > > Communities, families, and individuals must ultimately take primary > responsibility for language maintenance and preservation. It can't, as > James says, just be pushed off to schools to somehow magically accomplish > alone. Without motivation, buy-in, and active participation, endangered > languages cannot survive on their own. > > Rudy Troike > > > ----- > No virus found in this message. > Checked by AVG - www.avg.com > Version: 2012.0.1913 / Virus Database: 2114/4896 - Release Date: 03/26/12 > > -- * "Think not forever of yourselves... nor of your own generation. Think of continuing generations of our families, think of our grandchildren and of those yet unborn, whose faces are coming from beneath the ground." The Peacemaker, richardzanesmith.wordpress.com ** ** * -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: books?id=r-0L3IUPDRQC&printsec=frontcover&img=1&zoom=1&edge=curl Type: application/octet-stream Size: 12347 bytes Desc: not available URL: From chimiskwew at HOTMAIL.COM Wed Mar 28 03:18:59 2012 From: chimiskwew at HOTMAIL.COM (Cathy Wheaton) Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2012 22:18:59 -0500 Subject: I wonder if this would be true for Native languages In-Reply-To: Message-ID: I had a great discussion this morning with a colleague about how we could bring culture and language as one as part of an educational program component where a cultural skill is passed on (eg fish preparation) which is taught hands on by a fluent speaker who teaches specific Cree words/phrases with the activity of preparing fish. Those same words then are added to the general langauge of instruction in other program components by staff to keep the langauge and skills relevant. This is a basic upgrading program. This appraoch would be repeated teaching other cultural skills with langauge as part of the program. These students then be able to teach their children these skills and words/phrases as so on-using the program as one possible entry point for cultural transmission. In today's world-our skills have been pushed aside as these skills were necessary everyday skills so now we have to find space them them somewhere. If we are open to b eing particularly creative in visualizing them being used in new contexts, we can still begin integrating them back into everyday practices so they again become the norm. People who are able to share their skills feel competent as their cultural skill is recognized while culture is being passed onto others. We have to nuture language where we have the flexibility to do so-make new educational models, adapt to continually changing cultural contexts and build teaching/learning approaches that are resilient for the next generation. Let's do what we can now-today-everyday we lose more and more fluent speakers and cultural skills yet every new action means the increased possibility of innovative appraoches which meet these challenges to cultural erosion. Certainly technology and change has given us digital tools that can make passing language and culture (videos, MP3 language audio, digital games, etc) The momentum created by digital communication has propelled the spread of music, English, western culture and other aspects of culture but it can be harnessed to do the same for the langauges and people's culture we are attempting to keep alive. I learned how to cut fish for smoking via a video on YouTube produced by our reserve's langauge department. Unfortunately few Elders have the stamina to take me out and teach me when I am not working which is a hectic schedule. But thanks to the video-i was still taught the skill which I then passed hands-on to my niece, daughter and son in law. This is a great discussion-i am so glad that some got this topic started, great ideas and thoughts I share also! Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2012 21:40:47 -0500 From: rzs at WILDBLUE.NET Subject: Re: [ILAT] I wonder if this would be true for Native languages To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Thanks Rolland, i feel it almost every day too..there is a heavy weight dragging on any attempt to revitalize our language, maintain ceremony or even gathering for social dance pot-lucks. One of the curses is "busyiness" and it has so infected us, that gatherings, for language practice or study or even sacred gatherings must be "fit into a schedule" . I doubt our ancient ancestors were idle much, but there were some things that weren't designed to fit in your schedule...you just were to be there. ske:noh Richard Zane Smith (Sohahiyoh) On Tue, Mar 27, 2012 at 8:26 PM, Rolland Nadjiwon wrote: Another rant maybe. Perhaps 9/10ths of the unseen iceberg as a metaphor, is these languages were never meant to survive in a so called 'post colonial' New World. Their intentional destruction is 'fact' well known by the survivors and historically documented. Perhaps language loss is merely a symptom of why these languages are being lost. Perhaps the problem is not even with the 'peoples' but external to them and built into the fabric of what has become 'the Americas'. If there is such a great moral interest in the survival of endangered indigenous languages and the home and community are the conduits for language transmission then the family, people and the community must also be repaired from the ravaging destruction of both overt, covert and insidious colonialism. Perhaps the people and communities must be involved in the development of their own language survival programs in a manner which validates their own intelligence and worth, culture, cosmology and life paths. There is not much point bringing into the communities, 'for the people', a pre-formulated pedagogy for language skills when the real problem is their total cultural, linguistic and spiritual survival. All of the tribes survived with their myriad of languages until 'somebody done somebody wrong' and have never identified or corrected that wrong. It must be understood, accepted and dealt with that these 'tribal' languages have their own 'already there' which is as different from everyone else's 'already there'. Their 'already lived in languages' are as different from each tribe and the rest of the world as Chinese is from Gaelic. These tribal languages have absolutely no 'cognate' relationship to any other language than their own dialects and those languages are generated in a 'primary orality'. Any linguist must be aware of this...guess I should stop here before I am reminded I am off topic again...apologies. There is so much more can be said...I live 'inside' this destruction and loss. I deal with it every day and not from some evangelical ardor. I agree with many of the points you make Rudy outside the idea that institutionalization can be an solution. Institutions have not yet provided or even acted on any long term survival, a fact which is becoming even more apparent as we move with ever increasing speed toward the demise of this present civilization and perhaps even the earth itself. These endangered languages are symbiotically tied to the earth and the cosmos. Institutions have little if anything to offer them other than jobs teaching endangered languages. You cannot expect these peoples to embrace institutionalization which has no history of benefits to them...in fact documented evidence to the opposite. There has to be something new and innovative to accommodate a new and changed environment. Please don't ask me what it is...I have been working on it for almost 50 years. My greatest successes happened in the mid-60s and early 70s. During the early 70s, I was a coordinator for Keewatinung Institute, a cultural, educational and spiritual center for our people in our area. We were the very first of our kind in Canada. >From that position, I had the absolutely fantastic opportunity of coordinating The Indian Ecumenical Conference...a gathering of spiritual leaders from as many tribes we could get representatives from. It was 'ecumenical' in the broader meaning of the term. We had a Steering Committee of elders and spiritual leaders to help with the development of logistics and content for the first great gathering at Morley, Alberta. During the planning sessions over many months and in many locations, the idea of an 'agenda' came up. The Steering Committee after thinking on it told us we didn't need an agenda. Those of us 'trained' to think 'inside the box' felt we had to have plans and objectives and to know what we were going to do. The elders and spiritual leaders told us what we would do is to look at how we were 500 years ago, how we look today and how we want to look in another 500 years. So, that was the 'gist' of our getting together. I still think of that especially when I hear out tribal councils and politicians speaking of five year plans, 10 year plans and sometimes a 20/25 year plan. Our gatherings were very, very successful and the spin off is still felt today...and we are still at it 40 some years later. You can read about it in a book entitled 'Around the sacred fire: a native religious activism in the Red Power era : a narrative map of the Indian Ecumenical Conference' by James Treat. I am adding a short review if anyone is interested. Around the sacred fire: a native religious activism in the Red Power era : a narrative map of the Indian Ecumenical Conference. James Treat . Palgrave Macmillan, 2003 - History - 376 pages Around the Sacred Fire is a compelling cultural history of intertribal activism centered on the Indian Ecumenical Conference, an influential movement among native people in Canada and the U.S. during the Red Power era. Founded in 1969, the Conference began as an attempt at organizing grassroots spiritual leaders who were concerned about the conflict between tribal and Christian traditions throughout Indian country. By the mid-seventies thousands of people were gathering each summer in the foothills of the Rockies, where they participated in weeklong encampments promoting spiritual revitalization and religious self-determination. Most historical overviews of native affairs in the sixties and seventies emphasize the prominence of the American Indian Movement and the impact of highly publicized confrontations such as the Northwest Coast fish-ins, the Alcatraz occupation, and events at Wounded Knee. The Indian Ecumenical Conference played a central role in stimulating cultural revival among native people, partly because Conference leaders strategized for social change in ways that differed from the militant groups. Drawing on archival records, published accounts, oral histories, and field research, James Treat has written the first comprehensive study of this important but overlooked effort at postcolonial interreligious dialogue. The closing review statement may sound like it was a failure...it was not or there would be no global indigenous peoples movement and an increasingly unified global voice. Treat's book will be the most you ever find on it because, it was meant to be that way. Our only paper trails were briefs for funding and resulting financial statements. There were no native 'political' so called leaders, tribal councils or politicians...they didn't even know it was happening...not that any of them would have cared. Anyhow, I had best conclude my rant and thanks for listening...if you did so. I am turtle clan and usually have slow and sometimes lengthy excursions through my own thoughts. megwetch.... wahjeh rolland nadjiwon _____________________________________ "Political correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a piece of shit by the clean end." -----Original Message----- From: Indigenous Languages and Technology [mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU] On Behalf Of Rudy Troike Sent: March-27-12 7:12 PM To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Subject: Re: [ILAT] I wonder if this would be true for Native languages I agree with James Crippen's concerns about highly endangered languages: "There's a dangerous temptation to somehow make schooling into the saviour for highly endangered languages. ... Depending solely on education institutions to solve language decline just seems to make things worse, not better, because it encourages people to *not* take an active role in keeping the language alive." As I noted in a subsequent post, the Navajo bilingual program at Rock Point, before it declined, demonstrated that for a Native language, it IS possible to develop a thorough K-12 curriculum which matches the English curriculum (but includes native cultural and historical content, and even in math is sensitive to linguistic features of the language differing from or lacking in English). Where there are enough speakers to support the effort, it could be possible in communities like the Dakota to restore the level of literacy which once existed -- though the window of opportunity is rapidly closing down. But as James said, this cannot be carried just by the schools, since real language learning begins in the home and in interpersonal inter- action. However, thanks to the tradition of government and parochial schooling, many if not most parents are unable to provide that 'home nest' for the child. That is why a community effort like that in New Zealand and Hawaii, to place young children with older fluent speakers in 'nests' or day-care centers (better yet, for a whole summer) can be effective in establishing early natural (not formally instructed) acquisition, which can then be brought to school and reinforced. A holistic plan is needed which involves more than just individual families. One of the perennial problems in Native language maintenance is that 'higher-level' academic competence is non-existent, and community members and students perceive that there is 'no use' in learning the language since it has no further 'marketplace' value. Attitudes thus play an enormous role both in the perspective of the community and of students. Developing literacy in the Native language is empowering, and even at advanced (high school and college) levels, if academically advanced materials are developed, parallel literacy is possible. This is what the Rock Point program spectacularly demonstrated, and is showing some effect in Cherokee in Oklahoma as well. The use of Native languages in schools has, as the new Colorado law has shown, given institutional recognition to these languages and brought Native language speakers into the school setting for the first time. So it is not just an either/or situation -- meaningful school instruction can provide a mooring-post for communities and families to rally around. Communities, families, and individuals must ultimately take primary responsibility for language maintenance and preservation. It can't, as James says, just be pushed off to schools to somehow magically accomplish alone. Without motivation, buy-in, and active participation, endangered languages cannot survive on their own. Rudy Troike ----- No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 2012.0.1913 / Virus Database: 2114/4896 - Release Date: 03/26/12 -- "Think not forever of yourselves... nor of your own generation. Think of continuing generations of our families, think of our grandchildren and of those yet unborn, whose faces are coming from beneath the ground." The Peacemaker, richardzanesmith.wordpress.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From rzs at WILDBLUE.NET Wed Mar 28 14:29:12 2012 From: rzs at WILDBLUE.NET (Richard Zane Smith) Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2012 09:29:12 -0500 Subject: I wonder if this would be true for Native languages In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Kweh kweh, yes, it is a great discussion and its always encouraging to find those with the same concerns! I like the idea of working on projects (in the language) even around food items when eating together. the video idea is great...video of a meal together, making pottery, baskets, washing a car, shopping... We can't rule out learning from mistakes too. its always easy to want to look at examples that seem to produce almost miraculous results. Some times these miraculous results happen more like a successful garden happens...MANY THINGS all have to be in place for that huge harvest. and we forget to include mentioning those that "don't work well" so others can learn from our "failures" I know of a nation that has kept a particular ceremony alive since its removal from ancestral homelands. but unfortunately it's evolved (devolved?) into an "american sports event" , highly competitive and has at times even become reduced to angry or name calling exchanges ...(all in *english*) Once these kind of directions have been taken..its very difficult to "bring it back" within a traditional paradigm .Especially if its been in motion for several years. Requiring the traditional language at the ceremonial ground might help here...if its not too late. As those of us prepare to establish our own ceremonies we can evaluate these natural tendencies and be alert to them, and be watchful for "drift". We want people to enjoy themselves but we also tend to bring our own habits that might be more colonized baggage. I guess If we aren't struggling somewhere ...*we might be drifting.* -Richard Zane Smith (Sohahiyoh) Wyandotte, Oklahoma On Tue, Mar 27, 2012 at 10:18 PM, Cathy Wheaton wrote: > I had a great discussion this morning with a colleague about how we could > bring culture and language as one as part of an educational program > component where a cultural skill is passed on (eg fish preparation) which > is taught hands on by a fluent speaker who teaches specific Cree > words/phrases with the activity of preparing fish. Those same words then > are added to the general langauge of instruction in other program > components by staff to keep the langauge and skills relevant. This is a > basic upgrading program. This appraoch would be repeated teaching other > cultural skills with langauge as part of the program. These students then > be able to teach their children these skills and words/phrases as so > on-using the program as one possible entry point for cultural transmission. > In today's world-our skills have been pushed aside as these skills were > necessary everyday skills so now we have to find space them them somewhere. > If we are open to b eing particularly creative in visualizing them being > used in new contexts, we can still begin integrating them back into > everyday practices so they again become the norm. People who are able to > share their skills feel competent as their cultural skill is recognized > while culture is being passed onto others. We have to nuture language where > we have the flexibility to do so-make new educational models, adapt to > continually changing cultural contexts and build teaching/learning > approaches that are resilient for the next generation. Let's do what we can > now-today-everyday we lose more and more fluent speakers and cultural > skills yet every new action means the increased possibility of innovative > appraoches which meet these challenges to cultural erosion. Certainly > technology and change has given us digital tools that can make passing > language and culture (videos, MP3 language audio, digital games, etc) The > momentum created by digital communication has propelled the spread of > music, English, western culture and other aspects of culture but it can be > harnessed to do the same for the langauges and people's culture we are > attempting to keep alive. I learned how to cut fish for smoking via a > video on YouTube produced by our reserve's langauge department. > Unfortunately few Elders have the stamina to take me out and teach me when > I am not working which is a hectic schedule. But thanks to the video-i was > still taught the skill which I then passed hands-on to my niece, daughter > and son in law. This is a great discussion-i am so glad that some got this > topic started, great ideas and thoughts I share also! > > ------------------------------ > Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2012 21:40:47 -0500 > From: rzs at WILDBLUE.NET > > Subject: Re: [ILAT] I wonder if this would be true for Native languages > To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU > > > Thanks Rolland, > > i feel it almost every day too..there is a heavy weight dragging on any > attempt to revitalize our language, > maintain ceremony or even gathering for social dance pot-lucks. One of > the curses is "busyiness" > and it has so infected us, that gatherings, for language practice or study > or even sacred gatherings > must be "fit into a schedule" . I doubt our ancient ancestors were idle > much, but there were some things that > weren't designed to fit in your schedule...you just were to be there. > > ske:noh > Richard Zane Smith > (Sohahiyoh) > > > On Tue, Mar 27, 2012 at 8:26 PM, Rolland Nadjiwon wrote: > > ** > Another rant maybe. Perhaps 9/10ths of the unseen iceberg as a > metaphor, is these languages were never meant to survive in a so called > 'post colonial' New World. Their intentional destruction is 'fact' well > known by the survivors and historically documented. Perhaps language loss > is merely a symptom of why these languages are being lost. Perhaps the > problem is not even with the 'peoples' but external to them and built into > the fabric of what has become 'the Americas'. If there is such a great > moral interest in the survival of endangered indigenous languages and the > home and community are the conduits for language transmission then the > family, people and the community must also be repaired from the ravaging > destruction of both overt, covert and insidious colonialism. Perhaps the > people and communities must be involved in the development of their own > language survival programs in a manner which validates their own > intelligence and worth, culture, cosmology and life paths. There is not > much point bringing into the communities, 'for the people', a > pre-formulated pedagogy for language skills when the real problem is their > total cultural, linguistic and spiritual survival. All of the tribes > survived with their myriad of languages until 'somebody done somebody > wrong' and have never identified or corrected that wrong. It must be > understood, accepted and dealt with that these 'tribal' languages have > their own 'already there' which is as different from everyone else's > 'already there'. Their 'already lived in languages' are as different from > each tribe and the rest of the world as Chinese is from Gaelic. These > tribal languages have absolutely no 'cognate' relationship to any other > language than their own dialects and those languages are generated in a > 'primary orality'. Any linguist must be aware of this...guess I should stop > here before I am reminded I am off topic again...apologies. There is so > much more can be said...I live 'inside' this destruction and loss. I deal > with it every day and not from some evangelical ardor. > I agree with many of the points you make Rudy outside the idea > that institutionalization can be an solution. Institutions have not yet > provided or even acted on any long term survival, a fact which is becoming > even more apparent as we move with ever increasing speed toward the demise > of this present civilization and perhaps even the earth itself. These > endangered languages are symbiotically tied to the earth and the cosmos. > Institutions have little if anything to offer them other than jobs teaching > endangered languages. You cannot expect these peoples to embrace > institutionalization which has no history of benefits to them...in fact > documented evidence to the opposite. There has to be something new and > innovative to accommodate a new and changed environment. Please don't ask > me what it is...I have been working on it for almost 50 years. My greatest > successes happened in the mid-60s and early 70s. > During the early 70s, I was a coordinator for Keewatinung > Institute, a cultural, educational and spiritual center for our people in > our area. We were the very first of our kind in Canada. From that position, > I had the absolutely fantastic opportunity of coordinating The Indian > Ecumenical Conference...a gathering of spiritual leaders from as many > tribes we could get representatives from. It was 'ecumenical' in the > broader meaning of the term. We had a Steering Committee of elders and > spiritual leaders to help with the development of logistics and content for > the first great gathering at Morley, Alberta. During the planning sessions > over many months and in many locations, the idea of an 'agenda' came up. > The Steering Committee after thinking on it told us we didn't need an > agenda. Those of us 'trained' to think 'inside the box' felt we had to have > plans and objectives and to know what we were going to do. The elders and > spiritual leaders told us what we would do is to look at how we were 500 > years ago, how we look today and how we want to look in another 500 years. > So, that was the 'gist' of our getting together. I still think of that > especially when I hear out tribal councils and politicians speaking of five > year plans, 10 year plans and sometimes a 20/25 year plan. Our gatherings > were very, very successful and the spin off is still felt today...and we > are still at it 40 some years later. You can read about it in a book > entitled 'Around the sacred fire: a native religious activism in the Red > Power era : a narrative map of the Indian Ecumenical Conference' by James > Treat. I am adding a short review if anyone is interested. > *Around the sacred fire*: a native religious activism in the Red Power > era : a narrative map of the Indian Ecumenical Conference. James Treat . > Palgrave Macmillan, 2003 - History- 376 > pages > [image: Front Cover] > > > Around the Sacred Fire is a compelling cultural history of intertribal > activism centered on the Indian Ecumenical Conference, an influential > movement among native people in Canada and the U.S. during the Red Power > era. Founded in 1969, the Conference began as an attempt at organizing > grassroots spiritual leaders who were concerned about the conflict between > tribal and Christian traditions throughout Indian country. By the > mid-seventies thousands of people were gathering each summer in the > foothills of the Rockies, where they participated in weeklong encampments > promoting spiritual revitalization and religious self-determination. Most > historical overviews of native affairs in the sixties and seventies > emphasize the prominence of the American Indian Movement and the impact of > highly publicized confrontations such as the Northwest Coast fish-ins, the > Alcatraz occupation, and events at Wounded Knee. The Indian Ecumenical > Conference played a central role in stimulating cultural revival among > native people, partly because Conference leaders strategized for social > change in ways that differed from the militant groups. Drawing on archival > records, published accounts, oral histories, and field research, James > Treat has written the first comprehensive study of this important but > overlooked effort at postcolonial interreligious dialogue. > The closing review statement may sound like it was a failure...it was not > or there would be no global indigenous peoples movement and an increasingly > unified global voice. Treat's book will be the most you ever find on it > because, it was meant to be that way. Our only paper trails were briefs for > funding and resulting financial statements. There were no > native 'political' so called leaders, tribal councils or politicians...they > didn't even know it was happening...not that any of them would have cared. > Anyhow, I had best conclude my rant and thanks for listening...if you did > so. I am turtle clan and usually have slow and sometimes lengthy > excursions through my own thoughts. megwetch.... > > wahjeh > rolland nadjiwon > _____________________________________ > "Political correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, > illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream > media, > which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up > a piece of shit by the clean end." > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Indigenous Languages and Technology [ > mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU ] On Behalf > Of Rudy Troike > Sent: March-27-12 7:12 PM > To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU > Subject: Re: [ILAT] I wonder if this would be true for Native languages > > I agree with James Crippen's concerns about highly endangered languages: > > "There's a dangerous temptation to somehow make schooling into the saviour > for highly endangered languages. ... Depending solely on education > institutions to solve language decline just seems to make things worse, not > better, because it encourages people to *not* take an active role in > keeping the language alive." > > As I noted in a subsequent post, the Navajo bilingual program at Rock > Point, before it declined, demonstrated that for a Native language, it IS > possible to develop a thorough K-12 curriculum which matches the English > curriculum (but includes native cultural and historical content, and even > in math is sensitive to linguistic features of the language differing from > or lacking in English). Where there are enough speakers to support the > effort, it could be possible in communities like the Dakota to restore the > level of literacy which once existed -- though the window of opportunity is > rapidly closing down. > > But as James said, this cannot be carried just by the schools, since real > language learning begins in the home and in interpersonal inter- action. > However, thanks to the tradition of government and parochial schooling, > many if not most parents are unable to provide that 'home nest' for the > child. That is why a community effort like that in New Zealand and Hawaii, > to place young children with older fluent speakers in 'nests' or day-care > centers (better yet, for a whole summer) can be effective in establishing > early natural (not formally instructed) acquisition, which can then be > brought to school and reinforced. A holistic plan is needed which involves > more than just individual families. > > One of the perennial problems in Native language maintenance is that > 'higher-level' academic competence is non-existent, and community members > and students perceive that there is 'no use' in learning the language since > it has no further 'marketplace' value. Attitudes thus play an enormous role > both in the perspective of the community and of students. Developing > literacy in the Native language is empowering, and even at advanced (high > school and college) levels, if academically advanced materials are > developed, parallel literacy is possible. This is what the Rock Point > program spectacularly demonstrated, and is showing some effect in Cherokee > in Oklahoma as well. > > The use of Native languages in schools has, as the new Colorado law has > shown, given institutional recognition to these languages and brought > Native language speakers into the school setting for the first time. > So it is not just an either/or situation -- meaningful school instruction > can provide a mooring-post for communities and families to rally around. > > Communities, families, and individuals must ultimately take primary > responsibility for language maintenance and preservation. It can't, as > James says, just be pushed off to schools to somehow magically accomplish > alone. Without motivation, buy-in, and active participation, endangered > languages cannot survive on their own. > > Rudy Troike > > > ----- > No virus found in this message. > Checked by AVG - www.avg.com > Version: 2012.0.1913 / Virus Database: 2114/4896 - Release Date: 03/26/12 > > > > > -- > * > > "Think not forever of yourselves... nor of your own generation. > > Think of continuing generations of our families, > > think of our grandchildren and of those yet unborn, > > whose faces are coming from beneath the ground." The > Peacemaker, > > richardzanesmith.wordpress.com > > > ** > ** > * > > -- * "Think not forever of yourselves... nor of your own generation. Think of continuing generations of our families, think of our grandchildren and of those yet unborn, whose faces are coming from beneath the ground." The Peacemaker, richardzanesmith.wordpress.com ** ** * -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From susan.penfield at GMAIL.COM Wed Mar 28 17:28:44 2012 From: susan.penfield at GMAIL.COM (Susan Penfield) Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2012 10:28:44 -0700 Subject: Dene-Yeniesian Conference Message-ID: This should be of broad general interest -- .."Geography, Demography and Time Depth: Explaining how Dene-??Yeniseian is possible." Presentation by Prof. Edward Vajda at the Dene-Yeniseian Workshop http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7M0QnAqQUmw&feature=youtu.be -- ********************************************************************************************** *Susan D. Penfield, Ph.D. * Research Coordinator, CERCLL, Center for Educational Resources in Culture, Language and Literacy CONFLUENCE, Center for Creative Inquiry University of Arizona Fax: (520) 626-3313 Websites: CERCLL: cercll.arizona.edu Confluence Center: www.confluencecenter.arizona.edu -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Wed Mar 28 18:46:34 2012 From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Phillip E Cash Cash) Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2012 11:46:34 -0700 Subject: Amazing =?UTF-8?Q?=E2=80=98talking=E2=80=99_?=dictionary project helps prese rve Ojibwe language (fwd link) Message-ID: Amazing ?talking? dictionary project helps preserve Ojibwe language By Cynthia Boyd | 08:29 am USA There are many pathways to knowledge, including popular fiction. So I?ll admit unabashedly that my enticing introduction to some of Minnesota?s Ojibwe language comes not from a history text but from Cork O?Connor, lead character in some of local author William Kent Krueger?s best-selling novels. O?Connor, a detective, is both Irish and Ojibwe. I?m captivated especially by the Ojibwe?s spiritual practices and their reverence of nature. Yet I?ve wondered often how the Ojibwe words sprinkled through his books sound. Now, thanks to an amazing project in progress at the University of Minnesota and spearheaded by their Department of American Indian Studies, there?s a new online resource called ?The Ojibwe Peoples Dictionary? that opens doors to the sounds and context of the indigenous Ojibwe language and will help preserve it. The dictionary officially launches with a celebration event from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. April 2 at the McNamara Alumni Center?s Maroon and Gold room at the University in Minneapolis. Access full article below: http://www.minnpost.com/community-sketchbook/2012/03/amazing-%E2%80%98talking%E2%80%99-dictionary-project-helps-preserve-ojibwe-language -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From andrekaruk at NCIDC.ORG Wed Mar 28 23:52:04 2012 From: andrekaruk at NCIDC.ORG (Andre Cramblit) Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2012 16:52:04 -0700 Subject: Language & College Retention (language) Message-ID: Language preservation helps American Indian students stick with college - The Sacramento Bee www.sacbee.com Michael Murphy was a self-described %22troublemaker%22 who wasn't sure about leaving the Pechanga Band of Luise?o Indians' reservation for college. He filled out only one application, to nearby California State University, San Marcos. S?va Nik /So Long, See You Later Andr? Cramblit, Operations Director andrekaruk at ncidc.org Northern California Indian Development Council (NCIDC) (http://www.ncidc.org) 707.445.8451 To subscribe to a blog of interest to Natives send go to: http://andrekaruk.posterous.com/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: pastedGraphic.tiff Type: image/tiff Size: 6940 bytes Desc: not available URL: From dzo at BISHARAT.NET Thu Mar 29 11:37:21 2012 From: dzo at BISHARAT.NET (dzo at BISHARAT.NET) Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2012 11:37:21 +0000 Subject: Amazing =?Windows-1252?Q?=91talking=92_?=dictionary project helps preserve Ojibwe language (fwd link) In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Quick aside: I remember the prof of my first anthropology class, Emily Ahern, mentioning fiction along with anthro as another way to learn about cultures. Obviously deeper study requires method, but as we see here, even popular literature may have value in this regard. Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T -----Original Message----- From: Phillip E Cash Cash Sender: Indigenous Languages and Technology Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2012 11:46:34 To: Reply-To: Indigenous Languages and Technology Subject: [ILAT] Amazing ?talking? dictionary project helps prese rve Ojibwe language (fwd link) Amazing ?talking? dictionary project helps preserve Ojibwe language By Cynthia Boyd | 08:29 am USA There are many pathways to knowledge, including popular fiction. So I?ll admit unabashedly that my enticing introduction to some of Minnesota?s Ojibwe language comes not from a history text but from Cork O?Connor, lead character in some of local author William Kent Krueger?s best-selling novels. O?Connor, a detective, is both Irish and Ojibwe. I?m captivated especially by the Ojibwe?s spiritual practices and their reverence of nature. Yet I?ve wondered often how the Ojibwe words sprinkled through his books sound. Now, thanks to an amazing project in progress at the University of Minnesota and spearheaded by their Department of American Indian Studies, there?s a new online resource called ?The Ojibwe Peoples Dictionary? that opens doors to the sounds and context of the indigenous Ojibwe language and will help preserve it. The dictionary officially launches with a celebration event from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. April 2 at the McNamara Alumni Center?s Maroon and Gold room at the University in Minneapolis. Access full article below: http://www.minnpost.com/community-sketchbook/2012/03/amazing-%E2%80%98talking%E2%80%99-dictionary-project-helps-preserve-ojibwe-language -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From rtroike at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU Thu Mar 29 17:54:05 2012 From: rtroike at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU (Rudolph C Troike/LingFacultyRetired/UA) Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2012 10:54:05 -0700 Subject: I wonder if this would be true for Native languages Message-ID: Rolland's rant is right on the mark -- don't apologize! The 70's were a great period of optimism and hope, once the Viet Nam war was over, but brought to an end by the Reagan Revolution. Certainly great things seemed possible, and were, but the possibilities were rarely realized, or at least sustained. Germane to Rolland's point that language loss is just a symptom, some of you may have seen the program "The Corporation" on LinkTV -- it you haven't you should try to find it on LinkTV.org. In the early part, the narrator tells of her experience living with an isolated group high in the Himalayas, who carried on a millenia-old self-sufficient and self-satisfying culture, until the government built a road into the area so that the 'benefits' of commerce and 'civilization' could be brought to the people. The result has been a loss of self-sufficiency, dependence on imported foods and drinks, division of the egalitarian society into better-off and poor, development of crime, etc., etc. And of course, a decline in the language, as the national language and English (for tourists) intrudes and marginalizes the language along with the culture. As the program shows, the massive international financial and commercial forces act as a juggernaut which overwhelms local traditional cultures (even long-established cultures like the Chinese -- most young Chinese have lost a huge amount of everyday traditional Chinese culture, so it is not just small traditional societies which are caught up in this gigantic process). How to resist -- to fight back? Rolland and Richard and others on this list have been there, and bravely done that, but it takes more than one, though the perseverance of one person can change the world. We can't stop techno- logical change or urbanization, both alienating forces vis-a-vis traditional technology and culture, which also erode language vitality when the language is seen as no longer functional. If one said that English should only be used for talking about pre-Industrial Revolution topics, and vocabulary should be limited to that in use in 1500, the language would quickly become moribund, retained only be antiquarians and used only in religious services and for Shakespearean plays. If a Native language is actively made functional to use for currently relevant purposes, young people can see it as meaningful and worth learning. The history of English itself shows that openness to borrowing vocabulary does not pose a threat to the language itself. Native English words are still dominant for use around the house and for family matters, but in any advanced text, 80% or more of the vocabulary is borrowed. In Bolivia and Peru, Quechua (and Aymara) still enjoys functionality -- despite threats from Spanish -- in part because many vocabulary items have been incorporated over the centuries from Spanish. Functionality -- and the perception of functionality -- is a key factor. I like Cathy's experience of learning how to prepare fish for smoking from a YouTube demonstration -- that's embracing and utilizing technology in a functional way, not just relegating the culture and language to a dusty museum. The ILAT list, thanks to Phil Cash Cash, is THE place to share ideas and even come up with new ones. Rudy From jelyn_gaskell at YAHOO.COM Thu Mar 29 18:26:58 2012 From: jelyn_gaskell at YAHOO.COM (Jelyn Gaskell) Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2012 11:26:58 -0700 Subject: I wonder if this would be true for Native languages In-Reply-To: <20120329105405.o3jzy84ks88cs0wk@www.email.arizona.edu> Message-ID: http://www.thickdarkfog.com/?page_id=11 watch the thick dark fog trailer it says alot on the why's of this topic. --- On Thu, 3/29/12, Rudolph C Troike/LingFacultyRetired/UA wrote: From: Rudolph C Troike/LingFacultyRetired/UA Subject: Re: [ILAT] I wonder if this would be true for Native languages To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Date: Thursday, March 29, 2012, 10:54 AM Rolland's rant is right on the mark -- don't apologize! The 70's were a great period of optimism and hope, once the Viet Nam war was over, but brought to an end by the Reagan Revolution. Certainly great things seemed possible, and were, but the possibilities were rarely realized, or at least sustained. Germane to Rolland's point that language loss is just a symptom, some of you may have seen the program "The Corporation" on LinkTV -- it you haven't you should try to find it on LinkTV.org. In the early part, the narrator tells of her experience living with an isolated group high in the Himalayas, who carried on a millenia-old self-sufficient and self-satisfying culture, until the government built a road into the area so that the 'benefits' of commerce and 'civilization' could be brought to the people. The result has been a loss of self-sufficiency, dependence on imported foods and drinks, division of the egalitarian society into better-off and poor, development of crime, etc., etc. And of course, a decline in the language, as the national language and English (for tourists) intrudes and marginalizes the language along with the culture. As the program shows, the massive international financial and commercial forces act as a juggernaut which overwhelms local traditional cultures (even long-established cultures like the Chinese -- most young Chinese have lost a huge amount of everyday traditional Chinese culture, so it is not just small traditional societies which are caught up in this gigantic process). How to resist -- to fight back? Rolland and Richard and others on this list have been there, and bravely done that, but it takes more than one, though the perseverance of one person can change the world. We can't stop techno- logical change or urbanization, both alienating forces vis-a-vis traditional technology and culture, which also erode language vitality when the language is seen as no longer functional. If one said that English should only be used for talking about pre-Industrial Revolution topics, and vocabulary should be limited to that in use in 1500, the language would quickly become moribund, retained only be antiquarians and used only in religious services and for Shakespearean plays. If a Native language is actively made functional to use for currently relevant purposes, young people can see it as meaningful and worth learning. The history of English itself shows that openness to borrowing vocabulary does not pose a threat to the language itself. Native English words are still dominant for use around the house and for family matters, but in any advanced text, 80% or more of the vocabulary is borrowed. In Bolivia and Peru, Quechua (and Aymara) still enjoys functionality -- despite threats from Spanish -- in part because many vocabulary items have been incorporated over the centuries from Spanish. Functionality -- and the perception of functionality -- is a key factor. I like Cathy's experience of learning how to prepare fish for smoking from a YouTube demonstration -- that's embracing and utilizing technology in a functional way, not just relegating the culture and language to a dusty museum. The ILAT list, thanks to Phil Cash Cash, is THE place to share ideas and even come up with new ones. ? Rudy -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From rzs at WILDBLUE.NET Thu Mar 29 18:37:02 2012 From: rzs at WILDBLUE.NET (Richard Zane Smith) Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2012 13:37:02 -0500 Subject: I wonder if this would be true for Native languages In-Reply-To: <20120329105405.o3jzy84ks88cs0wk@www.email.arizona.edu> Message-ID: Revitalizing Lifeways of sustainability should probably be our focus. Linguists have to learn that EVERYTHING in a culture is connected together. Technology is as basic as starting a fire with friction by spinning a spindle into a dry piece of cedar. "Primitive" is often a degrading word. How many hundreds of people are involved in the making of a box of matches and getting that box delivered to us? This illustrates a weakness within ultra-technology ONE person uses sustainable technology with two pieces of wood,a spindle and fireboard can do the same task that now takes 1000's to deliver our cardboard box of dry matches. Matches that are made useless when wet. A simple fireboard thats wet is revived by sunshine. Which is the truly superior (and sustainable) technology? A HIGHtech driven world seems bent on creating *further complexity* to solve problems. (thus more fragile and more dependent on experts) tinier and tinier becomes the computer chip. HI-TECH gadgets are cool (just bought a zoomH4n) but their work life and shelf life is undetermined. Our Languages have got to get back under our skin, under our fingernails, in our joints. It needs to stop being treated as "classroom special" it needs to become like a sunrise, a sunset, or a callous on our hands from turning the spindle, as the rising smoke makes our eyes tear up. ske:noh Richard Zane Smith Wyandotte, Oklahoma On Thu, Mar 29, 2012 at 12:54 PM, Rudolph C Troike/LingFacultyRetired/UA < rtroike at email.arizona.edu> wrote: > Rolland's rant is right on the mark -- don't apologize! The 70's were a > great > period of optimism and hope, once the Viet Nam war was over, but brought to > an end by the Reagan Revolution. Certainly great things seemed possible, > and > were, but the possibilities were rarely realized, or at least sustained. > > Germane to Rolland's point that language loss is just a symptom, some of > you > may have seen the program "The Corporation" on LinkTV -- it you haven't you > should try to find it on LinkTV.org. In the early part, the narrator tells > of her experience living with an isolated group high in the Himalayas, who > carried on a millenia-old self-sufficient and self-satisfying culture, > until > the government built a road into the area so that the 'benefits' of > commerce > and 'civilization' could be brought to the people. The result has been a > loss > of self-sufficiency, dependence on imported foods and drinks, division of > the > egalitarian society into better-off and poor, development of crime, etc., > etc. > And of course, a decline in the language, as the national language and > English > (for tourists) intrudes and marginalizes the language along with the > culture. > > As the program shows, the massive international financial and commercial > forces act as a juggernaut which overwhelms local traditional cultures > (even > long-established cultures like the Chinese -- most young Chinese have lost > a huge amount of everyday traditional Chinese culture, so it is not just > small traditional societies which are caught up in this gigantic process). > > How to resist -- to fight back? Rolland and Richard and others on this list > have been there, and bravely done that, but it takes more than one, though > the perseverance of one person can change the world. We can't stop techno- > logical change or urbanization, both alienating forces vis-a-vis > traditional > technology and culture, which also erode language vitality when the > language > is seen as no longer functional. If one said that English should only be > used > for talking about pre-Industrial Revolution topics, and vocabulary should > be > limited to that in use in 1500, the language would quickly become moribund, > retained only be antiquarians and used only in religious services and for > Shakespearean plays. If a Native language is actively made functional to > use > for currently relevant purposes, young people can see it as meaningful and > worth learning. > > The history of English itself shows that openness to borrowing vocabulary > does not pose a threat to the language itself. Native English words are > still dominant for use around the house and for family matters, but in any > advanced text, 80% or more of the vocabulary is borrowed. In Bolivia and > Peru, Quechua (and Aymara) still enjoys functionality -- despite threats > from Spanish -- in part because many vocabulary items have been > incorporated > over the centuries from Spanish. Functionality -- and the perception of > functionality -- is a key factor. > > I like Cathy's experience of learning how to prepare fish for smoking from > a YouTube demonstration -- that's embracing and utilizing technology in a > functional way, not just relegating the culture and language to a dusty > museum. The ILAT list, thanks to Phil Cash Cash, is THE place to share > ideas > and even come up with new ones. > > Rudy > -- * "Think not forever of yourselves... nor of your own generation. Think of continuing generations of our families, think of our grandchildren and of those yet unborn, whose faces are coming from beneath the ground." The Peacemaker, richardzanesmith.wordpress.com ** ** * -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jelyn_gaskell at YAHOO.COM Thu Mar 29 18:46:43 2012 From: jelyn_gaskell at YAHOO.COM (Jelyn Gaskell) Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2012 11:46:43 -0700 Subject: I wonder if this would be true for Native languages Message-ID: Pausauraq Harcharek was my teacher atIlisagvik College in Barrow AK. http://www.ilisagvik.edu/ She is in charge of setting up Inupiaq language programs. She recently shared this with us. Go to the video link below. http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/03/18/keeping-inuit-students-engaged-school-programs-incorporate-inuktitut-day-care-103294 Keeping Inuit Students Engaged: School Programs Incorporate Inuktitut, Day Care indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com Inuit taking control over education. I'm proud to say that we are on that road with the adoption of the I?upiaq Learning Framework and subsequent development of accompanying Performance Expectations. http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/03/18/keeping-inuit-students-engaged-school-programs-incorporate-inuktitut-day-care-103294 --- On Thu, 3/29/12, Rudolph C Troike/LingFacultyRetired/UA wrote: From: Rudolph C Troike/LingFacultyRetired/UA Subject: Re: [ILAT] I wonder if this would be true for Native languages To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU Date: Thursday, March 29, 2012, 10:54 AM Rolland's rant is right on the mark -- don't apologize! The 70's were a great period of optimism and hope, once the Viet Nam war was over, but brought to an end by the Reagan Revolution. Certainly great things seemed possible, and were, but the possibilities were rarely realized, or at least sustained. Germane to Rolland's point that language loss is just a symptom, some of you may have seen the program "The Corporation" on LinkTV -- it you haven't you should try to find it on LinkTV.org. In the early part, the narrator tells of her experience living with an isolated group high in the Himalayas, who carried on a millenia-old self-sufficient and self-satisfying culture, until the government built a road into the area so that the 'benefits' of commerce and 'civilization' could be brought to the people. The result has been a loss of self-sufficiency, dependence on imported foods and drinks, division of the egalitarian society into better-off and poor, development of crime, etc., etc. And of course, a decline in the language, as the national language and English (for tourists) intrudes and marginalizes the language along with the culture. As the program shows, the massive international financial and commercial forces act as a juggernaut which overwhelms local traditional cultures (even long-established cultures like the Chinese -- most young Chinese have lost a huge amount of everyday traditional Chinese culture, so it is not just small traditional societies which are caught up in this gigantic process). How to resist -- to fight back? Rolland and Richard and others on this list have been there, and bravely done that, but it takes more than one, though the perseverance of one person can change the world. We can't stop techno- logical change or urbanization, both alienating forces vis-a-vis traditional technology and culture, which also erode language vitality when the language is seen as no longer functional. If one said that English should only be used for talking about pre-Industrial Revolution topics, and vocabulary should be limited to that in use in 1500, the language would quickly become moribund, retained only be antiquarians and used only in religious services and for Shakespearean plays. If a Native language is actively made functional to use for currently relevant purposes, young people can see it as meaningful and worth learning. The history of English itself shows that openness to borrowing vocabulary does not pose a threat to the language itself. Native English words are still dominant for use around the house and for family matters, but in any advanced text, 80% or more of the vocabulary is borrowed. In Bolivia and Peru, Quechua (and Aymara) still enjoys functionality -- despite threats from Spanish -- in part because many vocabulary items have been incorporated over the centuries from Spanish. Functionality -- and the perception of functionality -- is a key factor. I like Cathy's experience of learning how to prepare fish for smoking from a YouTube demonstration -- that's embracing and utilizing technology in a functional way, not just relegating the culture and language to a dusty museum. The ILAT list, thanks to Phil Cash Cash, is THE place to share ideas and even come up with new ones. ? Rudy -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: