Indigenous Languages
Resources
Select resources from the U of C Catalogue
Atlas of the North American Indian by ISBN: 1438126719Ancient native peoples -- Ancient civilizations -- Native lifeways -- Native peoples and explorers -- Indian wars -- Native land cessions and a changing way of life -- Contemporary native North Americans.
On the Translation of Native American Literatures by ISBN: 9781560980995Publication Date: 1992-02-17"Though the oldest poetry of the Americas may have been composed before Caedmon's "Hymn" (ca. 680), the earliest known English poem, the languages and literatures of Native American peoples have only recently begun to receive the critical attention they demand." "In this book, twenty-three scholars in linguistics, folklore, English, and anthropology--among them Dennis Tedlock, John Bierhorst, Dell Hymes, Judith Berman, Miguel Leon-Portilla, and Louise M. Burkhart--provide a working introduction to the history, methods, and problems of translating Native American literatures. Reviewing early translations, the contributors discuss the difficulties in working with oral literature and a vast diversity of languages. Other essays analyze translations of North, Central, and South American songs and stories, from Boas's Kwakw'ala texts to Papago legalese and modern Yucatec-Maya oral literature." "Approaching Native American literatures from a perspective both practical and theoretical, this collection seeks to find the meeting point between literature and the social sciences."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
The Polysynthesis Parameter by ISBN: 0195093070Publication Date: 1996-01-04This book investigates in detail the grammar of polysynthetic languages--those with very complex verbal morphology. Baker argues that polysynthesis is more than an accidental collection of morphological processes; rather, it is a systematic way of representing predicate-argumentrelationships that is parallel to but distinct from the system used in languages like English. Having repercussions for many areas of syntax and related aspects of morphology and semantics, this argument results in a comprehensive picture of the grammar of polysynthetic languages. Baker draws onexamples from Mohawk and certain languages of the American Southwest, Mesoamerica, Australia, and Siberia.
A selection of Databases for Linguistics Subscribed to by the U of C
Academic OneFile is the premier source for peer-reviewed, full-text articles from the world's leading journals and reference sources. With extensive coverage of the physical sciences, technology, medicine, social sciences, the arts, theology, literature and other subjects, Academic OneFile is both authoritative and comprehensive. With millions of articles available in both PDF and HTML full-text with no restrictions, researchers are able to find accurate information quickly.
- Includes full-text coverage of the New York Times back to 1995. Updated daily.
MLA International Bibliography
The MLA International Bibliography is a subject index for books, articles and websites published on modern languages, literatures, folklore, and linguistics. It is produced by the Modern Language Association (MLA), an organization dedicated to the study and teaching of language and literature. The electronic version of the Bibliography dates back to 1925 and contains over 2 million citations from more than 4,400 periodicals (including peer-reviewed e-journals) and 1,000 book publishers. It is compiled by the staff of the MLA Department of Bibliographic Information Services with the cooperation of more than 100 contributing bibliographers in the United States and abroad. Such international coverage is represented by literature from Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, and North and South America, and while the majority of records are from English-language publications, at least sixty other languages are represented including French, Spanish, German, Russian, Portuguese, Norwegian, and Swedish.
- Coverage is from 1925 to the present.
Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts
Covers all aspects of the study of language including phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics, as well as various fields of linguistics including descriptive, historical, comparative, theoretical and geographical linguistics.
- Coverage is of items published from 1973 to present.
JSTOR is a shared digital library which includes over 2,300 academic journals (dating back to the first volume ever published), along with thousands of monographs and other materials relevant for education. JSTOR also includes articles in the public domain, including Early Journal Content (U.S. content published before 1923 and non-U.S. content published prior to 1870).
- Access to subscribed content and open access eBooks
Aboriginal Languages Statistics
2011 statistics report from the Canadian Government
- Useful for viewing location and geographical information of individual communities in Alberta
When seeking information on Indigenous Languages across Canada, visit other academic institutions for research guides. For example, a comparison of Alberta and British Columbia Indigenous languages would require resources from both areas.
The following are a few examples of excellent research guides from UBC and U of T
This research guide provides strategies for finding information about Indigenous languages
- specific Western Coast languages, including word lists
- curriculum materials
- language learning materials produced by Aboriginal communities
- language revitalization
UBC Languages of BC First Nations
This research guide has been designed to help students, faculty and researchers in First Nation Languages access and utilize relevant resources available through the UBC Library. Some historical language names are innacurate, but useful for locating resources. The spelling of language names used in this guide are not intended to describe or characterize the native speakers in any regard and are used here solely to help researchers locate resources for the study of these languages.
Our goal is to promote the use of Indigenous language resources in the Toronto area and make them easier to find. This guide is gradually being developed over time. It begins with languages that are taught at the University of Toronto, and those traditionally spoken by First Nations with traditional territories falling within the boundaries of Ontario. Resources on Aboriginal language history, policy and revitalization will be included.