Newsletter: Upcoming events in New York City and San Francisco!
Meet us in person!
We are excited to announce two meet-and-greet events in the U.S. this month. Our “Speak Volumes” event series is all about raising awareness about endangered languages, and why it’s important to document them before it’s too late. You are invited to join us for an evening of community-building and engaging discussion on the dates below. These events are free, but with limited seating!
Sat Sept 14th, 5–7 pm EST: “Speak Volumes” Meet-and-Greet with Dr. K. David Harrison and Dr. Gregory Anderson in New York City.
Sun Sept 29th, 5–7 pm PT: “Speak Volumes” Meet-and-Greet with Dr. Gregory Anderson in San Francisco.
Questions? Contact Living Tongues Director of Development, Ms. Morgan Mann: morgan@livingtongues.org
News from the field
Birhor Documentation Project, May 2019. Photo by Dr. Bikram Jora.
This year we made substantial progress on one of our big projects in India, “Documenting the Fragile Knowledge Domains of the Birhor People.” In the photo above, Living Tongues Project facilitators Shashi Kant Lakra (left) and Anukaran Mardi (right) collaborate with Birhor community members in Sadbhaiya village, India. One of the reasons this project is successful is because we train local tribal scholars and collaborators to conduct the day-to-day fieldwork themselves, thus improving the authenticity of the data collected. Many thanks to the Zegar Family Foundation for supporting this important cultural and linguistic documentation project.
Introducing the Living Tongues Society
Do you want to know more about the exciting world of language documentation? Joining the Living Tongues Society is the best way for language enthusiasts and supporters to become more involved with Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages, a premier research institute devoted to documenting endangered languages worldwide. Join today
Conferences and events
- Organized by GALA, Dr. Greg Anderson will be speaking at a live webinar on language endangerment on September 26th. Register here
- We recently presented at the 8th International Conference on Austroasiatic Linguistics (ICAAL8) in Thailand.
- The “Intersections of Languages and Nature” conference at the University of Pittsburgh was a success! See videos on our Instagram page.
- We recently presented at the 19th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS 2019) in Melbourne, Australia. Read more.
New Talking Dictionary app now available!
A Talking Dictionary is an online tool built with the latest web technologies in an effort to speed the availability of language resources for every endangered language in the world. Tools such as this have the power to shift how we think about endangered languages. Rather than perceiving these tongues as being antiquated, difficult to learn and on the brink of vanishing, we can see them as modern, accessible for learning, and easily visible and audible online.
Talking Dictionaries promote connectivity over vast distances, and support an online community of language learners who wish to hear and learn a language without close proximity to fluent speakers. They allow thousands of recorded entries to be available at one’s fingertips on any mobile device. High-quality audio recordings accompany the dictionary entries so that community members, new speakers and research scholars can listen to the correct pronunciation by a fluent speaker. Engaging images also provide a wider sense of the cultural context for the language.
Explore the new Talking Dictionaries app (today’s Living Dictionaries)
Questions about building your own dictionary? Contact Program Director Anna Luisa Daigneault at annaluisa@livingtongues.org