Small Languages?

[Claire Bowern]

Megan, I agree with you absolutely. I meant my comment in relation to the
original posting, which I read as implying that no information (in
general, not specifically language data) was publicaly available. I used
the phrasing of the original post. I certainly did not mean to imply that
I do not think that these are serious and complex issues.
Claire


On Wed, 11 Feb 2004, Megan Crowhurst wrote:

>
> >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
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-----------------------------
Claire Bowern
Department of Linguistics
Harvard University
305 Boylston Hall
Cambridge, MA, 02138