LING 120. Anthropological Linguistics: Endangered Languages

(Cross-listed as )
In this seminar, we address some traditional issues of concern to both linguistics and anthropology, framed in the context of the ongoing, precipitous decline in human linguistic diversity. With the disappearance of languages, cultural knowledge (including entire technologies such as ethnopharmacology) is often lost, leading to a decrease in humans’ ability to manage the natural environment. Language endangerment thus proves relevant to questions of the language/ecology interface, ethnoecology, and cultural survival. The seminar also addresses the ethics of fieldwork and dissemination of traditional knowledge in the Internet age.
Prerequisite: One course in linguistics or anthropology or permission of the instructor.
Social sciences.
1 credit.
Eligible for ENVS
Catalog chapter: Linguistics
Department website: http://www.swarthmore.edu/linguistics

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