Isabella Victoria Wolfe (NYU Gallatin) | The Language Conservancy | Indiana, USA
My name is Isabella Victoria Wolfe and I was born and raised in Sacramento, California. I am a rising junior at Gallatin, the School of Individualized Study. My concentration is in Literature, Law, and Linguistics. And I am so thrilled to be starting my fellowship with the Language Conservancy in June.
For some background information, The Language Conservancy (TLC) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to rescuing the world’s endangered languages, restoring them to stability and health, and safeguarding them for future generations. They believe that all languages have an inherent right to exist – that they are valued and irreplaceable facets of a people’s culture and humanity’s linguistic heritage. TLC helps prevent the extinction of languages by raising funds, increasing international public awareness of the language-loss crisis, creating language tools to preserve the culture, and providing support to organizations and communities engaged in revitalizing their languages.
Throughout the semester, I have been preparing for my time at TLC by familiarizing myself with programs such as Audacity, an audio editing software, and Praat, a voice analysis software. I am particularly interested in indigenous languages within the Americas; Nahuatl of the Uto-Aztecan family, a language I have ancestral connections to; and Cree of the Algic family. I am also interested in Inuktitut.
In my independent study, in preparation for my fellowship, I have been researching the phonetic environments of the voiceless velar plosive /k/, voiced velar fricative /ɣ/, and the voiceless velar fricative /x/, in a Cree dialect called the th-dialect (also known as Woods Cree). I have found such a huge appreciation for phonology/phonetics and learning language variation across these beautiful language families!
Lastly, I would like to thank my independent study instructor, NYU Linguistics Professor, Gillian Gallagher, for introducing me to the wonderful world of phonology/phonetics and preparing me for my journey with TLC. I can’t wait to start!
Sincerely,
Isabella V.W.