Lakhota language and identity in Pine Ridge, SD
Vales, Miroslav (University of Liberec (República Txeca))

Date:	2007
Abstract:	The Lakhota language, like many other Native American languages, faces a decline in young speakers. Can the culture exist independently of a language and can the people have the same feeling of belonging to it even after the language has been lost? The following study analyzes the relation of language and identity in a situation when most members of a tribe are no longer able to speak the language. It is based on interviews with 52 participants carried out on Pine Ridge Reservation. The study compares the opinions of speakers of the language with the non-speakers with the objective to find out what alternative signs of identity people use when they are not able to speak the language. The analysis focuses on the attitude to the language, it is trying to answer the question whether it is necessary to speak the language to be Lakhota and what do the people think about the eventuality that the language might disappear completely.
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Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Published in:	Language design : journal of theoretical and experimental linguistics, Vol. 9, Núm. (2007) , p. 035-60, ISSN 1139-4218

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