LSA 2009

While writing her dissertation on Havasupai language and music in the 1970's, Leanne Hinton also began what turned out to be a career of research and applied work in the area of language loss and language revitalization. She first worked with Native American groups on bilingual education, orthographic design and literature development. After joining the Berkeley faculty in 1978, Hinton began working with California languages. In 1992, she joined a group of California Indians to found the Advocates for Indigenous California Language Survival, which designed a number of important programs, including the Master-Apprentice Language Learning Program and the biennial Breath of Life Language Workshop for California Indians without speakers, held at UC Berkeley. The Master-Apprentice Program has gained popularity throughout North America, and its published manual How to Keep your Language Alive is being translated into Spanish and Portuguese. Hinton has written many books and articles on language shift, language policy, models for learning endangered languages, and language revitalization.