LING 208 - Indigenous Languages and Their Speakers

This course explores the diversity of indigenous languages around the world in the context of language endangerment. We will ask "what is lost if a language disappears?" We will look at the rich cultural diversity and challenges of Aboriginal Australian, Native American, Pacific and Celtic languages through such topics as language attitudes, language dominance, cross-cultural communications in the sharing of information, respect systems, pidgins and creoles, and human categorization systems.