#language reclamation

[lingthusiasm]

Bonus 80: Postcards from linguistics summer camp

What if there was a summer camp for linguists? Like, imagine you could just go somewhere for a few weeks or a month and do linguistics classes and go to linguistics talks and eat your meals with linguists all day every day? Well, this event exists, sort of, and they're called linguistics institutes. 

In this bonus episode, Gretchen and Lauren get enthusiastic about Gretchen's visit to the 2023 LSA institute at University of Massachusetts Amherst this summer. We talk about cool projects that Gretchen learned about at this year's Lingstitute, including the Linguistic Atlas Project, the Oxford Dictionary of African American English, and the Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project (talks about all of these projects are now available online). We also talk about the history of LSA summer institutes (the first one was in 1928, almost a hundred years ago!), why they're not to be confused with the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL), which is a missionary project for Bible translation (awkward), and both Gretchen's history attending various institutes and Lauren's history not attending them (sorry about the FOMO though).

Listen to this episode about linguistics summer camp and get access to many more bonus episodes by supporting Lingthusiasm on Patreon.

[immortalmuses]

HOLYYYYY FUCK IT REALLY HAPPENED!!

WE'RE GETTING THE AVENGERS MOVIE IN LAKOTA!!!

THIS IS AMAZING!! LAKOTA TIES ME TO MY RELATIONS AND MY ELDERS AND NOW I GET TO SEE SOME OF MY FAVORITE SUPERHEROES SPEAKING THE LANGUAGE!?!??!

Y'ALL GOT NO IDEA HOW MUCH THIS MEANS. PILAMAYA TO THE CAST, TO MARVEL, EVEN TO THE MOUSE EARS! EVERYBODY GO WATCH!!

[bakuraryxu]

I made a presentation at an international health conference today and I nailed it ✌️😚

[saltcherry]

my hot take on ‘can you use food words to describe skin color, especially of nonwhite people or characters’ is, you probably can do it in a reasonable way, it just depends on how racist the rest of your writing is whether is comes off as creepy. like it’s well-established in English literature to describe skin “as white as milk” and “cheeks as rosy as apples” etc., typically to describe young women or girls. the fetishistic tone is not going to hinge solely on the words chosen (of course, associations have to be considered). the real issue is that the fetishization of white women and of Black women or brown women operates differently. the words used to do it are different. the associations with sexuality are different (y do u think white women who want to assert sexuality often choose to do it by either embodying stereotypes associated with women of color or by directly appropriating aspects of nonwhite culture?). so really the challenge for the writer is not to remove all purple descriptors from their language, even stilted or outdated ones, and their associations (impossible task) but to be good enough at their craft to challenge, remake, critique, etc. those associations. like idk it seems like a very hard task and that’s why the advice is to simply remove that language! however it’s more interesting to try to grapple with language imo. and ultimately more productive because many many types of words carry associations of otherness, sexuality, prejudice, etc. when applied to nonwhite vs white people, Black vs nonBlack people, etc. the language problem can only be understood when you know this and only solved when you work at it with deep knowledge. (I guess the reason some people balk hard at “I don’t get why this is perceived as racist” over e.g. “she had skin like chocolate” is because they are lacking that deep knowledge accrued from reading a lot. related: if you don’t read a lot, and you write with that type of language, without knowledge either conscious or unconscious of those biases, will you replicate them? form new associations? is knowledge a curse, lol?

[giiwedinongkwe]

Winter Writing Goal

The snow looks like it's here to stay this time, which means storytelling season is upon us. I'm going to push myself gabe-biboon to use this time for such. I think my goal is short stories with a moral and a sprinkle of anishinaabemowin. Something hopefully good and accesible to kids and reconnecting adults alike. gabe-biboon: all winter anishinaabemowin: the language

[quelliee]

I don't even like the word queer. It reminds me of how liberals have coopted the idea of queerness and watered it down to remove any and all politics. How corporations and governments use queer symbols to get our money while perpetuating the very systems that keep us oppressed. How cis gays use queerness to hide blatant transphobia. How white queers use it to justify racism.

But I'm not about to cede the word to a bunch of kids who heard that it was a slur once and decided it's offensive.

[judahmaccabees]

the Infinite Godhead is well aware of how Language was manipulated here, and the continued affronts to pester and press upon reality to mold it further away from fact.

you won't squirm out via language or explanation, no, there will be no excuses and no stopping the voice of Truth

Quit twisting and tangoin'

Reality itself is against you,

At every turn.

THE CHERUBIM

Shaddai am alam ahk ahm ahmet naht,

∆ /\ \/ /\ \/ ∆

Scornful petulant weasels and raptors, Cravens flutter away afar,

False temples, false houses of the Lord.

-M

[ponderosapineneedles]

.

[honeyvenommusic]

.

[tardis-stowaway]

This is super neat! The Lakota nation and Marvel have released a version of The Avengers dubbed in Lakota, but with the original Avenger actors involved to record their own lines in Lakota. This seems like a cool way to build awareness of an endangered language and give speakers and learners something fun to watch. Plenty of actual Lakota speakers were involved for other roles as well as coaching.

Here's a behind the scenes video from the article:

[beggars-opera]

Happy Thanksgiving click these donation links

Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Council

Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project

Aquinnah Wampanoag Cultural Center

[directactionforhope]

"Starting this month [June 2024], thousands of young people will begin doing climate-related work around the West as part of a new service-based federal jobs program, the American Climate Corps, or ACC. The jobs they do will vary, from wildland firefighters and “lawn busters” to urban farm fellows and traditional ecological knowledge stewards. Some will work on food security or energy conservation in cities, while others will tackle invasive species and stream restoration on public land. 

The Climate Corps was modeled on Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps, with the goal of eventually creating tens of thousands of jobs while simultaneously addressing the impacts of climate change. 

Applications were released on Earth Day, and Maggie Thomas, President Joe Biden’s special assistant on climate, told High Country News that the program’s website has already had hundreds of thousands of views. Since its launch, nearly 250 jobs across the West have been posted, accounting for more than half of all the listed ACC positions. 

“Obviously, the West is facing tremendous impacts of climate change,” Thomas said. “It’s changing faster than many other parts of the country. If you look at wildfire, if you look at extreme heat, there are so many impacts. I think that there’s a huge role for the American Climate Corps to be tackling those crises.”  

Most of the current positions are staffed through state or nonprofit entities, such as the Montana Conservation Corps or Great Basin Institute, many of which work in partnership with federal agencies that manage public lands across the West. In New Mexico, for example, members of Conservation Legacy’s Ecological Monitoring Crew will help the Bureau of Land Management collect soil and vegetation data. In Oregon, young people will join the U.S. Department of Agriculture, working in firefighting, fuel reduction and timber management in national forests. 

New jobs are being added regularly. Deadlines for summer positions have largely passed, but new postings for hundreds more positions are due later this year or on a rolling basis, such as the Working Lands Program, which is focused on “climate-smart agriculture.”  ...

On the ACC website, applicants can sort jobs by state, work environment and focus area, such as “Indigenous knowledge reclamation” or “food waste reduction.” Job descriptions include an hourly pay equivalent — some corps jobs pay weekly or term-based stipends instead of an hourly wage — and benefits. The site is fairly user-friendly, in part owing to suggestions made by the young people who participated in the ACC listening sessions earlier this year...

The sessions helped determine other priorities as well, Thomas said, including creating good-paying jobs that could lead to long-term careers, as well as alignment with the president’s Justice40 initiative, which mandates that at least 40% of federal climate funds must go to marginalized communities that are disproportionately impacted by climate change and pollution. 

High Country News found that 30% of jobs listed across the West have explicit justice and equity language, from affordable housing in low-income communities to Indigenous knowledge and cultural reclamation for Native youth...

While the administration aims for all positions to pay at least $15 an hour, the lowest-paid position in the West is currently listed at $11 an hour. Benefits also vary widely, though most include an education benefit, and, in some cases, health care, child care and housing. 

All corps members will have access to pre-apprenticeship curriculum through the North America’s Building Trades Union. Matthew Mayers, director of the Green Workers Alliance, called this an important step for young people who want to pursue union jobs in renewable energy. Some members will also be eligible for the federal pathways program, which was recently expanded to increase opportunities for permanent positions in the federal government...

 “To think that there will be young people in every community across the country working on climate solutions and really being equipped with the tools they need to succeed in the workforce of the future,” Thomas said, “to me, that is going to be an incredible thing to see.”"

-via High Country News, June 6, 2024

--

Note: You can browse Climate Corps job postings here, on the Climate Corps website. There are currently 314 jobs posted at time of writing!

Also, it says the goal is to pay at least $15 an hour for all jobs (not 100% meeting that goal rn), but lots of postings pay higher than that, including some over $20/hour!!

[kunosoura]

Man it’s crazy how there’s always a plausible reason for why the terms Trans women use to identify each other and talk about their particular issues are either evil or actually belong to everyone. CAGAB terminology is misgendering and Transfem belongs to everyone and “Tranny” can be reclaimed by everyone who’s trans and “Transfem” can be used by anyone who feels it describes them and so for that matter, can “trans woman” (and saying otherwise is intersexist), TMA/TME is binaristic/misgendering/whatever.

Like I’m a very relaxed person in general and I have zero interest in policing lgbt slur reclamation or individual identities or anything but like is it not glaringly obvious who is being systemically deprived of the language to discuss their particular circumstances here

[fantasyinallforms]

OK, this is a mini non-bagginshield-related deep dive that I would like to use to showcase how we collectively as Hobbit fanfic writers are not using Thranduil to his full potential when he interacts with dwarves.

By that, I mean to say Thranduil can speak and understand Khuzdul just fine.

Exhibit A: Thorin says the below line to Thranduil in Khuzdul. (Khuzdul bottom and English on top)

Exhibit B: Thranduil's response

This elf is at least seven thousand years old and has lived near Erebor for the entirety of its creation, abandonment, and reclamation. It totally makes sense that he learned a thing or two, and you can't tell me this version of Thranduil wouldn't be petty enough to rub that use of their secret language in their faces. The dwarves would be pissed, but also, what can they do about it?

Do with this information what you will. I trust you all to use it unwisely.

[hyperlexichypatia]

In general I think "Who is allowed to reclaim what slurs" is among the most pointless, niche, irrelevant debates to take up oxygen in progressive spaces, especially when the "slur" is actually a community-preferred alternative to pathologizing language (I don't want to enforce "Only fat people can say 'fat'" or "Only mad people can say 'mad'"; I want thin neurotypicals to stop calling us "obese" and "suffering from mental disorders").

I used to care about this. I used to be strongly of the opinion that it's only okay to use "as reclamation" a slur if you, yourself, are actually the category of person being described, not just someone "mistaken for" or "called" that.

The main reason I felt that way was because of my deep revulsion of non-intellectually-disabled neurodivergent people using the R word, and shielding themselves with "But I'm dyslexic/autistic/whatever, and bullies called me that, so I'm allowed to use it!"

And I used to actually care about arguing "No, just because bullies called you that doesn't mean you actively live under the structural oppression of people labelled intellectually disabled," which is true, just as it's also true that a not-queer-at-all cishet guy who got bullied and called queerphobic slurs in high school because he wore a pink t-shirt one day isn't actually gay and doesn't actually experience any structural queerphobia once he leaves high school.

But that's not really the problem.

The problem is that the debate is being framed around "Who counts as what?" or "Who is allowed to say what?" rather than "What are they saying?"

The problem isn't whether any given person "can" "reclaim" a slur, it's that people use their identities and positionality as a shield to argue for the oppression of other people.

That non-intellectually-disabled neurodivergent person, are they saying "I was bullied for being different, so I support and empathize with anyone who is oppressed for how their mind works"? Or are they saying "I'm The Relevant Positionality too, so I'm ALLOWED to say that Those Other Ones shouldn't have rights"?

Particularly in queer spaces, there is such an emphasis on positionality and a hierarchy of oppression and a stigma on comparing experiences or equating experiences, and it's all centered around who can use what terms, or "slurs," even though the problem is that all terminology used to describe queer people is a slur, because we live in a queerphobic society that uses queerness as an insult (begging people to learn about the euphemism treadmill).

The more important question than "Is this person the right kind of queer to be allowed to say this?" is "Are they speaking in favor of queer rights or against queer rights?"

Because some of y'all, I swear, if a bi lesbian said "As a lesbian, I think lesbians should be hunted for sport" would spend the next 6 months debating whether a bi lesbian counts, and if a straight man said "I'm a straight man, but I think hunting lesbians for sport is wrong," y'all would admonish him for speaking over lesbians.