American Anthropologist

Virtual Issue: The Anthropology of Language

For the inaugural virtual issue of AA, editor Tom Boellstorff created "The Anthropology of Language". The broad theme allows readers to track ways in which language has been central to anthropological inquiry from its beginnings but in differing ways over the years and with differing linkages to other domains of anthropological scholarship. The virtual issue includes an impressive 86 articles, including Brinton's "On the Chane-Abal (Four-Language) Tribe and Dialect of Chiapas" from the very first issue of AA in 1888. Boellstorff's goal with this virtual issue is to identify some signal contributions to the anthropological conversation on language so as to build interest in that conversation as it continues to flourish into the future.


INTRODUCTION to "The Anthropology of Language"
by Tom Boellstorff


ARTICLES

On the Chane-Abal (Four-Language) Tribe and Dialect of Chiapas
Daniel G. Brinton (1888)

On Alternating Sounds
Franz Boas (1889)

A New Linguistic Family in California
H.W. Henshaw (1890)

Notes on Indian Child-Language
A.F. Chamberlain (1890)

The Vigor and Expressiveness of Older English
Robert Fletcher (1891)

Polysynthesis in the Languages of The American Indians
J.N.B. Hewitt (1893)

The Language Used in Talking to Domestic Animals
H. Carrington Bolton (1897)

“Real,” “True,” or “Genuine” in Indian Languages
Albert S. Gatschet (1899)

The Native Languages of California
Ronald B. Dixon (1903)

Some Principles of Algonquian Word-Formation
William Jones (1904)

Language and Environment
Edward Sapir (1912)

Wiyot and Yurok, Algonkin Languages of California
Edward Sapir (1913)

The Na-Dene Languages, a Preliminary Report
Edward Sapir (1915)

The Speech of a Zuñi Child
Alfred L. Kroeber (1916)

The Classification Of American Languages
Franz Boas (1920)

The Comparative Linguistics of Uto-Aztecan
B.L. Whorf (1935)

Native Languages as Field-Work Tools
Margaret Mead (1939)

Native Languages as Ethnographic Tools
Robert H. Lowie (1940)

A Method for Learning to Talk Primitive Languages
Jules Henry (1940)

Native Languages and the Field Worker in Australia
A.P. Elkin (1941)

The Scope of Linguistics
C.F. Voegelin and Z.S. Harris (1947)

The Classification of African Languages
Joseph H. Greenberg (1948)

Ethnolinguistics and the Study of Culture
Ismael Silva-Fuenzalida (1949)

Language and Cultural Pattern
Gladys A. Reichard (1950)

Language and the Analysis of Social Laws
Claude Lévi-Strauss (1951)

Interlingual Word Taboos
Mary R. Haas (1951)

Training in Anthropological Linguistics
C.F. Voegelin and Z.S. Harris (1952)

A Survey of Glossolalia and Related Phenomena in Non-Christian Religions
L. Carlyle May (1956)

The Effect of Language on Verbal Expression and Recall
Leonard W. Doob (1957)

Dialect Differences and Social Stratification in a North Indian Village
John J. Gumperz (1958)

The Technical Vocabulary of Barotse Jurisprudence
Max Gluckman (1959)

Kinship Terminology and Evolution
Elman R. Service (1960)

Speech Variation and the Study of Indian Civilization
John J. Gumperz (1961)

Notes on Some Anthropological Aspects of Communication
Clyde Kluckhohn (1961)

Noun Classes and Folk Taxonomy in Papago
Madeleine Mathiot (1962)

The Emergence of Language
William F. Orr and Stephen C. Cappannari (1964)

Introduction: Toward Ethnographies of Communication
Dell Hymes (1964)

Proverbs and the Ethnography of Speaking Folklore
E. Ojo Arewa and Alan Dundes (1964)

An Analysis of the Interaction of Language, Topic, and Listener
Susan Ervin-Tripp (1964)

Baby Talk in Six Languages
Charles A. Ferguson (1964)

How to Ask for a Drink in Subanun
Charles O. Frake (1964)

The Neglected Situation
Erving Goffman (1964)

Phonological Correlates of Social Stratification
William Labov (1964)

Semantic Aspects of Linguistic Acculturation
Keith H. Basso (1967)

Sequencing in Conversational Openings
Emanuel A. Schegloff (1968)

Linguistics and Ethnographic Description
Robbins Burling (1969)

Phonetic Ability and Related Anatomy of the Newborn and Adult
Human, Neanderthal Man, and the Chimpanzee
Phillip Lieberman, Edmund S. Crelin, and Dennis H. Klatt (1972)

On the Evolutionary Foundations of Language
Jane H. Hill (1972)

Associational-Metaphorical Activity: Another View of Language and Mind
Shirley Leone (1973)

Linguistic Anthropology in Society
John J. Gumperz (1974)

Verbal Art as Performance
Richard Bauman (1975)

Anti-Languages
M.A.K. Halliday (1976)

Linguistic Knowledge and Cultural Knowledge: Some Doubts and Speculations
Roger M. Keesing (1979)

Formality and Informality in Communicative Events
Judith T. Irvine (1979)

Whorf and His Critics: Linguistic and Nonlinguistic Influences on Color Memory
John A. Lucy and Richard A. Shweder (1979)

Signs of the Self: An Exploration in Semiotic Anthropology
Milton Singer (1980)

Language, Handedness, and Primate Brains: Did the Australopithecines Sign?
Dean Falk (1980)

The Pragmatics of Proverb Performances in New Mexican Spanish
Charles L. Briggs (1985)

A Discourse-Centered Approach to Language and Culture
Joel Sherzer (1987)

Language, Ideology, and Political Economy
Paul Friedrich (1989)

Kalapalo Biography: Psychology and Language in a South American Oral History
Ellen B. Basso (1989)

Ideological Language in the Transformation of Identity
Peter G. Stromberg (1990)

Wording, Meaning, and Linguistic Ideology
Alan Rumsey (1990)

Literacy and the Notion of Person on Nukulaelae Atoll
Niko Besnier (1991)

Language, Ideology, and the Press in Catalonia
David D. Laitin., and Guadalupe Rodriguez Gómez (1992)

Language and Bodies in Social Space: Samoan Ceremonial Greetings
Alessandro Duranti (1992)

Personal Sentiments and Polyphonic Voices in Warao Women’s Ritual Wailing
Charles Briggs (1993)

Indexical Speech across Samoan Communities
Alessandro Duranti (1997)

Plurality of Perspectives and Subjects in the Literary Genres of the Yucatec Maya
Manuel Gutiérrez-Estévez (1998)

The Dialogics of Southern Quechua Narrative
Bruce Mannheim and Krista Van Vleet (1998)

Language, Race, and White Public Space
Jane H. Hill (1998)

The Universality of the Semantic Structure of Emotion Terms: Methods for the Study of Inter- and Intra-Cultural Variability
Carmella C. Moore, A. Kimball Romney, Ti-Lien Hsia, and Craig D. Rusch (1999)

Cross-Language Predictors of Consonant-Vowel Syllables
Melvin Ember and Carol R. Ember (1999)

God Is Nothing but Talk: Modernity, Language, and Prayer in a Papua New Guinea Society
Joel Robbins (2001)

Cultural Darwinism and Language
Roy D’Andrade (2002)

Metasignaling and Language Origins
Greg Urban (2002)

Do “Language Rights” Serve Indigenous Interests? Some Hopi and Other Queries
Peter Whiteley (2003)

Getting Language Rights: The Rhetorics of Language Endangerment and Loss
Joseph Errington (2003)

Globalizing Languages: Ideologies and Realities of the Contemporary Global System
Jonathan Friedman (2003)

Ideologies of Language: Some Reflections on Language and U.S. Law
John B. Haviland (2003)

Language Ideology and Women’s Speech: Talking Community in the Northwest Amazon
Janet M. Chernela (2003)

Linguistic Syncretism and Language Ideologies: Transforming Sociolinguistic Hierarchy on Rapa Nui (Easter Island)
Miki Makihara (2004)

“The Vulgar Spirit of Blogging”: On Language, Culture, and Power in Persian Weblogestan
Alireza Doostdar (2004)

The Language That Came Down the Hill: Slang, Crime, and Citizenship in Rio de Janeiro
Jennifer Roth-Gordon (2009)

Old Jokes and New Multiculturalisms: Continuity and Change in Vernacular Discourse on the Yucatec Maya Language
Fernando Armstrong-Fumero (2009)

Traces of a Lost Language and Number System Discovered on the North Coast of Peru.
Jeffrey Quilter (2010)