1. Stabilizing Indigenous Languages Symposium May 2011 University of New Mexico, Albuquerque Dr. Freddie Bowles & Dr. George Ann Gregory

2.  Viability of a language is supported not only through social realms where it is used, but also through the amount of complexity or linguistic variety in that language.

3.  Stage 8 Only a few elders speak the language  Stage 7 Only adults beyond child bearing age speak the language  Stage 6 Some intergenerational use of language  Stage 5 Language is still very much alive and used in the community  Stage 4 Language is required in elementary school  Stage 3 Language is used in places of business and by employees in less specialized work areas  Stage 2 Language is used by local government and in the mass media in the local community  Stage 1 Some language use by higher levels of government and in higher education

4.  Linguistic Elaboration associated primarily with Stages 4, 2, and 1.  Stage 4 Language is required in elementary school  Stage 2 Language is used by local government and in the mass media in the local community  Stage 1 Some language use by higher levels of government and in higher education

5. GenreLinguistic Items Commonly Associated in English conversations/interactional In the home or at work I, you, it, demonstrative pronouns without referents, indefinite pronouns (anybody, somebody), questions, that-clauses, Wh-clauses, adverbial subordinators, reduced that complements, post posed adverbial clauses, private verbs, stranded prepositions, split infinitives, analytic negation fiction/narrativespast tense, adjectives, perfect aspect, third person pronouns, infinitives, participles prose/informational text News reporting, legal documents, academic prose nominalization, passive constructions, prepositions, that-complements, infinitives, participles, relative clauses, preposed adverbial clauses, lexical specificity, conjuncts, split auxiliaries

6.  BICS-Basic Interpersonal Communication skills  Highly contextualized language (Stage 5)  CALP—Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency  Decontextualized language (Stages 4, 7 & 8)  More words with Greek and Latin roots  Greater variety of vocabulary  Nominalization, subordination, passives  Written in reported speech (past tense, references to distant events and places  Few graphics

7.  Language loss equals loss of culture.  Language represents a way of viewing life. (Whorf)  Language reflects a way of thinking and shapes the thinking of children who speak it. (Vygotsky).

8.  Word order—English sentences begin with the actor-action-receiver of the action; Choctaw begins with actor-receiver of action-ends with action.  Common images in English involve the use of war—War on drugs; Love is war; Māori use taonga (treasure) to speak about their language  Color examples

9.  Linguistic variability in genres is affected by different elements in different languages.  In English, genre dictates linguistic variability; In Navajo, audience plays a stronger role.  In some languages gender of speaker and audience dictates language variability.  In Choctaw, the distance in time when something happened dictates tense choice.  Whether the agent is known or unknown dictates passive construction in Navajo.

10.  Literate and non-literate cultures  In literate cultures, linguistic elaboration found in writing  In non-literate cultures, linguistic elaboration found in ceremonial and storytelling uses.

11.  Fishman assessment  Stage 1– used in academia; used in very limited capacity in national government; used in Rangitu religion and some Māori Anglican churches.  Stages 2 & 3--in iwi, hapu, marae government & business; 2 Māori language TV stations and many radio stations  Stage 4—offered in most elementary and secondary schools; some elementary & secondary immersion schools  ~135,600 speakers

12.  Genres & Linguistic elaboration  Legal Documents and Corpus  —Treaty of Waitangi  Ko te Tuatoru Hei wakaritenga mai hoki tenei mo te wakaaetanga ki te Kawanatanga o te Kuini. Ka tiakina e te Kuini o Ingarani nga tangata maori katoa o Nu Tirani. Ka tukua ki a ratou nga tikanga katoa rite tahi ki ana mea ki nga tangata o Ingarani  Article the Third. In consideration thereof, Her Majesty the Queen of England extends to the Natives of New Zealand Her Royal Protection and imparts to them all the Rights and Privileges of British subjects

13.  Genres & Linguistic elaboration  Written formal arguments from 19 th & 20 th Centuries  Te Nūpepa o Te Aute nā Apirina Ngata  He nui to mātou pouri it to mātou kitenga I ē tahi kupu kaore e tika kia perehitia i rototē tahi o a tatou pepa Maori.  We were very disappointed when we saw language that should not in fact be printed in our Maori papers.  19 th Century Māori newspapers  Māori Bible  Songs  Media and Māori Broadcast Corpus  Plays/literature (limited)  Personal stories  Children’s books

14.  Fishman assessment  Stage 1—national council conducted in Navajo; some academic-UNM has creative writing in Navajo; ceremonies & some church services  Stage 2—chapter house business conducted in Navajo; several Navajo language radio stations; NNTV  Stages 3& 4 – Navajo owned businesses; a few elementary schools & K-12 programs  ~100,000 speakers (~52%)

15.  Genres & Linguistic elaboration  Traditional ceremonies & Prayers  Some legal documents  Radio/limited TV  Traditional stories  Tsé yiyi’í ákwe’é ni’tát’ah k’éédídlééh jiní nashjahii’ łigaigo k’éédidlééh jini.  He usually planted at Earth-shelf Place in the Rock Canyon (Sacred Canyon).  4 th person obj = ho/ subject = ji  Personal stories  Children’s books

16.  Fishman assessment  No stages 1-4  Stage 5—language alive in some communities; still used in some Choctaw churches  Stage 6—limited if any; most classes offered for teenagers and adults only; young children taught single words and phrases—no real language  ~11,000 speakers (~7 to 10%)

17.  Genres & Linguistic elaboration  Mostly from the 19 th Century  Legal documents  Yohmi kvt kana inli sanali keyu. Mikmvt kana inla ettemapisa keyu.  Therefore, no one must go against this  Religious literature  Chihowa hvt chukfvlhpoba chomihchit si o, nanah sv bvnna he keyushke.  The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.  Songs/hymns  Newspaper articles  Personal letters  Traditional stories  Poetry  Limited digital productions in present time

18.  Fishman assessment  Stages 2-4  Zuni—has 80-90% fluency & is used in school & local government; ceremonies (9700 speakers)  Tanoan—varies from pueblo to pueblo: used in ceremonies & local governments; classes taught (4000 speakers, 3 languages, 11 pueblos)  Keres—varies from pueblo to pueblo: used in ceremonies & local government; classes taught (7900 speakers in 7 pueblos: 229 speakers to 1880 speakers)

19.  Genres & Linguistic elaboration  Ceremonial  Traditional stories  Song  Some religious translations  A few digital media  1 children’s book in Keresan  Srue “taawa nishaatsi sutrusa ‘kuu n’un’atsa sutrusa.  In this way, we will always continue as a strong and healthy people  Male and female language/dialects.

20.  Maintain current genres and levels of linguistic elaboration  Use any extant published written and media sources  Use language in new genres with particular attention paid to children and adult literature and expanded media sources for children and adults

21.  Children’s Books  Simon Ortiz—Keres  Navajo  Māori  Choctaw

22.  Adult Literature  Navajo coyote tales: The Curley Tó Aheedlíinii version  Ofelia Zepeda, Joy Harjo, Simon Ortiz, Nora Yazzie, Colleen Gorman  Shakespeare in Māori

23.  Akinnaso, F. Niyi. (1982). The literate writes and the nonliterate chants: Written language and ritual communication in sociolinguistic perspective. In W. Frawley (Ed.), Linguistics and literacy (pp. 7-36). New York: Plenum Press.  Biber, Douglas. (1988). Variation across speech and writing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.  Cummins, Jim.  Fishman, Joshua A. (1991). Reversing Language Shift. Bristol, UK : Multilingual Matters.  Vygotsky, L.S. (1962). Thought and language. (E. Haufmann & G. Vakar, Eds. & Trans.). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.  Vygotsky, L.S. (1978). Mind in Society (M. Cole, V. John-Steiner, I. Scribner, & E. Souberman, Eds.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.  Whorf, Benjamin. (1956). The relation of habitual thought and behavior to language. In Carroll, John B. (Ed.) Language, thought, and reality: Selected writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf (pp. 134-159). Cambridge, MA: MIT.

24.  Freddie A. Bowles fbowles@uark.edu  George Ann Gregory linguisticdoc@drgrammarguru.com linguisticdoc@drgrammarguru.com