ABSTRACT
Maliseet is an eastern Algonquian language spoken in eastern Maine and along the St. John River in New Brunswick, Canada. The most recent prognosis for Maliseet language vitality from language experts is either "shifting" or "severely endangered". This chapter presents author's understanding of the severity of Maliseet language endangerment to promote future Maliseet-speaking publics by critically appraising the expert rhetoric on "endangered" languages, reconceptualizing temporal understanding, and promoting collaboration among language advocates. It examines the constraints imposed on language advocates by temporal models and the trajectories implied by those models, and develops the role that ethnography can play in promoting future publics. Documentary linguistics differentiates itself from other modes of linguistic documentation by articulating a commitment to participatory research where the rights and interests of the subject communities are moral and ethical obligations. The chapter concludes from the perspective of bilingual Maliseet speakers that the trajectory toward extinction is a forgone conclusion.
