Conference to Advance Scientific Understanding and Broader Impacts of Indigenous Languages of the Americas: South, Central, and North

美洲的大多数土著语言都受到严重威胁，因此迫切需要增加这些语言文献的科学和更广泛的影响。国际美洲土著语言研究学会（SSILA）是越来越关注语言科学的有效方法的组织之一，这些方法使用各种方法，包括以社区为基础的方法来推进知识。这些研究范式强调与语言受到威胁的社区建立有意义的、平等的关系。该项目支持为SSILA年会组织的研讨会，并提议通过将来自中南美洲的学术和社区语言专家与北美听众聚集在一起，为记录和振兴美洲土著语言注入新的方法和策略。我们的目标是汇集这些不同的观点，丰富语言研究的语言数据质量，最终对语言之间的关系、语言中嵌入的传统知识以及人类思维的可能性产生新的见解。更广泛的影响包括参与并向参加本次年会的更多语言学家提供知识的潜力，通过SSILA网站获得结果的可能性，以及来自美洲其他地区的方法的潜在好处，这些方法可以对美国土著语言的保护和复兴产生积极影响。本次研讨会将为社区成员，研究人员，以及美洲各地从事社区语言工作的机构。通过支持中美洲和南美洲研究人员和土著社区成员的出席，研讨会将促进对以社区为基础的研究如何在美洲概念化的理解，使用什么原则和结构，以及为了以更道德和更有效的方式进行语言研究，促进语言的振兴，维护和记录，可以相互学习什么。由于美洲各地几乎没有一致的交流平台，在美洲其他地方进行的以社区为基础的语言文档方法和复兴方面值得注意的工作并不总是涉及美国的社区成员、研究人员和美洲原住民社区。关于濒危语言习得的研究议程，或者通过培训土著语言使用者来扩大参与，都是美国落后的领域。通过这种知识交流的新方法有可能加强对美洲语言多样性的科学理解和调查，扩大美国原住民和拉丁美洲人对语言科学的参与，而学生的参与有可能在日益全球化的背景下增强STEM劳动力。所采用的方法将包括一个集体影响模型，定义为由不同利益相关者在集中基础设施下解决特定社会问题的承诺，共同应对非自然语言丧失的挑战。该模式将有助于制定策略，以便未来在美洲各地沟通、合作和传播基于社区的语言保存、维护、振兴和记录方法。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Most indigenous languages of the Americas are severely threatened, adding urgency to the increasing the scientific and broader impacts for the documentation of these languages. The international Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas (SSILA) is among the organizations increasingly focused on effective approaches to the language sciences that advance knowledge using various methodological approaches, including, community-based. Such research paradigms emphasize meaningful, egalitarian relationships with communities whose languages are under threat. This project supports a workshop organized for the annual meeting of SSILA, and it proposes to infuse new methodologies and strategies for documenting and revitalizing American indigenous languages by bringing together academic and community language experts from Central and South America with a North American audience. The goal is to bring together these diverse perspectives and enrich the quality of language data for linguistic research, ultimately leading to new insights about relationships among languages, traditional knowledge embedded within language, and the possibilities of the human mind. Broader impacts include the potential for engagement with and advancing knowledge to the greater audience of linguists who attend this annual meeting, the availability of results through the SSILA website, and the potential benefits of approaches from other regions of the Americas that can positively impact the preservation and revitalization of Native American languages in the U.S. This workshop will provide an initial platform for communication among community members, researchers, and institutions across the Americas who engage in community-based language work. By supporting the attendance of and Central and South American researchers and indigenous community members, the workshop will promote an understanding of how community-based research is conceptualized across the Americas, what principles and constructs are used, and what can be learned from one another in order to conduct language research in a more ethical and effective manner and promote language revitalization, maintenance, and documentation. Because there are few consistent platforms for communication across the Americas, noteworthy work on community-based approaches to language documentation, and revitalization taking place elsewhere in the Americas does not always reach U.S.-based community members and researchers and Native American communities. Research agendas into acquisition of endangered languages, or the broadening of participation by training indigenous language speakers are both areas where the U.S. lags behind. Novel approaches through this knowledge exchange has the potential to enhance scientific understanding and investigation into the linguistic diversity of the Americas, broaden participation by Native Americans and Latinos in the U.S. in the language sciences, while the involvement of students has the potential to enhance the STEM workforce in an increasingly globalized context. The methodology employed will include a collective impact model, defined as a commitment by a diverse set of stakeholders to solve a specific social problem under a centralized infrastructure, to collectively tackle the challenges of unnatural language loss. The model will help establish strategies for future communication, collaborations, and dissemination of community-based approaches to language preservation, maintenance, revitalization, and documentation across the Americas.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.