Endangered Language Fund leadership changes

Dear all,

The Endangered Language Fund is pleased to announce some changes in our leadership.  The new President is Monica Macaulay, Professor of Linguistics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.  She is also affiliated with the American Indian Studies Program there.  She has been active in documenting various languages, especially Menominee and Potawatomi.  She is the author of a grammar of Chalcatongo Mixtec and a survival skills manual for graduate students in linguistics, and she is also current co-editor of the Papers of the Algonquian Conference.  We are excited to have her energy and new perspective to take ELF into its third decade.The Vice-President’s position is now filled by Claire Bowern, Associate Professor of Linguistics at Yale University.  She has done extensive work on Australian languages, particularly Nyulnyulan languages (especially Bardi [bcj]) and Pama-Nyungan languages (especially Yan-nhangu [jay]).  Her books include grammars of Bardi and Sivisa Titan, an introduction to historical linguistics, and a guide to linguistic fieldwork.  We are equally pleased with the new perspective that Claire will bring to ELF.The Healing Through Language initiative (www.healingthroughlanguage.org) now has a new co-director, Alice Taff, University of Alaska Southeast.  She will join Margaret Moss (Yale University School of Nursing) in leading our efforts to document the positive health effects of language revitalization programs.  This will allow us to treat them as health programs rather than culture programs; such a shift is justified by the evidence so far and the rationale that participants give for their extensive efforts and should broaden their appeal and support.I myself have now assumed the role of Chair of the Board of Directors of ELF, where I will continue guiding the organization that I started 19 years ago.Please feel free to send your congratulations to Monica, Claire and Alice.  You can also show your appreciation by making a donation to ELF:http://endangeredlanguagefund.org/donate.php.Best, Doug DhWDoug Whalen: whalen@haskins.yale.edu

Monica Macaulay: mmacaula@wisc.edu

Navajo Code Talkers

From our readers:==============Hello,I am writing to ask if you could help me determine the validity of something II was told or else direct me to someone who might be able to do so.I was told that persons working on the Manhattan project (building an atomic bombduring world war two) were taught the Navajo or the Apache language to facilitatesecure communication between them (secrecy).I know quite a bit about physics and I know a great deal about many of the key peopleinvolved. I know comparatively little about the intricacies and capabilities of theNavajo or the Apache language. With that said is seems to me that this story isnot just improbable but highly likely impossible.For example, could atomic physics be discussed in these languages to a degree thatwould be usable during the development of the atomic bomb?  (At that time.)Considering the short time involved and related factors? And keeping in mindthat the understanding, descriptions of and also mathematics to achieve this werebeing created concurrently with the actual construction of the bomb? (A deviceof unprecedented design?)Can you help me with this question? Thank you for any help you can provide.Best regards,Bruce Larrabee  ==================Dear Bruce

My understanding is that Navajo code-talkers worked for the Army, communicating more standard information about logistics, movements, etc.  I don't think it was the Manhattan Project, so no nuclear physics was involved.
There were also code-talkers from other Native American languages (such as Choctaw, Comanche, Creek, Lakota, Meskwakie, and Seminole.)
The people involved were also native speakers of these language, not second language speakers.
Here is an article that seems to be accurate, so far as I know about the various kinds of code talkers and the roles that they have played in our nation's history.
George Aaron Broadwell
SSILA

SSILA January 2015 meeting, a few notes from president Alice Taff

DUPLICATE PROPOSALS  submitted to both LSA and a Sister SocietySo that duplicate proposals are not submitted in future, Alice Taff and Ivy Doak met with the LSA Program Committee on  1/11/15. LSA will add wording to their call for papers precluding the submission of the same abstract to both LSA and a Sister Society. SSILA will do the same. SSILA TRIBUTE TO EMMON BACHFor 2016, the LSA Program Committee has approved development by Pat Shaw of a special joint LSA/SSILA symposium in honor of Emmon Bach’s diverse contributions (ranging across and often integrating complex domains of semantic, syntactic, morphological, and phonological behaviors) that derived from his work with a number of the indigenous languages of North America, particularly Haisla (Wakashan), Coast Tsimshian (Tsimshianic), and Western Abenaki (Algonquian). Thank you Pat! MEMBERSHIPTo simplify your ongoing SSILA membership renewals, select recurring membership, which will provide an automatic renewal and notification each year. You can opt out of this when you like. SRO for Ewa Czaykowska-Higginsʼ talk Constructing a dictionary for academic and community audiences: The Nxaʔamxcín Project, in the session, Dictionaries, text editions, and corpora: Ensuring value for multiple stakeholders, organized by Andrew Garrett and Joana Jansen

Lenguas indígenas de América Latina: Contextos, contactos, conflictos / Indigenous Languages of Latin America: Contexts, Contacts, Conflicts

IV Coloquio Internacional de Estudios Latinoamericanos de Olomouc / 4th International Colloquium of Latinamerican Studies in Olomouc (CIELO-4)CIELO4_Circular1 (en español; English follows)Location and dates: Olomouc (Czech Republic), May 7–8, 2015 Abstracts deadline: February 15, 2015 We welcome abstracts for papers from all major research areas related to the Amerindian languages:

  • Description and typology
  • Language contact between Amerindian languages and Spanish/ Portuguese (in both directions)
  • Missionary linguistics
  • Sociolinguistics
  • Language policies, legislation and standardization

 Working languages: Spanish, event. English and Portuguese Plenary lectures:Willem F. H. Adelaar (Universiteit Leiden)Ángel López García (Universidad de Valencia)Klaus Zimmermann (Universität Bremen)Fernando Zúñiga (Universität Bern) Contact person:Lenka Zajícoválenka.zajicova@upol.czDepartment of Romance StudiesPhilosophical FacultyPalacky University, OlomoucKřížkovského 10CZ-77180 Olomouchttp://romanistika.upol.cz

11th Conference on Hunting and Gathering Societies

7-11 September 2015, Vienna

IntroductionThe Eleventh Conference on Hunting and Gathering Societies (CHAGS 11) will be taking place in Vienna from September 7-11, 2015. CHAGS 10 - held at Liverpool in June 2013 - has put hunter-gatherer studies back at the centre of scholarly debates and CHAGS 11 will make sure that the momentum is not being lost. The Vienna conference will be a joint effort by four among the major anthropological institutions in town – the World Museum Vienna (formerly the Museum of Ethnology), the Institute for Social Anthropology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Vienna, and the Anthropological Society Vienna. https://chags.univie.ac.at/

CHAGS 11 Conference Theme - Refocusing Hunter-Gatherer StudiesWith the landmark conference Man the Hunter in 1966 the study of hunter-gatherer societies became a major topic within the social and human sciences. Since then, some of the topics and concerns – egalitarianism, sharing, and mobility – remain central, while others – such as social and technological evolution – have seen better times. Thus, while scholarly trends change over time, the goal of the initial conference, to establish a unified field of hunter-gatherer studies, is still valid. The general question of CHAGS 11 therefore is how the results of the last 50 years and new research agendas can be utilized for the present and future.While many hunter-gatherers are forced to give up their ways of life and subsistence practices, they figure prominently in public discourses on ecological and ideological alternatives to industrial society. Thus, CHAGS 11 will attempt to attract a variety of stakeholders in these debates – indigenous representatives, NGOs, scholars, etc. Based on fieldwork and research from the full spectrum of hunter-gatherer ways of life and from all perspectives our disciplines have to offer, the goal of CHAGS 11 is to bring hunter-gatherer studies back to the center of the human and social sciences.

To subscribe to our CHAGS 11 Newsletter just send an e-mail to chags11@univie.ac.at with "subscribe" in the subject field.

Guidelines for submitting new content to the New Publications section

Here are the guidelines for SSILA members who would like to submit new content to the New Publications section. If you want to let the SSILA membership know about a new book or a new dissertation on Native American/American Indian/First Nations/Indigenous American languages, this is the place to share this information. If you know about a new article published in a scholarly journal not specializing in Native American/American Indian/First Nations/Indigenous American languages, this is also a good place to alert SSILA members to it. Please provide a full bibliographical reference to the book or article, and if you want, post a link to a publisher’s site where this book or article can be purchased. Do not submit content copied out of a publisher’s site. If you have read a new book, and would like to write a short Booknote about it, this is also the place to submit it. Please keep the note to under 100 words. Booknotes may be submitted in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Dutch, but we may ask for a translation into English, or add such a translation ourselves. Do not post any content that could be interpreted as a personal attack on the author(s) of the book. Send the submission to the editor of the New Publications section, as e-mail: to willemdereuse at my.unt.edu. After consultation with other News editors as to appropriateness and format, your submission will be posted in the New Publications section.

SIL Mexico: New Publications and Presentations

New publication by SIL MexicoNueva publicación del ILV México

Black, H. Andrew and Judith L. Schram. 2014. Tense-aspect formation in Mazatec of Jalapa de Díaz. SIL-Mexico Electronic Working Papers #015. http://www.sil.org/resources/archives/59315.

New presentations of previous publications by SIL MexicoNuevas presentaciones de publicaciones previas del ILV Mxico

Alfabeto popular para la escritura del Zapoteco del Istmo. 2014 [1956]. http://www.sil.org/resources/archives/39117.Anderson C., Lynn and Cathy Moser de Marlett. 2014 [2006]. Vocabulario de palabras que se relacionan con el maíz en Mixteco de Alacatlatzala, Guerrero. http://www.sil.org/resources/archives/43118.Bartholomew, Doris. 2014 [1976]. A manual for practical grammars. http://www.sil.org/resources/archives/2413.Marlett, Stephen A. 2014 [2013]. A bibliography for the study of Seri history, language and culture. http://www.sil.org/resources/archives/53261.Sinclair Crawford, Donaldo, Hernández Cruz, Luis, and Moisés Victoria Torquemada. 2014 [2010]. Diccionario del hñäjñu (otomí) del Valle del Mezquital, estado de Hidalgo. Serie de vocabularios y diccionarios indígenas “Mariano Silva y Aceves.” Núm. 45. http://www.sil.org/resources/archives/51534.Zylstra, Carol F. 2014 [2012]. Gramática del tu’un savi (la lengua Mixteca) de Alacatlatzala, Guerrero. http://www.sil.org/resources/archives/47238.

Sister Society Meet and Greet Reception

From Alice TaffSSILA is hosting our Sister Society reception at LSA this Thursday, 1/8/15, in the Hilton's Porto Terra Lounge, Executive Tower, 8:30 – 10:00 PM. I hope you will  attend.
Attractions are: (come at the beginning to be assured of food)Mini Assorted PaninisMini Crème BruleechipsNo-host bar

and, of course, all our brilliant, vivacious, gregarious members.

7 Most Popular Native American Languages in U.S.

The U.S. Census Bureau’s 2006–2010 American Community Survey report shows that of the 2.4 million people in the U.S. who identify themselves as American Indian or Alaska Native alone (and who are over 5 years of age), over 70 percent say they speak only English at home. A Native North American language is spoken in the homes of nearly 15 percent. Roughly two-thirds of homes where a Native language is spoken are located in New Mexico, Arizona and Alaska, so it is not surprising that the most commonly spoken Native language is Navajo.Read the full article here:http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2014/06/30/7-most-popular-native-american-languages-us-155557

First Nations languages are on the rise

According to Dr. Lorna Williams, the Chair of the First People Cultural Council, there are approximately 60 First Nations languages spoken in Canada.Of those, 34 can be found in British Columbia, but the number of people who can actually speak those languages has, in the past, been severely endangered.That’s why a recent announcement that the decline in the aging population of fluent speakers has been largely offset by an increase in semi-fluent speakers in the younger generations comes as welcome news.Read the full article here:http://www.peninsulanewsreview.com/news/283911941.html?mobile=true

Young members of Louisiana’s Houma Nation try to reclaim tribe’s lost language

By Marc Guarino January 2 at 11:03 AMNEW ORLEANS — Even though Janie Luster has lived in Bayou Dularge all her life, in some ways she is still a stranger to the land.The tiny water-bound fishing community in southwestern Louisiana is rich with the culture of the Cajuns that are familiar to so many, but Luster, 62, is 100 percent Houma, an indigenous Indian tribe of which little is known.The tribe’s language consists of so few words that she has named her two dogs the Houma words for raccoon (chaoui) and perch (naní) just to keep them in circulation.“We only have a handful of words left,” she says. “The more time goes by, the more time we lose. Our elders are passing on.”Read the full article here:http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/young-members-of-louisianas-houma-nation-try-to-reclaim-tribes-lost-language/2014/12/29/9c5a60c2-849e-11e4-9534-f79a23c40e6c_story.html

UBC prof hopes to bring more Aboriginal language study to UBC

By: Mateo OspinaOctober 29, 2014, 8:40pm PDTA UBC anthropology professor is hoping to bring aboriginal languages to the forefront of language study at UBC.Mark Turin, who is chair of the UBC First Nations Language Program and a registered student in the same program, has an academic background in studies of endangered languages around the world. He is currently working towards a future in First Nations studies that focuses on a partnership between the university and indigenous communities.The First Nations Language Program currently offers opportunities to study languages such as Cree, Kwak’wala, Nle’kepmxcin and Dakelh Dene. In order to expand the program’s curriculum to include more indigenous languages, Turin has immersed himself in the language and culture of aboriginal peoples from the B.C. area to work directly toward the revival of languages with just a few speakers left.“We’re probably seeing the last generation of fluent speakers of many of these languages,” said Turin.​Access full article below:http://ubyssey.ca/news/ubc-prof-hopes-to-bring-more-aboriginal-language-study-to-ubc-523/​

FNUniv professor preserving Cree language through stories and humour

BY KERRY BENJOE, THE LEADER-POST OCTOBER 30, 2014 6:41 AMREGINA — What began as a task to create Cree text books for the classroom has taken on a whole new urgency for one author.On Wednesday, Solomon Ratt, associate professor for Cree language at the First Nations University of Canada (FNUniv), launched his book Woods Cree Stories — and he couldn’t be happier.It took two years to complete the book project, which includes stories written in Cree, Cree syllabics and English.“It allows the stories to go out into the schools to the children, so they could hear the stories and have a lot of good laughs,” he said after the book launch.Ratt said Cree resources are scarce, so the stories in his book were created in his classes.“There are very few people out there who write in Cree,” he said. “So there are no books available like (there is) in English. You can go to the library and have a lot of books in English — no problem. Cree it’s another matter.”Access full article below:http://www.leaderpost.com/life/w+professor+preserving+Cree+language+through+stories+humour/10336242/story.html