Fostering Dakota Language Restoration through Workshops: First Steps to Partnering by the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate, the Dakotah Language Institute and Carleton College

到本世纪末，全球7,000种语言中至少有一半将不再使用。 美洲原住民语言代表了这些语言的一部分，将陷入沉默，也就是说，没有剩余的第一语言流利的发言者。美国国会于1990年通过的《美洲原住民语言法》承认了美洲原住民语言的独特地位和重要性。许多美国原住民社区正在努力创造新的发言人，而老年发言人仍然在这里。 培养新演讲者的一个挑战是缺乏有效的教材。 另一个挑战是对特定语言的复杂性有足够深入的理解，因为对一种语言更深入的语言理解可以用来培训教师，开发有效的教学资源，并帮助学习者从初级水平过渡到更中级和高级的复杂性水平。 其他挑战包括缺乏足够的语言文献和资源，包括词典和参考语法。语言振兴的成功案例往往涉及部落社区和组织与语言学家和其他学者之间的伙伴关系。 这些伙伴关系往往需要数年时间才能发展，但它们的结果包括更广泛的影响，如美洲原住民获得学位和其他语言学和其他社会科学的证书。 在这个项目中，将举行一个研讨会和后续会议，试图解决这些挑战，并发展语言恢复达科他州，上中西部的美洲土著语言的支持。 这将汇集语言学家，计算机科学家和达科他州语言的部落专家。 更广泛的影响包括社会科学的能力建设和部落教育部门和部落学院的计算基础设施，开发更好的电子和其他资源来支持达科他州的语言学习，和潜在的机会，为本科生在两个机构参加真实的研究经验，在语言学。这些讲习班的参与者，以支持达科他州的语言包括西塞顿-南达科他州东部的特拉弗斯湖保留地的瓦佩顿奥亚特、西塞顿-瓦佩顿奥亚特达科他语言学院和明尼苏达州南部的卡尔顿学院。 达科他州是一个大的苏族语言家庭的成员，从加拿大到阿肯色州，在上中西部有一些近亲，但所有人都濒临灭绝，有些人受到严重威胁，甚至缺乏第一语言。 西塞顿-瓦赫佩顿Oyate和卡尔顿的达科他语言研究所将在2016年8月为期两天的研讨会上探讨达科他州的文档，分析，保存和振兴，并在秋季在西塞顿-瓦赫佩顿举行后续会议。 资金还将支付参加美国语言学会会议在2017年1月的部落教育工作者，包括那些在部落学院，和卡尔顿学院参与者的费用。 该会议是美国语言学家的首要年度会议，也是每年关注美洲原住民语言的人的最大聚会。 这些活动的目标是将潜在的合作伙伴聚集在一起，创造一个全面的，最新的语言描述，并开发工具和材料，以促进在达科他州的儿童教学。该项目的一个长期目标是根据当前的语言科学对达科他州进行清晰的分析。第二个目标是在Oyate建立一系列课堂和课外使用的资源。 NSF部落学院和大学（TCUP）在EHR计划正在为部落学院参与该项目提供支持。

At least half of the 7,000 languages worldwide will cease to be spoken by the end of the current century. Native American languages represent a portion of those languages that will fall silent, that is, have no remaining first language fluent speakers. The Native American Languages Act, passed by the U.S. Congress in 1990, enacted into policy the recognition of the unique status and importance of Native American languages. Many Native American communities are working hard to create new speakers while elder speakers are still here. One challenge in creating new speakers is the lack of effective teaching materials. Another challenge is having a deep enough understanding of the complexities of the particular language, since a deeper linguistic understanding of a language can be used to train teachers, to develop effective pedagogical resources, and to help learners move from beginner levels to more intermediate and advanced levels of complexity. Other challenges include the lack of adequate language documentation and resources, including dictionaries and reference grammars. Cases of successful language revitalization often involve partnerships between tribal communities and organizations with linguists and other academics. Those partnerships often take years to develop, but their results include broader impacts like Native Americans earning degrees and other credentials in linguistics and other social sciences. In this project, a workshop and follow up meetings will be held to try to address these challenges and develop support for language restoration for Dakota, a Native American language of the Upper Midwest. This will bring together linguists, computer scientists, and tribal experts in the Dakota language. Broader impacts include capacity building in the social sciences and computational infrastructure in the tribe's educational department and tribal college, the development of better electronic and other resources to support Dakota language learning, and potential opportunities for undergraduates at two institutions to participate in authentic research experiences in linguistics.Participants in these workshops to support the Dakota language include the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate of the Lake Traverse Reservation in eastern South Dakota, the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate Dakotah Language Institute, and Carleton College in southern Minnesota. Dakota is a member of the large Siouan language family, spoken from Canada to Arkansas with a number of close relatives in the Upper Midwest, but all are endangered, with some severely threatened and even lacking first language speakers. The Dakotah Language Institute of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate and Carleton will explore the documentation, analysis, preservation, and revitalization of Dakota at a two-day workshop in August 2016, and follow up with a subsequent meeting at Sisseton-Wahpeton in the fall. Funding will also cover the costs of attending the Linguistic Society of America meeting in January 2017 for tribal educators, including those at the tribal college, and Carleton College participants. This conference is the premier annual meeting of American linguists and is the largest gathering each year of those who focus on Native American languages. The goal of these activities is to bring together potential partners in the work to create a thorough, up-to-date description of the language, and developing tools and materials to facilitate instruction in Dakota to children. One long-term goal of the project is to develop a clear analysis of Dakota that is informed by current language science. A second goal is to construct an array of resources for classroom and extracurricular use at the Oyate. The NSF Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUP) program in EHR is providing support for tribal college participation in this project.