Cree Language to be Taught in Saskatoon

Dept. of Canadian HeritageGovernment of Canada supports language lessons offered by Saskatoon Indian and Metis Friendship CentreSASKATOON, SASKATCHEWAN--(Marketwired - Oct. 27, 2014) - Department of Canadian HeritageThe Government of Canada is providing $29,536 in funding through the Aboriginal Languages Initiative to support beginner level Cree "Y" dialect language lessons for community members of all ages.Maurice Vellacott, Member of Parliament (Saskatoon-Wanuskewin), made this announcement today on behalf of the Honourable Shelly Glover, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages.Quick FactsA total of 240 hours of lessons will be provided to 80 participants over a 24-week period.Participants will be introduced to Cree syllabics and will learn the language through cultural activities.The Saskatoon Indian and Métis Friendship Centre provides services and programs to First Nations and Métis people in Saskatoon. It is offering the language classes in partnership with the White Buffalo Youth Lodge and the Saskatoon Public Library.The Aboriginal Languages Initiative supports community-based language projects that contribute to the revitalization and preservation of Aboriginal languages and increase their use in community settings.Quotes"Our Government is committed to supporting the revitalization and preservation of First Nations, Inuit and Métis languages and cultures. These languages are an important part of our heritage and vital for our Aboriginal communities."- The Honourable Shelly Glover, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages"I applaud the Saskatoon Indian and Métis Friendship Centre's work to enhance and maintain the Cree language "Y" dialect for future generations."- Maurice Vellacott, Member of Parliament (Saskatoon-Wanuskewin)"The Saskatoon Indian and Metis Friendship Centre is looking forward to continuing our Saskatoon Community Cree "Y" Dialect Language Project. These community Cree classes combined with cultural teachings will be held in four locations around Saskatoon, including the White Buffalo Youth Lodge, two Saskatoon Public Libraries, and at the Friendship Centre. Learning our Nēhiyawēwin language is key to self-identity and understanding our culture and heritage."- Bill Mintram, Executive Director, Saskatoon Indian and Métis Friendship Centrehttp://www.marketwired.com/press-release/cree-language-to-be-taught-in-saskatoon-1961344.htmAssociated LinksAboriginal Languages InitiativeSaskatoon Indian and Métis Friendship CentreStay ConnectedFollow us on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and Flickr.

StatsCan: Inuktitut still the second-most-spoken Aboriginal language in Canada

NEWS: Around the ArcticOctober 16, 2014 - 3:33 pmStatsCan: Inuktitut still the second-most-spoken Aboriginal language in CanadaAbout 68 per cent of Inuit report Inuktitut as a mother tongueInuktitut still ranks as the second-most reported Aboriginal mother tongue language in Canada, Statistics Canada reported Oct. 16.Those numbers show that Cree speakers make up the largest single Aboriginal language group in Canada, with more than 83,000 people reporting Cree as their mother tongue.After Cree, 34,110 people reported Inuktitut as their mother tongue and 19,275 people reported Ojibway.Other Aboriginal languages among the top 10 are Dene, Innu-Montagnais, Oji-Cree, Mi’kmaq, Atikamekw, Blackfoot and Stoney.The numbers come from StatsCan’s 2011 census and the agency’s 2011 household survey.Access full article below:http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/stories/article/65674statscan_inuktitut_still_the_second-most-spoken_aboriginal_language_in/

Abstracts still open! WAIL, SECOL

Abstracts are still open for two conferences of interest to members:18th Annual Workshop on American Indigenous Languages (WAIL 2015)Abstract deadline: February 15, 2015The 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.We are pleased to announce that our keynote speaker for this year will be Patience L. Epps (University of Texas Austin).See the call for papers here.82nd Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Conference on Linguistics (SECOL 2015)Abstract deadline: January 11, 2015The Southeastern Conference on Linguistics invites abstract submissions for papers for the 82nd meeting, which will be held concurrently with Language Variation in the South IV (LAVIS IV) in downtown Raleigh, NC, April 9-11, 2015. Papers in all areas of language and linguistics are welcome, including papers and panels on the teaching of linguistics, but special consideration will be given to proposals related to the conference theme, "The New South."See the call the papers here.

Nome schools revive Inupiaq language

By Heather Hintze 6:21 PM October 13, 2014NOME – On a school day in Nome, a class of second graders at Nome Elementary School gathers around Annie Conger as she begins her cultural studies lesson.Conger is reading “Neeluk : An Eskimo Boy in the Days of the Whaling Ships.”“Last time, they had to wake up really early to get ready for Kotzebue,” said the second-grade teacher in a recap of last week’s part of the story.Read the full article here:http://www.ktva.com/nome-schools-revive-inupiaq-language-549/

UM sophomore to create Native languages society

Posted: Tuesday, October 7, 2014 2:52 pm | Updated: 2:19 am, Wed Oct 8, 2014.Eric Barker for the Montana KaiminDespite the loss of the University's Blackfoot language classes, students may still have a chance to learn Native languages.A proposed Native languages student club is working on getting recognition as a student group from the Associated Students of the University of Montana. The group has 18 Native and non-Native students tentatively signed on.Jesse Desrosier, a sophomore from the Blackfeet tribe, said he always wanted to organize a Native languages club. When the University had to cancel Elementary Blackfoot 141 and 142 this fall because of the instructor's resignation, Desrosier decided there was no better time.Desrosier said it's important to promote Native languages to understand the basis of the culture.“Understanding my Native language gave me an identity,” he said.Access full article below:http://www.montanakaimin.com/news/article_db21e472-4e63-11e4-8de9-001a4bcf6878.html

MN School Helps Revival of Native American Languages

MN School Helps Revival of Native American LanguagesPublic News Service - MNOctober 1, 2014MINNEAPOLIS - As the number of speakers fluent in Native American languages continues to fade, a Minnesota school like few others in this nation is helping to keep those languages alive.The Bdote Learning Center in Minneapolis is a year-round charter school where the students are immersed in either Dakota or Ojibwe. Interim Director Mike Huerth said it's an incredibly important time for both."My sons live on a reservation that has lost its language," he said. "There are no more speakers alive in that tribe - and it's a very sad thing, because once a language dies, it doesn't come back."Access full article below:http://www.publicnewsservice.org/2014-10-01/education/mn-school-helps-revival-of-native-american-languages/a41990-1

The Indigenous Language Challenge

(From the ILAT Listserv)Colleen M FitzgeraldThe Indigenous Language ChallengePosted: 09/19/2014 2:43 pm EDTPeople are posting videos where they take on dramatic challenges and tag others to join in. It's an energetic effort to raise awareness...to use Native American languages. The 2014 Indigenous Language Challenge is on. Comedian Tonia Jo Hall, a Lakota teacher in training, posted a video of her young daughter singing in Lakota."Whatever your native language is, we challenge you to post a 10-15 sec video no matter what it is as long as you're speaking your language," Hall wrote. She's not the only Native American language activist, learner, or teacher to promote indigenous language use via social media video challenges.​Access full article below:​http://www.huffingtonpost.com/colleen-m-fitzgerald/the-indigenous-language-c_b_5850364.html

Saving Native Languages and Culture in Mexico With Computer Games

(From the ILAT Listserv)Rick Kearns9/21/14Indigenous children in Mexico can now learn their mother tongues with specialized computer games, helping to prevent the further loss of those languages across the country.“Three years ago, before we employed these materials, we were on the verge of seeing our children lose our Native languages,” asserted Matilde Hernandez, a teacher in Zitacuaro, Michoacan.“Now they are speaking and singing in Mazahua as if that had never happened,” Hernandez said, referring to computer software that provides games and lessons in most of the linguistic families of the country including Mazahua, Chinanteco, Nahuatl of Puebla, Tzeltal, Mixteco, Zapateco, Chatino and others.http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2014/09/21/saving-native-languages-and-culture-mexico-computer-games-156961

How a 17th Century Bible is Helping to Revive a Native-American Language

Four hundred years ago, before the Pilgrims washed up on Plymouth in 1620, the Massachusetts coast was home to at least 12,000 Native Americans united by a common language: Wômpanâak. Also known as Wampanoag, Natic, or Pokanoket, Wômpanâak was one of the Massachusett languages that gave the modern state its name. It was the language of Massasoit and Tisquantum; traces of it are still found in English, with words like skunk (squnck) and squash (askosquash). While Wômpanâak should rightfully be enshrined as a major touchstone of early American culture and history, instead, it was a language put under assault. Between smallpox, endemic warfare and enslavement, flight to other Native American tribes, and centuries of forced Christianization and European assimilation in New England’s infamous praying towns, by the close of the 18th century there were only a few hundred Wômpanâak speakers left. By 1833, the language was dead. Until, 160 years later, it suddenly wasn’t dead anymore.Today, after regaining their tribal identity in 1928, there are 2,000 Wômpanâak in southern Massachusetts. And one of them, Jessie Little Doe Baird, has found a way to bring their language back to life. Born in 1963 in the Mashpee (Massippee) band of Cape Cod, Baird claims when she was 30 she began having visions of her ancestors, pushing her to revive the tongue. She started the Wômpanâak Language Reclamation Project in 1993, eventually composing her Master’s thesis on Algonquian Linguistics at MIT. Baird and linguists Kenneth Hale and Norvin Richards used religious texts and letters written by Natives and missionaries to painstakingly reconstruct Wômpanâak grammar and vocabulary. And miraculously, with the aid of volunteers from the region’s Mashpee, Aquinnah, Assonet, and Herring Pond (Manomet or Comassakumkanit) bands, there are now many classes and teaching tools in the language. As of 2014 there were at least 15 competent Wômpanâak speakers in the world. Baird’s success is exceptional—some say she’s the fulfillment of a prophecy—given the number of dead and dying languages in the world, and the rarity of revival. But she’s also the start of a new wave of language resurgences, as what once seemed an impossible act of resurrection becomes more and more common.Read the rest of the article here:http://magazine.good.is/articles/saving-the-wompanaak-language

Diné Bizaad App for iPhone®, iPad® & iPod touch® by Native Innovation, Inc.

(From the ILAT Listserv)The Diné Bizaad App for iPhone®, iPad® & iPod touch® by Native Innovation, Inc. is here!! The Navajo Dictionary app properly named Diné Bizaad app has been published to the iTunes store this weekend. This language learning tool contains data that is loaded through a form of open source. This is done by a facilitation group of Diné language enthusiasts contributing from anywhere around the world. In fact, this goal of community based sharing helped develop the move from a desktop browser to a mobile app design. The concept of crowdsourcing common Diné words and phrases allows us to input the regional variations of pronunciations and vocabularies spoken by our Diné people.The Diné Bizaad app has two parts, a Diné-English vocabulary and a English-Diné vocabulary. The English words and phrases are all associated to Diné words and phrases. The synonyms element and antonyms element are important principal parts in searching correct Diné word and phrase associations within the app. Access full article: http://nativeinnovation.us/index.php/the-new-dine-bizaad-app-for-iphone-ipad-ipod-touch/"Ahéhee' hane' shá náás bi’ííníłnii'ígíí thanks for the retweet!” #DinéBizaad #edtech #mlearning Download yours today!! https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dine-bizaad/id914242572?mt=8

Project aims to preserve Native American languages in Montana

(from the ILAT Listserv)by Tim McGonigalProject aims to preserve Native American languages in MontanaFORT BELKNAP -- A major effort is underway to record Native American languages in Montana so they won't vanish completely.Statistics show that out of about 6,000 residents of Montana's Native communities, there may be 5% or fewer actual speakers of traditional tribal languages.A recent grant from the Montana Legislature resulted in a two-year pilot program for recording and archiving these endangered languages.Access full article below:http://www.kxlh.com/news/project-aims-to-preserve-native-american-languages-in-montana/

Open Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, University of Alberta Language Technology Lab

The Department of Linguistics at the University of Alberta invites applications for a full-time Postdoctoral Fellowship, beginning in early 2015, within the research project 21st Century Tools for Indigenous Languages, funded by a Partnership Development Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). The start date is negotiable, and the appointment is tenable for two years, subject to a review after the first year.Description of the position can be found here.While the project will start considering applications in just two weeks, on Jan 26th, if we hear at least expressions of interests from qualified candidates before/by that date and have an opportunity to discuss their personal/research fit with the position, we most likely will be able to wait for a proper, full application sometime after that date.This research project is associated with several laboratories and institutes within the Department of Linguistics and is led by Dr. Antti Arppe (Alberta Language Technology Laboratory: ALTLAB), Dr. Jordan Lachler (Canadian Indigenous Languages and Literacy Development Institute: CILLDI), Dr. Juhani Järvikivi (Centre for Comparative Psycholinguistics: CCP), and Dr. Timothy Mills (ALTLab, Alberta Phonetics Laboratory: APhL). Furthermore, we are collaborating within Canada with the Cree Literacy Network and internationally with the Giellatekno and Divvun research and development teams in University of Tromsø, Norway.Currently, we are developing computational models of the phonetics, morphology and lexis of Plains Cree, with the goal of creating software applications that support the continued use of the language in daily life by both speakers and learners.  These include an intelligent electronic dictionary, a spell-checker, computer-aided language learning and practice tools, a word form analyzer and generator, as well as a text-to-speech synthesizer.  We have also embarked on initial similar work with other American Indigenous languages, such as Northern Haida, that our collaborators have expertise in. Further details of our project can be found at: http://altlab.artsrn.ualberta.caThe tasks of the Postdoctoral Fellow will include the following, allowing for variation based on the the successful applicant’s background, competences and research interests:

  1. participation in, or responsibility for, the continued development of Plains Cree computational morphological and phonetic models and applications based on community feedback; 2. participation in, or responsibility for, the basic development of computational morphological and phonetic models and prototype applications for an Indigenous language other than Plains Cree, ideally one spoken in Canada; 3. partial training and supervision of undergraduate and graduate students (M.A/Ph.D level) in developing basic model and prototype applications for an Indigenous language other than Plains Cree; 4. engagement with Indigenous community consultants on collecting primary linguistic data and gathering feedback from field-testers; and 5. other administrative responsibilities

By the end of the Postdoctoral appointment, the successful applicant will have a set of skills that will allow them to partner with Indigenous communities and field linguists to develop a range of sophisticated tools in support of language maintenance and revitalization.Successful applicants may have either (a) specialized in the documentation and study of one or more Indigenous American languages, and have a familiarity with (or willingness to learn) computational modeling, or have (b) specialized in the computational modelling (text and/or speech) of morphologically rich languages, and have a familiarity with (or willingness to learn) the essential morphological and phonetic characteristics of the languages our project is working with.The fellowship comes with a salary of $34,500-$38,000 (CAD) per annum plus benefits. The salary will be commensurate with experience of the candidate and will follow University of Alberta policies (http://www.postdoc.ualberta.ca/PostdocPolicies.aspx).Applicants should have recently completed (no more than five years before the beginning of their appointment), or be in final stages of finishing their Ph.D degree (so that the Ph.D degree will be entirely completed upon the beginning of their appointment).The application should include (1) a research statement/plan (ca. 2 pages) outlining past experience and current research interests and, in particular, how these align with and contribute towards the general goals of our SSHRC project,(2) a Curriculum Vitae (including a List of Publications), and (3) one to three academic writing samples relevant to our project as well as the research statement. In addition, (4) Letters of Recommendation should be sent directly (to Dr. Antti Arppe: arppe@ualberta.ca) by three referees. Applicants are strongly encouraged to contact Dr. Antti Arppe to discuss their research plan.Applications and any inquiries  should be sent by electronic mail to Dr. Antti Arppe (arppe@ualberta.ca). Further, up-to-date information on this position can be found at: http://altlab.artsrn.ualberta.ca/?page_id=306Review of applications will begin on January 26, 2015, and will continue until the position is filled.The University of Alberta hires on the basis of merit. We are committed to the principle of equity in employment. We welcome diversity and encourage applications from all qualified women and men, including persons with disabilities, members of visible minorities, and Aboriginal persons.

EL Publishing

Back in July, a new publishing initiative was launched called "EL Publishing" (www.elpublishing.org), by founding editors Peter K. Austin, David Nathan, and Julia Sallabank, which is a free online open access publications platform that will publish a fully blind-refereed journal (Language Documentation and Description), multimedia publications, and a new monograph series, for which they have a 5 year commitment of support from CIPL, the International Committee of Linguists.The journal, multimedia and monographs will deal with the theory and practice of language documentation, language description, sociolinguistics and language policy, and language revitalisation. They will also be encouraging new and innovative forms of publication in these areas.  All publications are free to download under a CC-BY-NC (Attribution-NonCommercial) licence and are published at no cost to authors. They will continue to publish in print form at a low cost as well for readers who prefer paper publications or have limited internet access.The website at www.elpublishing.org contains the latest volume of Language Documentation and Description (LDD 12 -- a special issue on documentation and archiving), an app dealing with Khoi-san languages, and the complete back catalogue of LDD volumes 1 to 11.In this venture, David, Julia and Peter are joined by Consulting Editors Gerrit Dimmendaal, Lenore Grenoble, Jeff Good, and Tony Woodbury, and an international Editorial Advisory Board of leading scholars in endangered languages research.Have a look at the website and download the papers and app, but even more importantly, please let your colleagues and students know that EL Publishing exists and is an outlet for top quality fully peer reviewed publication of articles, multimedia and monographs. In order to keep the quality of the work we publish at a high level we need as many good submissions as possible, and we rely on our friends and colleagues such as you to help us spread the word.You can also follow EL Publishing on Facebook (E L Publishing) and Twitter (E_L_Publishing).If you have any questions about this please get in touch at editors@elpublishing.org for submissions and publishing information or info@elpublishing.org for general enquiries.(this post is a lightly edited version of an email from Peter Austin to the CELP listserv)

LSA Pre-registration reminder

The deadline for LSA preregistration is Friday, December 19, 2014.  If you do not preregister, you will pay a higher fee for onsite registration.SSILA 2015 attendees who are LSA members can log in to the LSA website (http://www.linguisticsociety.org) and register as a member (by clicking on the “Register for meeting” button on the Annual Meeting web page).  If you are an LSA member, you should NOT use any coupon codes, since you willl automatically get the member preregistration discount.Attendees who are not LSA members should go to the Annual Meeting web page (http://www.linguisticsociety.org/event/lsa-2015-annual-meeting), click on the “Register for meeting” button, and select nonmember regular or nonmember student according to your status.   At checkout, you will have an opportunity to enter a coupon code:S-SOC15REGULAR for nonstudent attendeesandS-SOC15STUDENT for student attendees.The coupon code will provide you with member-level discount.