Sha¨wtha¨n Da¨n, Sha¨wtha¨n Kwa¨nje`: good people, good words: creating a da¨n k’e` speech community in an elementary school  

Oleh:

Ferguson, Jenanne

Jenis: Article from Journal
Dalam koleksi: Current Issues in Language Planning vol. 11 no. 2 (2010), page 152-172.
Topik: Southern Tutchone; speech community; endangered languages; Yukon; language policy; bottom-up planning
Fulltext: Vol. 11, No. 2, May 2010, 152–172.pdf (206.65KB)

Isi artikel

This paper investigates how the processes of language transmission among speakers of Southern Tutchone (da¨n k’e`), an indigenous Athapaskan language of the southern Yukon Territory, Canada, bear out an emerging theoretical interest in how bottom-up communicative practices shape language policy. An examination of da¨n k’e` language practices illuminates how both fluent speakers and novices can actively create a speech community dedicated to the continued maintenance of their language. Drawing upon fieldwork conducted in an elementary school in Whitehorse, Yukon, I examine how language-teaching methods and language practices both inside and outside of the classroom function as ways to challenge the English-dominant speech community of the school. The shifting of linguistic frames in teaching, the addition of da¨n k’e` to the school’s linguistic landscape, and the introduction of speaking practices that reinforce the use of da¨n k’e` all promote language use in a way that empowers speakers and encourages language maintenance. Exploring the agency of individual speakers and how their language practices both reproduce and challenge top-down policies reveals how speech communities can be shaped through the bottom-up planning of the speakers themselves.

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