Spanning Indigenous settings in Africa, the Americas, Aotearoa/New Zealand, Australia, Central Asia and the Nordic countries, this book examines the multifaceted language reclamation work underway by Indigenous peoples throughout the world. Exploring political, historical, ideological, and pedagogical issues, the book foregrounds the decolonizing aims of contemporary Indigenous language movements inside and outside of schools. Many authors explore language reclamation in their own communities. Together, the authors call for expanded discourses on language planning and policy that embrace Indigenous ways of knowing and forefront grassroots language reclamation efforts as a force for Indigenous sovereignty, social justice, and self-determination. This volume will be of interest to scholars, educators and students in applied linguistics, Ethnic/Indigenous Studies, education, second language acquisition, and comparative-international education, and to a broader audience of language educators, revitalizers and policymakers.

The world’s linguistic map has changed in recent years due to the vast disappearance of indigenous languages. Many factors affect the alteration of languages in various areas of the world including governmental policies, education, and colonization. As indigenous languages continue to be affected by modern influences, there is a need for research on the current state of native linguistics that remain across the globe. Indigenous Language Acquisition, Maintenance, and Loss and Current Language Policies is a collection of innovative research on the diverse policies, influences, and frameworks of indigenous languages in various regions of the world. It discusses the maintenance, attrition, or loss of the indigenous languages; language status in the society; language policies; and the grammatical characteristics of the indigenous language that people maintained and spoke. This book is ideally designed for anthropologists, language professionals, linguists, cultural researchers, geographers, educators, government officials, policymakers, academicians, and students.

Focusing on the Americas – home to 40 to 50 million Indigenous people – this book explores the history and current state of Indigenous language revitalization across this vast region. Complementary chapters on the USA and Canada, and Latin America and the Caribbean, offer a panoramic view while tracing nuanced trajectories of "top down" (official) and "bottom up" (grass roots) language planning and policy initiatives. Authored by leading Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars, the book is organized around seven overarching themes: Policy and Politics; Processes of Language Shift and Revitalization; The Home-School-Community Interface; Local and Global Perspectives; Linguistic Human Rights; Revitalization Programs and Impacts; New Domains for Indigenous Languages Providing a comprehensive, hemisphere-wide scholarly and practical source, this singular collection simultaneously fills a gap in the language revitalization literature and contributes to Indigenous language revitalization efforts.

The Indigenous Languages of South America: A Comprehensive Guide is a thorough guide to the indigenous languages of this part of the world. With more than a third of the linguistic diversity of the world (in terms of language families and isolates), South American languages contribute new findings in most areas of linguistics. Though formerly one of the linguistically least known areas of the world, extensive descriptive and historical linguistic research in recent years has expanded knowledge greatly. These advances are represented in this volume in indepth treatments by the foremost scholars in the field, with chapters on the history of investigation, language classification, language endangerment, language contact, typology, phonology and phonetics, and on major language families and regions of South America.

Conference papers examine efforts by Indigenous communities, particularly Native American communities, to maintain and revitalize their languages. The 27 papers are: "Ko te reo te mauri o te mana Maori: The Language Is the Life Essence of Maori Existence" (Te Tuhi Robust); "The Preservation and Use of Our Languages: Respecting the Natural Order of the Creator" (Verna J. Kirkness); "Maori: New Zealand Latin?" (Timoti S. Karetu); "Using Indigenous Languages for Teaching and Learning in Zimbabwe" (Juliet Thondhlana); "Language Planning in a Trans-National Speech Community" (Geneva Langworthy); "The Way of the Drum: When Earth Becomes Heart" (Grafton Antone, Lois Provost Turchetti); "The Need for an Ecological Cultural Community" (Robert N. St. Clair, John A. Busch); "Building a Community Language Development Team with Quebec Naskapi" (Bill Jancewicz, Marguerite MacKenzie, George Guanish, Silas Nabinicaboo); "Methods of Madness: The Tuscarora Language Committee" (Francene Patterson); "Daghida: Cold Lake First Nation Works towards Dene Language Revitalization" (Heather Blair, Sally Rice, Valerie Wood, John Janvier); "The Jicarilla Apache Language Summer Day Camp" (Maureen Olson); "Report on the Workshop 'World of Inuktitut'" (Janet McGrath); "Awakening the Languages: Challenges of Enduring Language Programs; Field Reports from 15 Programs from Arizona, New Mexico, and Oklahoma" (Mary S. Linn, Tessie Naranjo, Sheilah Nicholas, Inee Slaughter, Akira Yamamoto, Ofelia Zepeda); "A Native Language Immersion Program for Adults: Reflections on Year 1" (David Kanatawakhon Maracle, Merle Richards); "The Importance of Women's Literacy in Language Stabilization Projects" (Jule Gomez de Garcia, Maureen Olson, Melissa Axelrod); "Teaching Reading with Puppets" (Ruth Bennett); "Assessing Lakota Language Teaching Issues on the Cheyenne River Reservation" (Marion BlueArm); "Incorporating Traditional Nehiyaw/Plains Cree Education in the University" (Myron Paskemin, Donna Paskemin); "Collecting Texts in Craho and Portuguese for Teaching" (Sueli Maria de Souza); "Early Vocabularies and Dictionary Development: A Cautionary Note" (Blair A. Rudes); "The Process of Spelling Standardization of Innu-Aimun (Montagnais)" (Anne-Marie Baraby); "Maintaining Indigenous Languages in North America: What Can We Learn from Studies of Pidgins and Creoles?" (Anne Goodfellow, Pauline Alfred); "Ojibway Hockey CD ROM in the Making" (Shirley I. Williams); "The Use of Multimedia and the Arts in Language Revitalization, Maintenance, and Development: The Case of the Balsas Nahuas of Guerreo, Mexico" (Jose Antonio Flores Farfan); "The Languages of Indigenous Peoples in Chukotka and the Media" (Galina Diatchkova); "Language Revitalization Using Multimedia" (Peter Brand, John Elliott, Ken Foster); and "Meeting of the Inuktitut and Yup'ik Family of Languages, May 12, 2000" (Guy Delorme, Jacques Raymond). (SV)

Indigenous Languages and the Promise of Archives captures the energy and optimism that many feel about the future of community-based scholarship, which involves the collaboration of archives, scholars, and Native American communities. The American Philosophical Society is exploring new applications of materials in its library to partner on collaborative projects that assist the cultural and linguistic revitalization movements within Native communities. A paradigm shift is driving researchers to reckon with questionable practices used by scholars and libraries in the past to pursue documents relating to Native Americans, practices that are often embedded in the content of the collections themselves. The Center for Native American and Indigenous Research at the American Philosophical Society brought together this volume of historical and contemporary case studies highlighting the importance of archival materials for the revitalization of Indigenous languages. Essays written by archivists, historians, anthropologists, knowledge-keepers, and museum professionals, cover topics critical to language revitalization work; they tackle long-standing debates about ownership, access, and control of Indigenous materials stored in repositories; and they suggest strategies for how to decolonize collections in the service of community-based priorities. Together these essays reveal the power of collaboration for breathing new life into historical documents.

Ancient people spoke languages that reflected their values, philosophies, and world views. Language modernization is an essential key in preserving and reviving the classical languages of Africa. This book is a guide on how and why indigenous language instruction to children can improve academic outcomes for indigenous children (specifically African and First Americans) born in the Western diaspora while preserving the wealth of indigenous traditions and cultures.