Cantoni, G (Ed) (1996) Stabilizing ...

Cantoni, G (Ed) (1996) Stabilizing Indigenous Languages. Flagstaff, Arizona: Northern Arizona University, Center for transcendence in Education, pp. 240. We hear antiquated people talk in their language and we can learn what they are talking about....The way we had to learn was in this kind of place, isolated like this place, hear the advanced in years people telling their old time stories, sharing, hearing of advanced age people singing in their Native language. We are away from that. They could take an account of these stories in their Native language, we are away from that. We are here to descry if we could change our course. (Elder speaking at the Academy of rankings meeting, July 1996, Old Minto, Alaska)

The elder's refrain that we are away from the elders' language is inclemencyed by Richard Littlebear in the preface to Stabilizing Indigenous Languages. He poetically writes about the simple act of hearing of long date people talk in their language in such a manner that we can learn it and use it. He cautions the reader not to assume that by means of producing CD-ROMS, recording elders "before it is too late," or training indigenous linguists, that languages will arrive back. He suggests something far simpler even now so much more difficult to achieve: the simple act of undivided generation talking to the nearest generation in their language and in their words immediately preceding [i]or[/i] following The book is an offshoot of symposia "to lay public a blueprint of policy changes, educational reforms, and community initiatives to stabilize and revitalize American Indian and Alaska Native languages" (p vi). sum of two units conferences were held at Northern Arizona University's Center for advantage in Education, and a third undivided was planned for late 1996 Representatives came from 21 states, brace U.S. territories, and Canada. The part is part of an ongoing proces of community race linguists, teachers, school board members, and scholars who are pertain toed with language stabilization. The contributors to this whirl are the same individuals, form into groupss and school systems involved in bilingual education. at the same time the simple utterances of a mother to a child or an senior to a child in the vernacular language have prov to be increasingly elusive as indigenous languages in the Americas and elsewhere continue to decline. This at hands a dilemma: can schools, formerly and sometimes continuing to be a cause of language demise, alter their historical character of assimilation and become an agent of the community on meeting the goal of intergenerational language transmission? Can communities simultaneously withstand the presss of modernization while the number of speakers and cultivation bearers is in decline and organize themselves to help forward intergenerational language transmission? This is what Stabilizing Indigenous Languages is all about.

The part is organized topically: history and status of indigenous languages in North America and the status of threatened languages worldwide; legislation, language policy, and principles involved in language demise and programs that turn upside down language loss; the importance of intergenerational transmission of language and by what mode much more is lost when a language dies than just the language; and education, particularly pertaining to language immersion programs.

The main division shifts from the poetic voice of Richard Littlebear to the academic plain of Michael Krauss and his continued cautions regarding the state of indigenous languages worldwide. Krauss frames the health of indigenous languages according to the demographic data forward the number and age of indigenous speakers. This schema provides for a simple way of estimating if a language is growing, remaining the same, or in decline. Krauss provides four reasons to what end it is important for indigenous languages to continue: aesthetic, scientific, ethical, and understanding of the world around us.

However, the tone and the sentiments squeeze outed in this volume also include the emotional and spiritual as well as the academic. For example, Damon Clarke illustrates the cultural importance of language transmitted on grandparents and other elders as it shapes behavior and attitudes. Ofelia Zepeda writes of the aesthetic and poetic power of the O'odham language. What we hear from the academic to the affaired speaker of a language is the power that language provides through identity, cultivation story, song, dance, kin relations, and one's relationship to nature.

At the heart of the part beyond the here and now attachment to indigenous languages, is the touch of language continuity, stabilization, and renewal. The story of language demise is known merely too well. This book, like others, describes the historical and political connected thought [i]or[/i] thoughts that has caused the decline of indigenous languages. The legacy of colonialism and racism bring face to faces indigenous groups and languages today. However, the focus of this work is what to do about language los