Project Research Topic Assignment Spring 2009
LING/AIS 210 Page 1 of 4
Topic Requirements: Your group jointly submit one topic statement during the Library Skills Workshop. Your topic statement must contain: Language Choices Your group should identify at least two (2) potential research languages or language groups from the list below, or from Appendix 2 in Silver & Miller. Your group will eventually select one of these two to focus your project on. 10 points. Topic Choices Your group must then identify four (4) potential topics for this project. These topics may be selected from the list below, or you may propose your own topic areas. 10 points. Explanatory Sentences Each of your four topic choices should be accompanied by 1-2 sentences of explanation about why you're interested in the topic, how you might approach it, or any questions you have about it. 15 points. Topic Format: Your topics must be typed, double-spaced, and include the names of all of your group members. If your topic statement is longer than one page, the pages must be stapled together (-5 points for unstapled pages). You must bring one copy of your topic statement to hand in at the Library Skills Workshop, as well as copies for each of your group members to use during the workshop. Grading Criteria: A perfect topic assignment is worth 25 points and will: * Identify two or more languages from the list below, and at least four topics. * Include brief, clear explanations of each topic choice. * Follow the format requirements given above. Language choices: You should select two or more of the following languages or language groups from the list below. You will ultimately select one to focus on for your Research Project. If you already know a language or language group that you would like to research, and that group is not listed below, please have your choice pre-approved by someone on the instructional staff. * Languages of the Southwest Tohono O'odham (previously referred to as `Papago') Yoeme (previously referred to as `Yaqui') Hopi Navajo (also known as Dine) Western Apache Zuni Ute Shoshone Comanche Mono Paiute *California languages (Select any of the languages discussed in Hinton) * Meso-American and South American Languages Classical Aztec
Research Project Topic Assignment Spring 2009
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Classical Mayan Nahuatl (Modern Aztec) Aymara (Peru) Modern Mayan (many different languages -including Zapotec Mayan, Yucatec Mayan, and others) Guaran (Paraguay) *Algonquian Languages Cree Ojibwa Chippewa Potawatomi Fox Shawnee Arapaho Cheyenne Blackfoot *Iroquoian Languages Mohawk Oneida Seneca Cherokee *Muskogean Languages Choctaw-Chickasaw Alabama-Coushatta (also known as Koasati) Hitchiti-Mikasuki Creek (also called Muskogee, includes Seminole) *Siouxan Languages Dakota/Lakota/Nakota Winnebago Crow Hidatsa *Eskimo-Aleut Languages Aleut Yupik (sometimes written Yup'ik, many varieties exist) Inuit/Inupiaq *Northern Athabaskan Slave (pronounced [slevi]) Chippewayan Hare Dogrib Carrier Sarcee *Northwest Coast Languages Salishan (many languages to choose from) Sahaptian (includes Nez Perce) Chinook
Research Project Topic Assignment Spring 2009
LING/AIS 210 Page 3 of 4
Wakashan (includes Kwakiutl, also known as Kwakwala, Nootka and Makah) Topic ideas: Here are a few suggestions to help you generate good topic ideas. You do not need to limit yourself to these suggestions, they are only meant to stimulate your imagination! Remember that a good topic will be limited to one or a small group of languages or communities, it will not make claims that all American Indian groups are the same, and it will be focused on some aspect of language, even though does it not have to focus on grammar at all. * Language documentation, revitalization and/or recovery efforts in some American Indian community. * Bilingual education or language immersion project(s) in some American Indian community. * Traditional stories of some variety, or particular performance types in some American Indian community. * Counting systems or `ethnomathematics' in some American Indian language. * Indigenous views about science, ethnobotony or ethnozoology and how these relate to language (i.e. taxonomies, categorization schemes, etc.) * Kinship systems and the terminology in which they are encoded. * Last speakers of some American Indian language(s). * The BIA boarding schools and their effect on language maintenance in some community or communities. * Indigenous views about art, music, dance, drama and how these relate to or are expressed in language. * Expert vocabularies of some type (see Hinton's chapter 11, for example. * The history of some particular American Indian group, and the role of linguistic information in discovering that history. * Oral history of some American Indian group. * Indigenous writing system -the Cherokee syllabary, the Cree syllabary, or the Aztec or Mayan writing systems, or similar systems. * The development of a practical writing system for one or a few American Indian languages. * Particular speech styles or registers in some American Indian language (i.e. men's and women's speech, baby talk, respect speech, oral poetry, political speech, etc.) * Multilingualism in a particular American Indian community. * Ethnomedicine, or language relating to disease, wellness and healing in a community. * American Indian Languages as they are depicted in cinema (mainstream or independent). * The American Indian Languages indigenous to a particular place (i.e. your hometown, or somewhere relevant to you personally, or part of your own heritage). * Of course, any topic on the grammar of an American Indian language is very appropriate for this course!
Research Project Topic Assignment Spring 2009
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Taboo topics: Here are some topics that we will ask you to avoid. If you have a burning desire to use one of these topics, you're always welcome to discuss your ideas with us, but experience has shown that these topics tend to lead students to very poor projects. We therefore encourage you to avoid them. * The Navajo Code Talkers. The problem with this topic is not that it's uninteresting or unimportant. Quite to the contrary, it's EXTREMELY interesting and important! Unfortunately, however, the standard `scholarly references' which are readily accessible about the code talkers are mostly written by military historians who don't know anything about linguistics. As a result, they make a large number of wrong claims about the Navajo code, and students tend to repeat these wrong claims when they write their papers. If you have a special interest in the code talkers, and really want to pursue this topic, please talk with your instructor about it before proceeding! * `Folktales' of any particular group. This tends to lead students to resources in which American Indian stories have been translated into English for the purpose of using them as children's stories for little American English speaking kids. That kind of translation typically obliterates most or all of what is important or authentic about the original `story', and twists it into something that's palatable to American English speaking kids and their parents. If you have an interest in `folktales', try working on a topic like `oral tradition', `verbal art' or `verbal performance' instead -there you'll find much better references!