CoLang 2024: Institute on Collaborative Language Research

Movie night tonight 🤩 PREY, presented by Dr. Briner, in discussion with Hali Dardar, and the Comanche Language and Cultural Preservation Committee, 7-9pm in MU Arizona Ballroom (Room 221).

Prey (2022): Set in the Comanche Nation 300 years ago, this is the story of Naru, a fierce and highly skilled warrior, raised in the shadow of legendary hunters who roam the Great Plains. When danger threatens her camp, she sets out to protect her people. The prey she stalks: a highly evolved alien predator with a technically advanced arsenal. This is a super interesting and FUN! Q&A discussion to follow.

Languages: Comanche, French + English

Today's models talk 🎙 -- Multimodal Documentation of Highland Mayan Sign Language and Gesture, presented by Robert Henderson, Juan Ajsivinac Sian, Jeremy Kuhn, Sybil Vachaudez, and Samantha Prins, at 1:00 - 2:00 in MU Arizona Ballroom (Room 221).

Linguistic heritage includes not only the spoken languages used by hearing communities, but also the sign languages used by Deaf communities. While large national sign languages (ASL, LSF, etc.) have grammars, dictionaries, pedagogical materials and teaching traditions, smaller sign languages—and Indigenous sign languages in particular—are under-resourced. In this context, we turn to Mesoamerica, where there are a number of small sign languages due to high rates of congenital deafness in various Maya communities.

The status of these languages is precarious. They are under the same pressures that spoken Indigenous languages face—e.g., emigration and immigration breaking up small linguistic communities, as well as pressure from a nearby non-Indigenous sign language with greater official recognition and support. The goal of our project is to describe the grammar of these languages for the first time, comparing to the culturally-grounded gestures used by the hearing community. In this talk, we focus on methodologies for documenting Indigenous sign languages in multimodal contexts, and how documentation of this kind can support the vitality of Indigenous sign languages.

Tonight's event 🤩 ALASKA NIGHT! Presented by Susan Paskvan and friends from Alaska, Wednesday 6/12 7:00 - 9:00 pm MU Arizona Ballroom (Room 221).

Annauk Olin and her mother Nulukutaaq will sing Inupiaq songs. Annauk and her daughter Tulguna will Inupiaq dance. Tristan Madros will share about traditions. Susan Paskvan will tell about traditional food preparation - moose soup and baked salmon bites will be provided.

Today's models talk 🎙 -- Native American Languages & Linguistics Master of Arts (NAMA): 25 Years Offering an Inclusive Pathway for Native American Scholars in Language Sciences, presented by Wilson de Lima Silva, at 1:00 - 2:00 in MU Arizona Ballroom (Room 221).

Since 1999, the Native American Languages & Linguistics Master of Arts (NAMA) program of the Department of Linguistics at the University of Arizona has been serving Native American students interested in linguistic training, language documentation, and language revitalization. In this talk, I discuss how the NAMA program contributes to addressing the challenge of broadening the participation of Native American students in language sciences, social sciences, and STEM.

Movie Night tonight 🤩 Anyukojmit: We Are Totontepecanos -- presented by Ben Levine, Tuesday 6/11 7:00 - 9:00 pm MU Arizona Ballroom (Room 221).

Anyukojmit - We Are Totontepecanos: Happiness and sadness are shared in one of the most successful Mexican villages where the world’s most nutritious corn is grown; but still the young leave. What they find is surprising. A hybrid documentary where indigenous filmmakers translate classic filmmaking into something of their own.

The film represents a number of language documentation techniques adapted from documentary filmmaking that evolved in projects with the Passamaquoddy and Mixe peoples over 12 years and funded by the NSF-DEL program. These ways of using video to document and produce richly contextualized natural group language and activity offer linguists and those interested in language reclamation first hand opportunity to see and evaluate for themselves the value of using visual documentation. These techniques were taught by the filmmaker at Co-Lang 2016 and 2018 .

Language: Totontepec

Following the screening of this film, there will be a Q&A session with filmmaker Ben Levine.