Conference
Hosted by the Yavapai-Apache Nation in Camp Verde (Arizona)
Funded by National Science Foundation, Yavapai-Apache Nation, and the University of North Texas.
Funded by National Science Foundation, Yavapai-Apache Nation, and the University of North Texas.
Introduction
The 2017 Dene/Athabaskan Language Conference and Workshop will take place in June 27-29th, 2017, and will be hosted by the Yavapai-Apache Nation, near Camp Verde, Arizona, USA. All aspects of the scientific study of Dene/Athabaskan languages will be discussed, but this conference will be the first ever with a special focus on Apache languages.
Despite variation in level of endangerment and dialects, all Apache languages are ultimately closely related, and so the linguistic discussions arising from the conference and workshop will strengthen ethnolinguistic identity and awareness for all indigenous participants, leading to improved communication and understanding between the different Apache groups from Arizona to Texas.
Despite variation in level of endangerment and dialects, all Apache languages are ultimately closely related, and so the linguistic discussions arising from the conference and workshop will strengthen ethnolinguistic identity and awareness for all indigenous participants, leading to improved communication and understanding between the different Apache groups from Arizona to Texas.
OUR GOALLanguages will disappear. We're changing that. |
2017
Focus
The focus of this Dene/Athabaskan Language Conference and Workshop will be on the five Apachean languages other than Navajo, i.e. Western Apache, Jicarilla Apache, Mescalero-Chiricahua Apache, Lipan Apache and Plains Apache. This focus on Apachean languages other than Navajo is due to the fact that the Navajo language is by far the best studied of the Apachean languages. Conference and Workshop participants will include non-Indigenous linguists as well as scholars representing all Apache tribes and together they will explore the following issues: the history of the Apachean languages, the relationship between Apachean languages and the other Athabaskan languages, and the discourse, pragmatic, semantic, morphosyntactic, phonological and phonetic features of Apachean languages, with an emphasis on the ones most interesting for linguistic typology and linguistic theory.
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Now
Speaker
For the first time ever, invited Apache speakers or elders representing every single Apachean group will come together and discuss their languages, their structures, and the similarities and differences in approaches to language documentation, teaching, and revitalization. In particular, these groups will be sharing ideas about how to counter loss of language vitality and language shift; how to revitalize languages in the case of the dormant Apache languages (i.e. languages with no fluent speakers). There will be a recognition of a need for diverse approaches for example, how to deal with languages with several thousands of speakers, (i.e. Western Apache), to be compared with languages with several hundreds of speakers, (i.e. Mescalero and Jicarilla), as opposed to the dormant languages (i.e. Chiricahua-Warm Springs Apache of Ft. Sill, Oklahoma, Plains Apache of Oklahoma, and Lipan Apache of Texas and New Mexico).
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2017
Stakeholder
The different stakeholders & supporters will also have an opportunity to discuss dialect differences within Apache languages. The problem of dialect differences is particularly acute in the case of the Western Apache language varieties of Arizona, but is relevant to every other Apache group as well.
Many thanks to the supporters of this year`s conference: |