Endangered Languages And Literacy

Papers for the fourth Foundation for Endangered Languages (FEL) Conference include the following: "Endangered languages and Literacy" (Nicholas Ostler, Blair Rudes); "Keynote Address: On Native Language Literacy: a Personal Perspective" (Ofelia Zepeda); "A Community's Solution to Some Literacy Problems: The Mayangna of Nicaragua" (Elena Benedicto); "Pathway to an Acceptable Orthography" (Francene Patterson); "Technology, Literacy, and Orality: The Case of Coeur d'Alene Language" (Gary Sobbing, Audra Vincent); "Building a Frame for Our Past: Contemporary Guatemalan Mayan Literature" (R. McKenna Brown); "The Future of Koho: Mon-Khmer Language of Vietnam" (Neil H. Olsen); "The Applied Linguist in Indian Country: Preservation and Revival of the Catawba Language" (Claudia Y. Heinemann-Priest); "How Do You Write Lisu?" (David L. Morse, Thomas M. Tehan); "Orthography as Literacy: How Manx Was Reduced to Writing" (Mark Sebba); "Four Orthographies for Forest Nenets?" (Tapani Salminen); "When You Choose, Must You Lose? Standard Orthography versus Dialect Diversity" (Blair A. Rudes); "Developing a Standard Orthography for an Oral Language: The Innu Experiment" (Anne-Marie Baraby); "Literacy Ideologies and the Future of Gascon" (Thomas Field); "Perspectives on Literacy in Endangered Language Revitalization" (Patricia Shaw); "Incorporating Literacy Style Prior to Literacy in the Elementary Tribal School" (Kristin Denham, Kevin George, Erek Rensink, Jonathan Sarr); "Literacy Ability and Practice in Peru: An Indigenous Account" (Kathleen Tacelosky); "The Bilingual-Bicultural Literacy Program for the Tarahumara of Chihuahua" (Carla Paciotto); "The Prospect of Taiwanese Indigenous Language Instruction in Taiwan: Looking at a Successful American Indian Community School" (Jiwas Bawan); "All Literate and Nothing to Read: The Problem of the Lack of Written Literature in Rotuman" (Marit Vamarsai); "Gaulish Literacy: A Dying Glimmer" (Nicholas Ostler); "Orthography, Lexicography, and Language Change" (Ivy Doak, Timothy Montler); "Limitations of Literacy in Bagri" (Lakhan Gusain); and "Semantic Barriers to Literacy in the Sierra Tarahumara" (Julia E. Lonergan). References are included at the end of each paper. (KFT)

It is generally agreed that about 7,000 languages are spoken across the world today and at least half may no longer be spoken by the end of this century. This state-of-the-art Handbook examines the reasons behind this dramatic loss of linguistic diversity, why it matters, and what can be done to document and support endangered languages. The volume is relevant not only to researchers in language endangerment, language shift and language death, but to anyone interested in the languages and cultures of the world. It is accessible both to specialists and non-specialists: researchers will find cutting-edge contributions from acknowledged experts in their fields, while students, activists and other interested readers will find a wealth of readable yet thorough and up-to-date information.

This book provides an overview of the issues surrounding language loss. It brings together work by theoretical linguists, field linguists, and non-linguist members of minority communities to provide an integrated view of how language is lost, from sociological and economic as well as from linguistic perspectives. The contributions to the volume fall into four categories. The chapters by Dorian and Grenoble and Whaley provide an overview of language endangerment. Grinevald, England, Jacobs, and Nora and Richard Dauenhauer describe the situation confronting threatened languages from both a linguistic and sociological perspective. The understudied issue of what (beyond a linguistic system) can be lost as a language ceases to be spoken is addressed by Mithun, Hale, Jocks, and Woodbury. In the last section, Kapanga, Myers-Scotton, and Vakhtin consider the linguistic processes which underlie language attrition.

The theme of the third annual Foundation for Endangered Languages (FEL) Conference was Endangered Languages and Education, focusing on how education can be used to promote, resist, and reverse the decline of a language. The conference papers are broken into several sections covering the topic from a variety of aspects and perspectives. "Finding a Policy" looks at the more general issues of how to proceed when the old link between the language and the traditional culture seems to be fraying. The question is considered in three North and South American contexts (among North Dakota American Indians, the Amish community, and Mayans in Guatemala), as well as for the Saami in Norway and the Irish under British rule. "Looking at Learners" switches the focus to the pupils in the education process, surveying attitudes and assessing acquired proficiency in Brittany and New Zealand, where there is a single minority language and a single metropolitan language. In "Working with Non-Written Languages", the special problems of making a bridge between oral and written language education comes to the fore. "Ways and Means" examines practical measures that can be taken to get teaching and learning organized. The examples of Maori in New Zealand and Khoisan in Namibia are examined. The "Role of Standard Dialects" is considered using the case of the disruption of language transmission among Basque dialects in Spain. Finally, "Impacts and Future Prospects" examines the overall impact that education programs seem to be having in preserving endangered languages. (KFT)

This volume showcases latest developments and innovations in teaching and learning materials in, about and for endangered languages, as well as discusses challenges in the production of such materials.

This volume gives voice to an impressive range of Indigenous authors who share their knowledge and perspectives on issues that pertain to activism, culture, language and identity – the fabric of being Indigenous. The contributions highlight the experiences of Indigenous peoples from a variety of countries, including the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Greenland, Norway and Russia. The book provides valuable historical and political insight into the lingering impact of colonization, considering the issues faced by Indigenous peoples today and reflecting on the ability of their cultures, languages and identities to survive in the twenty-first century.

How does a language community sustain their language in the face of ever-increasing forces of language shift? This volume, both a textbook and a handbook, is the result of ten years of reflection by the authors in light of SIL International’s 80 years of fieldwork in local language communities. Using the Sustainable Use Model detailed here, readers learn how to advise maintaining use of their language at a sustainable level. This could include, not only the level of active literacy, but also levels of orality and identity. The book is aimed at “on the ground” workers involved with a community, to address issues arising from language and culture contact. M. Paul Lewis (Ph.D., sociolinguistics, Georgetown University) did fieldwork in Guatemala, was general editor of the Ethnologue®, and is a Sociolinguistics Consultant with SIL. His research interests are language endangerment, language policy and planning, and language documentation. He has consulted and trained on six continents. Gary F. Simons (Ph.D., linguistics, Cornell University) is Chief Research Officer for SIL and Executive Editor of the Ethnologue®. He was involved in language development in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, co-founder of the Open Language Archives Community (OLAC), and co-developer of the ISO 639-3 identifiers for the world’s languages. "In this clearly written monograph, Lewis and Simons lay the groundwork for those who [work] with members of local language communities, to help them implement diverse activities that most effectively lead to a sustainable level of language use. They build appropriately upon the groundbreaking work that was carried out several decades ago by sociolinguists such as Charles Ferguson, Robert Cooper, and Joshua Fishman." - Adapted from the Foreword by G. Richard Tucker

Written by leading international scholars and activists, this guidebook provides ideas and strategies to support language revitalization.