Researching and Reviving the Unami Language of the Lenape
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Toward the Reconstruction of Proto-Algonquian-Wakashan. Part 3: the Algonquian-Wakashan 110-Item Wordlist
Sergei L. Nikolaev Institute of Slavic studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow/Novosibirsk); [email protected] Toward the reconstruction of Proto-Algonquian-Wakashan. Part 3: The Algonquian-Wakashan 110-item wordlist In the third part of my complex study of the historical relations between several language families of North America and the Nivkh language in the Far East, I present an annotated demonstration of the comparative data that was used in the lexicostatistical calculations to determine the branching and approximate glottochronological dating of Proto-Algonquian- Wakashan and its offspring; because of volume considerations, this data could not be in- cluded in the previous two parts of the present work and has to be presented autonomously. Additionally, several new Proto-Algonquian-Wakashan and Proto-Nivkh-Algonquian roots have been set up in this part of study. Lexicostatistical calculations have been conducted for the following languages: the reconstructed Proto-North Wakashan (approximately dated to ca. 800 AD) and modern or historically attested variants of Nootka (Nuuchahnulth), Amur Nivkh, Sakhalin Nivkh, Western Abenaki, Miami-Peoria, Fort Severn Cree, Wiyot, and Yurok. Keywords: Algonquian-Wakashan languages, Nivkh-Algonquian languages, Algic languages, Wakashan languages, Chimakuan-Wakashan languages, Nivkh language, historical phonol- ogy, comparative dictionary, lexicostatistics. The classification and preliminary glottochronological dating of Algonquian-Wakashan currently remain the same as presented in Nikolaev 2015a, Fig. 1 1. That scheme was generated based on the lexicostatistical analysis of 110-item basic word lists2 for one reconstructed (Proto-Northern Wakashan, ca. 800 A.D.) and several modern Algonquian-Wakashan lan- guages, performed with the aid of StarLing software 3. -
Language Development and Language Revitalization in Asia1
Language development and language revitalization in Asia1 Suwilai Premsrirat Institute of Language and Culture for Rural Development, Mahidol University—Salaya (Thailand Dennis Malone SIL International—Asia Abstract Language revitalization and minority language education programs face serious obstacles when the minority language has not yet been developed beyond its traditional oral state. Language development activities, therefore, must precede and contribute to the literacy and mother tongue education components of a language revitalization program. The minority community faces a serious challenge when, for example, no writing system exists for the ethnic language, or when, for whatever reasons, an existing writing system is no longer appropriate for the language. However, practitioners in applied linguistics and minority language education are developing participatory ways of assisting such communities in the process of language development. These include collaborations in designing or revising appropriate writing systems for the languages and for promoting mother tongue literature. This paper presents, in two parts, (I) an overview of language development efforts around the world, emphasizing the interactive aspects of language development and the facilitation of minority language literature development; and (II) a description of the Chong language development and language revitalization project in Thailand. Part I. Language development and language revitalization around the world The world’s linguistic diversity is under siege. That is certain. Whether the numbers are linguist Michael Krauss’s vision of catastrophic loss at 90 percent or some of the more optimistic projections that see “only” half of the world’s language dead or dying by the end of the century, no one is suggesting that the danger is a hoax. -
The Status of the Least Documented Language Families in the World
Vol. 4 (2010), pp. 177-212 http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/ldc/ http://hdl.handle.net/10125/4478 The status of the least documented language families in the world Harald Hammarström Radboud Universiteit, Nijmegen and Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig This paper aims to list all known language families that are not yet extinct and all of whose member languages are very poorly documented, i.e., less than a sketch grammar’s worth of data has been collected. It explains what constitutes a valid family, what amount and kinds of documentary data are sufficient, when a language is considered extinct, and more. It is hoped that the survey will be useful in setting priorities for documenta- tion fieldwork, in particular for those documentation efforts whose underlying goal is to understand linguistic diversity. 1. InTroducTIon. There are several legitimate reasons for pursuing language documen- tation (cf. Krauss 2007 for a fuller discussion).1 Perhaps the most important reason is for the benefit of the speaker community itself (see Voort 2007 for some clear examples). Another reason is that it contributes to linguistic theory: if we understand the limits and distribution of diversity of the world’s languages, we can formulate and provide evidence for statements about the nature of language (Brenzinger 2007; Hyman 2003; Evans 2009; Harrison 2007). From the latter perspective, it is especially interesting to document lan- guages that are the most divergent from ones that are well-documented—in other words, those that belong to unrelated families. I have conducted a survey of the documentation of the language families of the world, and in this paper, I will list the least-documented ones. -
THE INDO-EUROPEAN FAMILY — the LINGUISTIC EVIDENCE by Brian D
THE INDO-EUROPEAN FAMILY — THE LINGUISTIC EVIDENCE by Brian D. Joseph, The Ohio State University 0. Introduction A stunning result of linguistic research in the 19th century was the recognition that some languages show correspondences of form that cannot be due to chance convergences, to borrowing among the languages involved, or to universal characteristics of human language, and that such correspondences therefore can only be the result of the languages in question having sprung from a common source language in the past. Such languages are said to be “related” (more specifically, “genetically related”, though “genetic” here does not have any connection to the term referring to a biological genetic relationship) and to belong to a “language family”. It can therefore be convenient to model such linguistic genetic relationships via a “family tree”, showing the genealogy of the languages claimed to be related. For example, in the model below, all the languages B through I in the tree are related as members of the same family; if they were not related, they would not all descend from the same original language A. In such a schema, A is the “proto-language”, the starting point for the family, and B, C, and D are “offspring” (often referred to as “daughter languages”); B, C, and D are thus “siblings” (often referred to as “sister languages”), and each represents a separate “branch” of the family tree. B and C, in turn, are starting points for other offspring languages, E, F, and G, and H and I, respectively. Thus B stands in the same relationship to E, F, and G as A does to B, C, and D. -
Machine Translation for Language Preservation
Machine translation for language preservation Steven BIRD1,2 David CHIANG3 (1) Department of Computing and Information Systems, University of Melbourne (2) Linguistic Data Consortium, University of Pennsylvania (3) Information Sciences Institute, University of Southern California [email protected], [email protected] ABSTRACT Statistical machine translation has been remarkably successful for the world’s well-resourced languages, and much effort is focussed on creating and exploiting rich resources such as treebanks and wordnets. Machine translation can also support the urgent task of document- ing the world’s endangered languages. The primary object of statistical translation models, bilingual aligned text, closely coincides with interlinear text, the primary artefact collected in documentary linguistics. It ought to be possible to exploit this similarity in order to improve the quantity and quality of documentation for a language. Yet there are many technical and logistical problems to be addressed, starting with the problem that – for most of the languages in question – no texts or lexicons exist. In this position paper, we examine these challenges, and report on a data collection effort involving 15 endangered languages spoken in the highlands of Papua New Guinea. KEYWORDS: endangered languages, documentary linguistics, language resources, bilingual texts, comparative lexicons. Proceedings of COLING 2012: Posters, pages 125–134, COLING 2012, Mumbai, December 2012. 125 1 Introduction Most of the world’s 6800 languages are relatively unstudied, even though they are no less im- portant for scientific investigation than major world languages. For example, before Hixkaryana (Carib, Brazil) was discovered to have object-verb-subject word order, it was assumed that this word order was not possible in a human language, and that some principle of universal grammar must exist to account for this systematic gap (Derbyshire, 1977). -
Considerations for Non-Dominant Language Education in the Global South
FIRE: Forum for International Research in Education Vol. 5, Iss. 3, 2019, pp. 12-28 LANGUAGE-IN-EDUCATION POLICIES AND INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE REVITALIZATION EFFORTS IN CANADA: CONSIDERATIONS FOR NON-DOMINANT LANGUAGE EDUCATION IN THE GLOBAL SOUTH Onowa McIvor1 University of Victoria, Canada Jessica Ball University of Victoria, Canada Abstract Indigenous languages are struggling for breath in the Global North. In Canada, Indigenous language medium schools and early childhood programs remain independent and marginalized. Despite government commitments, there is little support for Indigenous language-in-education policy and initiatives. This article describes an inaugural, country- wide, federally-funded, Indigenous-led language revitalization research project, entitled NE OL EW̱ (one mind-one people). The project brings together nine Indigenous partners to build a country-wide network and momentum to pressure multi-levels of government to honourȾ agreementsṈ enshrining the right of children to learn their Indigenous language. The project is documenting approaches to create new Indigenous language speakers, focusing on adult language learners able to keep the language vibrant and teach their language to children. The article reflects upon how this Northern emphasis on Indigenous language revitalization and country-wide networking initiative is relevant to mother tongue-based education and policy examples in the Global South. The article underscores the need for both community level initiatives (top-down) and government level policy and funding (bottom up) to support child and adult Indigenous language learning. Keywords: Indigenous language practices, language-in-education policies, policy reform, First Nations, Indigenous, Canada, Global North, Global South 1 Correspondence: Dr. Onowa McIvor, C/O Dept. of Indigenous Education, University of Victoria, PO Box 1700 STN CSC, Victoria BC V8W 2Y2; Email: [email protected] O. -
Youth, Technology and Indigenous Language Revitalization in Indonesia
Youth, Technology and Indigenous Language Revitalization in Indonesia Item Type text; Electronic Dissertation Authors Putra, Kristian Adi Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction, presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 24/09/2021 19:51:25 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/630210 YOUTH, TECHNOLOGY AND INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE REVITALIZATION IN INDONESIA by Kristian Adi Putra ______________________________ Copyright © Kristian Adi Putra 2018 A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the GRADUATE INTERDISCIPLINARY PROGRAM IN SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AND TEACHING In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 2018 THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA GRADUATE COLLEGE As members of the Dissertation Committee, we certify that we have read the dissertation prepared by Kristian Adi Putra, titled Youth, Technology and Indigenous Language Revitalization in Indonesia and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. -~- ------+-----,T,___~-- ~__ _________ Date: (4 / 30/2018) Leisy T Wyman - -~---~· ~S:;;;,#--,'-L-~~--~- -------Date: (4/30/2018) 7 Jonath:2:inhardt ---12Mij-~-'-+--~4---IF-'~~~~~"____________ Date: (4 / 30 I 2018) Perry Gilmore Final approval and acceptance of this dissertation is contingent upon the candidate' s submission of the final copies of the dissertation to the Graduate College. I hereby certify that I have read this dissertation prepared under my direction and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement. -
Published in Papers of the Twenty-Third Algonquian Conference, 1992, Edited by William Cowan
Published in Papers of the Twenty-Third Algonquian Conference, 1992, edited by William Cowan. Ottawa: Carleton University, pp. 119-163 A Comparison of the Obviation Systems of Kutenai and Algonquian Matthew S. Dryer SUNY at Buffalo 1. Introduction In recent years, the term ‘obviation’ has been applied to phenomena in a variety of languages on the basis of perceived similarity to the phenomenon in Algonquian languages to which, I assume, the term was originally applied. An example of a descriptive use of the term occurs in Dayley (1989: 136), who applies the terms ‘obviative’ and ‘proximate’ to two categories of demonstratives in Tümpisa Shoshone, the obviative category being used to introduce new information or to reference given participants which are nontopics, the proximate category for topics. But unlike the obviative and proximate categories of Algonquian languages, the Shoshone categories for which Dayley uses the terms are categories only of a class of words he calls ‘demonstratives’, and are not inflectional categories of nouns or verbs. Similarly, Simpson and Bresnan (1983) use the term ‘obviation’ to refer to a system in Warlpiri in which certain nonfinite verbs occur in forms that indicate that their subjects are nonsubjects in the matrix clause. These phenomena in non-Algonquian languages to which the term ‘obviation’ has been applied may bear some remote resemblance to the Algonquian phenomenon, but I suspect that most Algonquianists examining them would conclude that the resemblance is at best a remote one. The purpose of this paper is to describe an obviation system in Kutenai, a language isolate of southeastern British Columbia and adjacent areas of Idaho and Montana, and to compare it to the obviation system of Algonquian languages. -
Language Endangerment: Problems and Solutions
Language Endangerment: Problems and Solutions Author(s): Julia Sallabank Source: eSharp , Special Issue: Communicating Change: Representing Self and Community in a Technological World (2010), pp. 50-87 URL: http://www.gla.ac.uk/esharp ISSN: 1742-4542 Copyright in this work remains with the author. _______________________________________________________ eSharp is an international online journal for postgraduate research in the arts, humanities, social sciences and education. Based at the University of Glasgow and run by graduate students, it aims to provide a critical but supportive entry to academic publishing for emerging academics, including postgraduates and recent postdoctoral students. [email protected] eSharp Special Issue: Communicating Change Language Endangerment: Problems and Solutions Dr. Julia Sallabank (Endangered Languages Academic Programme, School of Oriental and African Studies, London) How do we count languages? Overviews of the study of language endangerment usually start with a list of statistics about the number of languages in the world, the proportion considered endangered, etc. The usual source of statistics concerning the number of languages and their users is Ethnologue , subtitled ‘An encyclopaedic reference work cataloguing all of the world’s 6,909 known living languages’ (Lewis 2009). Many people are surprised to hear that there are so many languages in the world. However, this headline figure masks inherent problems in the counting of languages, as the Introduction to Ethnologue itself recognises. Many linguists use the criterion of mutual comprehensibility to distinguish languages: if users of two language varieties cannot understand each other, the varieties are considered to be different languages. If they can understand each other, the varieties are considered mutually comprehensible dialects of the same language. -
Increasing Cultural Compatibility for Native American Communities
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by ScholarSpace at University of Hawai'i at Manoa Vol. 10 (2016), pp. 458–479 http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/ldc http://hdl.handle.net/10125/24715 Revised Version Received: 2 May 2016 Series: Emergent Use and Conceptualization of Language Archives Michael Alvarez Shepard, Gary Holton & Ryan Henke (eds.) The Value-Added Language Archive: Increasing Cultural Compatibility for Native American Communities Michael Alvarez Shepard Goucher College Language archives represent a complicated theoretical and practical site of con- vergence for Native American language communities. In this article, I explore how functionality and operation of language archives are misaligned with core sociopolitical priorities for Native American tribes. In particular, I consider how the concept of cultural and political self-determination contextualizes lack of use or resistance to participation in language archiving projects. In addition to critical evaluation, I envision a dramatically expanded role for language archives, with the goal of increasing their cultural and political compatibility for Native American groups and beyond. I use the term, ‘value-added language archive’ to describe an archive with features and support services that address emergent needs of a diverse stakeholder community. 1. Introduction1 The archive as an institution occupies a contested discourse for scholars and members of Native language origin communities alike (Manoff 2004; Mawani 2012). Etymology of the term ‘archive’ stems from a Greek word meaning a place of convergence, where things commence and where authority is commanded (Derrida 1995). Modern archives, including those specific to Native languages, area convergence of power and possibility. -
Researching and Reviving the Unami Language of the Lenape
Endangered Languages, Linguistics, and Culture: Researching and Reviving the Unami Language of the Lenape By Maureen Hoffmann A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the degree of Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology and Linguistics Bryn Mawr College May 2009 Table of Contents Abstract........................................................................................................................... 3 Acknowledgments........................................................................................................... 4 List of Figures................................................................................................................. 5 I. Introduction ................................................................................................................. 6 II. The Lenape People and Their Languages .................................................................. 9 III. Language Endangerment and Language Loss ........................................................ 12 a. What is language endangerment?.......................................................................... 12 b. How does a language become endangered?.......................................................... 14 c. What can save a language from dying?................................................................. 17 d. The impact of language loss on culture ................................................................ 20 e. The impact of language loss on academia............................................................. 21 IV. -
Vidunda (G38) As an Endangered Language?
Vidunda (G38) as an Endangered Language? Karsten Legère University of Gothenburg 1. The position of Swahili and other Tanzanian languages Tanzania is a multi-ethnic and, as a consequence, multi-lingual country. This fact is reflected in the existence of approximately 120 ethnonyms according to the 1967 population census (Tanzania 1971). The most recent edition of Ethnologue (Gordon 2005) lists 128 languages (of which one is extinct) and glossonyms accordingly. This number recently grew even bigger when the results of a country-wide survey under the auspices of LoT1 were released (LoT 2006). Thus, the survey added approximately 80 more glossonyms to the existing lists published by, for example, Polomé & Hill (1980) and Ethnologue. As known, many glossonyms refer to language varieties which are mutually intelligible with those spoken mainly by neighboring ethnic groups or nationalities. People who claim to speak a language of their own frequently understand that of their neighbors, although the latter’s variety is terminologically distinct from the former.2 Hence, the high number of glossonyms is linguistically not relevant for adequately describing the factual situation, which is often characterized by a dialect continuum. In other words, dialect clusters which are comprised of “languages” (as expressed by particular glossonyms) may definitely reduce the number of Tanzanian languages. However, to which number a necessary linguistic and terminological recategorization may ultimately lead is still an open question. The informal and formal spread of Swahili (henceforth called L2) as a language of wider distribution/lingua franca (the national and co-official3 language; see Legère 2006b for discussion) has increasingly limited the use of all other Tanzanian languages (henceforth referred to as L1s).