Who can speak Lenape in Pennsylvania? Authentication and language learning in an endangered language community of practice. (March 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Weinberg, Miranda; De Korne, Haley
• Is Part Of: Language & communication. Volume 47(2016:Mar.)
• Page Start: 124
• Page End: 134
• Publication Date: 2016-03
• Subjects: Indigenous language revitalization -- Community of practice -- Language learning -- Lenape -- Authentication -- Identity; Communication -- Periodicals; Linguistics -- Periodicals; Communication -- Periodicals; Linguistics -- Periodicals; Communication -- Périodiques; Linguistique -- Périodiques; Communication; Linguistics; Periodicals; Electronic journals; 405
• DOI: 10.1016/j.langcom.2015.04.003
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0271-5309

Abstract

Abstract: How are new speakers of an endangered language created? In this paper we draw on a three-year ethnographic case study to explore the processes through which a group of learners at a Pennsylvania college came to be identified as speakers of Lenape, a language indigenous to the eastern United States. Using a communities of practice framework, we analyze how language learning was facilitated and how the identities of community members were negotiated and contested through processes of authentication. A community of practice lens affords a useful framework for understanding how this successful learning community functioned, and for identifying factors that may benefit other language revitalization initiatives.