SP13: Documenting Variation in Endangered Languages

Documenting Variation in Endangered Languages

edited by
Kristine A. Hildebrandt, Carmen Jany & Wilson Silva
ISBN­10: 0­9973295­0­5

The papers in this special publication are the result of presentations and follow-up dialogue on emergent and alternative methods to documenting variation in endangered, minority, or otherwise under-represented languages. Recent decades have seen a burgeoning interest in many aspects of language documentation and field linguistics and there is also a great deal of material dealing with language variation in major languages.
In contrast, intersections of language variation in endangered and minority languages are still few in number. Yet examples of those few cases published on the intersection of language documentation and language variation reveal exciting potentials for linguistics as a discipline, challenging and supporting classical models, creating new models and predictions.

From January 7-10 2016 at the annual meeting of the Linguistic Society of America in Washington, D.C., the Committee on Endangered Languages and their Preservation (CELP) held a symposium that included oral presentations that articulate general issues, specific examples and potential consequences of variationist methods applied in language documentation scenarios, followed by a panel discussion. This present collection includes seven contributions that grew out of this symposium and from subsequent conversations and interaction between the contributors and organizers.

• Front matter
• Hildebrandt, Kristine A., Carmen Jany, and Wilson Silva. Introduction: Documenting variation in endangered languages
• Drager, Katie, Bethany Kaleialohapau‘ole Chun Comstock and Hina Puamohala Kneubuhl. He nui nā ala e hiki aku ai: Factors influencing phonetic variation in the Hawaiian word kēia
• Tagliamonte, Sali A. Perspectives on linguistic documentation from sociolinguistic research on dialects
• Hildebrandt, Kristine A. and Shunfu Hu. Areal analysis of language attitudes and practices: A case study from Nepal
• Skilton, Amalia.Three speakers, four dialects: Documenting variation in an endangered Amazonian language
• Ravindranath Abtahian, Maya and Connor McDonough Quinn. Language shift and linguistic insecurity
• Nagy, Naomi. Documenting variation in (endangered) heritage languages: how and why?
• Mansfield, John and James Stanford. Documenting sociolinguistic variation in lesser-studied indigenous communities: Challenges and practical solutions
• Whole volume