Indigenous Learning Forum: "Just one more quick edit: Lessons from the making of the Tunica Language Textbook" with Andrew Abdalian

The fifth 2024-2025 Indigenous Learning Forum will take place January 23, 2025 at 3:00 p.m. ET on Zoom. This talk will be given in English with Spanish translation.  

This event is open to all but registration is required.

Andrew Abdalian has a BA in linguistics from Swarthmore College and a PhD in linguistics from Tulane University. He works on language change and pedagogy in endangered and reawakening languages. He has worked with the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana on the revitalization of the Tunica language since 2016.

Just one more quick edit: Lessons from the making of the Tunica Language Textbook

Published in May 2023, the Tunica Language Textbook (Rowintaworu Luhchi Yoroni) is the result of over 10 years of work by the Tunica Language Working Group (Kuhpani Yoyani Luhchi Yoroni), a collaboration between the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana and Tulane University. Tunica is a language isolate from the southeastern United States whose last known native speaker died in 1948. Under these circumstances, the working group developed linguistic and pedagogical materials based on the documentation of three Tunica speakers working with three linguists between 1886 and 1939. This talk examines some of the challenges and successes during the creation, editing, and publication of the Tunica Language Textbook.