This volume is intended as an addition to the limited resources available to Mohawk language teachers. The 95 legends, histories, anecdotes, omens, and poetry collected in this volume were written by Mohawk teachers from Caughnawaga and Oka, and have been handed down from generation to generation to form part of the Mohawk cultural heritage.…

This analysis seeks to link discourse structure and semantic or lexical systems. The example is given of a Cuna curing chant named "the way of the pepper," in which 53 names for pepper ("kapur") are used in a projection of a paradigmatic axis (the lexical taxonomy) onto a syntagmatic axis. A corollary of the principle of…

Established by the Alaska State Legislature on June 9, 1972, the Alaska Native Language Center is responsible for: (1) studying languages native to Alaska; (2) developing literacy materials; (3) assisting in the translation of important documents; (4) providing for the development and dissemination of native literature; and (5) training Alaska…

Three million children being schooled in the educational system of America are expected to forego the use of their native language while in the school environs and accept English as the mode of communication. To assess the effect of mode of language instruction on the student's concept of self as well as student achievement in reading, the…

The Boehm Test of Basic Concepts was translated into Navajo to investigate whether an English test can be translated into Navajo in a form suitable for assessing the language development of K-2 level Navajos. Differences were in: syntactic difficulty, organization of experience into concepts, accidental similarity of words, ranges of meaning. (SCC)

Examines some aspects of syntactic and semantic variation in the Arizona Tewa speech community, including the speech community members' perception of variation, with a view to exploring the implications of this variation for the study of language change and the anthropological study of language structure. (AM)

The Hixkaryana language is discussed concerning its functions and forms of redundancy, and a transcription of the first part of a folktale narrative is shown. (NCR)

Discusses the influence of French and English on the Akwesasne Mohawk language over the last three centuries. Linguistic and sociocultural influences are shown. (NCR)

Examines the challenge posed by the naturalist philosophy of language--the view that the meanings of symbols are fixed by the environment. Compares the naturalist philosophy with that presented in an activist Native American essay that argues for the preservation of traditional native languages. (SRT)

Since 1978, basic research on bilingual education in Mexico has prevailed, especially related to Indian languages. Action research has also been more fruitful than in the past. The few objective evaluations conducted have been notable for the publication of a wide range of results. (Author/BW)

As a world community, Indigenous peoples are faced with many common challenges in their attempts to maintain the vitality of their respective languages and to honor the "natural order of the Creator." Ten strategies are discussed that are critical to the task of renewing and maintaining Indigenous languages. These strategies are: (1)…

Two Native people describe their respective journeys to healing, journeys that involved the rediscovery of language and culture. In Part I, "Healing the Tears of Yesterday by the Drum Today: The Oneida Language Is a Healing Medicine" (Grafton Antone), the first narrator taught the Oneida language to adult students at a community center.…

A salient characteristic of the morpho-lexical systems of the Salish languages is the widespread use of reduplication in both derivational and inflectional functions. Salish reduplication signals such typologically common categories as "distributive/plural,""repetitive/continuative," and "diminutive," the cross-linguistically marked but typically…

This digest considers issues, possible solutions, and successful efforts in dealing with Native language loss, maintenance, and restoration in American Indian and Alaska Native communities and schools. The preservation and maintenance of the remaining 210 tribal languages is a major cultural and education concern in Native communities. The problem…

In recent years, several Andean nations have implemented reforms addressing the educational and social marginalization of Indigenous populations. Bilingual-intercultural education plays a prominent role in these reforms, and national bureaucracies have arisen around the goals of linguistic standardization and development of Indigenous language…