LING 114
Indigenous Languages and Stories Introduction to the Structure of Language
Storytelling/oral stories have long been a tool for teaching and language transmission and a central component of Indigenous stewardship of knowledge and values. This course explores how we can learn about core principles of Indigenous language structure and Linguistics through the study of narratives. Course topics include organization of stories/events, word and sentence structure, and speech sounds, as well as an extensive discussion on the function of stories and narratives, i.e. centrally, how language is intrinsically tied to worldview and conceptualization of the world. It showcases how each language is a holistic complex system. The course also addresses how settler colonialism has impacted the study of Indigenous languages as well as the field of linguistics.