CoLang 2016
About
Original Archived Website: https://web.archive.org/web/20160703104543if_/http://www.alaska.edu/colang2016/
The Institute on Collaborative Language Research (CoLang) was held on the campus of the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 2016. The institute was designed to provide an opportunity for community language activists and linguists to receive training in community-based language documentation and revitalization. The Institute has previously been convened in California, Oregon, Kansas, and Texas, and attracts a diverse range of participants from across the globe. Instructors include some of the world’s leading experts in language documentation. The next CoLang will be held in 2018 at the University of Florida.
The Institute consists of two parts: two weeks of intensive workshops followed by a three-week Practicum in field linguistics in which students work hands-on with speakers of an endangered language. CoLang 2016 will have, but not be limited to, two major themes: languages of Alaska and language archiving.
Workshops: June 20-July 1, 2016
choose from a variety of topics to include: audio/video recording, data management, archiving, ethnobiology, language and well-being, language teaching, survey methods, curriculum development
About Fairbanks
Fairbanks is located in the heart of the Dene (Athabascan) territory. The official name of the hill on which the campus is located is Troth Yeddha', a Minto name meaning literally 'wild potato hill'. The long hours of daylight during the Fairbanks summer invite numerous outdoor activities and and festivals. CoLang participants will have ample opportunity to engage with the local community and experience the subarctic summer. For more information see the Visitor Guide link.
Photos
Partners and Sponsors
Organizers
Local Organizing Committee
Siri Tuttle (Co-director), Associate Professor of Linguistics, Alaska Native Language Center, has been working with Alaskan Athabascan people and studying Alaskan Athabascan languages since 1990, and has taught and done research at the Alaska Native Language Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks since 2004. She has also studied Navajo, Western and Eastern Apache, Kaska, Ahtna, Tolowa, and Galice Athabascan. Her present projects involve grammatical description in Lower Tanana and Koyukon, discourse and narrative in Ahtna and Lower Tanana, and Lower Tanana song lyrics.
Alice Taff (co-director), PhD, is Research Asst. Prof. of Alaska Native Languages at the University of Alaska Southeast in Juneau, Alaska, USA. She has worked with Unangam Tunuu (Aleut, ale), Deg Xinag (ing), Haida (hdn), and Tlingit (tli) language communities to design, fund, and implement language documentation and revitalization efforts. She is President of the Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas and co-director of the Healing Through Language initiative of the Endangered Language Fund.
Walkie Charles, Assistant Professor of Yugtun, Alaska Native Language Center.
Gary Holton is Professor of Linguistics and Director of the Alaska Native Language Archive at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. His research focuses on inter-disciplinary approaches to the documentation of Athabascan and Papuan languages and linguistic prehistory.
Lawrence Kaplan is Director of the Alaska Native Language Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and Professor of Linguistics. For the past thirty years he has studied the Alaskan Inupiaq language as a linguist, working on dictionary compilation, oral history and literature, place names, and vocabulary pertaining to traditional indigenous knowledge. He is particularly interested in the Bering Strait Inupiaq dialects, with their proximity to Siberian languages as well as to the Central Yupik language on the Alaskan mainland.
Anna Berge, Professor of Linguistics, Alaska Native Language Center
Kraig Smyth, Graduate Research Assistant, is a Linguistics MA student at UAF. His research focuses on Alaskan English phonological variance from established proximal dialects of English. Kraig has been working on various Alaskan English projects since 2012, and would like to see this work expanded to cover each of the Englishes spoken in Alaska.
Yoko Kugo, Graduate Research Assistant, is originally from Japan and an international Ph.D. student in the Interdisciplinary Studies program at UAF. Her research focuses on Yup'ik geographic knowledge through documenting and understanding of Yup'ik place names, oral histories, and historical and seasonal travel routes in the Iliamna Lake area in southwest Alaska. At UAF, she has been studying her third language, Central Yup'ik language (Yugtun) for her fieldwork.
Advisory Circle
Current as of October 2015
Kennedy Bosire; (2016)
Ewa Czaykowska-Higgins (2020) co-convener
Arienne Dwyer (2016)
Colleen Fitzgerald (2018)
Margaret Florey (2014)
Susan Gehr (2018) co-convener
Daniel Heiber (2018)
Mary Linn (2018)
Megan Lukaniec (2020)
Daryn McKenny (2016)
Carlos Nash (2016)
Keren Rice (2014)
Alice Taff (2020)
Adrienne Tsikewa (2020)
Public Events
Thanks to generous funding from the Alaska Humanities Forum, the following CoLang events are free and open to the public. Advanced registration is not required, though seating may be limited in some venues.Unless otherwise noted, all events take place at Schiable Auditorium on the UAF campus. For more information contact colang2016 [at] gmail.com.
[Click here] to watch the CoLang Models talks online (works best with Mozilla Firefox).
Monday June 20 1-2pm
Intergenerational Approach to the Deline Mapping Project [details]
Tuesday June 21 1-2pm
Including Children in Language Documentation and Revitalization [details]
Wednesday June 22 1-2pm
Teaching Language through Distance Education [details]
Wednesday June 22 7:30-9:00pm
Film: Language Matters
Thursday June 23 1-2pm
Guided Conversation for Language Documentation and Revitalization [details]
Friday June 24 1-2pm
Language Documentation in Our Own Front Yard [details]
Monday June 27 1-2pm
The Seminole Nation Language Project: Combining Master-Apprentice Classes with Language Documentation [details]
Tuesday June 28 1-2pm
Language Revitalization and the Arts [details]
Wednesday June 29 1-2pmFieldwork in the Caucasus [details]
Wednesday June 297:30-8:30pmFilm: Rising Voices
Friday July 1 TBA
Impacts Presentations. CoLang participants will demonstrate how CoLang has impacted them.
Wednesday July 6 7-9pm
Special Screening: Uksuum Cauyai: The Drums of Winter, directed by Sarah Elder and Leonard Kamerling. Location: UA Museum of the North Auditorium
Wednesday July 13 7-9pm
"Miyako Evening (宮古島 の夕べ）" This evening event (July 13, 7-9p, Gathering Room, Brooks Building) will begin with Mr. Hiroyuki Nakama, "Nakama sensei", and UAF graduate student Yoko Kugo giving a short introduction to Miyako (Okinawa) culture, geography, and language. Miyako is one of the 3 CoLang field-methods languages. Then Nakama sensei will introduce the sounds of the Okinawan guitar, the sanshin. A potluck dinner will follow. Please bring what you might like to share. Location: Gathering Room, Brooks Building
Thursday July 14 10:45am
Susan Paskvan, talking about songs. Location: Duckering Rm 352
Friday July 1510:45amSiri Tuttle, talking about phonetics/phonology. Location: Duckering Rm 352 Monday July 1810:45amApril Councellor, talking about Alutiiq Museum Archives. Location: Duckering Rm 352Tuesday July 199:30amHishinlai' Peter, talking about language learning materials. Location: Duckering Rm 352Wednesday July 2010:45amLeslie McCartney and Siri Tuttle, talking about ethics and archives. Location: Duckering Rm 352Wednesday July 207-9pmSpecial Screening: Changa Revisited, directed by Peter Biella and Leonard Kamerling. Location: UA Museum of the North Auditorium
Workshops
Practica
Practica offer participants an intensive experience working with speakers to document a language. These practica sessions will meet 6 days per week over 3 weeks, July 5-23. Participants in practica will also register for a pre-practicum workshop during the 2-week workshop session in order to get some familiarity with the language. For 2016 practica will be offered in the following three languages.
