Newsletter, Summer 2012: Vanishing Voices in National Geographic, fieldwork in Russia, and a new blog series

Dear Living Tongues community,

The past few months have been packed with lots of action! Great things are happening around the world to raise awareness about language loss. Here is an overview of what we have been working on.

Vanishing Voices: National Geographic, July 2012

An in-depth article about endangered languages is in this month’s issue of National Geographic Magazine. Written by journalist Russ Rymer, with amazing images by photographer Lynn Johnson, the article explores global language loss, with profiles on language revitalization efforts among speakers of languages such as Tuvan, Aka, Chemehuevi, Wintu, Euchee and Seri.

Living Tongues Director Dr. Gregory D.S. Anderson and Director of Research Dr. K. David Harrison were interviewed for the piece, and their documentation work among Aka speakers in Arunachal Pradesh (India) is discussed. Pick up a copy in news stands before the end of the month! Above is the cover of the magazine, which features a story on Easter Island. In the top left-hand area, you can see that “Saving Lost Languages” is one of the featured topics of the issue.

Fieldwork in Russia

This spring, Dr. Gregory D.S. Anderson helped record Xyzyl (pronounced hizzle), a Siberian language from the Republic of Xakasia (pronounced ha-KAH-see-ya, also spelled “Khakasiya”). To read his article about his experience documenting Xyzyl on the Nat Geo Explorers Journal, click here.

Dr. K. David Harrison was also recently in Russia. He traveled in the Republic of Kalmykia, an obscure corner in European Russia, on the Caspian Sea. Check out his live-blog from Kalmykia, entitled “Cultural Revival in Europe’s Only Buddhist Region”, also on Nat Geo Explorers Journal.

New Google site on endangered languages

As you may have heard, Google recently launched a new site: www.endangeredlanguages.com

“The Endangered Languages Project” is an online resource to record, access, and share samples of and research on endangered languages, as well as to share advice and best practices for those working to document or strengthen languages under threat. The public is invited to contribute information to the site.

Our language documentation videos from our YouTube channel are prominently featured throughout the site. On the site’s main page, a picture of Koro speaker Abamu Degio is featured. The picture was taken by Living Tongues researcher Jeremy Fahringer:

The languages included in this Google project, as well as the information displayed about them, are provided by the Catalogue of Endangered Languages (ELCat), produced by the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa and The Institute for Language Information and Technology (The Linguist List) at Eastern Michigan University.

Summer blog series

On the Living Tongues blog, we recently invited guest bloggers to write articles about issues surrounding language loss. Check out Anna Luisa Daigneault’s whimsical introduction to the series, as well as the first article in the series, a thought-provoking piece entitled “Stolen Tongues” by Allison Taylor-Adams. Stay tuned for more guest blog articles throughout the summer.

Thanks for reading! Follow us on social media for daily updates about endangered languages.

Wishing you all the best, The Living Tongues team