Reference no: EM133421385
Case Study: Bernard C. Perley (2011) argues that discourses of linguistic death are particularly damaging for native groups due to the way they represent languages. Deploying terms like 'endangered', 'critically endangered', and 'extinct' predicts a damning future for the 6,950 languages that 50% of the population speaks (Seyfeddinipur, 2015). More importantly, discourses of death ignore complex histories for native groups (see the history of residential schools in Canada) that have been actively erased by settler colonial societies. In this assignment, you will examine the effects of language loss, interventions to preserve endangered languages, as well as the significance of these intersecting phenomena in a globalizing world. You will broadly consider who determines which languages are important and why as you complete this worksheet.
First, you will analyze the case of Fulbhe and the work of two brothers Abdoulaye and Ibrahima Barry to create a writing system for Fulfulde speakers that is not based in Arabic, French, or English. Read this article
Why did Abdoulaye and Ibrahima want to create an alphabet for Fulfulde speakers?
What challenges did they face?
How do Abdoulaye and Ibrahima embrace technology in their efforts to write their language?
For whom do Abdoulaye and Ibrahima create the language? What are the next steps?
Questions: Next, we will consider many languages seek to recover today after centuries of erasures. The Canadian government pursued policies of forced assimilation of First Nations people through the widespread use of Residential Schools. In fact, former Prime Minister Stephen Harper officially apologized in 2008 for the Canadian government's efforts to develop and administer Residential Schools. Read this link and respond to the following questions
Why were indigenous children removed from their communities?
How were they treated in the Residential Schools?
What are some of the outcomes of these Residential Schools today?
Next, you will consider efforts to revive native languages today. Navigate to the following URL, login to your WMU account, watch the short video, and respond to the following questions
What does Arvid do to recapture his native language?
What efforts does Arvid go through to revive the Hul'qumi'num language?
How are Arvid's efforts to preserve Hul'qumi'num modernizing the language? (hint: how are new words being incorporated into the language?)
What does Arvid say about the effects of the Residential Schools?
What are the principal challenges the community faces for language revitalization?
Finally, watch this short TEDTalk by April Charlo about indigenous language revitalization and answer the following questions
What does April Charlo's experience about mistakenly using the possessive pronoun 'my' tell you about the challenges of revitalizing languages?
What if the process of language revitalization forces foreign concepts into native languages that have not historically existed within these cultures?
What are some of the specific challenges of recovering and revitalizing languages by people who have had their cultures actively destroyed?
How does the concept of 'adapt or die' tell you something important about the ways in which native communities have actively changed their own cultures?