Cover not available

In:Ethical Issues in Applied Linguistics Scholarship
Edited by Peter I. De Costa, Amr Rabie-Ahmed and Carlo Cinaglia
[Research Methods in Applied Linguistics 7] 2024
► pp. 172–191

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload Book EPUB
authorization required

Chapter 10
The ethics of indigenous language revitalization

Linguistic taxidermy or emancipation?

 | University of Manitoba
 | University of Manitoba
Published online: 21 November 2024
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/rmal.7.11nak
Abstract
The ethical issue we address in this chapter is the role of Indigenous language experts who do not live in the community where an Indigenous language is spoken. Specifically, we question the ethics as well as the ethical protocols for engaging in research with Indigenous language speakers in the context of language revitalization discourses. We suggest that any judgments or decisions made by non-Indigenous language speakers with regard to standardization, orthography, digitization, pedagogy, and advocacy must be regarded as attempts at cultural and linguistic appropriation. We suggest that archiving or documenting Indigenous languages is best considered linguistic taxidermy, another move of colonization that we call fina-colonialism. In short, with reference to the specific languages of Tokunoshima, Japan, we discuss the ethics of research that purportedly aims at decolonizing, but in which Indigenous language speakers are rendered exotic representations of their own identities, commodified according to cosmopolitan interests and global tastes.
Article outline
  • An indigenous language story
  • Fina-colonialism
  • Research ethics and indigenous ethics
  • Changing cornerstones
  • Linguistic taxidermy
  • Ethical take-aways for indigenous language emancipation
  • Coda
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
References (37)
References
Amano, T., Brody, S., Eager, H., Bulteau, E., Svenning, J., Dalsgaard, B., Rahbek, C., Davies, R.G., & Sutherland, W.J. (2014). Global distribution and drivers of language extinction risk. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 281(1793) (22 October). Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Beld, J. M. (1994). Constructing a collaboration: A conversation with Egon G. Guba and Yvonna S. Lincoln. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 7(2), 99–115. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Guay, M. L. (2023). “Some don’t even know where south is!” Linguistic strategies for spatial reference and seasons in Ishigaki Yaeyaman and their disappearance. Languages, 8(1), 9. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hammine, M. (2019). Our way of multilingualism: Translanguaging to break the chain of colonialism. In C. Seals & V. L. Olsen-Reeder (Eds.), Embracing multilingualism across educational contexts (pp. 100–125). Viktoria University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2020). Educated not to speak our language: Language attitudes and newspeakerness in the Yaeyaman language. Journal of Language, Identity & Education, 20(6), 379–93. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2023). Hear our voice: New speakers of Ryukyuan language — Negotiation, construction, and change of identities. In M. Mielick, R. Kubota, & L. Lawrence (Eds.), Discourses of identity: Language learning, teaching, and reclamation perspectives in Japan (pp.117–138). Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heinrich, P. (2018). Revitalization of the Ryukyuan languages. In L. Hinton, L. Huss, & G. Roche (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of language revitalization (pp. 455–463). Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2023). Ryukyuan perspectives for language reclamation. Languages, 8(1), 35. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heinrich, P., & Ishihara, M. (2018). Ryukyuan languages in Japan. In C. A. Seals & S. Shah (Eds.), Heritage language policies around the world (pp. 165–184). Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heinrich, P., & Valsecchi, G. (2023). Ryukyuan language reclamation: Individual struggle and social change. In M. Mielick, R. Kubota, & L. Lawrence (Eds.), Discourses of identity: Language learning, teaching, and reclamation perspectives in Japan. Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hinton, L., Huss, L., & Roche, G. (2018). Conclusion: What works in language revitalization? In L. Hinton, L. Huss, & G. Roche (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of language revitalization (pp. 495–502). Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2018). Introduction: Language revitalization as a growing field of study and practice. In L. Hinton, L. Huss, & G. Roche (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of language revitalization (pp. xxi–xxx). Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Karlander, D., & Salö, L. (2023). The origin of semilingualism: Nils-Erik Hansegård and the cult of the mother tongue. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 27(5), 506–525. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kouritzin, S., & Nakagawa, S. (2018). Toward a sustainable, non-extractive research ethics for cross cultural, cross-linguistic research. Journal of Multicultural and Multilingual Development, 39(8), 675–687. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2011). Linguistic ecosystems for foreign language learning in Canada and Japan: An international comparison of where language learning beliefs come from. Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 57(3), 244–257. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kubota, R. (2023). Introduction to language learning, teaching, and reclamation in Japan: Diversity, inequalities, and identities. In M. Mielick, R. Kubota, & L. Lawrence (Eds.), Discourses of identity: Language learning, teaching, and reclamation perspectives in Japan (pp.1–14). Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lather, P. (1988). Feminist perspectives on empowering research methodologies. Women’s Studies International Forum, 11(6), 569–581. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Maher, J. C. (2005). Metroethnicity, language, and the principle of cool. International Journal of Sociology of Language, 175–176, 83–102. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Makoni, S., & Pennycook, A. (Eds.). (2007). Disinventing and reconstituting languages. Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mielick, M., Kubota, R., & Lawrence, L. (2023). Discourses of identity: Language learning, teaching, and reclamation perspectives in Japan. Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nakagawa, H. (2023). Indigenous food sovereignty: Amami memories of a time before capitalist food systems [(MA thesis). University of Manitoba. Retrieved on 26 June 2024 from [URL]
Nakagawa, S. (2021). Auto-decolonization: Lifelong education for decolonization. International Journal of Lifelong Education, 40(4), 359–371. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2008). Information and wisdom in the practice of knowledge. Journal of Contemporary Issues in Education, 3(2), 24–45. Retrieved on 26 June 2024 from [URL].
(2007). Accord or discord: Returning to oral traditions? Canadian Journal of Native Studies, 27(2), 447–473. Retrieved on 26 June 2024 from [URL]
(2010). Yoshi Nakagawa’s poetry. Proceedings of the threatened language poetry reading 2007–2009, CD 2. Albuquerque, NM.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2011). What kind of pen should I use to write my language and my culture? Canadian Language and Literacy E-journal, 13(1), 60–71. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2017). Indigenous research methodology and the indigenous academic. Canadian Journal of Native Studies, 37(1), 95–115.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2014). Tokunoshima shima-guchi and being. In Proceedings of the XV Conference of the Foundation for Endangered Languages. Foundation for Endangered Languages.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2013). The quest of Shiman-chu: Questioning the absolutes of language, culture and being (Doctoral dissertation). University of Alberta.
(2020). The incommensurability of English language pedagog[uer]y and sustainability: Spirits and protein. In J. Goulah & J. Katunich (Eds.), TESOL and sustainability: English language teaching in the Anthropocene (pp. 177–194). Bloomsbury. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nakagawa, S. & Kouritzin, S. (2011). The present tense[ion]s of English in one local context in Japan. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, 8(1), 53–71. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nakagawa, S., & Kouritzin, S. (2021). Identities of resignation: Threats to indigenous languages from neoliberal linguistic and educational practices. Language, Identity and Education, 20(5), 295–310. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nixon, R. (2011). Slow violence and the environmentalism of the poor. Harvard University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Reinharz, S. (1979). On becoming a social scientist. Jossey-Bass.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Smith, L. T. (2002). Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous peoples. Zed Books.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tricoire, D. (2017). Introduction. In D. Tricoire (Ed.), Enlightened colonialism: Civilization narratives and imperial politics in the age of reason (pp.1–22). Palgrave Macmillan. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zlazli, M. (2021). While we are asleep: Master/mentor-apprentice language learning initiative in the Ryukyus. SOAS Working Papers in Linguistics, 20, 142–168.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue