Where Nature and Culture Meld: The Complexity of Arctic Indigenous Language Preservation from an Integrated Ecolinguistic Perspective
Where Nature and Culture Meld: The Complexity of Arctic Indigenous Language Preservation from an Integrated Ecolinguistic Perspective

Summary/Abstract: As the importance of preserving indigenous languages has been highlighted in differentfora and numerous contexts, the Arctic appears to be no exception in this regard.The vitality and sustainability of Arctic indigenous languages pervade the discourse on the polar region and lie at the core of the Arctic Indigenous Language Vitality Initiative. To explorethe complexity of the endeavor, this conceptual paper analyzes the framing of Arctic indigenouslanguage preservation in selected academic publications as well as institutional documents.Since the use of biomorphic metaphors in the context of language preservation raises numerousdoubts regarding their socio-political implications, this paper attempts to address this issue fromthe perspective of ecolinguistics perceived as both analytical and conceptual lenses to demonstratethat its three complementary strands of research may help bridge the nature-culturedivide in general and provide an integrated approach to the preservation of Arctic indigenouslanguages in particular.

• Details
• Contents