In Context: 5 Web Perspectives On A Story In The News

The value of studying endangered languages

(WAMC Northeast Public Radio) Dr. Jonathan Bobaljik is a professor of linguistics at the University of Connecticut. He addresses the importance of studying endangered languages in order to understand others. His research primarily focuses on linguistic universals and linguistic diversity.

Research in linguistics tries to find the common points between languages (a “universal grammar”). By understanding one language, you are understanding another.

Bobaljik is currently working on a project, partially funded by the National Science Foundation, that focuses on the Itelmen language, indigenous to the Kamchatka peninsula of the Russian Far East, which has fewer than 20 native speakers still alive.

Bobaljik says, “People often ask me: why go to the ends of the earth to study a language like Itelmen, which in all likelihood will no longer be spoken a generation from now? But that's precisely the reason: half or maybe as many as 90 percent of the world's languages are endangered… a language dies, it's a loss for the communities involved, and for the world's cultural heritage, but the rapidly vanishing linguistic diversity is also a loss of a vast amount of knowledge that bears on fundamental questions about the nature of language, and human cognition generally.”

1.

Sorosoro

Sorosoro
As a non-profit organization, the Sorosoro (a word in Araki meaning “breath, word, language”) program “contributes to the safeguard and revitalization of endangered languages.” It runs a multimedia website (complemented by a blog—in French—and Facebook, Twitter and YouTube accounts) that focuses on language preservation and compiles news articles from the web on its main page. The organization's endeavours are founded on three principles: heritage, awareness and support to indigenous populations. The site also contains facts and figures on endangered languages, as well as an informative breakdown of living languages around the world and notably, a segment on linguistics for beginners.

2.

UNESCO Endangered Languages

UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization maintains an Endangered Languages Program whose aims are to “support communities, experts and governments by producing, coordinating and disseminating tools for monitoring, advocacy, and assessment of status and trends in linguistic diversity.” The program also provides communities and organizations with services such as policy advice, technical expertise and training, and a platform for exchange and transfer of skills related to linguistic preservation. The site’s centrepiece is an interactive online version of UNESCO’s Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger, which can be accessed here. A detailed brochure on the atlas can be downloaded from here.

3.

Ethnologue: An encyclopedic reference work cataloging all of the world’s 6,909 known living languages

Ethnologue
This is an online database that serves as a comprehensive resource for finding information on living languages. Users can search languages by name, categorized alphabetically, by three-letter language codes, or by using the language family index. Each entry gives a brief catalogue description of the language, as well as related languages and dialects. Statistical summaries are also available, categorized by geographic area, language size, language family and individual country. A print version, its 16^th edition, is currently in publication.

4.

We Still Live Here - Âs Nutayuneân (a documentary on language revival)

PBS
This is a documentary produced by PBS in 2010 that records attempts to revive the native language of the Wampanoag people of southern Massachusetts. This is the first time in the U.S. that a language with no living native speakers has been revived - the last known speaker having died over 100 years ago. It offers insight into the possible measures society can take in language preservation and revival. There are clips on the site (a full stream of the documentary is available on the PBS website until November 24, 2011), and viewers are able to catch TV screenings by checking their local PBS listings.

5.

Endangered Languages Media Watch (a blog)

elmediawatch
This is a blog run by a man named Paul Butcher, who posts content on the Endangered Languages Media Watch in order to “collate reports relating to language endangerment that appear in mainstream media.” Although not an academic or journalistic source, this blog gives an informed onlooker’s perspective on the ongoing issue of cultural loss through language. He provides content that offers variations on the theme and often embeds useful links in his posts from a variety of media sources. The right sidebar of the site also directs readers to various resources.