23.727, Qs: Working with last speakers

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LINGUIST List: Vol-23-727. Mon Feb 13 2012. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 23.727, Qs: Working with last speakers

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1)
Date: 08-Feb-2012
From: Daniel Hansen [daniel.hansen at yale.edu]
Subject: Working with last speakers


-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Mon, 13 Feb 2012 13:37:56
From: Daniel Hansen [daniel.hansen at yale.edu]
Subject: Working with last speakers

E-mail this message to a friend:
http://linguistlist.org/issues/emailmessage/verification.cfm?iss=23-727.html&submissionid=4540465&topicid=8&msgnumber=1
 
I am a senior undergrad at Yale researching endangered languages, 
specifically their documentation and revitalization, and especially 
languages in extremely dire situations (e.g. one fluent speaker or no 
fluent speakers remaining). I have been following Rob Amery's work on 
Kaurna in Adelaide (Australia) and my project advisor, Claire Bowern, 
is also a specialist in Australian Aboriginal languages.

Would anyone be willing to share commentary or anecdotes about 
working with last speakers? I'm interested in linguists' concerns about 
grammatical change/attrition, or unreliable data, as well as problems 
and questions that arise regarding ethics and intellectual property in 
the course of endangered language research. I would hugely 
appreciate any insights, however brief, into this subject.

Thanks!
Dan Hansen, Yale College 2012 

Linguistic Field(s): Anthropological Linguistics
                     Language Documentation
                     Sociolinguistics





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