Indigenous Languages and Linguistics Certificate

University of Arizona

This Certificate is based on, and affiliated with, the existing Native American Languages and Linguistics Master of Arts (NAMA) offered by the Department of Linguistics. The Certificate is oriented toward community language activists who wish to train in the kinds of skills and experience needed to work on maintaining, revitalizing, and documenting their native languages. Students interested in the Certificate can either be speakers or second language learners of their language, or individuals who wish to work on Indigenous languages and their speakers. The specialized nature of this degree focuses on Indigenous languages and meeting the needs of these communities to revitalize and document their languages: due to the rapid decline in the use of heritage languages tribal communities have pressed for practical linguistic training to:- revitalize, maintain, and document Indigenous languages.- provide skills and expertise to Indigenous community linguists to develop teaching grammar and other educational materials.- promote understanding of Indigenous peoples' educational issues at every level of policy-making.- enhance and promote understanding of complex factors leading to language choice, language shift, and language loss.- work with archival media (such as audio legacy audio recordings and historical documents) to enrich the language record and to produce viable teaching materials.