Volkswagen acquires the Hochank language

[David Kaufman]

Hi Siouanists:

While I can certainly understand Pat Warren's concerns about language and linguistic data being locked away in some "ivory tower" with only limited academic access and a continuation of European and/or European-American subjugation and dominance over indigenous peoples, I think we need to be careful about "reverse" prejudice or stereotyping (to use Henning's word) and lumping all "linguists" into a common mold who are only looking out for themselves and have no genuine interest in the people and culture who speak the languages they work with.

I admit I'm still a "fledgling" linguist barely leaving the nest to try flying on my own, but I, for one, see my interest in Native American languages and linguistics less as a "linguist" and more as someone who can offer his language and linguistic skills and abilities to serve the benefit and betterment of the world by helping to at least slow down or, better, reverse the death process of endangered languages and cultures.  Personally, I don't see how linguists can possibly be involved in such revitalization efforts without having any interest or respect for the people and culture who use the language.  As a linguist/language teacher/language learner/writer, I think it's important to what I call "ground" yourself in the language, meaning have at least some knowledge of the land, people, and culture in order to successfully learn or research a language and help in these revitalization efforts.

Personally, I have been invited by Henning to work with his tribe and Johannes in some capacity in their language documentation and revitalization efforts.  I feel honored to be invited, by a member of the tribe no less, to assist in their revitalization efforts.  I would hope that whatever work I do would NOT be stored away in some back office or closet somewhere.  I would wholly intend for it to be shared and used for teaching purposes (maybe that's just the teacher in me!).  When we leave the world, none of what we've accomplished will mean much except if it's shared and used for the benefit of future generations.

That's my thought for the day, anyway!

Dave Kaufman


Koontz John E <John.Koontz at colorado.edu> wrote:On Fri, 24 Oct 2003, warr0120 wrote:
> Sometimes funny things aren't so funny anymore.

I guess reactions are mixed. I should perhaps point out for the benefit
of those who don't know that warr0120 is Pat Warren at the U of Minnesota.
It hadn't dawned on me that the "General Motors Acquires ..." humor
articles were perhaps spoofing the Volkswagon grants. I guess I had those
imbecilic (Sony?) ads with the clicks in mind.

I have to admit that I consider documentation projects to be good things,
and I believe that Volkswagon has a good track record as far as getting
the contracted work done. Anyone who's every worked on language knows
that the only way to get a reasonable amount of work done is to spend a
lifetime on it. Several lifetimes, actually. If you can find somebody
who will pay some of the incidental costs, so nuch the better.

Apart from that, I have a pretty good opinion of Johannes Helmbrecht,
based on his work on Winnebago to date. He's been a long term member of
the list and occasional contributor. I appreciate him letting us know
what's going on.

JEK


---------------------------------
Do you Yahoo!?
The New Yahoo! Shopping - with improved product search
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/siouan/attachments/20031025/6d4e44ad/attachment.htm>