Newsletter, February 2012: Language Technology Kits on Indiegogo, and Mother Language Day on campus

Indiegogo campaign: Language Technology Kits!

We just launched a new campaign for 8 Language Technology Kits on Indiegogo. During our fieldwork around the world, we have made some of the first digital recordings of dozens of endangered languages, and we want to empower communities to do their own long-term documentation.

We have met many dedicated language activists who would really benefit from having access to computers and recording equipment so they can continue documenting their vanishing languages. We are raising funds for the equipment and training necessary for them to produce new media in their languages. This will help conserve and revitalize their languages, and also give them a presence online.

Our goal is to raise $24,000 for 8 kits over the next 72 days.

We encourage you to donate to this cause. Please help us spread the word on your social networks! Thank you for your support!

Tuesday was International Mother Language Day!

February 21st, the UNESCO day celebrating multilingualism, was an important day for raising awareness about endangered languages.

K. David Harrison’s recent presentation at the AAAS in Vancouver publicly unveiled our Talking Dictionary projects. We have received a lot of international press coverage on this topic just over the last few days! It is great to see this news getting into the public awareness. Here are some quick links for you.

• The Talking Dictionaries can be viewed on the Enduring Voices website and on the Dictionary Portal.
• Harrison wrote an engaging article entitled “Celebrating Language Warriors” on Huffington Post.
• Our blog lists our recent recognition in the press and we will continue to post the new articles on Facebook.

Campus events

We were really happy to collaborate with two student groups to promote International Mother Language Day (IMLD). At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, we took part in Linguistic Diversity Week with the UNC Undergraduate Linguistics Club. At the University of West Georgia, we celebrated IMLD with student group “BABEL: Building Awareness for the Benefit of Endangered Languages”, one of the few student groups in the country dedicated to raising awareness about global language extinction.

Here are a few pictures for you.

UNC Chapel Hill events

Student organizer Natalie Feingold raises awareness at the Pit, UNC Chapel Hill.

Endangered Languages Workshop at the University of West Georgia

Student organizers David Baxter, Ken-Terika Zellner (BABEL) and Anna Luisa Daigneault (Living Tongues Institute) at the IMLD event at the University of West Georgia.

We hope you enjoyed our special edition newsletter for February 2012.

With warm wishes, Living Tongues Institute