Annual Meeting updates from LSA

LSA has sent these updates for the Annual Meeting, with reminders of some important deadlines:Hotel Accommodations -- Overflow Hotel at Portland Marriott City CenterThe room block at the Hilton Portland & Executive Tower has sold out.  An overflow room block has been established at the nearby Portland Marriott City Center.  The rate is $139/night.  Reservations must be made by December 23, 2014.  Reserve online or telephone 1-888-236-2427 and refer to the Linguistic Society of America rate.Meeting Preregistration Deadline:  December 19The deadline for preregistration for the Annual Meeting is Friday, December 19.  Attendees who do not register by the deadline will face substantially higher onsite registration fees.To register for the Meeting, click on the "Register for Meeting" button at the top of the Annual Meeting web page.  LSA members should log in to the website first in order to obtain the member registration discount.  A downloadable hard copy registration form is available here.Meeting ScheduleAn online meeting schedule is available by clicking on the "Schedule" tab on the Annual Meeting web page.  LSA members who are logged in to the website will see a "Personal Schedule" tab where they can create a customized meeting schedule including only those sessions they wish to attend.General information about the meeting, including office hours, committee meetings, and more, is available here, and schedules for the Sister Societies here.  The most up-to-date SSILA schedule is here.If you have questions about LSA, please contactDavid RobinsonDirector of Membership and MeetingsLinguistic Society of America1325 18th Street, NW  Suite 211Washington, DC 20036-6501202-835-1714Fax: 202-835-1717www.lsadc.org

Position at University of Oklahoma

Assistant/Associate Curator of Native American Languages, 
or Native American Linguistics Assistant/Associate Professor of Anthropology 
The University of Oklahoma’s Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History and the Department of Anthropology seek an Assistant/Associate Curator of Native American Languages and an Assistant/Associate Professor of Anthropology for a tenure track position. This is a nine-month joint appointment between the department and the museum. We seek a scholar holding a Ph.D. in linguistics or linguistic anthropology with a research specialization in Native American languages. Candidates should demonstrate a willingness to engage in outreach to Native communities in Oklahoma, including collaborative research and community participation in museum exhibits and programs. The holder of this position will develop language documentation and maintenance projects with Oklahoma’s Native communities and must possess a willingness to seek external funding for outreach and research, as well as maintaining the current language collection in the museum. In the role of curator, the successful candidate will utilize traditional and digital archival techniques to establish a public collection of American Indian language data. It is expected that the candidate will have strong abilities in digital multi-media technology and its use in linguistic research, outreach, and pedagogy. Scholars working on combating language endangerment and the development of language maintenance strategies, as well as those with experience in fieldwork-based descriptive linguistics are encouraged to apply.The state of Oklahoma and the University of Oklahoma have excellent resources for work on American Indian languages. The state is home to over forty American Indian languages representing at least six families. The Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History is a large and comprehensive center for research and public programs. Housed in a state-of-the-art facility and winner of the National Medal for Museums, the museum maintains a strong commitment to community service and has an established tradition of working with American Indian communities. Its Divisions of Ethnology and Archaeology hold significant collections of American Indian material culture. The museum has 10 active curators who are leading researchers in their disciplines. The Department of Anthropology is a Ph.D.-granting program with a focus on American Indian studies. The department offers a full and growing curriculum of instruction in American Indian languages, with classes offered in Choctaw, Kiowa, Cherokee, and Creek/Seminole. The successful candidate will join a department that includes linguistic anthropologists and Native language instructors. The campus is also home to a strong Native American Studies program, a rich Western history archive, and a large Native American student body.Consideration of applications will begin December 31, 2014 and the position will remain open until filled. OU is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer. Women, minorities, protected veterans and individuals with disabilities are strongly encouraged to apply. Applicants should send a letter detailing research interests and teaching experience, vita, and contact information for three references by email in PDF format to search committee Chairs Dr. Dan Swan (dswanou.edu) and Dr. Sean O’Neill (seanoneillou.edu) and Managerial Associate, Misty Wilson (Anthropologyou.edu).

 

President Emmon Bach

SSILA President Emmon Bach passed away November 28, 2014, at his home in Oxford.  His funeral will take place at 11.15 on Saturday, 13 December at St John's Chapel, Oxford Crematorium, Bayswater Rd, Headington, Oxford OX3 9RZ.Some of the many remembrances of his life appearing in online communities are these:http://www.umass.edu/linguist/index.phpu mass linkhttp://www.lagb.org.uk/forum/3164720Linguistics Assn. of Great Britainhttp://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=16230Language Log by Barbara Parteeemmonbach.infoby Jim Blevinshttp://www.ling-phil.ox.ac.uk/index.php?section=1Oxford U, by Martin Maiden 

2nd International Conference on Mesoamerican Linguistics

We invite abstracts for papers and panels from all areas related to the languages ofMesoamerica, including both the indigenous languages and Mesoamerican Spanish, to besubmitted to the Second Mesoamerican Linguistics Conference, to be held at CaliforniaState University, Los Angeles on March 6-7, 2015. We are especially interested inproposals concerning community-based language documentation and revitalizationefforts for the indigenous languages of Mesoamerica.Submission guidelines:1. Papers may be delivered in English or Spanish. Authors may submit up to twoabstracts, one individual and one jointly authored. Presentation time for papers will be 20minutes plus 10 minutes for discussion.2. The abstract must be no more than one page in length, single-spaced in 12-point font.3. To preserve anonymity during the review process, authors should not include theirnames or otherwise reveal their identities anywhere in the abstract.4. Please specify the title of the paper, area of research, name, academic affiliation andemail in the accompanying email.5. Please send submissions as a Word or PDF file to both conference organizers: NatalieOperstein (noperstein@fullerton.edu) and Aaron Sonnenschein(asonnen@exchange.calstatela.edu).Important dates:Deadline for panel proposals: 15 November 2014Deadline for abstracts: 15 December 2014Notification: 1 January 2015Conference dates: 6-7 March 2015

WAIL 2015 Call for Papers

The Linguistics Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara, announces its 18th Annual Workshop on American Indigenous Languages (WAIL), which provides a forum for the discussion of theoretical, descriptive, and practical studies of the indigenous languages of the Americas.The keynote speaker for this year will be Patience L. Epps (University of Texas, Austin).The conference will be held May 8th – 9th, 2015Deadline for receipt of abstracts: February 15, 2015WAIL2015_CallForPapers  

CoLang 2016

The Institute on Collaborative Language Research (CoLang) will be held on the campus of the Univeristy of Alaska Fairbanks in 2016. The institute is designed to provide an opportunity for community language activists and linguists to receive training in community-based language documentation and revitalization. The Institute has previously been convened in California, Oregon, Kansas, and Texas, and attracts a diverse range of participants from across the globe. Instructors include some of the world’s leading experts in language documentation.The Institute consists of two parts: two weeks of intensive workshops followed by a three-week Practicum in field linguistics in which students work hands-on with speakers of an endangered language. CoLang 2016 will have, but not be limited to, two major themes: languages of Alaska and language archiving.Learn more about CoLang 2016 here.

Native language is theme of Elders and Youth Conference

Elders listen to people speak the Yup'ik language during an Alaska Native Language Circle at the First Alaskans Institute Elders and Youth Conference at the Dena'ina Center in Anchorage on Monday, Oct. 20, 2014.
Bill Roth / ADN
The importance of Alaska Native languages to culture, identity and individual well-being took center stage Monday as the First Alaskans Institute’s Elders and Youth Conference -- the precursor to the biggest Native gathering of the year -- began in Anchorage.A teenager from Yakutat gave his keynote address before a packed crowd of hundreds in Tlingit, then English, explaining that some Native words cannot be translated.A fluent Inupiaq speaker from Nome expressed regret to everyone who never had the chance to learn their Native language, and to those who decades ago were punished for speaking it.Members of the state’s new Alaska Native language council urged that more be done to study and restore languages, as a way to save the culture.The three-day Elders and Youth Conference, celebrating its 30th year, is drawing about 1,200 participants from Barrow to Kodiak to Metlakatla, plus vendors and artists. Its theme this year is “Get Up! Stand Up!” The conference connects youths to their Alaska Native culture with song and dance and also puts attention on deeper issues including homelessness and suicide.Read the full article below:http://www.adn.com/article/20141020/native-language-theme-elders-and-youth-conference

Texts in Indigenous Languages of the Americas Series (formerly IJAL Native American Texts Series)

Call for Proposals

The International Journal of American Linguistics is pleased to announce the relaunching of the Native American Texts Series under a new name, Texts in Indigenous Languages of the Americas, which will take the form of an annual supplement to the journal dedicated to the presentation of analyzed oral texts from the indigenous languages of the Americas. We are now accepting proposals for a guest-edited, thematically-organized collection of texts to appear as part of the 2016 volume of the journal.Issues in the series may be single-authored or edited multi-contributor collections, and will have a print component of 200 pages (approximately 1,200 lines of analyzed text) as well as on-line PDF and HTML versions accompanied by audio recordings. Texts will be presented in four-line interlinear glossing following IJAL format (http://www.americanlinguistics.org/?page_id=93), and must follow a uniform style throughout, including the use of a consistent set of abbrevia- tions. Preference will be given to texts for which recordings with time-aligned transcripts can be provided. There is no restriction as to subject matter, and texts from a variety of genres including myths, legends, rituals, and personal narratives are welcome.Proposals should include:

  • a one to two page description of the volume, outlining and justifying the unifying theme (language, language family, geographic area, subject matter), the origins of the texts to be included, and the relevant experience of the author/editor(s) with the language(s) involved
  • a detailed table of contents
  • the names and qualifications of other contributors (if relevant)

Where appropriate, contributors will be required to demonstrate that appropriate permissions for the publication of these materials have been obtained. Projected deadline for the manuscript would be July 2015.Address proposals and inquiries via e-mail to ijal@press.uchicago.edu. Please include “TILA” in the subject line.

All proposals must be received by December 1, 2014.

For a list of issues from the NAT series see http://www.americanlinguistics.org/?page_id=701.

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Studies in the Native Languages of the Americas (U Nebraska Press)

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This series is designed to attract, disseminate as widely as possible, and assist in the creation of the best possible book-length works that examine the indigenous languages of North and South America. Candidates of the series are winners of the Mary R. Haas Award, which is bestowed annually by the Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas for best monograph written that year. The series seeks to publish descriptive monographs based on significant fieldwork, as well as dictionaries and analyzed collections of texts.View the books in this series here.

CoLang 2014

We are now less than three weeks away from the kickoff of CoLang 2014, the 2014 Institute on Collaborative Language Research, which takes place in June and July 2014, hosted by The University of Texas at Arlington, with Dr. Colleen Fitzgerald as Director.  CoLang, which only occurs once every two years, offers an opportunity for undergraduate and graduate students, practicing linguists,  language professionals and indigenous community members to develop and refine skills and approaches to language documentation and revitalization. The Institute is designed to provide an opportunity for a diverse range of participants to become trained in a wide range of skills in language documentation and revitalization. The theme for CoLang 2014 is Native American languages.The institute consists of two parts: the Workshops - two weeks of intensive workshops on practices, principals and models of language documentation and revitalization, followed by a four-week field methods course, working with speakers of select indigenous languages applying hands-on techniques in language documentation. Participants may choose to enroll only in the two-week Workshops.Workshops: June 16-27 2014Field Methods/Practicum: June 30 – July 25, 2014.We have four field methods classes, each of which still has room for additional people to enroll.  The four languages for this year are Alabama (a Muskogean language spoken in Texas), Enya (a Bantu language spoken in the Democratic Reuplic of Congo), Innu (or Cree, an Algonquian language spoken in Canada), and Apoala Mixtec (an Otomanguean language of Mexico).  The Mixtec section will be a Spanish-medium course, so people must have sufficient proficiency in Spanish to do all elicitation and other class work with the speakers.In order to make CoLang 2014 prices affordable to as many people as we can, we have decided to keep early bird registration prices in effect up until the first day of CoLang 2014, June 16.  Onsite registration will be possible with a cashier’s check or credit card, or a wire transfer made by June 10.  (Contact us for details on a wire transfer.)  Registration is $750 for the two weeks session, and $2250 for the six weeks session.  We still have room in the field methods sections.  We’re also in the process of opening additional second sections in various topics, including Orthography, Grantwriting, Transcription, and Life in Communities, among others.  For housing and/or meal purchases to be guaranteed, they must be purchased and paid in full by Wednesday, June 4.  With participants and instructors numbering around 200 people, representing over 20 different North American tribes and 15 different countries worldwide, we expect a lively and engaging environment for all who attend.  In addition to the many workshops scheduled for registered participants, we will also have a number of public talks on language documentation and revitalization projects, including from First Nations projects in British Columbia, the Chickasaw Language Revitalization Program, Wuqu’ Kawoq in Guatemala, Yunnan Province in China, and northeast India.  CoLang 2014 will feature the Texas-premiere of two movies, Navajo Star Wars (the sci-fi classic dubbed into the Navajo language, with English subtitles), and “Language Healers,” with award-winning director Brian McDermott on hand for a q&a.  Full information on CoLang activities can be found online at http://tinyurl.com/colang2014 and our registration site is at http://tinyurl.com/Register4CoLang , with links to paper registration if needed.For more questions, email us at uta2014institute@gmail.com or phone us at 817-272-7608.****************************Dr. Colleen FitzgeraldProfessorDept. of Linguistics & TESOLThe University of Texas at ArlingtonNative American Languages Labhttp://www.uta.edu/faculty/cmfitz/swnalhttp://www.uta.edu/faculty/cmfitzFacebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/Native.American.Languages.Lab