Volume 18 (2024)

Anuschka van ’t Hooft, José Luis González Compeán

Young urban migrants can be valuable actors in projects that aim to document and revitalize their Indigenous languages, especially when these efforts involve new technologies. Based on data from a Huastec (Tének) language documentation project in Mexico, this article describes the digital interactions of young migrants in the documentation and revitalization of Indigenous languages. To address this issue, we briefly review the migration of Huastec speakers in the context of language shift. We then examine how digital language activism can be linked to language documentation and explore how such digital projects can contribute to language maintenance and revitalization. Finally, we present the most salient factors that drive Indigenous migrants to participate in initiatives aimed at language revitalization through digital language activism: entertainment, affection, and being connected.

Caroline Jones, Jesse Tran, Eleanor Jorgensen, Romi Hill, Patricia Ellis, Jane Simpson, Felicity Meakins, Ben Foley, Marcel Reverter-Rambaldi, Gari Tudor-Smith, Paul Williams, Clair Hill, Mark Richards

Dictionaries for under-resourced languages are, like other dictionaries, traditionally in hard-copy form. Electronic online formats can improve access to dictionaries for under-resourced languages. To make it easier to create online dictionaries with linked sound and image files, starting from a Toolbox file or similar backslash-formatted dictionary text file, a new online tool, WordSpinner, was created. It was used and iteratively improved over several years in order to convert backslash lexicon text files into formatted dictionary output pages, with five Indigenous languages of Australia. In various stages of dictionary creation, checking, and formatting, the online tool was revised to meet user needs. The resulting version of WordSpinner is another free option now available to users for creating online dictionaries.

Eline Visser

Yamdena is an Austronesian language of eastern Indonesia. Although many language materials are available, the language has received very little scientific attention. In this article, I present the Yamdena corpus, which includes glossed legacy materials and original fieldwork. I also give an up-to-date introduction to Yamdena grammar, sketching its phonology, word classes, pronouns, nouns and noun phrases, possessive marking, verbs and verbal inflection, some clausal syntax, multi-verb constructions, and clause coordination.

Manuel David González Pérez

Although some critics consider it time-consuming and demanding, proponents of the monolingual approach for field research (i.e., learning to speak a target field language as part of the research process) argue that it can provide a unique insight into its structures. However, this claim remains largely unsubstantiated in the available literature on field methods. The present paper sets out to achieve a twofold objective: First, it reviews prior observations about the monolingual method in documentary-linguistics publications, highlighting important gaps in research. Secondly, based on qualitative data from the author’s fieldwork context in rural, indigenous China, it contributes to addressing one such gap by demonstrating how, when, and why basic to intermediate communicative competence can enhance the documentation, description, and analysis of a field language, in ways that complement and sometimes outperform other approaches such as bilingual and stimuli-based elicitation.

Anu Pandey

Podcasts are a unique media that have been used in Indigenous and endangered language communities in the form of Indigenous radio podcasts, instructional websites, or tools to aid classroom instruction. A podcast called Rituals of Kanauji speakers was created in Kanauji, a low-resource Indian language variety. Using this case study in Kanauji, I aim to examine the usage of podcasts for outside classroom instruction in low-resource and lesser-studied languages. Thus, this study highlights the uniqueness of podcasting for language revitalization, as podcasts can be created and consumed anytime and anywhere. For low-resource languages, there can be three kinds: podcasts for teaching language, those for cultural expression and general awareness, and those for entertainment purposes. The paper also describes their pros and cons as well as directions for creating a podcast, to help native speakers and linguists in their future documentary projects. Remote data collection of audio recordings was done via WhatsApp for making this podcast. The performance statistics from Kanauji’s podcast demonstrate that it has helped promote the language and brought pride and prestige to native speakers. Finally, I conclude that podcasts break the norm and help in language reclamation.