 Foundation for Endangered Languages
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10. Recent Publications John Enrico - Dictionary preserving the language of the Haida
By ERIC FRY, JUNEAU EMPIRE Scholar John Enrico has compiled the first comprehensive Haida dictionary, the fruit of years of living among the last generation of people who spoke the language regularly at home. About 40 people speak Haida today, not all fluently, Enrico said. The Haida Dictionary was recently published by Sealaska Heritage Institute in Juneau and the Alaska Native Language Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. At $279, the two-volume, 2,180-page set is not the sort of book you pull off the shelf when you want to know the Haida word for "dog." It's a scholarly work from which academic linguists may further examine the relationship of Haida to other language families, a point of dispute. Educators also can develop teaching materials from it, said Tom Alton, editor at the Alaska Native Language Center. Warumungu picture dictionary http://www.nit.com.au/thearts/story.aspx?id=5231 IAD Press, has published the fifth title in its valuable Picture Dictionary series - this time in the Warumungu language, spoken in Tennant Creek and its surrounding communities. "Children and learners should sit down with old people and learn to speak language from them," said the Warumungu contributors to the picture dictionary. "Old people hold this language, Warumungu, for the young generations. Ourchildren will learn our language and then keep it strong. Language teachers can use the picture dictionary in their classes. Learners can learn words for all sorts of things: family, country, plants and animals. Later they will know their language." Warumungu people have worked together with linguists since 1982 to develop a spelling system that matches the sounds of the Warumungu language as closely as possible. A CD of readings by Dianne Nampin Stokes of a broad selection of the words and sentences in the Warumungu Picture Dictionary is included with the book. Compiled by Samantha Disbray with Warumungu speakers ($29.95 including CD, IAD Press). Jon Reyhner - Education and Language Restoration “Education and Language Restoration” published by Chelsea House, for high school and college students, briefly traces the history of education from Indian boarding schools to the present-day and includes information on language revitalization. It has chapters on assimilation and the Native American, community-controlled schools and tribal colleges, Native American identity, language and culture revitalization, language policies and education goals, language teaching, language and reading, and teaching and learning styles. It is a 143 page hardback with black and white photographs, sidebars, chronology, bibliography, further reading, web sites, and source notes. It is part of a new“Contemporary Native American Issues” series that includes books on economic issues and development, media images and representations, political issues, sacred sites and repatriation, and social life and issues. http://www.chelseahouse.com/c/ at Nqk3t1dK5ogmk/Pages/product.html?nocache at 6+record at P38375 You can find out about other books on language revitalization and American Indian education, including the 2004 University of Oklahoma book “American Indian Education: A History,” at http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~jar/books.html
Jon Reyhner is Professor of Bilingual Multicultural Education at Northern Arizona University.
Martin Haspelmath, Matthew S. Dryer, David Gil and Bernard Comrie | ||
