𝐀𝐛𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭:

What happens when linguistics and linguistic inquiry is made accessible to native speakers of minority languages? What happens when language development needs are theirs to address, not as supportive language informants, but as responsible primary agents in a development project? And, when these are taking place, what happens to the discipline of linguistics itself?

This presentation reflects on the decade-long experience of the Language Development Team of Translators Association of the Philippines, Inc. (TAP) in assisting minority language communities in the Philippines to address their language development needs. It explores the range of services that the Team renders, focusing on two that has gained the most traction, namely, standard orthography development and grammar book development. It discusses the interdisciplinary approach to service, covering how knowledge, methods, and insights from Community Development, Socio-Political History, Cultural Anthropology, indigenous Psychology, Dialogue Education, and Incarnational Ministry contribute to productive conduct of language development projects and rigorous linguistics workshops that stimulate native speaker agency. It analyses the levels of native speaker agency and other forms of participation observed to be stimulated by the approach in the different phases of a development project. It evaluates the results of the projects by looking at short term output and discernible longer-term outcome. Different parts of the presentation showcase instances of impact on individuals, communities, and the linguistic discipline itself when native speakers of minority languages are primary agents of a language development project, or take on the task of linguistic inquiry, or both.

𝐁𝐢𝐨:

Josephine S. Daguman is Senior Consultant in Field Linguistics of Translators Association of the Philippines, Inc (TAP). She holds a PhD in Linguistics from La Trobe University and was a member of the Research Center for Linguistic Typology. Her PhD thesis entitled A Grammar of Northern Subanen was published by LINCOM Europa in 2013 under the Outstanding Grammars of Australia Series. She has henceforth written on little known features of the languages of the Philippines. She is currently part of TAP Language Development Team which comes alongside communities that want to analyse their language(s), work towards a standard orthography or grammar book, design language revitalisation programs, and produce materials for the wellbeing of their society.

---

The 7th Linguistic Society of the Philippines International Conference (𝐋𝐒𝐏𝐈𝐂𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟓), which is happening on 𝗔𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗹 𝟮𝟰-𝟮𝟲, 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱 at 𝗣𝗦𝗨 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗻 𝗖𝗮𝗺𝗽𝘂𝘀, is jointly hosted by the Linguistic Society of the Philippines (LSP) and the Pangasinan State University (together with the Provincial Government of Pangasinan and the Local Government Unit of Lingayen).