Endangered languages are those that are spoken by a very small percentage of the population and are at risk of disappearing with all the knowledge and diversity they contain. Endangered languages often become endangered because the speakers and the society perceive the language as low status or of little use, and a positive change in perception of the language could aid in revitalizing the language. Institutions such as governments, businesses, and universities have recently begun supporting endangered languages in several areas, and this support could greatly affect language ideologies, perceptions of and attitudes about the language. In this research project, I intend to explore the effects on how an endangered language is viewed by both speakers and non-speakers when it is supported by linguistically dominant institutions such as business and higher education. This research was conducted in various areas of Scotland and Ireland and consists of survey data, ethnographic interviews, and participant observation. Specifically, this research aims to answer the following research questions: 1) What is the relationship between institutional support and language ideologies? 2) How do different forms of institutional support affect language ideologies? Institutional support of endangered languages could provide these languages with validity and recognition as a language, as well as offer economic and status advantages to speakers, creating positive attitudes about speaking and learning the languages. This positive change in the way these languages are perceived could be a crucial step in revitalizing endangered languages and preserving the linguistic diversity of the world.

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The traditional ballad, the genre of the above poetry, has been a subject of much controversy and speculation, especially regarding its origin. The problem of origin is not likely to be solved unless much more evidence is found. Among the many theories are communal authorship, and individual poet; humble and oral origin, and sophisticated and literary origin. Studies of linguistics, of ballad refrain, and of carole continue the attempt to discover ballad genesis. However, a very different approach perhaps can be used to determine the origin of some ballads, particularly the romantic ballads; that approach is to use the courtly love code as an indicator - the highly codified love which evolved from literary sources of eleventh and twelfth century Provence. Elements of courtly love occur in the above stanzas of "Johnie Scot" (No. 99), such as high birth of the lovers, bravery, and illicit love. If substantial evidence of inherent courtly love elements in certain of the ballads can be offered, the ballads in question would appear to have originated from literary or courtly sources. All of the 3')5 Child ballads were first screened for romantic elements. Since more than half the ballads contain such elements, the scope was narrowed to approximately eighty romantic ballads in the first 116. Selection was then made of five ballads which seemed to offer the best examples of courtly love. Two of them were probably composed soon after courtly love came into vogue, for they appear to have been based primarily on illicit and sensual love: "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard" (No. 81) and "Glasgerion" (No. 67). Three others, if of courtly origin, possibly were composed towards the end of the courtly love era when marriage was becoming idealized, for they include definite hints of marriage: "Johnie Scot" (No. 99), "Lady Maisry" (No. 65), and "Sir Cawline" (::o. 61). In order to show contrast, other romantic ballads were studied for absence of courtly love or use of courtly love simply as ornamentation. Ballads in this group are "Hind Horn" (No. 17), "Tam Lin" (No. 39), and "The Raffled Knight" (No. 112). Evelyn Kendrick in The Ballad Tree regards the romantic ballads as: Those ballads which form the main trunk of the tree . . . 'romantic' in their concern with the them of love and adventure . . . The romantic ballad deals with the stuff of life, as it would be understood in any age . . . it appears today as it did five hundred years ago. Romantic as applied to the ballads in this paper refers to those ballads which focus on male-female relationships involving some aspect of love. Then this love appears to be courtly and intrinsic to the ballad plot, the theory of ballad origin directly related to the courts achieves validity.

This research concerns a Kuna-Spanish bilingual elementary school in Panama City, founded for Kuna children by Kuna teachers. Based on ethnographic and linguistic fieldwork, this research investigates the socio-cultural context for the emergence of the school and the ways that students, teachers and parents, together with Kuna elders, navigate the path of indigenous schooling. The process of negotiating linguistic and cultural meanings in Kuna-language education includes both "traditionalized" Kuna forms of learning and informal education in and around the home. These various foundations of Kuna knowledge, from the use of Kuna oral history to eating Kuna food in the home, are incorporated into the curriculum in various ways, highlighting the potential of schooling as a place of knowledge production for indigenous peoples that is culturally inclusive. At the same time, the manner in which Kuna identity is indexed in the school is uneven. It is liberating in some moments while very restrictive in others, reflecting similar patterns, often in relation to state-sponsored notions of "multiculturalism" in the Kuna community and in the broader context of Panamanian society. In order to fully explore the complexities of the school and its workings, this research explores the Kuna experience in Panama City, where more than half of the Kuna population currently resides. This dissertation is a contribution to the fields of linguistic anthropology and the anthropology of education, analyzing the case of an urban Kuna school that employs both Western and indigenous pedagogy and content, with specific implications for studies of language socialization, bilingual education and educational politics for indigenous peoples. / text

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