Growing up on a small island three hours north of Victoria, the outdoors served as Iona Lister's classroom. Home-schooled for the most part until high school, Lister spent her days reading, writing and making music while immersed in nature. The English master's student, who graduates this June, has since taken to travelling, trekking across Europe and South America, and learning several languages, including Spanish and French.
Margaret Fireman understands that language upholds her culture. Without language, oral traditions and wisdom passed down from her Cree ancestors would be lost. Language, she says, is closely tied to the land. And so when Fireman, a residential school survivor and then-manager of Chisasibi Heritage and Cultural Centre in northeastern Quebec, was searching for a program to bolster the preservation of her community's language of James Bay Cree, she chose carefully.
This four-letter word has a bad reputation among language purists, but new research from linguist Alex D’Arcy proves “like” is one of the English language’s most versatile words, with its use stretching back to Old English. Much of her work focuses on two controversial and misunderstood functions of “like."
Wanosts’a7 Lorna Williams, Lil’watul from Mount Currie BC, is being honoured with a 2018 Indspire Award for her contributions to Indigenous education. At UVic, the Professor Emerita Williams co-designed and developed three degree programs in collaboration with Indigenous communities: the bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Indigenous language revitalization, and the Counselling in Indigenous Communities master’s degree program.
Visiting the K’ómoks First Nation
A new language revitalization project led by UVic will bring new life and strength to Indigenous languages in Canada. NEȾOLṈEW̱, which translates as 'one mind, one people' in SENĆOŦEN, is a six-year project supported by a $2.5M SSHRC Partnership Grant that will create a learning and research network with nine Indigenous-led partner organizations across the country.
A new language revitalization project led by the University of Victoria will bring new life and strength to at least 42 Indigenous languages in Canada. NEȾOLṈEW̱ will work with nine Indigenous-led partner organizations across the country, forming a learning and research network to strengthen efforts to revive Indigenous languages.
One could say that humanities graduate student Ildara Enríquez was born for her role as a linguistics researcher. Growing up on the Iberian Peninsula in the northwest region of Spain, Enriquez spoke her native language of Galician at home. At school, she conversed in Spanish.Both were official languages, but as a teenager, Enríquez made a decision.
A week-long intensive course in Cambridge Bay is a perfect example of the range of compelling experiential-learning courses offered by UVic for students within the CALR program. Taught by Nunavut Arctic College instructor Emily Angulalik last year, LING 187 was featured this past season as part of a national CBC story.
On Saturday, the Indigenous versions of the Douglas Treaties—never before available in the local languages—will be presented in a ceremony at the Songhees Wellness Centre (during a three-day gathering) to the Royal BC Museum to be kept in perpetuity.
The presentation of the first-ever translations in the local Indigenous languages of the original Douglas Treaties of the colony of Vancouver Island is a pivotal element in a historic event taking place Feb. 24-26 in Victoria as part of UVic's Canada 150 celebrations.
Adult learners are a "missing generation" in Indigenous language revitalization. The majority of fluent speakers are 70 years of age or older and although young children in immersion are speaking their languages in increasing numbers, many Indigenous adults aged 18 to 60 do not. Onowa McIvor (Indigenous education) and Peter Jacobs (linguistics) just wrapped up the first study of the Mentor-Apprentice Program for Indigenous adult language learners in BC.
Linguist Alexandra D’Arcy plans to address one of the most perplexing challenges in linguistics in a new study exploring how kids talk. She is looking for 30 more candidates for the Kids Talk project, focusing on the same cohort of children first as preschoolers, then in the playground.
An endangered Indigenous language and an endangered West Coast wildlife icon stand to benefit from the work of two new Banting Postdoctoral Fellows at UVic. Valued at $70,000 per year for two years, the fellowships are intended to groom Canada's next generation of research leaders.
UVic offers the only master’s degree in the country specializing in Indigenous language revitalization and it draws people from across Canada. Now, for the first time, the program itself has travelled east—bringing the curriculum to UVic students on site at the University of Saskatchewan beginning July 12.
UVic linguistics associate professor Sonya Bird was listening to the CBC Radio “Spark” program in early 2014 when she first heard the voice of Rupal Patel, a Canadian researcher based in Boston who launched the VocaliD Human Voicebank in May 2014.
