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About the Book
In light of the global threat of language endangerment, minority language communities around the globe have increasingly engaged in the task of strengthening their traditional languages. This collaborative volume highlights a collection of these case studies to show how a particularly promising methodology, community based language and identity development, has been applied around the globe, with different variations and results. Those interested in language development will find helpful and practical examples of what has worked well (and what hasn't) from a diverse set of authors within a myriad of cultural and linguistic settings.
About the Editors
David Eberhard has been the General Editor of the Ethnologue since 2018. Prior to that he was on the faculty of the Linguistics Department at Payap University, Chiang Mai, Thailand, where he taught Sociolinguistics and Advanced Phonology, and advised numerous student masters theses focused on the sociolinguistic descriptions of Asian language communities. He spent 22 years with SIL in Brazil, where he did field work among the Mamaindê people of the southern Amazon. His holds a PhD in Linguistics from Vrije Universtiteit, Amsterdam, where his dissertation, a descriptive grammar of the Mamaindê language, was completed in 2009. He is the author of over 20 publications, and a co-author of the "Guide for Planning the Future of Our Language," a participatory methodology for community based language development. He has led workshops on community based language development and provided consulting for minority language communities in Malaysia, China, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Turkey, Croatia, Nigeria, Uganda, Sao Tome e Principe, USA, and Brazil. His research interests include language ecologies, language shift and maintenance, endangered languages, language development, language vitality assessment, minority languages and digital media, language acquisition of minority languages, and the phonology, morphology and syntax of the Nambiquara language family, of which Mamaindê is a part.
Scott Smith (MA, DEA) is a sociolinguistic consultant and translation consultant for SIL International, and regional manager for SIL in Equatorial Guinea (EG), Africa. He teaches in Masters programs in Spain and Equatorial Guinea, and is an administrator for Promotora Española de Lingüística in Spain. He has trained speakers from 19 minority language groups in community-based language development.