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Keeping Languages Alive

Keeping Languages Alive

Keeping Languages Alive

Documentation, Pedagogy and Revitalization
Mari C. Jones, University of Cambridge
Sarah Ogilvie, University of Cambridge
December 2013
Available
Hardback
9781107029064

    Many of the world's languages have diminishing numbers of speakers and are in danger of falling silent. Around the globe, a large body of linguists are collaborating with members of indigenous communities to keep these languages alive. Mindful that their work will be used by future speech communities to learn, teach and revitalise their languages, scholars face new challenges in the way they gather materials and in the way they present their findings. This volume discusses current efforts to record, collect and archive endangered languages in traditional and new media that will support future language learners and speakers. Chapters are written by academics working in the field of language endangerment and also by indigenous people working 'at the coalface' of language support and maintenance. Keeping Languages Alive is a must-read for researchers in language documentation, language typology and linguistic anthropology.

    • Includes contributors from North America, Australia and Europe so that readers can learn about a wide range of indigenous languages
    • Contains contributions from members of indigenous communities and academics, giving the reader insight into the documentation and revitalisation process from both the perspective of the speaker and the linguist
    • Contains new and up-to-date research

    Product details

    December 2013
    Hardback
    9781107029064
    284 pages
    229 × 152 × 18 mm
    0.55kg
    30 b/w illus. 3 maps 4 tables
    Available

    Table of Contents

    • Part I. Documentation:
    • 1. Language documentation and meta-documentation Peter K. Austin
    • 2. A psycholinguistic assessment of language change in Eastern Indonesia: evidence from the HALA Project Amanda Hamilton, Jawee Perla and Laura Robinson
    • 3. Documentation for endangered sign languages: the case of Mardin sign language Ulrike Zeshan and Hasan Dikyuva
    • 4. Re-imagining documentary linguistics as a revitalisation-driven practice David Nathan and Meili Fang
    • 5. Language documentation and community interests John Henderson
    • 6. American Indian sign language documentary linguistic fieldwork and digital archive Jeffrey Davis
    • 7. Purism in language documentation and description Michael Riessler and Elena Karvovskaya
    • 8. Greek-speaking enclaves in Pontus today: the documentation and revitalisation of Romeyka Ioanna Sitaridou
    • Part II. Pedagogy:
    • 9. New technologies and pedagogy in language revitalisation: the case of Te Reo Māori in Aotearoa/New Zealand Tania Ka'ai, John Moorfield and Muiris Ó Laoire
    • 10. Teaching an endangered language in virtual reality Hanna Outakosko
    • 11. A nomadic school in Siberia among Evenk reindeer herders Alexandra Lavrillier
    • 12. Task-based language teaching practices that support Salish language revitalisation Arieh Sherris, Tachini Pete, Lynn Thompson and Erin Haynes
    • Part IV. Revitalisation:
    • 13. Speakers and language revitalisation: a case study of Guernesiais (Guernsey) Julia Sallabank and Yan Marquis
    • 14. On the revitalisation of a 'treasure language': the Rama language project of Nicaragua Colette Grinevald and Bénédicte Pivot
    • 15. Whistled languages: including Greek in the continuum of endangerment situations and revitalisation strategies Maria Kouneli, Julien Meyer and Andrew Nevins
    • 16. What is revitalisation really about? Competing language revitalisation movements in Provence James Costa and Médéric Gasquet-Cyrus
    • Bibliography
    • Index.
      Contributors
    • Peter K. Austin, Amanda Hamilton, Jawee Perla, Laura Robinson, Ulrike Zeshan, Hasan Dikyuva, David Nathan, Meili Fang, John Henderson, Jeffrey Davis, Michael Riessler, Elena Karvovskaya, Ioanna Sitaridou, Tania Ka'ai, John Moorfield, Muiris Ó Laoire, Hanna Outakosko, Alexandra Lavrillier, Arieh Sherris, Tachini Pete, Lynn Thompson, Erin Haynes, Julia Sallabank, Yan Marquis, Colette Grinevald, Bénédicte Pivot, Maria Kouneli, Julien Meyer, Andrew Nevins, James Costa, Médéric Gasquet-Cyrus

    • Authors
    • Mari C. Jones , University of Cambridge

      Mari C. Jones is Reader in French Linguistics and Language Change at the University of Cambridge and Fellow in Modern and Medieval Languages at Peterhouse, Cambridge. A highly experienced fieldworker, she has published extensively on language obsolescence and revitalisation in relation to Insular and Continental Norman, Welsh and Breton. Her publications include Language Obsolescence and Revitalization (1998), Jersey Norman French (2001) and The Guernsey Norman French Translations of Thomas Martin (2008).

    • Sarah Ogilvie , University of Oxford

      Sarah Ogilvie works at Amazon Kindle on languages, dictionaries and content. Prior to that she was Reader in Linguistics at the Australian National University, Canberra. She lived and worked with an Australian Aboriginal community to write a grammar and dictionary of their language, and her current research focuses on how innovative technologies can help maintain and revitalise endangered languages. Her publications include Words of the World: A Global History of the OED (Cambridge, 2013).