User:Zkelly1/Language selection

Possible Pair

I'd love to work with anyone, regardless of their knowledge of either CS or linguistics! Personally, I have a very strong linguistics background, and I've taken CS021 here at Swarthmore, and I'm currently taking CS031. In addition, I have been progressing through a few online CS courses regarding JavaScript, HTML, CSS, and SQL, as well as other languages and technologies.

Languages for Class

I have an interest in the indigenous languages of the Americas, especially so the Athabaskan languages after having taken Structure of Navajo this past semester, so when looking over the suggestions for languages to work on, I found the following three particular interesting:

1. Navajo
2. Denaʼina
3. Jicarilla Apache

Language Information

Navajo

Information

Navajo (Diné Bizaad) is an indigenous language of North America spoken in the southwestern United States, specifically the areas that are now northeast Arizona, southwest Colorado, northwest New Mexico, and southeast Utah. This is currently where the majority of speakers reside, as the largest Navajo reservation is located within this area, known as the Four Corners Region. However, the Navajo Nation itself only spans across three of the four corners, Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. Navajo is also a registered language of the Colorado River Indian Tribes of the Colorado River Indian Reservation, spanning Arizona and California. Navajo is an Apachean, Athabaskan language and a part of the Athabaskan-Eyak language subgroup, which itself is a part of the Na-Dené language phylum. The Athabaskan family is a branch of the Athabaskan-Eyak subgroup of the Na-Dené language phylum It uses the Latin script for its orthography, with diacritics and some special characters to represent tone and certain sounds not represented by the Latin alphabet. Its total speaker population is 167,000 and there are 7,600 monolingual speakers according to the 2015 census. In total, there are roughly 300,000 ethic Navajo people. Because of its declining speaker population, for example, 30% of first graders in 1998 having it as their first language as compared to 90% in 1968, it is classified as a threatened language. However, some families retain immense use of the language, and resources for the language are becoming more available, with an available dictionary, grammar, translation of the bible, language immersion programs, and courses taught in some universities. English is the most common language also used by speakers of Navajo and ethnic Navajo people. The ISO code for Navajo is nav.

Resource Availability

Resources for Navajo are widely available, with an available dictionary, grammar, translation of the bible, stories, language immersion programs, courses taught in some universities, and even a Navajo dub of the first Star Wars movie.

Reference Links

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navajo_language

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Corners

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navajo_Nation

https://www.ethnologue.com/language/nav

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Athabaskan-language-family