What can revitalization work teach us about documentation?
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Marianne Mithun
Abstract
As language documentation gains recognition as an important methodology for linguistics, and as communities mount ever more impressive revitalization projects, the interests of academic and community scholars are converging. It is useful to look to those involved in revitalization for their views on what they treasure most in the existing records of their languages and what they wish were there. Decisions about documentation are tightly bound up with ideas about what constitutes the essence of a language. If a language is viewed as encompassing such things as discourse structure, styles of interaction, constructions that meld structure and substance, prefabricated collocations and idiomatic expressions, recurring lexical choices, and conventionalized prosodic structures, then all of these must be part of the record.
Abstract
As language documentation gains recognition as an important methodology for linguistics, and as communities mount ever more impressive revitalization projects, the interests of academic and community scholars are converging. It is useful to look to those involved in revitalization for their views on what they treasure most in the existing records of their languages and what they wish were there. Decisions about documentation are tightly bound up with ideas about what constitutes the essence of a language. If a language is viewed as encompassing such things as discourse structure, styles of interaction, constructions that meld structure and substance, prefabricated collocations and idiomatic expressions, recurring lexical choices, and conventionalized prosodic structures, then all of these must be part of the record.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Dedication vii
- Acknowledgements ix
- Introduction xi
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Part I. Language Endangerment: Challenges and Responses
- The world’s languages in crisis 3
- What can revitalization work teach us about documentation? 21
- Unanswered questions in language documentation and revitalization 43
- Training as empowering social action 59
- How to avoid pitfalls in documenting endangered languages 79
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Part II. Case Studies in Documentation and Revitalization of Endangered Languages and Languages in Contact
- Converb and aspect-marking polysemy in Nar 97
- Grammatical relations in Mixe and Chimariko 119
- Having a shinshii/shiishii ‘master’ around makes you speak Japanese! 141
- Internal and external calls to immigrant language promotion 157
- Code-switching in an Erzya–Russian bilingual variety 175
- Colonialism, nationalism and language vitality in Azerbaijan 197
- Revitalizing languages through place-based language curriculum 221
- Remembering ancestral voices 243
- Index 271
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Dedication vii
- Acknowledgements ix
- Introduction xi
-
Part I. Language Endangerment: Challenges and Responses
- The world’s languages in crisis 3
- What can revitalization work teach us about documentation? 21
- Unanswered questions in language documentation and revitalization 43
- Training as empowering social action 59
- How to avoid pitfalls in documenting endangered languages 79
-
Part II. Case Studies in Documentation and Revitalization of Endangered Languages and Languages in Contact
- Converb and aspect-marking polysemy in Nar 97
- Grammatical relations in Mixe and Chimariko 119
- Having a shinshii/shiishii ‘master’ around makes you speak Japanese! 141
- Internal and external calls to immigrant language promotion 157
- Code-switching in an Erzya–Russian bilingual variety 175
- Colonialism, nationalism and language vitality in Azerbaijan 197
- Revitalizing languages through place-based language curriculum 221
- Remembering ancestral voices 243
- Index 271
