The Language Revitalization Working Group offers a space to critically examine theories, methodologies, and applications of language revitalization in a variety of world contexts. Additionally, we provide a centralized venue for interdisciplinary researchers and practitioners of language revitalization to share, present, discuss, and improve their language revitalization efforts.
In Spring 2025, we will meet every other Wednesday from 3-4 p.m. (PST) in a hybrid format: if you're on campus you can join us in-person, and if you're not, you can join via Zoom. Additional/alternative meeting times/dates are marked with an asterisk (*) below.
For more information, or to be added to our mailing list or bCourses site, please contact Anna Macknick (macknick@berkeley.edu) or Julia Peck (julia.peck@berkeley.edu). If you'd like to attend any of our events but have questions/concerns about accessibility or other accommodations, please reach out via email!
For the 2024-2025 academic year, we are honored and proud to be sponsored by the Townsend Center for the Humanities.
Spring 2025 Meeting Schedule:
February 12: Anna Macknick (UC Berkeley)
Plain Language Workshop for Language Revitalization
Previous meetings
January 29: Welcome and Library Launch
Join us for our first event of the semester where we will be eating snacks, socializing and sharing LR projects we'll be working on this semester, and launching the Language Revitalization Library! The library is housed within the Charles J. Fillmore Linguistics Library (1308 Dwinelle), and we have last year's LRWG co-coordinators, Måsi and Tzintia, to thank for its ideation and some of its curation. We will gather in 1303 Dwinelle (and Zoom) as usual and then briefly visit the library in 1308.
Fall 2024 Meeting Schedule:
November 20: Jacqueline Brixey (Choctaw, USC)
Adapting Wordle for Indigenous Languages
In this workshop, we will adapt code for the popular word-guessing game Wordle to other languages. We'll also learn how to publish our modified code publicly on a website. No prior coding experience necessary! My Choctaw language version, which I've renamed "Anumple", is available to try out: https://anumple.vercel.app/
Jacqueline “Lina” Brixey is a PhD candidate in Computer Science at the University of Southern California (USC), and has worked as a researcher within the Natural Language Dialogue Group at the USC Institute for Creative Technologies since 2016, focusing on Indigenous and endangered languages, dialogue systems, and bilingualism. As a citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, Lina is committed to supporting and empowering Native American communities through technology and education and has created the world’s first Choctaw language corpus — a collection of written and spoken texts essential for the study of languages — a bilingual chatbot, and a dialogue system for language documentation.
November 6: Anushah Hossain (Script Encoding Initiative)
The Politics of Script (Re)Vitalization: Case Studies of Lampung and Bété
This informal talk will reflect on recent projects by the Script Encoding Initiative focused on unencoded scripts in Indonesia and Côte d'Ivoire. 'Unencoded scripts' refers to writing systems that are not yet available for interchange on digital devices. For these scripts to be accessible on devices, they must be documented and proposed to the Unicode Consortium, a California-based standards body. The talk will explore the tensions inherent in a technical standards body serving as a de facto arbiter of writing systems, especially for scripts that are either newly invented and seeking to be established (like Bété) or balancing historical authenticity with modern use (such as Lampung).
Anushah Hossain is Research Director of the Script Encoding Initiative at UC Berkeley, a project that works on making historic and modern minority scripts available on digital devices. She is also a historian of computing and focuses on the development and impacts of text technologies in society.
October 23: Vanessa Raffin (E-Reo)
E-Reo: Empowering Language Revitalization with Digital Tools
In 2022, Vanessa and Sebastien met Heiura Itae-Tetaa, the founder of Speak Tahiti Paraparau Tahiti, a Tahitian language school. Inspired by the challenges of creating digital resources for Indigenous languages, they co-founded E-Reo, a code-free platform designed to support Indigenous language and culture preservation. Sebastien brought his expertise in linguistics, software platform development, and AI to the project, while Vanessa oversees didactics and User Experience (UX), ensuring that the platform's admin interface is user-friendly and that the mobile apps created for the public serve as effective pedagogical tools.
October 9: Anna Macknick (UC Berkeley)
Workshop: Creating mini zines for accessible language materials
This hands-on workshop will demonstrate how 8-page mini zines can offer a low-tech, low-resource option for the development of language materials - containing mini grammar lessons, short stories, mini glossaries, or any other content that can be shrunk into eight little pages. We will look at examples using this mini zine format, walk through templates using different levels of tech (Adobe InDesign, Canva, or simply paper and pen), and learn the simple cut-and-fold process. All supplies will be provided, and you’ll leave the workshop with copies of your own mini zine to share.
Anna Macknick is a mixed white/Latine/Genízare-descendent and a PhD student in Linguistics at UC Berkeley. They are a language worker for Koi Nation, supporting Xaitsnue (“Southeastern Pomo”) language revitalization through curriculum development and language teaching. Anna manages the UC Berkeley team of the Xaitsnue Community Dictionary Project, a collaboration with Robert Geary (Elem). Anna’s work focuses on archival research, morphological language change, and UDL practices for Linguistics pedagogy. They are especially interested in creating and adapting academic Linguistic work to be accessible to language communities regardless of educational background.
September 25: Beth Piatote (Nez Perce, UC Berkeley)
Writing workshop on using creative expression in language revitalization
Beth Piatote is an associate professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California Berkeley. She is the author of two books: the scholarly monograph Domestic Subjects: Gender, Citizenship, and the Law in Native American Literature (Yale 2013), which received honorable mention from the Modern Language Association for the 2014 Prize for Studies in Native American Literatures, Cultures, and Languages; and the mixed-genre collection, The Beadworkers: Stories (Counterpoint 2019), which was long-listed for the Aspen Words Literary Prize and the PEN/Bingham Prize for Debut Short Story Collection, and short-listed for the California Independent Booksellers Association “Golden Poppy” Prize for Fiction. The Beadworkers has been featured on NPR and selected as the “one read” for multiple university and community programs. Her full-length play, Antikoni, has been supported by workshops and public readings with Native Voices at the Autry, New York Classical Theatre, and the Indigenous Writers Collaborative at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival; and her short play, Tricksters, Unite! was featured in the 2022 Native Voices Short Play Festival. She currently holds a playwriting fellowship with AlterTheatre. Her creative and scholarly work has appeared in Kenyon Review, Epiphany, Poetry, World Literature Today, PMLA, American Quarterly, American Literary History, and other major journals and anthologies. She has served as a judge for literary awards for PEN America and the Poetry Foundation. She is currently working on a scholarly monograph on the representation of Native American legal systems through sensory representations (sound, visuality, synesthesia, and haunting) in texts across the long twentieth century; a collection of poems, and a collection of essays.
Beth’s research interests include Native American and Indigenous literature and history, arts, and law; Nez Perce language and literature, and Indigenous language revitalization more broadly; and creative writing. She co-created and now chairs the Designated Emphasis in Indigenous Language Revitalization at Berkeley. Currently she serves as the Director of the Arts Research Center, where she has established the Indigenous Poetics Lab to support artistic expression as a means of language revitalization. She holds a PhD in Modern Thought and Literature from Stanford University. She is Nez Perce and an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation.
September 11: Fernando David Márquez Duarte, Loenia Gutiérrez Moreto Cruz, Alejandro Maclis Valenzuela
Presentation of book "Manual de lengua Cucapáh" (Cucapáh language manual), co-authored by Fernando David Márquez Duarte and Cucapáh elder Margarita Valenzuela Portillo
Fernando David Márquez Duarte is a Mexican decolonial Marxist activist and thinker from Mexicali, Baja California. He is a PhD candidate in Political Science at the University of California Riverside (UCR). He has published academic articles in English and Spanish and edited the book Decolonizing Politics and Theories from the Abya Yala, as well as the book Awi Uyáj Cucapáh: El saber Cucapáh. He is the co-author of the book Manual de Lengua Cucapáh, along with Cucapáh elder Margarita Valenzuela. He has conducted projectes advising and supporting Indigenous groups in Baja California, México, such as the Cucapáh and Triqui, regarding Indigenous rights, political participation, language preservation, etc. He is proficient in Spanish, English, and Portuguese.
Lorenia Gutiérrez Moreto Cruz is a Mexican linguist from Mexicali, Baja California, with a Bachelor’s degree in Language Teaching. She has participated in transcribing data found in different sources about the Cucapáh language and helping with part of the linguistic analysis. She has also participated in community projects with the Cucapáh Indigenous group about Indigenous rights and language preservation. She is proficient in Spanish and English.
Alejandro Maclis Valenzuela is a Cucapáh Indigenous person, son of Cucapáh elder Margarita Valenzuela Portillo, from Ejido Cucapáh Mestizo, Baja California, México. He is participating in the Cucapáh language preservation project.
Printed copies of the book available for $15 and Cucapáh art pieces for sale
Spring 2024 Meeting Schedule:
January 24: Spring orientation
New and returning members share a bit about their background, as well as experiences with fieldwork and revitalization methods.
February 7: Nicaela Leon & Yazmin Novelo (Endangered Languages Project)
Noelia Nicaela Leon Coico (she/her) is a Quechua illustrator and linguist. She holds a degree in Applied Linguistics (San Simón University, Cochabamba, Bolivia) and formed in Revitalization of Language & Culture (Funproeib Andes). She works in the field of intercultural communication, translation of indigenous languages and the use of language on the internet. She is part of the internship at the Endangered Languages Project (ELP) and co-founder of the project "Atuq Yachachiq" that produces and disseminates Quechua didactic and literary material freely available on the internet.
Yazmín Yadira Novelo Montejo (she/her) has a Master in Sociolinguistics (Universidad Mayor de San Simón, Cochabamba, Bolivia), Graduate in Social Communication (Autonomous University of Yucatán, Mérida, Yuc. México), and formed in Revitalization of Native Languages and Identities from the University of Mondragón (Basque Country). She has been an associate professor at the Autonomous University of Yucatán and at the Autonomous University of Mexico, ENES-Yucatán headquarters. She specializes in the revitalization of native languages and identities through cultural production and the media. She is a founding member of Yúuyum Radio and musical projects in the Mayan language. She is currently director of the U Péekbal Waye', a project which works for the mayan language revitalization; she collaborates as a mentor in linguistic revitalization with the Endangered Languages Project and also co-directs the Nojolo'on Community Center for Peace in Peto, Yucatán, a space for citizen activation for Peace and NonViolence.
Language activism in Abya Yala: trends and urgencies
In November 2023, the Endangered Languages Project invited speakers of different native languages from Abya Yala, in order to reflect on their works searching for the right of native language speakers to live in the present and the future in their languages. The trends of linguistic activism in the area cannot be generalized, but in this space, the urgent need to change the narrative that guides linguistic activism in the area was recognized.
February 21: International Mother Language Day
We will meet in celebration with the Indigenous Poetics Lab fellows and Arts Research Center for a poetry reading and performance for Mother Language Day.
March 6: Alexander Elias (UC Berkeley)
Alexander Elias (he/him) is a 5th year PhD student focusing on language documentation of Jao, an Oceanic language of New Caledonia. Prior to beginning his PhD, Alex spent 6 months as an intern at the Mirima Dawang Woorlab-gerring Language Center in Kununurra, Western Australia, working on curriculum development and producing a bilingual radio show in the Miriwoong language, Woorlab Yarrelijgoo Miriwoo-biny! (Let's Talk Miriwoong!). In addition to documentation of Jao, Alex is currently engaged in a language and culture revitalization project with the Rammaytush Ohlone, the original inhabitants of the San Francisco Peninsula, a project which started at Breath of Life in 2022.
Compiling and printing traditional folktales in Jao
Alex will be presenting the work that he has been doing compiling and printing traditional folktales in Jao. He recorded around 20 folktales during his first trip, which were then printed in 30 copies and distributed among the community. He will discuss the process of collecting and formatting the stories, the reception of the book by the community and projects which have flowed out of it. Particular areas of interest include the relationship of toponymy to the collected stories and the conventions surrounding storytelling in the Jao-speaking community.
March 20: Christine Beier with Wendy Costa, Sarah Ertel and Julián Vargo-Ramirez (UC Berkeley)
Compiling and printing traditional folktales in Jao
This talk explores Living Dictionaries (LDs) as a resource for language revitalization (LR) efforts in Peruvian Amazonia. LDs are browser-based "collaborative multimedia projects" developed by the Living Tongues Institute to support “endangered, under-represented and diasporic languages” (https://livingdictionaries.app/about). First, Beier will offer a brief overview of the LD platform and its features, followed by a description of ongoing efforts to develop a set of LDs using data from Beier's team-based fieldwork with several endangered Amazonian languages. One component of these efforts has been the inclusion of LD projects in LING 154, ‘Language revitalization: Theory and practice’, and three student who took LING 154 in Fall 2023 with Beier — Costa, Ertel, and Vargo-Ramirez — will talk about their experiences working with LDs in that context. Finally, Beier will discuss uptake and responses from speech/heritage community members with whom she has shared these LDs so far. We will then shift to Q&A and a general discussion of LDs as a resource for LR.
April 10: Madeline Snigaroff (University of Chicago)
Madeline Snigaroff is a fourth-year Ph.D. student at The University of Chicago, focusing on the syntax-semantics interface and language revitalization and documentation of Aleut, her heritage language. She has also worked with speakers of Western Samoan and Toba Batak.
Where Are Your Keys (WAYK): A Framework for Endangered Language Learning
Learners of endangered languages face challenges and pressures that learners of majority languages do not, and thus may require learning methods unique to their circumstances. The Where Are Your Keys (WAYK) framework, developed by Evan Gardner, is a tool that facilitates language learning in the endangered language environment. In this talk, I will discuss how WAYK addresses some of the difficulties that Alaska Native learners of Aleut (Yupik-Inuit-Aleut; <100 speakers) face, and how the program ultimately extends beyond language-learning to foster community-building as well.
April 24: Ana Lívia Agostinho (Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina)
Language planning in São Tomé and Príncipe
In this presentation, I will discuss the linguistic situation as well as issues on language planning and policy in São Tomé and Príncipe. Four Portuguese-lexifier creole languages are currently spoken in São Tomé and Príncipe: three autochthonous and genetically related (Ferraz 1979; Hagemeijer 2011; Bandeira 2017) – Santome, Lung’Ie and Angolar –, and Kabuverdianu, native to Cape Verde, in Upper Guinea. The origin of these languages is linked to the Portuguese exploration and the kidnapping and confinement of African populations from the 15th to the 19th century. As an official language since 1975, Portuguese is used in all acts of the State, in education, and in the media. The 2011 Census (INE 2012) states that 98.4% of the population speak Portuguese. Lung’Ie is spoken by less than 100 people on Príncipe Island and is the most severely endangered language of the region. As part of revitalization efforts, Lung’Ie has been taught as an optional subject in Príncipe Island since 2009 and is the only creole language currently present in schools in the region. Despite the risk of extinction, attitudes towards the language have become positive in recent years. I will also discuss the development of a Lung’Ie coursebook (Agostinho and Araujo 2021), a Lung’Ie-Portuguese dictionary (Agostinho and Araujo, in preparation) and a series of workshops for Lung’Ie teachers taught in Príncipe Island in 2016, 2019, and 2023 during fieldwork. I will consider the teachers’ and students’ attitudes regarding the workshops and Lung’Ie classes through questionnaires applied in 2014 and 2023 during fieldwork. Finally, I will present some projects for the future.
Note: This a joint meeting with the UC Berkeley Linguistics Department Fieldwork Forum.