This paper adapts the framework of Endangered Language Computer Aided Language Learning (EL CALL) from Ward and Genabith (2003) and applies it to examples of digital tools used in the reawakening of the Tunica language undertaken by the Tunica Language Working Group, a collaboration between the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana and Tulane University’s Interdisciplinary Program in Linguistics.
It finds that digital projects undertaken over the past decade supports the proposal that language workers—especially those in language reawakening contexts—should employ technologies, digital or not, that allow for rapid updating and iteration and that have low upkeep costs. The creation and evolution of two Tunica language software initiatives have shown that the ability to easily update information and publish it to users is a major factor in the ability to deliver and maintain digital language learning software.
The paper also proposes that in community-based language reawakening projects, linguistic fieldwork takes place in the archives and museums where historical linguistic documentation is housed, while the analysis of field data is done with the community.