Hometown U: Professor sees tremendous vitality where Alaska's languages clash (fwd link)

[Wayne Leman]

I grew up in one of these Alaskan villages where we have our own English dialect. Now, as a descriptive linguist myself, I understand what Professor Stone is doing. But her research and publication about it in the biggest newspaper in Alaska does not impact us Native people well. It comes across as yet one more way in which the dominant culture views us as odd, different, not measuring up to some outside standard. My relatives and other Native people have suffered greatly in Alaska from discrimination against us, including when we speak village English. One of my uncles was not even allowed to eat in one of the Anchorage restaurants, because he was from a Native village, even though he served in the U.S. Army.

Wayne Leman
http://www.ninilchikrussian.com/
http://www.cheyenne-stories.com/dictionary/lexicon/index.htm
 
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