Professor:  Justin Spence

4.00 credits

CRN 12248: Tuesday & Thursday, 12:00-1:20pm @ GSH 131

North America has always been home to an incredible amount of linguistic diversity, with an estimated 500 languages spoken in the region before the arrival of Europeans. This course provides students with a broad introduction to Native American languages, with special emphasis on languages of Oregon, California, and Washington. Topics covered will include historical relationships among languages and language families, language and oral tradition as reflections of epistemologies and values, how Native American languages have informed the study of human languages in general, the impacts of colonization on Native American languages, and efforts to reclaim and revitalize languages in contemporary communities.