In Case You Missed It…
Here is a collection of blog posts we published this past month. Thanks to our interns for this wonderful work!
Sq’éwlets: A Stó:lo-Coast Salish Community, and their Website
In British Columbia, where the Harrison and Fraser Rivers meet, live the Sq’éwlets, a tribe of the Stó:lō people, who call themselves Sqwōwich — People of the Sturgeon. On a website, through the Virtual Museum of Canada, they share their story — from long ago up through the present — in their own way, and with the words of their own language.
A New Way of Speaking: Language use in the age of the internet
As the internet, texting, and social media have become more and more prevalent over the last twenty or so years, so have arguments that language is “deteriorating”, or that kids today simply don’t know how to write “properly” anymore. That’s not the first time this has happened, nor will it likely be the last. But fear not, prescriptivists: language isn’t dead, it’s evolving — the internet is a global hotbed of cross-cultural exchange, ripe for linguistic innovation and new ways of communicating.
Komz a rit brezhoneg?
France’s constitution acknowledges one official language: French. However, France is home to a multitude of minoritized and endangered languages, all of which are excluded by the government’s singular focus on the French language. Among these is Breton, a Southwestern Brittonic language native to Brittany, France.
Plotting a Course: Language-Learning Apps and Language Revitalization
The war against language loss is fought on many fronts. Speakers set up schools and produce materials to teach their children. Films and television series are produced and directed and released to the public, giving a new voice to languages rarely heard in the global marketplace. Legislation is passed to protect the speaker communities’ rights. But a new tool is gaining use in this fight — language-learning apps.
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