The Language Geek

As part of my research I’ve been speaking with Haisla elders in Kitimat. Unfortunately, much of what Linda Smith says about research being a dirty word seems to be true there, although I can’t say enough about how welcoming and helpful people have been with me. Unfortunately, several linguists who have worked with the Haisla do not seem to have much respect amongst the community. Much of their work has been focused around creating dictionaries, from what I understand. I decided to look into their work a little more and came across this resource called the languagegeek. It seems like it might be good for educators trying to integrate traditional language with technology although there could be issues related to intellectual property rights. Here is a brief excerpt from the about section of the site. 

“Languagegeek is dedicated to the promotion of indigenous languages – primarily those of North America. By providing the tools which speakers, educators, and learners can use to communicate on-line or in print, the realm of computers will no longer be the sole domain of a few global languages.”