CAN-8 Update

Posted on by Elise
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Hello, folks! Reporting from Listuguj here, where there has been a lot of work done towards setting up CAN-8 for real live users. We’ve been focussing on

  • making connections with (potential) users of the program
  • establishing a work-flow that works for people involved in the project (more on this below), and
  • recording and uploading content

We’ll start off talking about that first point, making connections. We’re hoping to create a CAN-8 that is geared towards the people using it. Part of this is listening the input of anybody who has an opinion to give. Vicky Metallic has been getting the word out to people outside the Education Complex that the CAN-8 project is happening, and that another tool for Mi’gmaq-learning will be added to the considerable resources that the community already has at its fingertips. We’ve all been talking to people, and in doing so, we’ve also been taking the advice of the people who have seen the program. We’ll use their input to select scenarios for dialogue-making, so that our content is relevant to the lives of the people who are using it.

Next up, the question of “how do the dialogues get made, anyway”? The fine details of this process are still being hammered out, but we have a general outline that works well for us! We write scripts in part-English, part-Mi’gmaq, then Joe Wilmot and his trusty team work with us to tweak the scripts so they flow like real Mi’gmaq. Once the scripts are speaker-worthy, Joe et al record them. The resulting sound files and Mi’gmaq scripts go into CAN-8, so far by my hands, but hopefully this will become a Montreal job soon. And later, we will write up helpful meta-linguistic notes which also go into CAN-8 for the users’ enjoyment.

There are two kinds of dialogue: implicit teaching ones, and daily life ones. These two categories do overlap quite a bit sometimes, but they aren’t one and the same!

For the implicit teaching dialogues:

  • Conor and I work on establishing corners of the grammar that might be tricky for learners to pick up directly from speakers–there is a lot that people can learn from the speakers around them, but we’d like to give people some scaffolding to base that knowledge on, and make speaker-knowledge more accessible to more people.
  • Once these corners are picked, we then use a theme to construct a little scene. One starts with a boy telling a girl, “I love you!” and she replies, “You love me, but I don’t love you.”–they talk to each other, and explain the predicament to others, and (spoilers!) he eventually wins her over. The aim of this dialogue is to demonstrate TA morphology in a (hopefully) fun and funny way!
  • Lastly, we give an overt, meta-linguistic description of the phenomenon in question. We also encourage the CAN-8 learner to go back to the dialogue they just heard with these meta-linguistic notes in mind, and will provide a CAN-8 space to experiment with the forms on their own.

The daily life dialogues are a little different. We don’t have many of them, but we’ll collect more as the summer goes on!

  • Two (or maybe three) speakers record a mostly-improvised chat about topics that are likely to come up. One chat that we have already uploaded features a phone call between two speakers, where one invites the other to go across the river for some shopping.
  • We then go over the recording with the speakers in question, and transcribe the exchange. This transcription gives CAN-8 users a chance to familiarize themselves with the orthography we’re using, as well as something to hang on to (as this speech tends to be a little faster than the scripted dialogue speech).
  • The dialogues are then uploaded! The advantage of these improvised chats is that they are less artificial than the scripts, and will give the CAN-8 user a window into natural speech that they are likely to hear (and eventually produce) with the speakers in their lives.

We’ve also uploaded the rhythmic profiles that we’ve talked about in a previous post, and Roger Metallic is working on Mi’gmaq-izing some of the Akwesasne verb conjugations and integrating them into the Listuguj CAN-8, too. There’s a lot going on, here!

And, as always, please chat with us in comments!

  • What do you think of our plan and strategy? What are the things that we’re missing?
  • Do you have any suggestions for material to cover?
  • Do you have suggestions for new methods to use to show linguistic patterns?
  • What have been your favourite bits about self-directed language-learning programs in the past? Should our CAN-8 program have them, too?

Endangered Languages: from Documentation to Revitalization

Posted on by Carol Rose
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The 4th 3L International Summer School will be in France on July 1st this year. It is hosted by French group L’equipe langues en danger – terrain, documentation, revitalisation (LED-TDR). The main focus of this Summer School will be on documenting endangered languages as well as their revitalization. The program for the summer school can be viewed here. It starts the first of July and goes until the 13th.

LED-TDR has been doing field work on a number of endangered languages. On their website there are many different resources that are useful for the documentation and revitalization of endangered languages. Information is available on sociolinguistic profiles of endangered languages, presentations on a variety of subjects concerning endangered languages, and various downloadable posters on endangered languages.

Canadian Indigenous Language and Literacy Development Institute

Posted on by Elise
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I had an interesting conversation today, with a professor of education from the University of Alberta, specializing in language and literacy learning (okay, it was my mother). She mentioned a program that the university runs, called the Canadian Indigenous Language and Literacy Development Institute. It is an annual program aiming to help  “First Peoples speakers and educators in endangered language documentation, linguistics, language acquisition, second language teaching methodologies, curriculum development, and language-related research and policy-making.” Sounds good to me!

Has anybody had any experience with CILLDI? Does it sound like something we’d be interested in?

Language Restoration: Ojibwe in Minnesota and Wisconsin

Posted on by Erin
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I was recently talking with my parents about the work we are doing here in Listuguj, and it reminded them of the documentary First Speakers: Restoring the Ojibwe Language that they’d recently seen on television in my hometown of Minneapolis, Minnesota. It covers the strategies used and challenges faced in the immersion programs at Niigaane Ojibwemowin Immersion School, Leech Lake Resevation, Minnesota and at Waadookodaading Ojibwe Language Immersion Charter School, Lac Courte Oreilles Reservation, Wisconsin. I’d highly recommend it to anyone who has an interest in restoring endangered languages.

Akwesasne trip

Posted on by Elise
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Yesterday, we (the CAN-8 group) took a small yellow car on a road trip to Akwesasne to visit Karen Mitchell, who has been running a magnificent program on the Mohawk language at the Akwesasne Economic Development Agency. We learned so much from the trip, and were simultaneously inspired and a little bit daunted! This (long) post is about some of what we learned while we were there, and how we’re hoping to use it for building a Mi’gmaq CAN-8 program.

The Mohawk CAN-8 program has immense breadth and depth (it has been developing for over five years), and there is no way to accomplish that much in the course of this summer. However, there were certain strategies and tools that seemed very adaptable to what we’re doing with our Mi’gmaq CAN-8!

First, there was a section about Mohawk writing, and the possible Mohawk syllables. Since Mohawk (unlike English and French) makes heavy use of a distinction between what we would write as /a/, /ah/, and /aʔ/, the students were introduced to the contrast between them. They heard each syllable /ma/, /mah/, /maʔ/ and saw them written on the screen in Mohawk orthography. How we’re talking about this for Mi’gmaq…

  • This section went through every possible Mohawk syllable, but we’re thinking that covering every possible syllable might not be necessary for us. The main advantage of this for Mi’gmaq might be in helping show the long/short/schwa vowel differences. We can record individual instances of the vowels, show the spelling (just enough to familiarize the student), and then record some minimal pair words to highlight how the difference shows up in speech.
  • A helpful and perhaps even crucial followup to that is to give learners sets of rhythm patterns/profiles: pairs and sets of combinations of each of the three degrees of vowel length in the language: regular, extra-short (= schwa), and extra-long.  That is, V, ‘, and V’. Hence we want to demonstrate rhythmic profiles like these—V-V, ‘-V, V-‘, V-V’, V’-V, ‘-V’, V’-‘ (etc.)—in the form of actual words that model them.  From there, as learners are presented with new words, they can compare them to the rhythmic profiles of each the model words they’ve already mastered, pick out the one best match, and so basically get the longs, shorts, and schwas of the whole new word automatically and accurately.  It is also necessary to include coda consonants: geminates and clusters, as these too have a distinct effect on the rhythmic profile of the word.

Second, each vocabulary word/phrase was presented in four ways (with a supporting element). 1) the student clicks on the English approximation of the word, 2) there is a picture indicating the meaning, and 3) the Mohawk word written out syllable by syllable and then as a unit, 4) the student hears a recording of the Mohawk word, syllable by syllable and then as a unit. As the recorded speaker says each syllable, the written Mohawk on the screen is highlighted to align with the recording (i.e. a less bouncy version of “follow the bouncing ball”). A supporting structure in the system is that the words/phrases were in Question/Answer format: The CAN-8 user, after clicking on the vocab word, would hear a questions such as “what animal is this?” or “how do you feel today?” and respond using the new phrase like a mini-dialogue. We like this because it takes vocabulary out of a “vocabulary/phrase list”-based approach and situates it in real interactive language use. How we’re talking about this for Mi’gmaq…

  • This was a fantastic format that covered a lot of ground! For citation style, it’s hard to think of a better-rounded way to show it. We’re discussing the idea of also using video, and also talking about eliminating solo words altogether, and using mainly phrases in context, as a vocabulary-teaching tool.
  • We’ll also have semi-scripted dialogues, which is material for another post.

Third, they had a thematic dictionary. It was a very well-organized reference, and showed vocabulary in a nice, usable way. How we’re talking about this for Mi’gmaq…

  • Obviously, building a dictionary is a huge project. We’re hoping to lay the groundwork for the whole thing, building a skeleton for the future and keeping track of the phrases that we are entering for the individual lessons. Actual input for the summer will prioritize thematic contexts where the language is currently likely to be used–school vocabulary and some topics relevant to speaking with older relatives (suggestions welcome). Later work will then branch out to topics where the language isn’t presently as common.
  • We already have a great resource for Mi’gmaq words! The Mi’kmaq Online Talking Dictionary has a substantial quantity of vocabulary, all of which is not only illustrated with sentence-level usages but also provides sound files of both. Maybe in the future, we can look at how this alphabetically-arranged resource might be cross-linked into a thematically-arranged presentation, and if possible filed in the CAN-8 system, too.

There was more, too, but this is already quite a long post! We’d like to hear what you think!

  • What themes should we work on?
  • Do these three features sound good to you? What are the problems with them?
  • What are your thoughts for useful dialogues for a CAN-8 user to hear? Again, there will be a post just for dialogues coming up later, but please start talking about it now, if you like.

An Update from iLanguage Lab Team

Posted on by Yuliya
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As many of you may know, we are building a database for all of our Mi’gmaq data! To those who do not…we are building a database! 

The big picture:
We have been working with iLanguage Lab LTD to create an open source (free!), easy to use app that will run online and offline. There are plenty of database applications out there, but they tend to be difficult to use and either run online OR offline (not both). The idea is to create something that will be used not only by linguists, but by whoever is interested in doing language research (for non-programmers by non-programmers). Thus, we are making the code for it as intuitive as possible, which will be easy to change and fit specific needs in the future. More features and other info here.
What do we mean by database? It will essentially be like Word or any other word processor, but more organized. We will have sessions, where data from elicitations can be entered directly into a series of fields (orthography, gloss, translation, etc.). Researchers and consultants will be able to collaborate with each other on projects in groups and will be able to have discussions via comments. Ultimately, it will be a place to store all of the data collected thus far in a way that is accessible to those involved in the project but also secure (maintaining consultant confidentiality and reducing the number of errors that inevitably occur during research). 
Why is this useful? It is organized and accessible, which is great for people trying to learn the language as well as for project purposes. The flexibility of the program will also allow linguists and speakers together to decide who has access to what data.

The nitty gritty:

So far the project is still in its skeletal stages (literally..we are using a JavaScript framework called ‘Backbone’). We have been working on things that are mostly ‘under the hood’ (things like defining what ‘Users’ are, how we want things to look, etc.) In addition, we have been running tests to make sure that the code we are writing is working. You can check out the progress by installing a google chrome extension called “Drag and Drop FieldLinguistics” (name to be changed soon) in the Chrome Web Store. The goal is to have most of these tests done by the end of this week so we can start building up to the ‘View’, which is what people will actually see when they use the app. The Beta Testing Target is July 1st 2012, at which point we will actually test out the finished app. 

If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, please feel free to post them here (or if you are technically oriented, you can post on the github project page: https://github.com/mecathcart/Drag-and-Drop-FieldLinguistics/issues/milestones)! We really hope that this will be used by people who have previously found themselves frustrated by the obscurity of other web applications.

Initial Change with Preverbs

Posted on by Jenny
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In Inglis (1986) she mentions that preverbs also undergo initial change (contraction) when there preceded by additional preverbs. I know we have seen this with preverbs like pema- ‘along’ becoming pma- in irrealis context such as in the future tense. For those of you who have looked into preverbs, does this only happen with preverbs in initial position, or does it happen more generally to every preverb with another preverb preceding it?

Ala’

Posted on by Jacob
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Delisle & Metallic claim that along with [ala] and [ula] mi’gmaq also has a remote demonstrative which they write “alà” (which comes out “ala’ ” in listuguj orthography). This demonstrative would qualify nouns as being farther from the speaker than if [ala] had been used. Has anyone else noticed this distinction and confirm its existence for me?