Small Languages?

[Megan Crowhurst]

>I'm wondering (re the "houseofthesmalllanguages.org" posting) in what way
>information about endangered languages languages is held like military
>secrets.

I'm sure the comment must not have been intended this way, but it
seems to make light of some important issues around the main concern
of what sorts of information are proprietary.  This, as well as who
should have access to proprietary information and under what
circumstances (etc.) are touchy now in part because of the history of
exploitation experienced by native peoples (or substitute your
favourite term) under colonization in many parts of the world.  That
would be, colonization first by, say, Europeans, and then again (in
the eyes of many) by other outsiders like, say, scholars.  We've
often been perceived as gathering information from native
communities, then using it to further academic careers, with no
return of anything of practical use to the source community.  Small
groups with a history like this may naturally want to retain some
control over what happens to information about them that they feel is
privileged.  In the case of major world languages like English or
Italian, what we do with data we gather and analyse isn't
particularly sensitive.  There are no huge issues around who owns the
data - realistically, who would we ask? (...if it's just a matter of
what we do with, say, verb paradigms and the like.)  But, in the case
of smaller communities whose language may now be endangered precisely
because of a history of contact with outsiders, (and who may feel
they've been ill served by scholars in the past) there often is an
easily identifiable community that can be said to "own" the language.
And often, these communities wish to restrict access, in different
degrees, to information about them and their language.  (As an
example that isn't hard to understand, it may not be appropriate to
distribute transcripts of events with deep ritual significance to
those participating in them. If language is sacred, then outsiders
may have no right to access; or, dissecting it outside the context
for which it was intended might be considered a major violation. But
even for more mundane language,  for very small groups, how it's used
can be sensitive.)  As for information that's freely available on
some sites - how many speakers of language X there are may not be
sensitive, but in the case of  language data, just because it's there
doesn't necessarily mean its presence there is ethical.   A lot of
archive designers now understand these issues and are being careful
about the issue of access (check out the AILLA site at the University
of Texas).  Well, this has begun to sound a bit preachy, and it's
possible that I joined the discussion late, and have misunderstood
points that have been made.  But, "military secrets" analogy struck
me as problematic; my point in response is that it isn't a question
of treating data like military secrets - it's fundamentally about
rights, and respect,  and accommodating a range of perspectives
beyond the usual privileged ones.

Megan Crowhurst


>  Ethnologue, for example, isn't exactly subject to the thirty year
>rule, and numerous sites exist for the languages of the Americas (links
>off www.ssila.org), Australia (www.dnathan.com), there's one for minor
>languages of Russia whose address I can't remember, one for Turkic, Juno
>Mahi's great sub-saharan African site for info on Khoi-San languages ...
>Titus, for dead and minor IE and Caucasian languages.
>
>Claire
>
>-----------------------------
>Claire Bowern
>Department of Linguistics
>Harvard University
>305 Boylston Hall
>Cambridge, MA, 02138


--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Megan J. Crowhurst, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor

Snail mail address:

The University of Texas at Austin
Dr. Crowhurst
Department of Linguistics
1 University Station B5100
Austin, TX   78712-5100
USA

Phone:  512-471-1701
Fax:    512-471-4340

Home page: http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~crowhurs/index.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/endangered-languages-l/attachments/20040211/ec092e63/attachment.htm>