The SSILA Executive Committee is seeking volunteers for an ad hoc Ethics Committee. The committee might consider how SSILA could discuss issues of ethics and rights, how we might develop consensus, and how we might develop an ethics statement and/or statement of rights and principles. If you are interested in serving on such a committee, please contact Mary Linn at secretary@ssila.org or Jack Martin at jbmart@wm.edu.
The Dynamic Language Infrastructure – Documenting Endangered Languages (DLI-DEL) Fellowships at NEH
The Dynamic Language Infrastructure – Documenting Endangered Languages (DLI-DEL) Fellowships are offered as part of a joint, multi-year funding program of NEH and the National Science Foundation (NSF) to develop and advance scientific and scholarly knowledge concerning endangered human languages. DLI-DEL Fellowships support individuals (not institutional or collaborative projects) who are junior or senior linguists, linguistic anthropologists, and sociolinguists to conduct research on one or more endangered or moribund languages. DLI-DEL Fellowships prioritize scholarly analysis and publication, including but not limited to lexicons, grammars, databases, peer-reviewed articles, and monographs. Awards also support fieldwork and other activities relevant to digital recording, documenting, and sustainable archiving of endangered languages.
Eligibility:
American citizens who live and work anywhere in the world and are linguists, linguistic anthropologists, or sociolinguists who specialize in documenting endangered languages.
US residents who live in the US and who specialize in the above fields are eligible to apply.
Applicants must not be enrolled in degree programs. DLI-DEL fellowships do not fund graduate students. However, if applicants have completed all their degree requirements and the only remaining step is degree conferral, they can apply provided they submit a letter from their dean or department chair that attests to those facts. If such a letter is missing from the application, the proposal will be considered unresponsive.
Adjuncts, independent scholars, tribal linguists, retired faculty members, non-tenured and tenure-track faculty members, and contractual teaching-staff are welcome to apply.
Deadlines:
Deadline to submit applications is September 13, 2023; submitted through grants.gov.
Expected notification date is April 30, 2024.
Period of Performance:
The shortest period of performance is 6 months, and the maximum period of funding is 12 months, part-time equivalent, or a combination of both. The amount of funding is $5,000 per month, or pro-rated equivalent for half time:
DLI-DEL Fellowships program supports individuals who work between half time and full time on their projects. You may combine part- and full-time work, but you must work at least half time (50%), and you can split your term into two separate active periods. The active periods must be at least three months each.
If you work full time on your project, you must forgo teaching and other major activities. If you combine a part-time award with teaching or another job, you must carry a reduced class load, or work load, during the period of performance. Awards will be reduced to reflect the smaller time commitment when you work part time or for fewer than the equivalent of 12 full-time months on the NEH project.
Please check the posted Notice of Funding Opportunity, the pre-recorded webinar, the Frequently Asked Questions document, the list of recently funded projects, and posted sample narratives on the DLI-DEL Fellowship landing page (see under Samples Application Narratives, on the left hand-side of the page) for more information.
If you have any questions, please e-mail them to delfel@neh.gov and staff will be happy to help you.
Call - CoLang Expressions of Interest
Dear InField/CoLang Participants and other SSILA members,
Greetings from Adrienne Tsikewa and Carly Tex, the co-conveners for CoLang 2023-2024 Advisory Circle. On behalf of the Advisory Circle, we are formally soliciting expressions of interest for hosting the 2026 Institute on Collaborative Language Research (InField/CoLang). These should be a paragraph or two that briefly explain your interest in hosting the 2026 CoLang Institute, including some basic details about possible institutional support, the organizing committee, among other preliminary details. Please note that this is the 2nd call for expressions of interests.
Expressions of interest should be emailed to both the Co-Conveners at adrienne.tsikewa@gmail.com and carly@aicls.org by August 31, 2023. This info is also available online at https://www.colanginstitute.org/blog/feb062023.
After receiving expressions of interest, we will then invite more detailed proposals for hosting the 2026 CoLang Institute. These should take the form of a two-to-three page proposal that (1) presents the qualifications of the proposed Local Organizer(s); (2) outlines any Institute-particular themes or approaches; (3) presents possible fundraising strategies and sources of internal/institutional support, including participant scholarships (fundraising, evaluating applications and administering), and (4) states the likely available resources for personnel, housing, and classroom and technology support. One additional page can be added to list any already-known funding or in-kind contributions.
All proposals received by that date will be considered by the Advisory Circle. The Advisory Circle may request additional information. Due to the nature of the event, priority is given to a local organizing committee whose members (at least one) have participated in earlier CoLang Institutes. If selected, the Local Organizers(s) will head the Local Organizing Committee and will work closely with the Advisory Circle to develop themes, course content, and instructors. CoLang has an established partnership with the Linguistics Society of America (LSA) and has worked closely together with the Endangered Language Fund (ELF), and the Local Organizers(s) and Local Organizing Committee will also work with the LSA and potentially with ELF. The duties of the Local Organizing Committee are outlined in this paragraph from the Charter:
b. Local Organizing Committee
A given year’s Institute is organized and run by a Local Organizing Committee. The committee has the primary responsibility for that Institute. These responsibilities include major fundraising, advertising, all Institute administration including faculty and speaker contracts and payments, arranging IRB approval and dealing with issues of informed consent for the practicum (and elsewhere, if required), arranging venues, travel and visas, and accommodations for all participants, as well as volunteer staffing, airport transfers, social events, evaluation, and follow up reporting, and any other routine things as necessary. Programmatic decisions are made with guidance from the Advisory Committee. The local committee consists of a minimum of two members. One or more external members of the organizing committee might also be appointed, at the discretion of the local committee. When appropriate or feasible, one or more members of the Local Organizing Committee should be representatives from local Indigenous communities. The Local Organizing Committee may delegate particular organizing roles to others (e.g., talks, organization of evening and weekend activities, coordination of multi-instructor workshops, etc.).
The 2018 Institute was hosted by Aaron George Broadwell at the University of Florida at Gainesville. The UF Gainesville proposal is available from the co-conveners upon request. The 2022 Institute was hosted by Susan Penfield and Mizuki Miyashita at the University of Montana.
We look forward to hearing from those of you interested in hosting in 2026 (and we encourage you to begin thinking about the possibility of hosting CoLang 2028). Please feel free to contact us if you have questions about hosting or the process of applying.
Adrienne Tsikewa and Carly Tex
Co-Conveners CoLang Advisory Circle
2023-2024 Travel Award - Matching Fund Drive
Friends of SSILA,
It’s hard to imagine, but our last in-person meeting was in New Orleans in 2020! Last January at our online Business Meeting we discussed future meeting formats. There was broad support for gathering in person and celebrating the LSA’s centennial celebration in New York in January, 2024.
That meeting will be financially challenging for many. SSILA has offered Travel Awards in the past based in part on financial need, but we generally receive requests totaling $13,000 to $17,000 and have had a total budget of just $3,000 to give out. This year I am very happy to report that Stephen R. Anderson and Janine Anderson-Bays have pledged up to $5,000 in matching funds to SSILA. To take advantage of their offer, we are currently seeking donations of any amount for travel assistance or for our general fund: the matching funds will be used specifically to assist with travel to the LSA.
SSILA is a non-profit 501(c)3 charitable organization. Donations may be deductible for U.S. federal income tax purposes. For donations of more than $295.00, or amounts not listed on the donation form, please contact our Secretary-Treasurer Mary Linn at secretary@ssila.org.
The call has already gone out for session proposals. In a few weeks we’ll send a call out for abstracts. Please also make a note of the different awards SSILA gives. In addition to travel awards, we give the Best Student Presentation Award, the Mary R. Haas Book Award, the Victor Golla Prize, the Ken Hale Prize, and the Archiving Award.
Thank you for your continued support of SSILA!
Jack B. Martin
SSILA President
Adrienne Tsikewa Named to Program Committee
We welcome Adrienne Tsikewa, who is joining the SSILA Program Committee for a three-year term.
The composition of the SSILA Executive and Program Committees for this year is summarized by the following diagram.
Delores Taken Alive Awarded SSILA Ken Hale Prize
The Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas (SSILA) is honored to report that the SSILA Ken Hale Prize in 2022 has been awarded posthumously to Hiŋháŋ Sná Wíŋ (Rattling Owl Woman), or Delores Taken Alive.
Delores was a treasured keeper of traditional Lakota knowledge, who spoke her language fluently. She was renowned not only across Standing Rock but throughout the Dakota and Lakota reservations as one of the most eloquent Lakota speakers of her time. Even other fluent speakers, when they had questions about the intricacies of their language, would say, “Delores will know.”
She dedicated her life to teaching the youth about who they are and where they come from. Her service began at Standing Rock Head Start in Little Eagle, South Dakota, just a few miles from Kȟaŋǧí Ská Oyáŋke (White Crow Settlement) where she had grown up. Her childhood was a traditional one, without electricity or running water, and the stories she heard from her father Wallace, as they went to sleep each night in their one-room log cabin, made her into the wonderful storyteller that the community knew her as.
After more than thirty years at Head Start, she went into retirement for a few short years until being asked to teach her language at McLaughlin School. The bond she had with her students was one between an uŋčí (grandmother) and tȟakóža (grandchildren). Her philosophy and style of teaching instilled into the young ones the essential understanding that we are all related, and those relationships thrive on respect.
Delores used to joke that she wasn’t allowed to retire. Behind her good humor was a deep sense of responsibility. Oyáte wačhíŋyaŋpi – the nation depended on her. Even after another fourteen years at McLaughlin, she was called upon regularly to speak at public gatherings, to lecture at Sitting Bull College, or to make recordings for the tribal language program. Besides her work on local projects, she was one of the primary Native speaker-consultants for various publications by the Lakota Language Consortium, including the New Lakota Dictionary, and the Lakota Grammar Handbook, which are well known in the field of Native American linguistics as gold standards for works of their type.
Just three years ago, at the age of 84, Delores became a weekly host on KLND Radio 89.5 FM. Her show, It’s Good to Speak Lakota, was the only 100%-Lakota language show on the station, and possibly on any airwaves. She produced 48 episodes. In doing so, she breathed the sound of Lakota back into homes across Standing Rock and beyond. Every week, she encouraged other fluent speakers to phone into the show, rebuilding their confidence about using their language in public, and tackling the loneliness felt by Elders who live remotely or have no one left to visit with.
Delores recording her weekly show on KLND Radio 89.5, “It’s Good To Speak Lakota.” Photo by John Brave Bull.
Delores always kept her focus on seven generations ahead. Through her decision to record both her radio shows, and the weekly classes she gave at Sitting Bull College between 2017 and 2018, she documented hundreds of hours of fluent Lakota speech, much of which is transcribed. These collections of recordings are the biggest of their kind in Standing Rock’s corpus of Lakota language resources and will continue to be an abundant gift for future generations.
In one of these recording, Delores spoke of her belief in the power of education:
Leháŋn oúŋ uŋkítȟawapi kiŋháŋ: wípȟe núŋpalala uŋyúhapi. Íŋyaŋ Woslál Hé thimáhe úŋpi kaškáp iyéčhel uŋk’úŋp. Čha wíipȟe núŋm úŋhapi kiŋ hé lé wóuŋspe waŋkátuya luhápi kiŋ lé waŋží; na ičínuŋpa kiŋ hé íŋš wóčhekiye kiŋ. Wakȟáŋ Tȟáŋka yéksuyapi aŋpétu iyóhi … háŋtaŋ líla waš’ágya yaúŋpi kte. Thiwáhe nitȟáwapi kiŋháŋ líla taŋyáŋ úŋpi kte.
In our modern way of life, we have two weapons. Living at Standing Rock is like we’re living as prisoners of war. So the two weapons we have are these: the first is education, and the second is prayer. Every day you remember the Great Spirit. If you do that, you’ll be really strong, and your families will live healthy lives.
We presented the Ken Hale Award to members of the Standing Rock Language and Culture Institute during the business meeting of our virtual 2023 Annual Meeting on January 21, 2023. It is our honor to recognize the legacy of elder Delores Taken Alive. Her work truly exemplifies the spirit of Ken Hale.
— Nacole Walker, former director of Standing Rock LCI, provided the body of this text in her nomination letter. No further use of the photo is allowed without permission of the Taken Alive thiyoshpaye.
2023 Best Student Presentation Award Announced
Congratulations to J. Drew Hancock-Mac Tamhais, whose paper “Revising the Particle Class in Northern Iroquoian” won the SSILA 2023 Best Student Presentation Award at the 2023 SSILA Annual Conference. The judges remarked that the research was fascinating, and the presentation was very nicely done. Hancock-Mac Tamhais’s research has been conducted as part of his PhD work at the University of Bern.
George Aaron Broadwell awarded Victor Golla Prize
The Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas is pleased to announce that Dr. Aaron Broadwell has been awarded the Victor Golla Prize.
Aaron Broadwell’s record of contributions to our field and to the communities he works with, together with rich attestations of his impact through letters of support, resulted in the ad hoc committee’s unanimous and enthusiastic decision to award him the prize.
Aaron Broadwell with a Timucua bowl. Photo by University of Florida/Lyon Duong, used by permission of University of Florida.
The Victor Golla Prize is presented in recognition of a significant history of both linguistic scholarship and service to the scholarly community, with service that expands the quality and/or dissemination of such scholarship. The prize, which bestows a lifetime membership in SSILA on the recipient, seeks especially to honor those who strive to carry out interdisciplinary scholarship in the spirit of Victor Golla.
Aaron is the Elling Eide Professor of Anthropology at the University of Florida. His scholarship spans an impressive number of languages of the Americas, including Choctaw, Zapotec, Kaqchikel, and Timucua. Aaron’s work is both descriptive and theoretical. He tackles synchronic and diachronic questions, and his work covers a broad range of areas of grammatical interest, including phonology, morphology, semantics, and, of course, syntax.
His numerous publications include two reference grammars for Choctaw (2006) and Timucua (in press), scores of articles, and Ticha: an online digital text explorer for Colonial Zapotec, with Brook Lilleghaugen and others, also open access (http://ticha.haverford.edu/). Many of these projects, including the Copala Triqui dictionary (http://copalatriqui.webonary.org) and Zapotec philology projects (http://sandionisiozapotec.webonary.org) are highly collaborative, working closely with community members over many years. These projects and much of his work is designed to be accessible for the communities he works with. One collaborative project Caseidyneën Saën – Learning Together: Colonial Valley Zapotec Teaching Materials received three awards in 2021, including Best Digital Humanities Project from the Latin American Studies Association (http://ds-wordpress.haverford.edu/ticha-resources/modules/). Most recently, he is serving as a project linguist on an NEH-DEL Mississippi Choctaw Dictionary and Comparison of Community Dialects award (2020-2023).
A requirement for the Golla Prize is that the awardee strives to carry out interdisciplinary scholarship, combining excellent linguistic scholarship in one or more other allied fields. Aaron’s work is notable for its breadth in a range of disciplines beyond linguistics. He has done work of interest to anthropologists, historians, and Indigenous language practitioners. Aaron’s research on the North Florida language Timucua is representative of this multi-disciplinary approach. He has spearheaded the collection, translation, and analysis of Timucua texts and creation of an open access dictionary (https://www.webonary.org/timucua/). Although he has worked on the grammar of Timucua, for which there is very little prior research, he has also used the texts to investigate the history of Timucuan people themselves, the colonial rule, and interactions between the Timucua and the Spanish. His talks have touched on the social hierarchy at the time of Timucua contact, issues of textual analysis, Native voices, aspects of daily Timucuan life under colonial rule, and more.
His service record is likely known personally to many of our membership. He has served as the SSILA In Memoriam editor for many years, and was on the SSILA ad hoc committee for our conference talks to address the broader social significance of their work and of the different types of impact that the research can have in specific contexts. He has served on the board of the Endangered Language Fund. And in 2018, Aaron directed the Institute on Collaborative Language Research (CoLang) at the University of Florida, which engages community and non-community scholars and students in a collaborative learning and knowledge sharing experience. He is also a generous mentor, as warmly attested in the letters of support and which many in our Society have been fortunate to benefit from first hand.
In sum, Aaron Broadwell’s research, collaborations, and mentoring Aaron’s research have been impressively broad and inclusive. His abundant scholarship and service, enacted with such grace and good humor, is humbling. We congratulate him and celebrate this honor with him.
Summer 2023 NSF REU site: Increasing American Indian/Alaska Native Perspectives in Field and Experimental Linguistics
Applications are now open for the Summer 2023 NSF REU site: Increasing American Indian/Alaska Native Perspectives in Field and Experimental Linguistics! Please share widely through your networks!
The REU Site is an 8-week summer program fully funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). This program is designed for undergraduate students who identify as (or have a family/cultural connection with) American Indian/Alaska Native peoples, offering an intensive introduction to the field of linguistics and language science to students who otherwise would not have the opportunity to explore the discipline through their home institution. Students participating in the program will work closely with faculty on a hands-on research project and will receive funding for travel, on-campus housing, and a weekly stipend.
The program is hosted by the Department of Linguistics at the University of Oregon in the city of Eugene, situated on Kalapuya Ilihi, the traditional homelands of the Kalapuya People, the First Peoples of the Willamette Valley, whose descendants are citizens of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde and the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians.
Timeline
Applications are due at 5:00 pm (PST) on January 5, 2022.
The program begins June 12 and ends August 4, 2023. (The first week is remote; the rest is in-person on campus)
How to apply
Applicants are asked to fill out an online application form via https://blogs.uoregon.edu/reuling/application/ and submit the following supporting materials:
-A Statement of Purpose explaining why you are applying for this opportunity
-An unofficial university/college transcript
-Two letters of recommendation
For more information about the program, visit our website at blogs.uoregon.edu/reuling/
— Gabriela Pérez Báez
Joel Sherzer (1942-2022)
Joel Fred Sherzer, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the University of Texas at Austin and co-founder of the Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America (AILLA), passed away peacefully on Sunday, November 6, 2022.
Joel’s major publications include Kuna Ways of Speaking: An Ethnographic Perspective (1983), a groundbreaking ethnography of speaking (often considered the first full-length ethnography of speaking). His Verbal Art in San Blas: Kuna Culture Through Its Discourse (1990) was an exercise in using his discourse-centered approach to language and culture to explore the verbal artistry of a variety of Guna genres of speaking and chanting. The final book in his Guna trilogy, Stories, Myths, Chants, and Songs of the Kuna Indians (2003), further explored verbally artistic ways of speaking, chanting, and singing among the Guna. A summary of Sherzer’s thinking on speech play and verbal art as a critical site for ethnographic investigation was published as Speech Play and Verbal Art (2002). His last book was Adoring the Saints: Fiestas in Central Mexico (with Yolanda Lastra and Dina Sherzer, 2009).
Joel was an early member of SSILA, and he was a cherished mentor and colleague to many of our members. The full obituary is available here: https://ailla.utexas.org/node/233.
ComputEL-6: The Sixth Workshop on the Use of Computational Methods in the Study of Endangered Languages
Date: March 5–6, 2023, following the 8th International Conference of Language Documentation and Conservation
Location: Held virtually
Contact: computel.workshop@gmail.com
Workshop Website: https://computel-workshop.org/computel-6/
Linguistic Field(s): Any topic relevant to the use of computational methods in the study,
support, and revitalization of endangered languages
Submission Deadline: Sunday, November 20 at 11:59PM (UTC-12 time zone)
Call for Papers:
The ComputEL-6 workshop focuses on the use of computational methods in the study, support, and revitalization of endangered languages. The primary aim of the workshop is to continue narrowing the gap between computational linguists interested in methods for endangered languages, field linguists documenting these languages, and the language communities who are striving to maintain their languages. Papers are invited which explore the interface and intersection of computational linguistics, documentary linguistics, and community-based language revitalization/conservation efforts.
Please see the full call for papers at https://computel-workshop.org/computel-6/
How to Submit:
Please use the following link: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=computel6
In line with our goal of reaching different academic communities, we offer two different modes of submission: extended abstract or full paper. Either can be submitted to one of our two tracks: (a) language community perspective and (b) academic perspective. The mode of submission does not influence the likelihood of acceptance. Please see our website for more information.
Notification of acceptance will be sent out by January 20, 2023.
Additional Information:
For more information, please contact the workshop coordinators at computel.workshop@gmail.com or visit the workshop website at https://computel-workshop.org/computel-6/
IJAL 88(4) Now Available
The latest issue of the International Journal of American Linguistics (IJAL) is available on the University of Chicago Press Journals website. A table of contents can be viewed below.
To explore the individual articles from this issue and to learn more about IJAL—including how to submit manuscripts and how to subscribe—visit journals.uchicago.edu/ijal.
Visit the website of IJAL’s editorial office at americanlinguistics.org.
International Journal of American Linguistics 88, no. 4 (October 2022)
ARTICLES
Comparative and Historical Aspects of Nakoda Dialectology, Vincent Collette, pp. 441–467
Insubordination and Finitization in Arawakan Languages, Tom Durand, pp. 469–506
La Negación En La Lengua Sáliba, Hortensia Estrada Ramírez, pp. 507–533
Transitivity and Split Argument Coding in Yaqui, Lilián Guerrero, pp. 535–571
REVIEW
Uumajursiutik unaatuinnamut. Hunter with harpoon. Chasseur au harpon. By Markoosie Patsauq. Edited and translated by Valerie Henitiuk and Marc-Antoine Mahieu, Louis-Jacques Dorais, pp. 573–575
Erratum, p. 577
Editorial Note, p. 579
Announcements, p. 581
Call for Expressions of Interest - Two funded 2-year Master’s positions
Project: Breathing new life into legacy materials: Research and repatriation for a Sáliba collection
Principal Investigator (PI): Jorge Emilio Rosés Labrada (website with contact information)
Two fully-funded Master’s student positions are available as part of the SSHRC Insight Grant “Breathing new life into legacy materials: Research and repatriation for a Sáliba collection”, with a start date of September 2023 and for a two-year duration.
Desired qualifications:
BA in Linguistics or Anthropology (w/ strong linguistics foundation)
Conversational competency in Spanish
Some experience with language documentation software (e.g., ELAN, SayMore and/or FLEx)
What the project offers:
Funding: Both students will be funded for a period of 2 years, starting September 2023. The Master’s funding comes from a combination of research/teaching assistant duties (max. 12 hours per week) and a stipend. Read more on departmental graduate funding here. Additional funding (travel and living expenses) for fieldwork is available through the project.
Fieldwork experience: Both students will conduct fieldwork with the PI in Colombia. Training in documentation methodology, ethics and audiovisual recordings will be provided through coursework and one-on-one mentoring as part of the project.
Conference participation: The project will fund both students to attend a conference in North America to present their master’s projects in their second year. Potential master’s project topics are verbal person marking (morphosyntax) and the Sáliba vowel system (phonetics)—or other topic of interest to the student after consultation with the PI.
If interested, please send the following to jrosesla@ualberta.ca by November 30, 2022:
one-page statement of interest (including description of qualifications / prior experience)
CV
writing sample (if available — e.g., an undergraduate thesis or research paper)
25th Workshop on American Indigenous Languages (WAIL)
Date: April 14, 2023 - April 15, 2023
Location: Santa Barbara, California, USA
Contact Persons: Jordan AG Douglas-Tavani
Linguistic Field (s): Any topic relevant to the study of indigenous languages of the Americas
Call Deadline: Friday, December 9th at Noon (Pacific Standard Time)
Keynote Speaker:
Dr. Gabriela Pérez Báez (University of Oregon)
Call for Papers:
Anonymous abstracts are invited for talks on any topic relevant to the study of indigenous languages of the Americas. Talks will be 20 minutes, followed by 10 minutes for discussion. Abstracts should be 500 words or less (excluding examples, figures, and / or references). Abstracts and presentations may be given in English or Spanish.
Individuals may submit abstracts for one single-authored and one co-authored paper. Please indicate your source(s) and type(s) of data in the abstract (e.g. recordings, texts, conversational, elicited, narrative, etc.). For co-authored papers, please indicate who plans to present the paper, who will be in attendance, and who are the corresponding authors.
Abstracts should be submitted in .pdf format via the Abstract Submission form (also available via the conference website, see below). Please submit two abstracts, one with the identifying information of the person or persons giving the presentation along with affiliations and contact information, the other with no indication of the author(s). If authors must be cited, they should be referred to as (Author [DATE]). Hard copy submissions will be accepted from those who do not have Internet access. For this, please send four copies of your abstract, along with a 3x5 card with the following information: (1) your name; (2) affiliation; (3) mailing address; (4) phone number; (5) email address; and (6) title of your paper.
Send hard copy submissions to:
Workshop on American Indigenous Languages
Attn: Jordan AG Douglas-Tavani
Department of Linguistics
University of California, Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, CA 93106
Notification of acceptance will arrive by email no later than: Friday, February 4th, 2022.
For further information, please contact the conference coordinators, at wailconference.ucsb@gmail.com or visit the WAIL conference website https://www.wailconference.org.
IN MEMORIAM DAVID PENTLAND
David H. Pentland, Professor of Linguistics and Anthropology at the University of Manitoba, died on 6 July 2022 after a short illness.
A prominent figure across the field of Algonquian Studies, David Pentland received his early training in philology in the course of an Honours degree in Icelandic (University of Manitoba, 1968). Turning to general linguistics, he quickly became committed to the comparative study of the Algonquian languages, and his Ph.D. dissertation (University of Toronto, 1979) on Algonquian Historical Phonology showed a nearly mastery of the field in both depth and breadth: in a life-long research program of admirable intellectual coherence, David Pentland not only drew on the structural and geographic diversity of these languages and their remarkable time-depth and historical documentation but also used the analytical tools of synchronic linguistics, comparative reconstruction, and ethnology in a way that was exemplary and creative at once.
After a lengthy stretch as an itinerant lecturer, his exceptional status as a scholar was at last recognised in 1993 when the University of Manitoba established a joint position in Linguistics and Anthropology which also carried with it theEditorship of the Papers of the Algonquian Conference/Actes du Congrès des Algonquinistes.
Pentland’s oeuvre includes a long series of carefully crafted and elegantly presented papers. Beside these formal contributions, he was a generous mentor and guide, at the annual Algonquian Conference as in copious correspondence, to generations of scholars, combining a sharp sense of what makes a good problem with a deeply quizzical stance towards the tools linguists use to solve such problems. His field studies of the Cree spoken at Lesser Slave Lake (Alberta), South Indian Lake (Manitoba) and the eight communities around James Bay (where he also studied Cree cartography) are reflected throughout his work but most obviously in the tribal synonymies that appear in the Subarctic volume of the Smithsonian Handbook of North American Indians. As an authority on the philological and cultural evidence and the systematic comparison of the languages he had few peers.
His magnum opus is the Proto-Algonquian Dictionary, unfinished at the time of his death (and now being readied for publication as it stands). An historical and comparative analysis of all the Algonquian languages, this is a scholarly work of extraordinary ambition and devotion. It will be his lasting monument.
— HC Wolfart