McHenry, T. (2002). Words as Big as the Screen: Native American Languages and the
Internet. Language learning & technology, 6,(2),pp.102-115.
Research done on the language revival of Native American languages have factors other than the dying language to consider, such as politics, economic and social factors all contribute to the languages becoming extinct or on the verge of not having written documentation that they exist. According to Krauss from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks campus, he wants the Native languages in Alaska to have written documentation so that possible variations in phonological or syntactic theory could be researched in languages that might not get recorded.
The biggest point that I got out of the article was that the researcher said that she is concerned that Native languages are not recorded by Native speakers, so then the translations are biased and from a Non-Native perspective. And also if the languages are learned and shared through the internet, the font should match the speakers’ ways of writing the language.
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14 years ago
2 comments:
Sounds like an interesting article. The Bible has been translated into a few different Aboriginal languages with the direct assistance of Aborigines in Australia and has taken many years to do so. For some people this is still their first language, so it makes more sense for them to read it in their own language. This has been interesting to hear about, as I understand that a lot of their traditions/culture is still passed down orally rather than relying on the written language.
It would be a shame for native American languages to be lost too. I presume there a strong oral tradition in your culture too?
Hi Guru
Is it possible to remove this comment I made from your website? I'm new at all this and was really meaning for it to be a question for you personally, rather than a comment on your blog. (Sorry for the confusion.) Do you know if there is a way of emailing people directly from their blog, rather than posting comments onto their blogs for everyone else to read?
Regards,
Anne
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