In 2001, an estimated 50 Indigenous languages were spoken in California, USA; none had more than 100 speakers. Through statewide efforts by Indigenous language workers and their allies, revitalization strategies have since proliferated, many highlighting immersion learning and linguistic documentation. In their homeland in Tehachapi, California, two fluent Elders and five learner/teachers designed this study as co-researchers to reflect on the effects of strategies we had implemented to support new speakers of nuwä abigip (Kawaiisu), a polysynthetic Uto-Aztecan language. Our community-based team used methods of dialogic inquiry including the conversational method and a graphic language mapping technique. We videotaped remembered stories of our varied language acquisition experiences, focusing especially on the 15 years after community language revitalization was initiated. The collection of videotaped narratives and the graphic language maps were analyzed to understand how the new adult second-language speakers believed our learning experiences had enabled us to use nuwä abigip. Co-researchers remembered nuwä abigip competencies believed to have been gained though a sequence of strategies, some overlapping, that featured immersion learning complemented by linguistic analysis. Common patterns in language development were explored, especially as they related to learners’ unfolding understanding of the language’s rich morphology. The team concluded the study by reflecting on how the two research methods of dialogic inquiry had aided them in expressing the culmination of their experiences. / Graduate

The United Nations as well as the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions highlight the value and the need for appropriate knowledge organization of Indigenous knowledge in memory institutions. This paper seeks to contribute to research in the field of Indigenous librarianship. The purpose of the study is to investigate the need for Indigenous knowledge organization and information retrieval with the help of the following research questions: In what way are Indigenous knowledge systems affected by Western knowledge organization and classification structures? What tools and processes are required in order to implement Indigenous librarianship? Data collection includes semi-structured interviews in addition to literature and audiovisual review. The theoretical framework combines the themes of language revitalization, collaboration and relationality with discussions of indigenization and decolonization. The two cases studied are Indigenous librarianship in Aotearoa-New Zealand and Sweden. The results show that while the Western classification systems have shortcomings related to categorizing of Indigenous knowledge the thesaurus is a tool to work around this problem. The conclusion is that language-revitalization together with national and international collaboration is necessary to assure a deep understanding of Indigenous worldviews and knowledge organization.

「原住民族語言能力認證」是我國為了推動原住民族的民族語言教育，在行政院原住民族委員會的策劃下，針對全國原住民各族族語能力所進行的一項資格檢定工作。本論文從語言規劃的角度評估族語能力認證制度的規劃與執行，一方面透過詞彙分析，評估認證考試題庫的詞彙設計；另一方面運用問卷調查方法，探究規劃單位、執行單位、認證委員、考生、以及非考生等五類受試者對於「族語能力認證制度」與首屆「族語能力認證考試」的各項態度。最後，對未來認證制度的實施，以及族語復振政策的方向，提供建議。 本論文第一章說明研究緣起與相關問題點。第二章描述族語能力認證實施過程的背景。第三章探討與本研究相關的理論與文獻，以利於理解族語能力認證在語言規劃和語言政策範疇裡的意義。第四章為研究設計，描述內容包括對首屆認證考試題庫中的詞彙進行分析的方法，以及對首屆認證考試的內容進行量化研究的問卷設計與資料分析方法。第五章為研究結果，提出各族認證題庫的詞彙、各族語言能力、各族語言使用情形、以及各族對族語認證制度的態度等四個層面的調查結果，並加以分析與討論。第六章為結論與建議。研究結果發現，首屆族語能力認證的擬定與實施，大體獲得各類受試者的肯定，為往後認證制度的規劃、執行與評鑑奠立了基礎。整體受試者並認為族語認證工作最重要的意義在於挽救族語流失，本研究因而建議往後的認證制度可朝此方向推展，以帶動更廣泛的族語學習與族語復振。本論文的主要貢獻在於為族語能力認證及相關語言規劃的評鑑步驟，建立初步的模式。 / This thesis aims to evaluate the planning and the first implementation of the Accreditation of the Aboriginal Languages Proficiency (AALP), which is directed by Council of Indigenous Peoples, Executive Yuan, with the view of promoting the education of aboriginal languages in Taiwan. There are six chapters in this thesis. Chapter One describes the purpose of this study and presents some related problems. Chapter Two presents the backgrounds of AALP. In Chapter Three, the related theories and studies are reviewed and discussed. Chapter Four depicts the research designs, including the methodology to evaluate the vocabulary test in the first AALP, questionnaire design to elicit subjects' opinions about the policy of AALP and its first implementation, and methods for data analysis. Chapter Five reports the results in terms of vocabulary analysis, language proficiency, language use, and language attitudes toward AALP. The last Chapter offers conclusions and suggestions. One of the major findings lies in that AALP is widely recognized, and the results of its first implementation may serve as a guideline for its future implementation. It is also believed that AALP may help to revitalize aboriginal languages in Taiwan and thus reverse the language shift related. Therefore, it is suggested that AALP should be continued by following the current model.

The text deals with the current state of the language of the Czech minority in Crimea. Based on field research, it describes phenomena and changes that occurred in the language of Crimean Czechs that were caused by the influences of the foreign language and culture environment. Main focus of the text is phonetics, i.e. the way how speakers are affected by the Russian pronunciation standards. The text contains historical and cultural context relevant to the departure of Czechs to Crimea and the shape of the Czech minority nowadays. Individual chapters are dedicated to specific phenomena: deviations in the pronunciation of vocals in first syllables of words, changes in the pronunciation of the consonant [j], labialization in pronunciation of consonant [v], changes in the pronunciation of loanwords, pronunciation of consonants [ ] and [ ] in Czech words, pronunciation of toponyms, prosthesis and elimination of speech sounds from the beginning of words, deviations in the pronunciation of speech sounds from the middle of words, vocalization of prepositions and influences of Russian language standards on the use of their vocalized form.

The vitality of most Indigenous languages in North America, like minority languages in many parts of the world, is at risk due to the pressures of majority (in most cases colonial) languages and cultures. The transmission of Indigenous languages through school-based programs is a wide-spread approach to maintaining and revitalizing threatened languages in Canada and the U.S., where a large majority of Indigenous children attend public schools. Policy for Indigenous language education (ILE) in public schools is controlled primarily on the regional (province/ state/ territory) level, and there is a lack of shared knowledge about policy approaches in different regions, as well as a lack of knowledge about effective ILE policy in general. While no ideal policy model is possible due to the diversity of different language and community contexts, there are several factors that have been identified through language acquisition research and years of practice in ILE as being closely linked to the success of ILE; immersion approaches to education and community control of education. One framework within which to analyze ILE policy is thus the degree of support present for immersion methods and community control. This study analyzes regional, national, and international policies impacting ILE in Canadian and U.S. public schools, and shows that although there are many regions lacking ILE policy, there are a growing number of supportive ILE policies currently in place. The varying levels of support that different policies provide, and a discussion of different ways in which immersion and community control may be supported in ILE policy are illustrated through examples of existing policies. Several recommendations for the development of future ILE policy are offered, including the importance of diverse policy approaches, support for bilingual education in general, and further development of Indigenous language teacher training and Indigenous control of ILE. Through this specific area of research, the study aims to contribute to knowledge about approaches to the transmission, and ultimate revitalization, of threatened Indigenous languages.

This dissertation presents the first full grammatical description of unprompted (spontaneous) speech in pidgin Chinook Jargon [synonyms Chinúk Wawa, Chinook]. The data come from a dialect I term ‘Kamloops Chinúk Wawa’, used in southern interior British Columbia circa 1900. I also present the first historical study and structural analysis of the shorthand-based ‘Chinuk pipa’ alphabet in which Kamloops Chinúk Wawa was written, primarily by Salish people. This study is made possible by the discovery of several hundred such texts, which I have transliterated and analyzed. The Basic Linguistic Theory-inspired (cf. Dixon 2010a,b) framework used here interprets Kamloops Chinúk Wawa as surprisingly ramified in morphological and syntactic structure, a finding in line with recent studies reexamining the status of pidgins by Bakker (e.g. 2003a,b, forthcoming) among others. Among the major findings: an unusually successful pidgin literacy including a widely circulated newspaper Kamloops Wawa, and language planning by the missionary J.M.R. Le Jeune, O.M.I. He planned both for the use of Kamloops Chinúk Wawa and this alphabet, and for their replacement by English. Additional sociolinguistic factors determining how Chinuk pipa was written included Salish preferences for learning to write by whole-word units (rather than letter by letter), and toward informal intra-community teaching of this first group literacy. In addition to compounding and conversion of lexical roots, Kamloops Chinúk Wawa morphology exploited three types of preposed grammatical morphemes—affixes, clitics, and particles. Virtually all are homonymous with and grammaticalized from demonstrably lexical morphs. Newly identified categories include ‘out-of-control’ transitivity marking and discourse markers including ‘admirative’ and ‘inferred’. Contrary to previous claims about Chinook Jargon (cf. Vrzic 1999), no overt passive voice exists in Kamloops Chinúk Wawa (nor probably in pan-Chinook Jargon), but a previously unknown ‘passivization strategy’ of implied agent demotion is brought to light. A realis-irrealis modality distinction is reflected at several scopal levels: phrase, clause and sentence. Functional differences are observed between irrealis clauses before and after main clauses. Polar questions are restricted to subordinate clauses, while alternative questions are formed by simple juxtaposition of irrealis clauses. Main-clause interrogatives are limited to content-question forms, optionally with irrealis marking. Positive imperatives are normally signaled by a mood particle on a realis clause, negative ones by a negative particle. Aspect is marked in a three-part ingressive-imperfective-completive system, with a marginal fourth ‘conative’. One negative operator has characteristically clausal, and another phrasal, scope. One copula is newly attested. Degree marking is largely confined to ‘predicative’ adjectives (copula complements). Several novel features of pronoun usage possibly reflect Salish L1 grammatical habits: a consistent animacy distinction occurs in third-person pronouns, where pan-Chinook Jargon 'iaka' (animate singular) and 'klaska' (animate plural) contrast with a null inanimate object/patient; this null and 'iaka' are non-specified for number; in intransitives, double exponence (repetition) of pronominal subjects is common; and pan-Chinook Jargon 'klaksta' (originally ‘who?’) and 'klaska' (originally ‘they’) vary freely with each other. Certain etymologically content-question forms are used also as determiners. Kamloops Chinúk Wawa’s numeral system is unusually regular and small for a pidgin; numerals are also used ordinally in a distinctly Chinook Jargon type of personal name. There is a null allomorph of the preposition 'kopa'. This preposition has additionally a realis complementizer function (with nominalized predicates) distinct from irrealis 'pus' (with verbal ones). Conjunction 'pi' also has a function in a syntactic focus-increasing and -reducing system. / Graduate