LINGUIST List 8.1405

Thu Oct 2 1997

FYI: Endangered Language Fund Grant Awards

Editor for this issue: Martin Jacobsen <martylinguistlist.org>

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  • whalen, FYI: Endangered Language Fund Grant Awards, 1997

    Message 1: FYI: Endangered Language Fund Grant Awards, 1997

     Date: Wed, 1 Oct 1997 14:53:24 -0400
    From: whalen <whalenlenny.haskins.yale.edu>
    Subject: FYI: Endangered Language Fund Grant Awards, 1997


    The Endangered Language Fund is pleased to announce the recipients of our first round of grant awards. The Endangered Language Fund is a US nonprofit organization dedicated to the study and preservation of languages that are threatened with extinction. Through the generosity of our members, we are able to promote work that would otherwise go undone. This year's ten grants were selected from a competitive field of more than 50 proposals, all with the goal of helping to stem the tide of language loss.

    The projects are: Production of original television dramas in Choctaw and Creek. Awarded to Alice Anderton of the Intertribal Wordpath Society. This project will produce two dramas starring native speakers of these two Native American languages, which are currently spoken in Oklahoma. Captioned versions will be shown on cable access channels, and videotapes will be made available to the native speakers thoughout the state. Making a rediscovered manuscript useful to the Comanche community. Awarded to Ronald Red Elk, Comanche Language and Cultural Preservation Committee. In 1996, a manuscript dictionary of Comanche, containing over 4,000 entries, was discovered in the Smithsonian. With the help of the Endangered Language Fund grant, this work will be combined with other sources and corrobarted with the remaining speakers of Comanche, so that future generations will have as complete a record of the language as possible. Recording the last two speakers of Klamath. Janne Underriner, University of Oregon. As with many Native American languages, only the oldest members of the Klamath tribe can still speak the language. Younger members of the tribe have come to realize that this is truly their last chance to know this important part of their heritage. With the aid of this work by a professional linguist, the Klamath hope to preserve what they can. Further work on the Tohono O'odham (Papago) Dictionary Project. Awarded to Ofelia Zepeda, University of Arizona and member of the Tohono O'odham Nation. This language is still the first language of most tribal members over the age of 25, but children are less likely to learn it. When completed, the extensive dictionary will help reinforce the language skills of young parents and be a permanent resource to native speakers and others interested in the language. Recording the last fluent speakers of Kuskokwim in Alaska. Awarded to Andrej Kibrik, University of Alaska. This little-studied Athabaskan language is down to three households which use it regularly. The lingustic work will aid in the teaching of the younger generation, especially through the audio recordings that will give a much better sense of the feel of the language than written sources can. Preserving Yuchi, a Native American isolate. Awarded to Mary Linn, University of Kansas. Only nineteen fluent speakers remain of the Yuchi language. Once they are gone, the Yuchi tribe will be unable to learn more of their heritage, and linguists will be unable to solve the mystery of the last remaining language isolate of the Eastern US. Linn's dissertation work will help on both fronts. Work on the Wasur languages of Indonesia. Awarded to Mark Donohue, University of Manchester. Language data collection will be conducted for several languages in a region that has only recently been officially recognized as a distinct ethnic region. Immersion programs in Micmac, Maliseet and Passamaquoddy. Awarded to Karen Somerville, Gakeemaneh/Gignamoane, New Brunswick. The speakers of these Eastern Algonquian languages have joined forces to try to further the use of the languages by the young. The ELF grant will help purchase equipment for several language immersion programs that are being developed. Han language documentation project. Awarded to Gary Holton, University of California, Santa Barbara. Han, an Alaskan Athabaskan language, has only a handful of native speakers, only one of whom is younger than sixty. This language is unusual in having preserved all four consonant series of proto- Athabaskan, yet it has only recently been recognized as a separate language. Holton's dissertation work will help solidify its position. Preparing language materials for Jingulu of Australia. Awarded to Rob Pensalfini, MIT. Only about ten fluent speakers remain of this language, which is situated in the region between two major language families. Influences of both those families appear in the language, giving it many unique characteristics. Texts and a dictionary are being prepared, and the schools there are ready to make use of them. These grants totalled $10,000 in awards and were made possible only because of the generosity of our members. We would like to take this opportunity to thank them on behalf of the grant recipients. For more information about the Endangered Language Fund, please write:

    Endangered Language Fund Department of Linguistics Yale University New Haven, CT 06520 USA elfhaskins.yale.edu Or visit our web site: http://sapir.ling.yale.edu/~elf/index.html