legacy materials

[Mia Kalish]

Did you really say that, Claire???!!!

 

When the funding that is available is only for documentation, and when
funding is Not available for revitalization, for materials development, and
when there is no recognition of the need to engage communities in developing
their own language learning materials, then there is no chance for
Revitalization, which is how we bring languages “that have already ceased to
be used as everyday vehicles of communication in their communities.”

 

When Israel was re-establishing itself as a thriving nation, it did 2 things
to revitalize language. First, it created a dictionary of contemporary words
for contemporary things. Then, it imposed and enforced a restriction that
all business done in Israel be done in Hebrew. In less than 50 years, a
language that was previously only used contemporaneously by the Orthodox has
become a fully living language. 

 

Maybe I’m implying that linguists have more power than they do, but there
don’t seem to be many who are engaging the NSF – the primary source of
funding for language document – in any discussions about Revitalization. 

 

In some research I did for a course several years ago, analysis of NSF l
noted that better than 99% of the millions of dollars for language and
linguistic research went to non-Indigenous scholars, lots of whom were doing
field work for their doctorates . . . and none of the millions and millions
went for Revitalization. 

 

Is this kind of gatekeeping not having power? Is this kind of gatekeeping
not the kind that underscores the attitude that has prevailed in this
country for so long, that American languages are unsophisticated and not
worth saving. 

 

On a side note: Here at Diné College I am instituting a project using iPods
– but maybe not podcasting – for the teaching and learning of language and
culture. ALL the materials – instructions for creating iPod materials as
well as the materials themselves – are in Diné Bizaad. No English is
allowed, and people who are not fluent in Diné Bizaad don’t have access to
the project. It’s very cool. It truly elevates the status of the local
language. :-) 

 

Mia 

 

  _____  

From: Indigenous Languages and Technology [mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU]
On Behalf Of Claire Bowern
Sent: Wednesday, October 31, 2007 3:57 PM
To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
Subject: Re: [ILAT] legacy materials

 

 

We also snap-shot them as anthropological artifacts, ensuring that they do
not change as they would if they were alive.  

Mia, I think this implies that linguists have much more power than they
really do in communities. In my experience, the languages that die after
they've been documented are the ones that have already ceased to be used as
everyday vehicles of communication in their communities. That's a community
decision (beit usually an unconscious one) and there's nothing much that a
transient outsider visitor can do about it.   

 

Claire


 

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