Linguistics Colloquia
Abstract: Great strides have been made in recent years towards not just community-aware, but community-centered and community-led language documentation and revitalization/reclamation. In this talk, I describe continuing work by myself and my colleagues alongside the Yupik communities on St. Lawrence Island, Alaska to document and create tools and materials for language revitalization of Akuzipik (St. Lawrence Island Yupik). This project involves the creation of traditional documentation, computer tools, and learner- and speaker-centered language materials, with the ongoing involvement and leadership of the community. In particular, I highlight the ways in which we are practicing what we might call “agile” language work (borrowed from the software development approach of the same name), focusing on iterative collaboration with the community and employing a “cross-functional” team of researchers (including students of all levels, faculty across disciplines, and volunteers). Our work on distinctions of tense and aspect provides an example of the kinds of outcomes that this approach to language work has brought.
