Newsletter, December 2014: fieldwork in Papua New Guinea, the Isle of Man, and ways to support Living Tongues

Season’s greetings!

We had an incredible year and the last quarter of the year has been no exception. Here are updates on our most recent fieldwork, media interviews, and ways you can donate and get involved.

Fieldwork updates

Papua New Guinea 2014

Students hard at work during the data processing practical at the Living Tongues Unitech workshop. Photo: Jonathan M. Anderson, Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages.

In October, Dr. Gregory D. S. Anderson led a successful workshop at the Papua New Guinea University of Technology (Unitech) in Lae, Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea. The event was the first in a series of workshops on digital literacy skills for documenting traditional ecological knowledge and landscape stewardship of tok ples in Papua New Guinea.

The Living Tongues team consisted of Dr. Gregory D. S. Anderson, Rudolf Raward and Jonathan Anderson. During the course of the workshop, a total of twenty-one local students participated, along with Mr. Yat Paol, speaker of Waskia tok ples, who served as a participant observer. The event was made possible by a grant from the Christensen Fund. More images here.

The Isle of Man 2014

In November, Dr. K. David Harrison traveled to the Isle of Man to meet speakers of Manx. Declared extinct in the 1970s by UNESCO, Manx has made a surprising comeback and is now used in media and in everyday life on the island. He interviewed speakers, including several “new native speakers” as well as learners of the language, and visited Bunscoill Ghaelgagh, a Manx-language primary school in St John’s.

Linguist K. David Harrison and Manx Officer Adrian Cain being interviewed by journalist Paul Moulton on the Isle of Man. Video here.

David observed, “From a global perspective, what the Manx language warriors have achieved over the years is exemplary.” Thanks to BBC News for publishing this story about his visit, and for bringing attention to the successful language revitalization taking place on the Isle of Man.

The trip to the Isle of Man is part of a new strategic partnership with Viki.com, a global media platform that allows speakers to subtitle popular videos in their languages. In November, Viki and Living Tongues launched a website to showcase video subtitling as a means to promote endangered and emerging languages.

Living Tongues is partnering with Viki.com

Get involved

Legacy Connect

Get involved with us and Legacy Connect! For a limited time, they will triple-match your donation. If you donate $10, they will triple that to $40. Check out our new Legacy Connect portal to watch videos, read articles and play games related to endangered languages.

You can sign into the portal with your Facebook account, and earn points, spread impact, and even earn a chance to win headphones by Beats by Dre. It’s a great way to learn about our work, get involved, and donate.

Amazon Smile

Here is a super easy way to support our work during the busy holiday season! We are excited to be one of the charitable organizations listed on Amazon Smile. It is a new program where Amazon donates to your favorite charity when you shop.

Just go to the Amazon Smile site, search for “Living Tongues Institute” and add us to your Amazon charity list. Amazon will donate 0.5% of the price of your eligible AmazonSmile purchases to us. Thanks for your support!

Thanks for reading, and we wish you a great holiday season.

– The Living Tongues team