Excellence in Community Linguistics Award Nomination, 2019 |
Excellence in Community Linguistics Award Nomination 2019
This award recognizes the outstanding contributions that members of language communities (typically outside the academic sphere of professional linguists) make for the benefit of their community’s language. The contributions made by awardees may be varied, including, among other things, documentation work with a linguist as a consultant and efforts towards language revitalization.
Nominees are not limited to people working in North America; the language may be one spoken anywhere in the world. Nominations of women and underrepresented ethnic minorities are particularly encouraged.
Nominees are not limited to people working in North America; the language may be one spoken anywhere in the world. Nominations of women and underrepresented ethnic minorities are particularly encouraged.
Next Nomination Deadline
A nomination, consisting of a nomination form, at least 2 and up to 5 additional letters of support, and a brief citation to be read at the presentation of the award, must be received by September 30, 2019.
Eligibility
Examples of types of language leaders who could be good nominees include, but are not limited to, the following:
- A member of an endangered language community who develops language teaching materials, teaches language classes, or trains other speakers to be teachers, in order to increase the number of speakers of the language.
- A member of an endangered language community who organizes a community language revitalization program
(e.g. by beginning an immersion summer day-camp program and training elders who are speakers to serve as teachers). - A member of a dormant language community who learns their heritage language from archival materials and develops a language revitalization program to share the language with the community.
- A speaker of an underdescribed language who works with a linguist as a consultant for an extended time, with great dedication, thereby making it possible for the language to be documented.
- A consultant as in the previous point whose outstanding metalinguistic insight into linguistic patterns makes a significant contribution to a linguistic analysis.
- A community member who does several of the activities above.
It should be noted that speakers, learners, and supporters who do not speak the language being documented/revitalized can all be nominated. The required criterion is that there be a contribution that could benefit the language in some way, whether by improving its documentation, increasing the number of speakers, or some other means.
The language in question will normally be an underdescribed one, possibly endangered, or where well-justified a stigmatized variety of a more widely spoken language.
The language in question will normally be an underdescribed one, possibly endangered, or where well-justified a stigmatized variety of a more widely spoken language.
Nominees typically should NOT be:
1) those working towards or holding doctorates in linguistics or related fields; or
2) those employed in regular academic positions in a department of linguistics or related fields although there may be exceptions in the case of a community member who pursues a degree in linguistics after long work within the community.
1) those working towards or holding doctorates in linguistics or related fields; or
2) those employed in regular academic positions in a department of linguistics or related fields although there may be exceptions in the case of a community member who pursues a degree in linguistics after long work within the community.