Leanne Hinton - Bringing Our Languages Home: Language Revitalization for Families

I am deeply indebted to the Lannan Foundation, who have been supportive of the work of my colleagues and myself in language revitalization for many years and, most relevant to this book, provided me with a fellowship for a six-week stay in Marfa, Texas, where they have homes set up specifically for writers to get away from the multitasking responsibilities of daily life and simply write. Before that trip, I had long been wanting to write a book about language revitalization for families. Originally I had thought that I would write it myself, but the prospect of doing this seemed overwhelming. I figured that I would have to go all over the world interviewing families and then turn the interviews into a book. And who am I, I thought, who never braved raising a child to speak an endangered language, to write for people who might want to do this? It was not until I settled down in Marfa and thought about nothing else for the first week that the simple answer suddenly dawned on me: why should I write this book at all? It was the families who had done it themselves who should write it. And thus it was that my wonderful weeks in Marfa were spent calling and emailing the people who have become the main authors of this book.

I thank too these authors themselves, who wrote such moving, honest, and powerful chapters about their lives and their families and communities, throwing such great insight on the issues involved in bringing endangered languages into use in their families. Additional thanks go to Cedric Sunray, whose conversations and letters to me added several quotes and much wisdom to the book, and to many other families not personally represented here, but whose efforts to use their heritage languages at home have been inspirational in the development of this book.

The Advocates for Indigenous California Language Survival (AICLS) have been a very important part of my life for the last twenty years. I thank the board members, staff members, and funders, past and present, for support, companionship, and shared wisdom in our mutual journey to learn how best to be of use to communities and individuals who are trying to learn their endangered languages and bring them back into use. Thanks also to all the people in California and elsewhere who have taken part in our programs, especially the Master-Apprentice Language Learning Program, the Breath of Life Language Workshops, and the Language is Life conferences. The participants, mentors, and volunteers have all provided their own wisdom and lessons learned, a mutual help society that has led us all to become better at what we do.

The University of California at Berkeley was my professional home for thirty-five years, and remains so now, at least in my heart, even though I am physically elsewhere most of the time. Many academics feel that they are the lonesome stewards of their fields of interest and worry that their specializations will be neglected by their departments when they retire. But I retired in 2006 knowing that the enterprises I held dear would thrive. My colleague Andrew Garrett took over the directorship of the Survey of California and Other Indian Languages and has turned it into something much greater than it was before. He and Lev Michael, the linguist hired into the position I vacated, continue to make the collaboration with indigenous communities in language documentation and revitalization an ever stronger part of the departments enterprise. I am grateful to have them as colleagues. I am also grateful to our department staff, especially Paula Floro and Belen Flores, for their many years of making my professional life (along with everyone elses) run smoothly, both as an active professor and as emerita.

Finally, I thank my husband, Dr. Gary Scott, for his constant loving support and encouragement of my work, and for the family he brought into my life: Stephanie, Lauren, Robert, and Jessyand now their own childrenhave been and continue to be the most valuable project of our lives.