Language revitalization and the (re)constituting of gender
Silence and women in Native California language revitalization
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.v6i2.309Keywords:
gender, socialisation, language revitalization, Native CaliforniaAbstract
While many authors have investigated the processes by which children are socialized into gender roles within their communities of practice, and others have taken up an examination of the ways in which gender is a consideration in language endangerment and revitalization, the process of gender socialization in communities working towards language revitalization has been less well examined. The purpose of this paper is to examine gender role socialization in the context of Native California language endangerment and revitalization. The goal is to gain a deeper understanding of the ways in which the ideologies linked to gender roles in the traditional cultures associated with endangered Native California languages of heritage are expressed and understood, particularly as they interact with gender ideologies from a surrounding, dominant society. The particular focus of this paper is an examination of the impact of those ideologies on the deployment of silence as a salient attribute of women’s speech in contexts which are framed as traditional and closely tied to Native California languages of heritage.
References
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Ahlers, J. (2009) The many meanings of collaboration: Fieldwork with the Elem Pomo. Language and Communication 29(3): 230–243. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.langcom.2009.02.005
Basso, K. (1970) ‘To give up on words’: Silence in Western Apache culture. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 26(3): 213–30.
Basso, K. (1979) Portraits of the Whiteman. New york: cambridge University Press.
Bauman, R. (1983) Let Your Words Be Few: Symbolism of Speaking and Silence among Seventeenth-Century Quakers. cambridge: cambridge University Press.
Briggs, c. (1986) Learning How to Ask: A Sociolinguistic Appraisal of the Role of the Interview in Social Science Research. cambridge: cambridge University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/cBO9781139165990
Briggs, c. and Bauman, R. (1992) Genre, intertextuality, and social power. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 2: 131–72. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/jlin.1992.2.2.131
Bucholtz, M. (2003) Sociolinguistic nostalgia and the authentication of identity. Journal of Sociolinguistics 7(3): 398–416. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-9481.00232
Cavanaugh, J. (2004) Remembering and forgetting: Ideologies of language loss in a northern Italian town. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 14(1): 24–38. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/jlin.2004.14.1.24
Cavanaugh, J. (2006) Little women and vital champions: Gendered language shift in a northern Italian town. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 16(2): 194–210. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/jlin.2006.16.2.194
Crystal, d. (2000) Language Death. cambridge: cambridge University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/cBO9781139106856
Dorian, N. (1989) Investigating Obsolescence: Studies in Language Contraction and Death. cambridge: cambridge University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/cBO9780511620997
Duranti, A. (1994) From Grammar to Politics: Linguistic Anthropology in a Western Samoan Village. Berkeley: University of california Press.
Eckert, P. and Mcconnell-Ginet, S. (1992) Think practically and look locally: Language and gender as community-based practice. Annual Review of Anthropology 21: 461–92. http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev.an.21.100192.002333
Eckert, P. and Mcconnell-Ginet, S. (2003) Language and Gender. cambridge: cambridge University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/cBO9780511791147
Errington, J. (2003) Getting language rights: The rhetorics of language endangerment and loss. American Anthropologist 105(4): 723–32. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/aa.2003.105.4.723
Fishman, P. (1987) The work women do. Social Problems 25(4): 397–406. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/sp.1978.25.4.03a00050
Gal, S. (1991) Between speech and silence: The problematics of research on language and gender. In M. de Leonardo (ed.) Gender at the Crossroads of Knowledge: Feminist Anthropology in the Postmodern Era 175–203. Berkeley: Uc Press.
Garrett, P. and Baquedano-Lopez, P. (2002) Language socialization: Reproduction and continuity, transformation and change. Annual Review of Anthropology 31: 339–61. http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev.anthro.31.040402.085352
Grekoff. File slips. Archived in The Survey of california and Other Indian Languages. department of Linguistics, University of california, Berkeley.
Grenoble, L. and Whaley L. (1998) Endangered Languages. cambridge: cambridge University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/cBO9781139166959
Halpern, A. Fieldnotes. Archived in The Survey of california and Other Indian Languages. department of Linguistics, University of california, Berkeley.
Herring, S. (1995) Gender and democracy in computer-mediated communication. In I. Broch et al. (eds) Proceedings of the Second Nordic Conference on Language and Gender 1–20. Tromso, Norway: Tromso University Working Papers on Language and Linguistics, No. 23.
Hill, J. (2002) ‘Expert rhetorics’ in advocacy for endangered languages: Who is listening and what do they hear? Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 12(2): 119–33. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/jlin.2002.12.2.119
Hinton, L. (1994a) Flutes of Fire: Essays on California Indian languages. Berkeley: Heyday Books.
Hinton, L. (1994b) The role of women in Native American language revival. In M. Bucholtz, Anita Liang, Laurel Sutton and caitlyn Himes (eds) Cultural Performances: Proceedings of the Third Berkeley Women and Language Conference. Berkeley: Berkeley Women and Language Group.
Hinton, L. and Hale, K. (eds) (2001) The Green Book of Language Revitalization in Practice. San diego: Academic Press.
Hymes, d. (1974) Toward ethnographies of communication. In d. Hymes (ed.) Foundations in Sociolinguistics: An Ethnographic Approach. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Jaworski, A. (ed.) (1997) Silence: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Kimball, G. (1987) Men’s and women’s speech in Koasati: A reappraisal. International Journal of American Linguistics 53(1): 30–38. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/466041
Krauss, M. (2007) classification and terminology for degrees of language endangerment. In M. Brenziger (ed.) Language Diversity Endangered 1–8. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Kroeber, A.L. (1976) Handbook of the Indians of California. New york: dover Publications.
Kroskrity, P. (1992) Arizona Tewa public announcements: Form, function and linguistic ideology. Anthropological Linguistics 34: 104–116.
Kroskrity, P. (1998) Arizona Tewa Kiva speech as a manifestation of a dominant language ideology. In B. Schieffelin, K. Woolard and P. Kroskrity (eds) Language Ideologies: Practice and Theory 103–122. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kulick, d. and Schieffelin, B. (2003) Language socialization. In A. duranti (ed.) A Companion to Linguistic Anthropology 349–68. Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing, Ltd.
Mccarty, T., Romero-Little, M. E. and zepeda, O. (2006) Native American youth discourses on language shift and retention: Ideological cross-currents and their implications for language planning. The International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 9(5): 659–77. http://dx.doi.org/10.2167/beb386.0
Meek, B. (2007) Respecting the language of elders: Ideological shift and linguistic discontinuity in a Northern Athapascan community. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 17(1): 23–43. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/jlin.2007.17.1.23
Mendoza-denton, N. (1995) Pregnant pauses: Silence and authority in the Anita Hill-clarence Thomas hearings. In K. Hall and M. Bucholtz (eds) Gender Articulated: Language and the Socially Constructed Self 51–66. New york: Routledge.
Mithun, M. (1998) The significance of diversity in language endangerment and preservation. In L. Grenoble and L. Whaley (eds) Endangered Languages 163–91. cambridge: cambridge University Press.
Moshinsky, J. (1971) A Grammar of Southeastern Pomo. dissertation. University of california, Berkeley.
Moshinsky, J. Fieldnotes. Archived in The Survey of california and Other Indian Languages. department of Linguistics, University of california, Berkeley.
Nettle, d. and Romaine, S. (2000) Vanishing Voices: The Extinction of the World’s Languages. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Nevins, E. (2004) Learning to listen: confronting two meanings of language loss in the contemporary White Mountain Apache speech community. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 14(2): 269–88. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/jlin.2004.14.2.269
Ochs, E. (2000) Socialization. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 9(1-2): 230–33. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/jlin.1999.9.1-2.230
Paugh, A. (2005) Learning about work at dinnertime: Language socialization in dual-earner American families. Discourse and Society 16(1): 55–78. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0957926505048230
Philips, S. (1970) Participant structures and communicative competence: Warm Springs children in community and classroom. In J. E. Alatis (ed.) Bilingualism and Language Contact: Anthropological, Linguistic, Psychological and Social Aspects – Acquisition of Rules for Appropriate Speech Usage 370–94. Washington dc: Georgetown University Press.
Powers, S. (1976) Tribes of California. Berkeley: University of california Press.
Romaine, S. (1999) Communicating Gender. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Schieffelin, B. and Ochs, E. (1986) Language socialization. Annual Review of Anthropology 15: 163–91. http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev.an.15.100186.001115
Schieffelin, B., Woolard, K. and Kroskrity, P. (eds) (1998) Language Ideologies: Practice and Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Silverstein, M. (1979) Language structure and linguistic ideology. In P. clyne, W. Hanks and c. Hofbauer (eds) The Elements: A Parasession on Linguistic Units and Levels 193–247. chicago: chicago Linguistic Society.
Silverstein, M. (1985) Language and the culture of gender: At the intersection of structure, usage, and ideology. In E. Mertz and R. Parmentier (eds) Semiotic Mediation: Sociocultural and Psychological Perspectives 219–59. Orlando: Academic Press.
Spender, d. (1980) Talking in class. In d. Spender and E. Sarah (eds) Learning to Lose: Sexism and Education 148–54. London: Women’s Press.
Tannen, d. and Saville-Troike, M. (eds) (1985) Perspectives on Silence. New Jersey: Ablex Publishing corporation.
Trechter, S. (2001) White between the lines: Ethnic positioning in Lakhota discourse. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 11(1):22–35. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/jlin.2001.11.1.22
Woolard, K. (1999) Simultaneity and bivalency as strategies in bilingualism. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 8(1): 3–29. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/jlin.1998.8.1.3
Woolard, K. (2008) Why dat now: Linguistic-anthropological contributions to the explanation of sociolinguistic icons and change. Journal of Sociolinguistics 12(4): 432–52. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9841.2008.00375.x
Zimmerman, d. H. and West, c. (1975) Sex roles, interruptions and silences in conversation. In B. Thorne and N. Henley (eds) Language and Sex: Difference and Dominence 105–129. Rowley, MA: Newbury House.
Ahlers, J. (2009) The many meanings of collaboration: Fieldwork with the Elem Pomo. Language and Communication 29(3): 230–243. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.langcom.2009.02.005
Basso, K. (1970) ‘To give up on words’: Silence in Western Apache culture. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 26(3): 213–30.
Basso, K. (1979) Portraits of the Whiteman. New york: cambridge University Press.
Bauman, R. (1983) Let Your Words Be Few: Symbolism of Speaking and Silence among Seventeenth-Century Quakers. cambridge: cambridge University Press.
Briggs, c. (1986) Learning How to Ask: A Sociolinguistic Appraisal of the Role of the Interview in Social Science Research. cambridge: cambridge University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/cBO9781139165990
Briggs, c. and Bauman, R. (1992) Genre, intertextuality, and social power. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 2: 131–72. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/jlin.1992.2.2.131
Bucholtz, M. (2003) Sociolinguistic nostalgia and the authentication of identity. Journal of Sociolinguistics 7(3): 398–416. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-9481.00232
Cavanaugh, J. (2004) Remembering and forgetting: Ideologies of language loss in a northern Italian town. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 14(1): 24–38. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/jlin.2004.14.1.24
Cavanaugh, J. (2006) Little women and vital champions: Gendered language shift in a northern Italian town. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 16(2): 194–210. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/jlin.2006.16.2.194
Crystal, d. (2000) Language Death. cambridge: cambridge University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/cBO9781139106856
Dorian, N. (1989) Investigating Obsolescence: Studies in Language Contraction and Death. cambridge: cambridge University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/cBO9780511620997
Duranti, A. (1994) From Grammar to Politics: Linguistic Anthropology in a Western Samoan Village. Berkeley: University of california Press.
Eckert, P. and Mcconnell-Ginet, S. (1992) Think practically and look locally: Language and gender as community-based practice. Annual Review of Anthropology 21: 461–92. http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev.an.21.100192.002333
Eckert, P. and Mcconnell-Ginet, S. (2003) Language and Gender. cambridge: cambridge University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/cBO9780511791147
Errington, J. (2003) Getting language rights: The rhetorics of language endangerment and loss. American Anthropologist 105(4): 723–32. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/aa.2003.105.4.723
Fishman, P. (1987) The work women do. Social Problems 25(4): 397–406. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/sp.1978.25.4.03a00050
Gal, S. (1991) Between speech and silence: The problematics of research on language and gender. In M. de Leonardo (ed.) Gender at the Crossroads of Knowledge: Feminist Anthropology in the Postmodern Era 175–203. Berkeley: Uc Press.
Garrett, P. and Baquedano-Lopez, P. (2002) Language socialization: Reproduction and continuity, transformation and change. Annual Review of Anthropology 31: 339–61. http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev.anthro.31.040402.085352
Grekoff. File slips. Archived in The Survey of california and Other Indian Languages. department of Linguistics, University of california, Berkeley.
Grenoble, L. and Whaley L. (1998) Endangered Languages. cambridge: cambridge University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/cBO9781139166959
Halpern, A. Fieldnotes. Archived in The Survey of california and Other Indian Languages. department of Linguistics, University of california, Berkeley.
Herring, S. (1995) Gender and democracy in computer-mediated communication. In I. Broch et al. (eds) Proceedings of the Second Nordic Conference on Language and Gender 1–20. Tromso, Norway: Tromso University Working Papers on Language and Linguistics, No. 23.
Hill, J. (2002) ‘Expert rhetorics’ in advocacy for endangered languages: Who is listening and what do they hear? Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 12(2): 119–33. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/jlin.2002.12.2.119
Hinton, L. (1994a) Flutes of Fire: Essays on California Indian languages. Berkeley: Heyday Books.
Hinton, L. (1994b) The role of women in Native American language revival. In M. Bucholtz, Anita Liang, Laurel Sutton and caitlyn Himes (eds) Cultural Performances: Proceedings of the Third Berkeley Women and Language Conference. Berkeley: Berkeley Women and Language Group.
Hinton, L. and Hale, K. (eds) (2001) The Green Book of Language Revitalization in Practice. San diego: Academic Press.
Hymes, d. (1974) Toward ethnographies of communication. In d. Hymes (ed.) Foundations in Sociolinguistics: An Ethnographic Approach. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Jaworski, A. (ed.) (1997) Silence: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Kimball, G. (1987) Men’s and women’s speech in Koasati: A reappraisal. International Journal of American Linguistics 53(1): 30–38. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/466041
Krauss, M. (2007) classification and terminology for degrees of language endangerment. In M. Brenziger (ed.) Language Diversity Endangered 1–8. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Kroeber, A.L. (1976) Handbook of the Indians of California. New york: dover Publications.
Kroskrity, P. (1992) Arizona Tewa public announcements: Form, function and linguistic ideology. Anthropological Linguistics 34: 104–116.
Kroskrity, P. (1998) Arizona Tewa Kiva speech as a manifestation of a dominant language ideology. In B. Schieffelin, K. Woolard and P. Kroskrity (eds) Language Ideologies: Practice and Theory 103–122. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kulick, d. and Schieffelin, B. (2003) Language socialization. In A. duranti (ed.) A Companion to Linguistic Anthropology 349–68. Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing, Ltd.
Mccarty, T., Romero-Little, M. E. and zepeda, O. (2006) Native American youth discourses on language shift and retention: Ideological cross-currents and their implications for language planning. The International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 9(5): 659–77. http://dx.doi.org/10.2167/beb386.0
Meek, B. (2007) Respecting the language of elders: Ideological shift and linguistic discontinuity in a Northern Athapascan community. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 17(1): 23–43. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/jlin.2007.17.1.23
Mendoza-denton, N. (1995) Pregnant pauses: Silence and authority in the Anita Hill-clarence Thomas hearings. In K. Hall and M. Bucholtz (eds) Gender Articulated: Language and the Socially Constructed Self 51–66. New york: Routledge.
Mithun, M. (1998) The significance of diversity in language endangerment and preservation. In L. Grenoble and L. Whaley (eds) Endangered Languages 163–91. cambridge: cambridge University Press.
Moshinsky, J. (1971) A Grammar of Southeastern Pomo. dissertation. University of california, Berkeley.
Moshinsky, J. Fieldnotes. Archived in The Survey of california and Other Indian Languages. department of Linguistics, University of california, Berkeley.
Nettle, d. and Romaine, S. (2000) Vanishing Voices: The Extinction of the World’s Languages. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Nevins, E. (2004) Learning to listen: confronting two meanings of language loss in the contemporary White Mountain Apache speech community. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 14(2): 269–88. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/jlin.2004.14.2.269
Ochs, E. (2000) Socialization. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 9(1-2): 230–33. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/jlin.1999.9.1-2.230
Paugh, A. (2005) Learning about work at dinnertime: Language socialization in dual-earner American families. Discourse and Society 16(1): 55–78. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0957926505048230
Philips, S. (1970) Participant structures and communicative competence: Warm Springs children in community and classroom. In J. E. Alatis (ed.) Bilingualism and Language Contact: Anthropological, Linguistic, Psychological and Social Aspects – Acquisition of Rules for Appropriate Speech Usage 370–94. Washington dc: Georgetown University Press.
Powers, S. (1976) Tribes of California. Berkeley: University of california Press.
Romaine, S. (1999) Communicating Gender. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Schieffelin, B. and Ochs, E. (1986) Language socialization. Annual Review of Anthropology 15: 163–91. http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev.an.15.100186.001115
Schieffelin, B., Woolard, K. and Kroskrity, P. (eds) (1998) Language Ideologies: Practice and Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Silverstein, M. (1979) Language structure and linguistic ideology. In P. clyne, W. Hanks and c. Hofbauer (eds) The Elements: A Parasession on Linguistic Units and Levels 193–247. chicago: chicago Linguistic Society.
Silverstein, M. (1985) Language and the culture of gender: At the intersection of structure, usage, and ideology. In E. Mertz and R. Parmentier (eds) Semiotic Mediation: Sociocultural and Psychological Perspectives 219–59. Orlando: Academic Press.
Spender, d. (1980) Talking in class. In d. Spender and E. Sarah (eds) Learning to Lose: Sexism and Education 148–54. London: Women’s Press.
Tannen, d. and Saville-Troike, M. (eds) (1985) Perspectives on Silence. New Jersey: Ablex Publishing corporation.
Trechter, S. (2001) White between the lines: Ethnic positioning in Lakhota discourse. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 11(1):22–35. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/jlin.2001.11.1.22
Woolard, K. (1999) Simultaneity and bivalency as strategies in bilingualism. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 8(1): 3–29. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/jlin.1998.8.1.3
Woolard, K. (2008) Why dat now: Linguistic-anthropological contributions to the explanation of sociolinguistic icons and change. Journal of Sociolinguistics 12(4): 432–52. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9841.2008.00375.x
Zimmerman, d. H. and West, c. (1975) Sex roles, interruptions and silences in conversation. In B. Thorne and N. Henley (eds) Language and Sex: Difference and Dominence 105–129. Rowley, MA: Newbury House.
Published
2012-09-10
Issue
Section
Special Issue Articles
How to Cite
Ahlers, J. C. (2012). Language revitalization and the (re)constituting of gender: Silence and women in Native California language revitalization. Gender and Language, 6(2), 309-337. https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.v6i2.309
