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Documenting the acquisition of indigenous languages

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2020

Clifton PYE
Clifton PYE*
Affiliation:
The University of Kansas
*
*Corresponding author: Clifton Pye, University of Kansas - Department of Linguistics, 1541 Lilac Lane, Lawrence, Kansas66045, United States. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

The outstanding property of human language is its diversity, and yet acquisition data is only available for three percent of the world's 6000+ spoken languages. Due to the rapid pace of language loss, it may not be possible to document how children acquire half of the world's indigenous languages in as little as two decades. This loss permanently diminishes the scope of acquisition theory by removing its empirical base. In the face of pervasive language loss, the question of how best to document the language of the last children to acquire indigenous languages assumes critical importance. A collaborative effort by researchers is required to identify the most efficient procedures for documenting children's language, and share them worldwide. This paper makes the case for documenting diversity and outlines steps needed to accomplish this goal.

Keywords

documentationindigenous languagesacquisition toolkit
Type
Article
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 48 , Issue 3 , May 2021 , pp. 454 - 479
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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