Navajo Language Academy
{{Short description|Non-profit education organization}}
The Navajo Language Academy (NLA; Navajo Diné Bizaad Naalkaah) is a non-profit educational and advocacy organization which focuses on the Navajo language.{{cite web | title=NLA | website=Swarthmore Home | url=https://fernald.domains.swarthmore.edu/nla/nla.htm | access-date=2024-02-03}}
Overview
The Navajo Language Academy grow out of workshops by Kenneth L. Hale in the 1970 and was proposed as a result of the Second Navajo Orthography Conference in 1978.{{cite book | last=Spolsky | first=Bernard | last2=Boomer | first2=Lorraine | title=Progress in Language Planning | chapter=The Modernization of Navajo | publisher=DE GRUYTER | date=1982-12-31 | isbn=978-90-279-3358-4 | doi=10.1515/9783110820584.235 | pages=235–252}} It consists of Navajo linguists and other interested people. It supports scientific research on the Navajo language and on teaching Navajo people, especially language teachers, how to carry out linguistic research and to use existing reference materials.{{cite book
|last1=Speas |first1=Margaret
|editor1-last=Reyhner |editor1-first=Jon |editor2-last=Lockard |editor2-first=Louise
|title=Indigenous Language Revitalization. Encouragement, Guidance & Lessons Learned
|date=2009
|publisher=Northern Arizona University |location=Arizona
|isbn=0-9670554-4-X |pages=23–36
|url=https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ali-Rahimi-14/post/Can_someone_recommend_literature_for_the_work_on_humor_and_laughter_in_indigenous_communities/attachment/59d61db379197b8077979617/AS%3A272408661721093%401441958694662/download/humor.pdf#page=31
|chapter=Someone Else’s Language - On the Role of Linguists in Language Revitalization
}} This focus is a difference from related organizations as the Navajo Nation Division of Diné Education, Diné College, and the Navajo Language Teachers Association.
The NLA organizes efforts of linguists and language instructors to train teachers of Navajo. Summer workshops on the Navajo language, applied linguistics, and general linguistics have been offered every summer since 1998. Undergraduate-level courses are offered for college credit.{{citation needed|date=February 2024}}
The Board of Directors of the NLA includes Navajo linguist Ellavina Perkins. The NLA maintains a comprehensive bibliography on Navajo linguistics, available on its web site, and holds the archive of the Navajo material of linguist Ken Hale.{{citation needed|date=February 2024}}
External links
- [http://www.swarthmore.edu/SocSci/tfernal1/nla/nla.htm Navajo Language Academy web site]