The linguist’s responsibilities to the community of speakers

Recent years have seen an increased focus of attention on the responsibilities of linguists engaged in fieldwork to the communities of speakers with whom they work. This article focuses on the evolving nature of ethical responsibilities, concentrating on developments in Canada in the past fifteen or twenty years, examining both the development of ethical guidelines and programs funded through the granting councils and the types of language-oriented work that has been going on. There is a brief comparison with programs elsewhere, and a discussion of the some of the consequences of a community-based model for language documentation.