Excellence in Community Linguistics Award
About the Excellence in Community Linguistics Award
First established in 2013, this award recognizes the outstanding contributions that members of language communities (typically outside the academic sphere of professional linguists) make for the benefit of their community’s language. The contributions made by awardees may be varied, including, among other things, documentation work with a linguist as a consultant and efforts toward language revitalization. Given annually, as nominations warrant.
Nominations of women and underrepresented ethnic minorities are particularly encouraged. Nominees are not limited to individuals or people working in North America; the language may be one spoken/signed anywhere in the world, and a team of community collaborators may be nominated.
The language in question will normally be an under-resourced one, possibly an Indigenous language, or where well-justified, a stigmatized variety of a more widely-used language.
The application period opens on February 18, 2025, and closes at 11:59 PM (ET) on June 30, 2025.
Eligibility
Examples of types of language leaders who would typically be considered eligible include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Members of a minority language community who develop language teaching materials, teach language classes, and/or train other language users to be teachers, in order to increase the number of users of the language.
- Members of an Indigenous language community who organize a community language revitalization program (e.g., by beginning an immersion summer day camp program and training elders who are speakers/signers to serve as teachers).
- Members of a dormant language community who learn their heritage language from archival materials and develop a language revitalization program to share the language with the community.
- Speakers/signers of an under-described language who work with a linguist as consultants for an extended time, with great dedication, thereby making it possible for the language to be documented.
- Consultants as in the previous point whose outstanding metalinguistic insight into linguistic patterns makes a significant contribution to a linguistic analysis.
- Academic linguists who are themselves members of the language community with whom they work and who make a significant contribution to the advancement of the language.
- Community members who do several of the activities above.
Nominees typically should NOT be:
- Those working towards or holding doctorates in linguistics or related fields; or
- Those employed in regular academic positions in a department of linguistics or related fields, although there may be exceptions (e.g. in the case of a community member who pursues a degree in linguistics after long work within the community).
Notes on criteria:
- It should be noted that language users, learners, and supporters who do not speak/sign the language being documented/revitalized can all be nominated. The required criterion is that there be a contribution that could benefit the language in some way, whether by improving its documentation, increasing the number of users of the language, or some other means.
If a nominator has questions about whether a potential nominee would likely be considered eligible or not, they are encouraged to contact membership@lsadc.org.
Selection
The LSA Committee on Endangered Languages and Their Preservation and the Ethics Committee review nominations and make recommendations to the Executive Committee, which must formally approve the recommendations.
Awardees
- 2025: Benidiktus "Benny" Delpada
- 2024: Abduweli Ayup
- 2023: Angelo Ngalloka Naser
- 2022: Brenda McKenna and Cora McKenna, Nambé Pueblo
- 2021: Chikari Tisso
- 2020: Mosyel Syelsaangthyel Khaling
- 2019: The Khumuno Wu'u Kotira Indigenous School Association (ASEKK) and Nancy Richardson Steele, Karuk Tribe/Advocates for California Indigenous Language Survival
- 2018: Dehe Wang of the Ersu Tibetan language community (Sichuan Province, People's Republic of China)
- 2017: Bessie Ejai and Jessie Sampi of the Bardi language community of the Kimberley region of Northwestern Australia
- 2016: Valerie Switzler (Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, Oregon)
- 2015: Muriel Fisher (Tucson Gaelic Institute)
- 2014: Mary Ann Metallic (Listuguj Education Directorate – Listuguj Mi'gmaq Government)