Lenore A. Grenoble

Linguist who has been a major force in current efforts involving language revitalization, the steps needed to create the physical and social conditions allowing languages to continue in use by speakers of all ages. Her work began with speakers in Siberia, where her work on Evenki is widely cited, and has grown over the last eight years to include Greenlandic Inuit and other Inuit languages as well. She is also a leader in establishing standards for language documentation, and the effects of language contact, situations in which a politically dominant language may influence the lexicon and grammatical structure of an indigenous language. Central to Grenoble's work is a sensitivity to connection between the extinction of a language and the loss of traditional lifestyle in a culture.