Andean Aymara

The status of Amerind languages

February 12th, 2010 · No Comments

In a recent exchange about the death of the last speaker of Bo, Lyle Campbell summarized very well the current status of Amerind languages.
He writes that when the first Europeans arrived, there were some 280 languages or so in the US which could be divided into 51 families (incl. isolates). Currently some 150 survive and [...]

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Call for papers and workshop announcement

January 19th, 2010 · 1 Comment

The Hans Rausing Endangered Language Programme at the School of Oriental and African Studies is holding a one-day international workshop on Saturday 27 February 2010, 9.30am - 6.00pm.
The goal of the workshop is to explore the sustainability of endangered languages, and sustainability of research (in both theory and practice). The keynote speaker is Lenore Grenoble [...]

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Buzz about Na’vi

December 29th, 2009 · No Comments

There seems to be a lot of buzz about Na’vi, the artificial language in Avatar. While on the one hand I’m happy that linguists can get jobs in today’s economy, it seems pointless to devote resources and energy to this endeavor when so many of the world’s languages are on the verge of extinction and [...]

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On the use of the Hanegul alphabet in language revitalization

August 21st, 2009 · No Comments

Mair at LanguageLog picked up on an interesting story from the Yonhap News Agency: An Indonesian tribe with an endangered language has chosen the Koren alphabet as its official writing system. I wonder what the political (or esthetic?) factors were that lead these people to choose this alphabet.
SEOUL, Aug. 6 (Yonhap) — A minority [...]

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Speaking of Endangered Languages: Issues in Revitalization

August 20th, 2009 · No Comments

This book looks like it is pretty relevant to people interested in this topic.  Check out the description on Linguistlist.

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New book: Dying Words (Evans)

August 5th, 2009 · No Comments

Nicholas Evans, head of the  Department of Linguistics, Division of Society and Environment of the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies (RSPAS) at the Australian National University, has written a book called Dying Words (published by OUP).  The LinguistList published a glowing review and summary by Daniel Hieber, which makes the book sound like a [...]

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SEL: A new open archive for linguistic research

May 25th, 2009 · Comments Off

SEL (Studies on Endangered Languages) recently sent out this call for papers for an open archive, presumably similar to the similar to Rutgers Optimality Archive in the sense that it is an open repository:
Call: We would like to announce a new open archive for unpublished, in-progress and in-press papers on endangered languages: Studies on Endangered Languages. [...]

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New book: Undescribed and Endangered Languages

April 28th, 2009 · Comments Off

Written by: Amedeo De Dominicis 
Description: The book is devoted to linguistic and phonetic analysis of some undescribed and endangered languages. It collects the Proceedings of the international conference on “Undescribed and endangered languages: the preservation of linguistic diversity” held in University of Tuscia (Viterbo, Italy), on September 29, 2005. Papers are by Roberto Ajello (Pisa), Amedeo De [...]

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FYI: Endangered Languages Documentation Programme, Grant Info

August 19th, 2008 · No Comments

“The Chair of ELDP is conducting a review of all ELDP grants and
administrative procedures. The Board of Arcadia will discuss the report
resulting from the review in November 2008. We are planning to change the
timetable to allow candidates more time to submit their grant applications.
It is also possible that certain types of grant will be modified [...]

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