2016 Institute on Collaborative Language Research (CoLang), University of Alaska Fairbanks

2016 Institute on Collaborative Language Research (CoLang)
University of Alaska Fairbanks
Call for proposals
Workshops on Language Documentation and Language Continuity
June 20 – July 1, 2016
Deadline for receipt of proposals: June 1, 2015
Notification of acceptance: August 30, 2015
CoLang is soliciting proposals for workshops in language documentation, maintenance and revitalization for the fifth CoLang Institute on Collaborative Language Research. CoLang participants include linguists, Indigenous community members, graduate and undergraduate students in linguistics and anthropology, archival researchers, and language activists. Two weeks of workshops will be followed by 3 weeks of intensive language documentation practica.
CoLang focuses on collaborative language work that connects academic fieldwork to community development and goals. Many participants work with endangered languages around the world. Past participants have gone on to great success, developing documentation and revitalization projects, generating funding, and presenting results at major national and international conferences.
CoLang 2016 will offer courses in linguistic fieldwork, technological training, archival research, interdisciplinary collaborations with the arts and sciences, developing collaborative community language projects, and pedagogical/teaching applications, as well as foundation courses in linguistics.
A list of courses already staffed can be found on the CoLang website. We are especially interested in finding instructors for courses in the following areas:
-- Orthography
-- Database Design
-- Phonetic Analysis with PRAAT
-- R Programming for Linguists
-- Regular Expressions
-- Video Recording for Linguistic Analysis
We are also soliciting proposals for approximately ten new workshops that will complement existing courses and fit with CoLang themes.
CoLang workshops meet four days per week, 1.5 hours per day.
Workshop proposals should be a maximum of 2 pages long and include:
-- Topic
-- Brief description of workshop content, including: general lesson plan, target audience, and beginning, intermediate, or advanced level.
-- How you plan to teach it (balance of theory, examples, hands-on exercises).
-- Your qualifications for teaching this class, including previous courses taught with similar content.
We encourage students and language activists to submit course proposals. For examples of workshop titles and descriptions from a previous institutes, see the CoLang website.
Previous Institutes have been hosted by the University of Texas at Arlington, the University of Kansas, the University of Oregon, and the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Travel and room and board will be covered for instructors. Depending on funding, a modest honorarium may be provided.
Questions should be directed to colang2016@gmail.com
Completed proposals should be submitted as a PDF to colang2016@gmail.com
Sponsored by the Alaska Native Language Center, the Linguistics Society of America, University of Alaska Fairbanks, University of Alaska Southeast, and the Endangered Language Fund.
Co-directors:
Dr. Siri Tuttle, University of Alaska Fairbanks
Dr. Alice Taff, University of Alaska Southeast

Proposed addition to the new publiction section.

Dear SSILA Committtee Members:Please approve of, or comment on the below.Willem_______________________________________________Dear Prof. de Reuse,we recently have published five books on Indigenous languages of America. Could you post the abstracts below in the SSILA newsletter, please.Thank youbest regardsUlrich Lueders, Dr.www.lincom.eu<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<A Grammar of OnondagaMichael BarrieSogang UniversityOnondaga is a member of the Northern branch of the Iroquoian family. It is spoken in Ontario, Canada and New York State in the United States. It is a highly endangered language with only a small handful of speakers, mostly over 60. Like other Iroquoian languages, Onondaga has a small phonemic inventory, but a rich inflectional and derivational morphology. It is a polysynthetic language with noun incorporation, subject and object agreement, and numerous morphological resources expressing both compositional and non-compositional meanings. Word order is rather free, but certain regularities are noted.The grammar aims to be theoretically neutral and draws data as much as possible from naturalistic data as possible. As Northern Iroquoian languages are closely related, comparisons to other Northern Iroquoian languages are made periodically. This grammar is the result of 8 years of fieldwork at Six Nations in Ontario, Canada.ISBN 9783862886005. Languages of the World/Materials 503. 102pp. USD 68.20. 2015.<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<El caribe insular del siglo XVIITratado sobre la lengua y la cultura de los CallínagoDictionnaire caraïbe-françaisRaymond BretonTraducción al españolDuna TroianiCNRS, SeDyL-CELIAEl propósito de esta traducción del Dictionnaire caraïbe-français del Padre Raymond Breton, es dar a conocer un documento antiguo, casi único, sobre la lengua de los Callínago, hablada en las Antillas Menores al iniciar la colonización. Este diccionario es testimonio de la única lengua de las Antillas hablada hasta principios del siglo XX por los "Caribes" de La Dominica y en parte hablada por los Garínagu que viven hoy día a lo largo de la Costa Atlántica, desde Belice hasta Nicaragua, sin olvidar su reciente emigración a Estados Unidos. Aporta su propia luz sobre los contactos de lenguas –caribes y arahuacas– que convivían en las Antillas, entre las cuales también se encuentra la lengua de los Taino.El diccionario del Padre Breton asemeja más bien a un diccionario enciclopédico ya que nos da a conocer, además de la lengua, la fauna, la flora –con el uso específico de cada planta y cada objeto–, las costumbres y la vida de los Callínago en esos tiempos remotos.ISBN 9783862885947. Languages of the World/Dictionaries 55. 278pp. USD 92.20. 2014.<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<Wichi lhomtesEstudio de la gramática y la interacción fonología-morfología-sintaxis-semánticaVerónica NercesianCONICET-UNAF/UBAWichi lhomtes. Estudio de la gramática y la interacción fonología-morfología-sintaxis-semántica consiste en un exhaustivo estudio y descripción de la fonología y la gramática de la lengua wichí (una de las cuatro lenguas de la familia lingüística mataguaya), basado en datos primarios y en el marco de la tipología-funcional y desde una perspectiva que incluye el análisis de la interacción de los niveles lingüísticos.Por un lado, se presenta el estudio gramatical centrado en la morfología y su interacción con la fonología, la sintaxis y la semántica. El mismo incluye el análisis fonológico y fonético del inventario de sonidos, la sílaba y el acento, el análisis de los procesos morfofonológicos y el de la morfología y la sintaxis, esta última hasta la cláusula simple. Por otro lado, a partir de los datos del wichí explorados y de la interacción de los niveles, se incluye una discusión teórica centrada en el concepto de palabra y la morfología como nivel. Asimismo, se analizan las dificultades que encuentran los distintos modelos teóricos para explicar los fenómenos de interfaz, y se propone una explicación para la interacción fonología-morfología-sintaxis-semántica en la palabra.ISBN 9783862885923. LINCOM Studies in Native American Linguistics 74. 524pp. USD 104.20. 2014.<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<Díʔzteo zapoteco de San Agustín Loxicha, Oaxaca, MéxicoEsbozo gramatical acompañado de cuatro cuentos tradicionales con análisis morfológico y traducciónMikko Benjamin SalminenJames Cook UniversityDíʔzte, o zapoteco de San Agustín Loxicha, Oaxaca, México (Esbozo gramatical acompañado de cuatro cuentos tradicionales con análisis morfológico y traducción) is a grammatical description of San Agustín Loxicha Zapotec with four texts including a morpheme analysis and translation as well as links to the corresponding audio files. The description is mostly based on data collected during fieldwork by the author, and was submitted as an MA thesis at Leiden University in 2010.San Agustín Loxicha is a Zapotec variety pertaining to the Miahuatec subdivision of the Southern Zapotec branch spoken in the Coastal region of the Mexican state of Oaxaca. It is a tone language with level and contour tones, suprasegmental glottalization and an intricate verb system which often marks aspect by means of fossilized prefixes or floating tone. The description, cast in the framework of Basic Linguistic Theory, draws frequent comparisons to other Zapotec languages and to Proto-Zapotec reconstructions, and it includes an introductory description of the cultural context within which the language is spoken, also introducing the belief system featuring a 9/13 day calendar system, based on the Mesoamerican ritual calendar, which is still in use in the community to the present day.ISBN 9783862885312. Languages of the World/Materials 498. 126pp. USD 63.40. 2014.<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<Lengua chorote (mataguayo). Estudio fonológico y morfosintácticoJavier CarolUniversidad de Buenos AiresLa lengua chorote (familia mataguaya, tronco macroguaycurú) es hablada por algo menos de 3000 personas en el Chaco argentino y paraguayo. Entre sus rasgos tipológicos salientes se cuentan fenómenos de palatalización y asimilación vocálica entre laríngeas, orden de palabras relativamente libre, intransitividad escindida o marcación activo-inactiva, jerarquía de persona, marcas de TAM sobre nombres y un sistema de demostrativos que codifica movimiento y otros rasgos vinculables con la evidencialidad.El presente estudio, el primero exhaustivo sobre esta lengua, describe su fonología y morfosintaxis y, asimismo, analiza algunos fenómenos relevantes en relación con la teoría lingüística. El enfoque adoptado es formal, aunque se ha seguido un criterio amplio, privilegiando temas de interés comunes a la investigación en la lin¬güística descriptiva sudamericana y especialmente chaqueña. El libro está dividido en diez capítulos, en los cuales se presenta un panorama de la lengua y sus hablantes y se abordan la fonología, la morfosintaxis general (clases de palabras, orden, estructura del predicado, etc.), la indexación de argumentos en el predicado, las construcciones impersonal, antipasiva, causativa y aplicativa, el sistema TAM (incluyendo evidencialidad y miratividad) y el dominio nominal, entre otros. El trabajo es una versión revisada de la tesis doctoral defendida por el autor a comienzos de 2012, y está basado en trabajo de campo realizado entre 2005 y 2011 y en diversos materiales de segunda mano editados con asistencia de hablantes nativos.ISBN 9783862885268. LINCOM Studies in Native American Linguistics 72. 474pp. USD 101.80. 2014.<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<Animales y plantas del pueblo kakataiboDiccionario trilingüe (kakataibo, español, inglés) con identificaciones biológicas, índice alfabético castellano-kakataibo, clasificación semántica, nombres regionales y definiciones etnobiológicasRoberto Zariquiey y David W. FleckPontificia Universidad Católica del PerúCon la colaboración de Alfredo Estrella; Emilio Estrella; Salomón Estrella; Ricardo Odicio y Ricardo PereiraAnimales y plantas del pueblo kakataibo is a trilingual (Kakataibo-Spanish-English) ethnobiological dictionary, which includes biological identifications, Regional Spanish names and ethnobiological definitions produced following an innovative methodology, based on a close collaboration between Kakataibo speakers, linguists and biologists. The dictionary also includes a Spanish-Kakataibo alphabetic index and a semantic classification of all the entries, based on biological taxonomy. The book is the result of two years of collaborative work and, during this time, an interdisciplinar and intercultural research team has documented the ethnobiological knowledge of the Kakataibo people, manifested in different discourse genres (from traditional narratives to medical recipies) and has developed a very detailed lexical database from which this dictionary has been produced. With more than 1250 entries, Animales y plantas del pueblo kakataibo constitutes the most ambicious effort for documenting the ethnobiological lexicon of the Kakataibo language and is perhaps one of the largest ethnobiological dictionaries available for any other Amazonian language.ISBN 9783862885206 (Hardbound). Languages of the World/Dictionaries 52. 266pp. USD 177.60. 2013.

Hans-Jürgen Sasse (1943–2015)

SSILA was sorry to hear of the death of Hans-Jürgen Sasse on Jan 14, 2015.

Sasse studied Linguistics, Indo-European, Semitics and Balkanology in Berlin, Thessaloniki and Munich. He was awarded a Ph.D. in 1970 in Munich by the Department of Semitic Languages for his dissertation Linguistische Analyse des arabischen Dialekts der Mhallamiye in der Provinz Mardin (Südosttürkei). From 1972 to 1977 he was Research Assistant at the Institut für Allgemeine und Indogermanische Sprachwissenschaft (Institute for General and Indo-European Linguistics) in Munich. In 1975, he received his Habilitation with the book Die Morphophonologie des Galab-Verbs and in 1977 he was made a Professor. In 1987 he received a call from University of Cologne as the successor to Hansjakob Seiler as the Chair of General and Comparative Linguistics.  Sasse retired in the Winter Semester 2008/2009 after 21 years as endowed chair at Cologne.

Sasse was cofounder of the "Documentation of Endangered Languages" Initiative of the Volkswagen Foundation , Founding President of the Society for Endangered Languages and (from 2001) a full member of the North Rhine Westphalia Academy of Sciences, Humanities, and the Arts.

Sasse was concerned with grammatical relations and lexical categories, language universals, discourse, and grammar, historical linguistics and reconstruction. He also conducted research on language contact and language death, as well as the lexicon. Among the languages and language families on which he conducted research were languages of the Balkans (especially Modern Greek and Albanian), Afro-Asiatic languages (especially Semitic languages and Cushitic languages), and Native American languages, especially Iroquoian languages.

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