Two new papers: Elango, Coutinho, and Lima (2020); Lima (2020)

The editors of Language Documentation and Conservation have released their 20th special publication, 'Collaborative approaches to the challenges of language documentation and conservation', based on the 2018 Symposium on American Indian languages (SAIL).

Incoming MA student Vidhya Elango (BA 2019), Isabella Coutinho (State University of Roraima), and Suzi Lima (faculty) are the authors of "A language vitality survey of Macuxi, Wapichana and English in Serra da Lua, Roraima (Brazil)."

Serra da Lua is a multilingual region in the state of Roraima (Brazil) where Macuxi (Carib), Wapichana (Arawak), Brazilian Portuguese and Guyanese English are all spoken. Based on a self-reported language survey, we present an assessment of the vitality of the languages spoken in this region and the attitudes of the speakers towards these languages. While previous literature has reported the existence of English speakers in this region, the literature does not provide more details about domains of use or the attitudes towards the English language in contrast with Portuguese and the Indigenous languages. This paper helps to address this gap. In sum, the goals of this paper are twofold: first, in light of the results of the survey, to discuss the vitality of the Macuxi and Wapichana languages in the Serra da Lua communities according to the criteria set out by UNESCO’s 'Nine Factors' for assessing language vitality; and second, to provide insight about the use of English in this region.

Suzi Lima also has a solo paper in the same issue: "The Kawaiwete pedagogical grammar: Linguistic theory, collaborative language documentation, and the production of pedagogical materials."

This paper describes the intersection between linguistic theory and collaborative language documentation as a fundamental step in developing pedagogical materials for Indigenous communities. More specifically, we discuss the process of writing a mono-lingual pedagogical grammar of the Kawaiwete language (a Brazilian Indigenous language). This material was intended to motivate L1 speakers of Kawaiwete to think about language as researchers: by exploring linguistic datasets through the production and revision of hypotheses, testing predictions empirically and assessing the consistency of hypotheses through logical reasoning. By means of linguistic workshops in Kawaiwete communities, linguistic training of Indigenous researchers and production of pedagogical materials, we intended to motivate younger generations of Kawaiwete speakers to become researchers of their own language.