The Alabama Language: towards documentation and revitalization

Harvard FAS

Alabama is an endangered indigenous language from Muskogean family that is currently only spoken on the Alabama-Coushatta reservation in Texas. In this class we will discuss grammatical properties of Alabama (its phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics) and other Muskogean languages in light of the questions of language documentation and revitalization. How does one document different properties of a language? How can linguists help communities in language revitalization efforts? This class…