California Indians gather in Berkeley to learn how to save dying languagesBy Matt O'Brien Contra Costa TimesArticle Launched: 06/13/2008 06:19:38 PM PDT
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Click photo to enlarge Leanne Hinton, professor emeritus of linguistics at U.C. Berkeley, discuss the Native American...«12345»
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BERKELEY — The first time Barbara Pineda came into contact with a linguist, she was wary about what he wanted.An academic researcher from UC Berkeley was visiting her grandmother's home in Mendocino County in the early 1960s, taking notes as her family shared words from their Northern Pomo language."I thought he came to steal it," said Pineda, who was about 8 years old at the time. "My grandmother called me over and said, 'It's OK. He's a friend.'"Pineda, 53, is now trying to salvage the endangered language that her grandmother helped document decades ago. She is one of dozens of California Indians who gathered in Berkeley from across the state this week in hopes they can learn from the university, and from each other, how to preserve languages threatened with extinction."I'm trying to find the notes on her," Pineda said. "That's what inspired me to come here. It's coming back. What they took is coming back, in a good way."
akoyako :-) on 05 Apr 08Teaching Indigenous Languages Saturday, April 5, 2008 Teaching Indigenous Languages books | conference | articles | columns | contact | links | index | home Selected Resources on Native American Language Renewal Jon Reyhner The annual Stabilizing Indigenous Languages conferences have sought since 1994 to bring together tribal educators and experts on linguistics, language renewal, and language teaching to lay out a blueprint of policy changes, educational reforms, and community initiatives to stabilize and revitalize American Indian and Alaska Native languages. Much of the relevant previous literature on the subject is cited in the various papers included in Stabilizing Indigenous Languages, especially in Dr. Burnaby's paper in Section I, which emphasizes the Canadian experience. Since the publication of Stabilizing Indigenous Languages in 1996, Northern Arizona University has published five related books: * Reyhner, J.; Trujillo, O.; Carrasco, R.L.; & Lockard, L. (Eds.). (2003). Nurturing Native Languages. Flagstaff, AZ: Northern Arizona University. On-line at http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~jar/NNL/ * Burnaby, B., & Reyhner. J. (Eds.) (2002). Indigenous Languages Across the Community. Flagstaff, AZ: Northern Arizona University. On-line at http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~jar/ILAC/ * Reyhner, J.; Martin, J.; Lockard, L.; Gilbert, W.S. (Eds.). (2000). Learn in Beauty: Indigenous Education for a New Century. Flagstaff, AZ: Northern Arizona University. On-line at http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~jar/LIB/LIBconts.html * Reyhner, J.; Cantoni, G.; St. Clair, R.; & Parsons Yazzie, E. (Eds.). (1999). Revitalizing Indigenous Languages. Flagstaff, AZ: Northern Arizona University. On-line at http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~jar/RIL_Contents.html * Reyhner, J. (Ed.). (1997). Teaching Indigenous Languages. Flagstaff, AZ: Northern Arizona University. On-line at http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~jar/TIL_Contents.html The proceedings of the 1999 Stabilizing Indigenous Languages Conference