Language Shift and Local Choice: On Practicing Linguistics in the 21st Century

Abstract

Concern for endangered languages draws together two communities who have long been associated with each other, Native North American groups and linguists. The desire to maintain these languages, however, creates the need for a new working relationship between the two communities. This discussion formulates, first, some of the issues internal to Native American communities in their efforts to perpetuate their languages, and secondly, some of the steps that we, as linguists, can take to make our profession more responsive to these community issues.