Language Nests and Language Acquisition: An Empirical Analysis.

Ph.D. Thesis. University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa 2017

Data Citation in Linguistic Typology: Working Towards a Data Citation Standard in Linguistics

Poster presented at the 12th Conferenced of the Association for Linguistic Typology (ALT), Canberra, Australia, December 12-14 201

Language vs. Dialect in Language Cataloguing: The Vexed Case of Otomanguean Dialect Continua

This paper reviews the literature on the language-vs.-dialect question and mutual intelligibility testing. It discusses conflicting internal classification schemes from different sources involving Mixtec and Zapotec dialect continua (members of the Otomanguean language family). The paper shows how various catalogues differ in their purposes and thus in their methods of dealing with these dialect continua, comparing and contrasting various internal classification schemes. It also demonstrates how the Catalogue of Endangered languages has solved the issue of the Mixtec and Zapotec dialect continua. KEYWORDS: dialect continuum; dialect continua; dialect chain; mutual intelligibility; catalogue; Otomanguean; Mixtec; Zapotec; Catalogue of Endangered Languages; ELCa

The Catalogue of Endangered Languages in context

The Catalogue of Endangered Languages, phase 1, was launched in June 2012 at www.endangeredlanguages.com. This paper puts the Catalogue in context, explaining how it was developed, its relationship to the Endangered Languages Project website, what these two offer, a brief report of what has been achieved so far, and goals and procedures for phase 2 of the project. This presentation also provides context for other papers and posters submitted to ICLDC related to the Catalogue of Endangered Languages. Not just a website, the Catalogue of Endangered Languages and the Endangered Languages Project together represent an extensive network of individuals and organizations. Through the efforts of the University of Hawaii at Mānoa (UHM) and the Eastern Michigan University (EMU) teams, the project’s Regional Directors, Google, and website users, only two months after launch we can report the following: • 3,142 languages have been entered into the Catalogue, with information from multiple sources; • Over 10,000 website visitors have created user profiles; • Hundreds of suggestions have been sent in by users contributing information to the site; • Hundreds of examples of language materials (video, audio, text) have been uploaded by users, doubling the number at the time of launch. In an NSF- sponsored workshop in 2009, the Catalogue of Endangered Languages was designed. Teams of students and faculty at EMU and the UHM compiled the data upon which the Catalogue is based, the central feature of the Endangered Languages Project website developed by Google. The project’s structure and function are unique, offering fields of information and samples of language materials not provided by other sources. By compiling data from multiple sources, the Catalogue provides details on what is known about the world’s endangered languages and for the languages for which data are lacking or the existing information is outdated, or for which there are conflicting claims. The kinds of information provided include but are not limited to the number and age speakers, intergenerational transmission, speaker number trends, domains of use of the language, locations where it is spoken, etc. The site also invites users to make suggestions and to contribute language both information and language materials (called “samples”). All suggestions for the catalogue undergo rigorous review, explained in this paper. Phase 2 begins now; it focuses on obtaining current data for the languages, filling in missing information and correcting errors in the sources

New knowledge: Findings from the Catalogue of Endangered Languages

The Catalogue of Endangered Languages, recently launched at endangeredlanguages.com, has already produced valuable new knowledge about the endangered languages of the world. The purpose of this paper is to make some of these findings known, in particular, ones with particular importance for how endangered languages are talked about generally. We report examples of the following sorts: Hard evidence from the Catalogue shows that 3054 languages are currently endangered (43% of all languages), based on precise criteria. This 43% is near to the oft-cited 50% (but far from the 90% worst-case) scenario of languages expected to become extinct or doomed by the century’s end. Of all known named languages, 634 have become extinct, 141 of these (22%) in recent times (in the last 40 years). This concrete evidence demonstrates that the rate of language extinction has become much more highly accelerated in recent times, as often claimed. All the languages of exactly 100 families, including isolates, have become extinct, from among the world’s 420 language families –24% of linguistic diversity has been lost forever. This confirms the common claim of significant loss of language diversity. There are 335 languages with fewer than 10 speakers (11% of all endangered languages). The very frequently repeated claim that one language goes extinct each 2 weeks is not supported by the findings; rather, the Catalogue of Endangered Languages finds that on average only 3.5 languages become extinct per year, i.e. about 1 each 4 months, true now and for any time span during the last 40 years. Though not as dramatic as the oft-cited claim, loss of 1 language every 4 months is tragic, with its irreparable damage and loss. There is no need to continue to repeat the inaccurate claim, which ultimately could have negative repercussions for our field -- the number is still shocking. We side with Copernicus: “to know that we know what we know, and to know that we do not know what we do not know, is true knowledge.” As the Catalogue of Endangered Languages moves into the next phase, its goal is to achieve true knowledge by obtaining information on the endangered languages that we know that we do not currently have enough information for, and thereby produce new knowledge relevant to several audiences and relevant to how endangered languages are talked about generally

Tewatenweiest: Owira’neha Tsi Kanonsote: Nurturing and language learning in a Mohawk language nest

In this paper we discuss our Mohawk language nest and how it runs. We also discuss a study we conducted to assess children’s acquisition in the language nest. We also provide an overview of the Mohawk language situation in the community