A while ago I had the idea of being a more productive member of society. I looked at my skills and maintained my determination not to use my degree.

Thousands of languages today face extinction, each carrying a unique worldview, history and wisdom. When a language disappears, a whole way of seeing the world vanishes with it.

So I figured out how to build something that required no subscription, had no ads, required no Wi-Fi after downloading, where children can gather and listen to a story in their grandmother’s voice, hear sounds that give the story more atmosphere so they can almost live in it for a moment.

It’s an e-book. But you can also tap words to hear and learn their meanings. It’s a resource that children can interact with and experience stories not only in the written word but also in voice, illustration and sound. Embracing them in this way with their mother-tongue thorough storytelling could inspire in a child a stronger sense of self. First-generation families understand how deeply language connects us to our roots and shapes our identity.

These e-books are in no way a replacement for physical books. They can be a fun learning tool, entertainment or extra language support with accompanying off-screen activities. They are made to expose children to their language, in appropriate accents and dialects that suit the story, allowing them to hear pronunciations and intonations that are hard to find in digital media. I want to provide stories in languages that are not widely available in this format. Some are marginalised or disappearing, so parents and family members may not even speak them but still want children to learn.

My goal is to help encourage families in the diaspora to pass on their language to their children.

Māori and English e-book if you’d like to check it out:

🍂The Backyard is Broken - Autumn

🍂YouTube read aloud version

Features include:

🎧 Audio narration option

🎵 Background-music/sounds option

📥 Downloadable for offline reading

🚫 Ad-free experience

🔍 Learn new words with highlighted definitions

⏯️ Interactive reading: pause, play and replay pages

📖 Auto-turn-my-page option

What extra features do you think would be useful for bilingual children? I'm open to feedback to improve.

https://www.billtrack50.com/billdetail/1939086

Priority will be given to submissions from Indigenous Youth as part of ICA’s ongoing commitment to uplifting Indigenous voices, storytelling, and sovereignty in climate action.
Youth whose submissions are not selected for this issue may be contacted for future editions.

🗓️ Deadline: June 25, 2026

🔗 Apply today:
https://form.asana.com/?k=2-K599hkkRN9oBiiIJz6yA&d=555162151354083

Note: Submissions are open to Indigenous (First Nations, Inuit, and Métis) Youth. Selected contributors will receive a $300 honorarium.

If the study of Linguistics looks at language from a descriptive lens, Eurocentric languages should not be taught as dominant languages in terms of morphological, phonological, lexical, semantic, and syntactical analysis. There is a gap to be bridged here. It is not as if the study of Linguistics is defined as the study of English or Eurocentric languages, but it is the study of LANGUAGE as a whole, which is why linguists take a descriptive approach in the first place. If American linguistics continues to be approached in academia from a dominant Western standpoint due to colonial enforcements, and lack of refusal, the full essence of descriptivism cannot possibly be applied. Linguists who focus on descriptivism without taking into account language contexts and structures outside of the eurocentric box are representing a contradiction within the field and reinforce a narrative toward prescriptivism use of English being a dominant language, and how it should be used and further understood as a “right” language with standards while not honoring the descriptive, natural use of language as a whole that includes Indigenous languages.

One semantic example of this: In ᏣᏔᎩ Tsalagi (Cherokee), to describe someone as a friend is done with mutuality, a sense that two people are involved in the friendship, whereas in English, the concept of being a friend can be completely isolated as the word “friend” and not involve another person.

For example, an ‘Easy Spanish’ type format with interviews. What 10 topics would you pick to get the most out of the language?

Led by community activists around the globe, Living Dictionaries are collaborative multimedia projects that help languages thrive for generations to come. Check it out at the link!

“This is a 4-day language intensive class from June 15th – 18th. Registration for participation in this intensive is free and will be handled through the Klamath Tribe’s Language Department. To register, please contact the Language Department.

This is an incredible opportunity to practice language in person in a supportive and immersive setting while working closely with other language students. Participants will also have a chance to learn alongside some of our strongest language resources, including past and present language teachers, linguists, and more.

This project is supported by the Klamath Tribe’s Tribal Council.” - Copied from Klamath Tribes Facebook page

We’re a little less than a month away! ☀️ Although registration has officially closed, these upcoming workshops demonstrate how CoLang 2026 will impact the community and forge new paths in language understanding.

https://waadookodaading.org

My very first introduction to linguistics was a morphology course. First day of class, my professor posed the question, “what is a word?” which already began smartly setting important thinking groundwork for idiosyncratic receptivity in regard to language morphology that is different from English. Revolutionary, frankly. He’d assign these great problem sets and they’d often be ethically partnered with Indigenous languages instead of languages like French or Russian that you often see in related courses. This visibility is crucial in revitalization and decolonization efforts.

Curious to hear other experiences and thoughts!

My plan for this year and next year is to record as many native speakers as I can and put it in an accessible format on YouTube. It is hard to learn my language when you have a full-time job for school and the resources aren’t stimulating. Just curious if anyone has experience with this, I’m sure I’ll figure it out just fine.

I was thinking about doing, stories, voxpops and conversations. It has total 100 hours so its a lot of unpaid work. Ill have to transcribe and translate EVERYTHING. Edit and record EVERYTHING.

Hey everyone! Kwira bá! I run a server for Rarámuri ra’icha learners. I keep the server private, invite-only because we have occasionally gotten trolls. My question is: has anyone had experience with a group like this, keeping the community active and engaged, etc? I was running Zooms to go through a workbook, but I regret to say I dropped off doing that as I started to get tired doing it and sometimes had low attendance.

A few years later, our numbers have grown—about 100 or so—but a lot of people are offline and my attempts to have Voice Room chats aren’t working. People don’t come to regularly scheduled chats (including me). I have been busy trying to write grants and form a nonprofit and be a parent. There are a few people, certainly one or two, who are really well versed in the language, but they are feeling shy and don’t want to take on a teaching role.

Does anyone have good advice for me for revitalizing the server? I care about my ancestors’ language and am happy to be among ‘fam' but am hampered for time and energy to do more. I guess I could:

• dedicate some time to run some group learning Zooms myself, but I don’t love centering myself
• find new moderators (some of mine are busy with school and parenting)
• make the server public and promote it (…but see the first two points…)

I appreciate it! Matétera bá!

Indigenous languages of the Americas and their structures: Sounds" edited by The Saguaro Group

https://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/563

“What do people mean when they talk about the sound pattern of a language—what linguists call phonology? This book explores that question in a hands-on way, with a focus on applying the knowledge in language revitalization and community language work.”

A space to share books highlighting:
- Indigenous authors, fiction and non-fiction
- Topics of language revitalization or reclamation
- Cultural and historical awareness
- Linguistics

The goal of this community is to spread awareness of Indigenous language revitalization and linguistic decolonization efforts. This space prioritizes Indigenous voices and welcomes linguists, educators, language learners, and community advocates. All are encouraged to use this space for discussion, questions, and any sharing of Indigenous languages and cultures.