NAIS 30.10 Language, Landscape, and Identity in Native North America: The Voices of time immemorial
This course will explore the rich diversity of Native American languages in North America through ethnographic, linguistic, and literary texts and films. Students will be introduced to the global crisis know as language endangerment from a linguistics perspective to establish key concepts and concerns regarding language endangerment and language revitalization in contemporary indigenous communities. The students will also become familiar with language ideologies in a variety of Native American communities in North America to provide linguistic anthropological knowledge of community perspectives and responses to language endangerment. From there, the course will look closely at case studies that will explore concepts that include: (a) language and landscape from linguistic and anthropological perspectives; (b) language and environment from linguistic, anthropological, and traditional ecological knowledge perspectives; (c) language and identity from a critical indigenous perspective; (d) language, stories, and "indigenous" literacy criticism; (e) emerging practices of language advocacy and activism; (f) prospects of language futures through creativity and interdisciplinary collaboration.