Technology and Language Revitalization: A Conspectus

Increasingly the world’s indigenous people are recognizing the value of using digital environments in the battle against the extinction of their languages and cultures (Hermes & King 2013).  Likewise as indigenous languages become increasingly visible on the internet, perceptions of them as antiquated, irrelevant or anachronistic in the Information Age are […]

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Western Abenaki Dictionary

Along with the keyword searchable database of words which our site is built around, we have developed basic conjugation charts which will soon be linked to all words in their verb, noun, adjective and adverb forms. In truth, the language has no specific parts of speech, but is instead made […]

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Heenetiineyoo3eihiiho’ (Language Healers) tells the story of Indigenous language revitalization

About the Film From the scribe.org website: Heenetiineyoo3eihiiho’ (Language Healers) (2014, 40 min) tells the story of Native Peoples fighting to revitalize their languages. From Alaska to Oklahoma and Wisconsin to Montana, we witness stories about the importance of saving Native languages and meet some of the people who are […]

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#imld14: International Mother Language Day

Today is designated International Mother Language Day by UNESCO. From the UNESCO IMLD site: International Mother Language Day has been observed every year since February 2000 to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism. The date represents the day in 1952 when students demonstrating for recognition of their language, Bangla, […]

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New Technologies and Contested Ideologies

About the Tagish-Tlingit FirstVoices project – published in the American Indian Quarterly, Winter & Spring 2006, Vol. 30, Nos. 1 & 2. The website discussed in the article is featured below: http://www.firstvoices.ca In December 2004 representatives of the Yukon government and the First People’s Cultural Foundation of British Columbia signed […]

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Global Voices interview: Kevin Scannell talks about indigenous tweets and blogs

Kevin Scannell is a professor of mathematics and computer science at St. Louis University in Missouri, USA. He told us how he got into the field of mapping Indigenous tweets and micro-blogs around the world.

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Learning and Knowing in Indigenous Societies Today

The book is organised into three sections. The first addresses the link between indigenous knowledge and indigenous language, and explores the opportunities this interconnection provides for understanding and countering declines in both. The second section examines how the loss of indigenous knowledge due to insensitive school programmes may be countered […]

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Language app: Ho-Chunk (Hoocąk)

The Hoocąk Waaziija Haci Language Division is dedicated to ensuring the Hoocąk language continues to be a “living language”. As a sign of respect to our elders, and the speakers that have come before us, we will continue to speak our language, celebrate our customs, respect the Hoocąk value system […]

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Language app: Chickasaw

Chokma! The Chickasaw Nation presents Chickasaw Language Basic, a Chickasaw language learning application for all Apple mobile devices. Chickasaw Language Basic offers hundreds of Chickasaw words, phrases, songs and videos. Learn the Chickasaw language anytime, anywhere from actual Chickasaw speakers. Features:Hundreds of words and phrases organized by categories, including Alphabet, […]

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Language app: Arikara

The Arikara Cultural Center aims to preserve, promote and maintain Arikara culture. By creating, developing and making available to the Arikara people dynamic activities that are imbued with Arikara culture. Additionally, the Arikara Cultural Center will reinforce and support existing cultural domains. The Arikara Cultural Center hopes to increase knowledge, […]

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Language app: Chemehuevi

Thornton Media, Inc. an American Indian-owned company, has permission from Chairman Darrell Mike to release their Chemehuevi App to the iTunes store. All Language materials remain the property of the Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians. We wish this app will help in the revitalization efforts of the Chemehuevi language.

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Language app: Omaha

Omaha Nation Public Schools (UNPS), the Omaha Language Cultural Center (ULCC) & Title VII Department are resources to our children, schools and community. We promote the daily use of spoken Omaha language and participation in our Omaha culture. Omaha Nation Public Schools asked Thornton Media, Inc. to help publish this […]

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Kulumun: Journal of the Wollotuka Institute

This journal is a premier Indigenous journal which publishes across an international field. It is devoted to the publication of information which relates to research findings, book reviews and Indigenous methodological epistemologies. This blind peer reviewed journal seeks works which focus on a range of disciplines, including art, languages, history, […]

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Pama-Nyungan reconstruction: Exploration of Australian Linguistic Prehistory

Abstract The earliest detailed records of Australia’s indigenous languages date from approximately two hundred years ago, and therefore our only access to the prehistory of Australia’s indigenous past is through reconstruction in archeology and linguistics. While we know that humans have lived in Australia for more than 40,000 years, we […]

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Ioway, Otoe-Missouria Online Dictionary

This dictionary was submitted to the Resources Database by Jimm G. GoodTracks, creator of the Ioway, Otoe-Missouria Language Website. Jimm writes: “This is an expansion of the original 1992 Ioway, Otoe-Missouria Dictionary published via University Colorado, Boulder. It is under on-going expansion into an unabridged encyclopedic dictionary, that includes archaic […]

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Dictionary of the Jaqi languages: Aymara, Jaqaru and Kawki

This dictionary was submitted to the Resources Database by Dr. MJ Hardman (‎Professor of Linguistics and Anthropology at the University of Florida). Dr. MJ Hardman writes: “This is a database driven dictionary of the Jaqi languages – Aymara, Jaqaru and Kawki. It is still under construction. Reference back to the […]

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Mozilla Firefox in Indigenous Languages

The Mozilla in Mexico community supports efforts to translate and localize the internet browser Mozilla Firefox into indigenous languages of Latin America. Their website currently features modules for 26 indigenous languages across Mexico, Guatemala and Ecuador, including kichwa, tz’utujil, yaqui, and others. If you would like to install Mozilla Firefox […]

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Language app: Tłı̨chǫ Yatıì

The Yati Dictionary app contains over 1300 words and phrases with sounds, pictures, example sentences and other important information from the Tlicho Dene language, which you may hear spoken in the Northwest Territories of Canada. Best of all, you can add your own words and pictures too! Compare your voice […]

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Tłı̨chǫ Yatıì Online Dictionary

The publication of a preliminary edition of the Dogrib (Tłı̨chǫ Yatıì) Dictionary in 1992 was an important event for the Dogrib Divisional Board of Education. The dictionary coincided with the graduation of the first teachers from the Kw’atindee Bino Community Teacher Education Program in Rae-Edzo and was intended as an […]

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Dictionary of Cook Islands Languages

This is a bilingual dictionary with the meanings of each headword given in English. It can be searched for both English and Cook Islands words. This online dictionary is aimed at providing quick access for learners and speakers of the languages of the Cook Islands. The Cook Islands languages are […]

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Ojibwe People’s Dictionary

The Ojibwe People’s Dictionary is a searchable, talking Ojibwe-English dictionary that features the voices of Ojibwe speakers. It is also a gateway into the Ojibwe collections at the Minnesota Historical Society. Along with detailed Ojibwe language entries and voices, you will find beautiful cultural items, photographs, and excerpts from relevant […]

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Māori Dictionary Project

As well as the words one would expect in a traditional dictionary, Te Aka has encyclopaedic entries including the names of plants and animals (especially native and endemic species), stars, planets and heavenly bodies, important Māori people, key ancestors of traditional narratives, tribal groups and ancestral canoes. Māori names for […]

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P’urhépecha Online Dictionary

This dictionary will be a continuously expanding, online, searchable, and (eventually) trilingual dictionary (P’urhépecha-Spanish-English) that includes early (colonial) and modern (endangered) languages. The dictionary’s databases include fields that support a wide range of orthographies and sources, so that users will most easily be able retrieve a rich array of information, […]

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Mayan Online Dictionary

This dictionary will be a continuously expanding, online, searchable, and (eventually) trilingual dictionary (Mayan-Spanish-English) that includes early (colonial) and modern Mayan (endangered) languages. Currently, our focus is Yucatec Mayan. We hope to add Ch’olan and other Mayan languages, as well, along with glyphic representations of words. The dictionary’s databases include […]

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Mixtec Online Dictionary

This dictionary will be a continuously expanding, online, searchable, and (eventually) trilingual dictionary (Mixtec-Spanish-English) that includes early (colonial) and modern Mixtec (endangered). The dictionary’s databases include fields that support a wide range of orthographies and sources, so that users will most easily be able retrieve a rich array of information, […]

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