Linguistics Department Seminar Wednesday

The Linguistics Department's seminar series is hosting a special talk this week that will touch on issues we have discussed in terms of language maintenance and revitalization.


Ideologies in the Maori Language Revitalisation Movement

Wednesday, March 11

Jeanette King (University of Canterbury)


Time: 12:30-1:45 PM
Place: Biomedical Auditorium (T208)


The main impetus behind the last twenty years' Maori language revitalisation comes from a large cohort of second language speaking adults. These adults form the bulk of the teaching and parenting groups striving to raise a generation of first language speakers. This seminar will contrast the experiences of these speakers and aspects of the history of the revitalisation of the Maori language with rhetoric produced by national and tribal language planners in New Zealand. While linguists and language planners tend to focus almost exclusively on the revitalisation of the Maori language, the personal focus of second language learning adults reminds us that Maori people are also being revitalised. These differences in focus have important implications for language promotion.