Category Archives: Living Dictionaries

Anna Luisa Daigneault, Digital Resources, Endangered Language Activism, Events, Get Involved, Gregory D. S. Anderson, Language Documentation, Launches and Public Events, Living Dictionaries, Media and Publicity, Projects, Support Endangered Languages

New article about Living Dictionaries in “Dictionaries Journal (Special Issue: Indigenous Lexicography)”

We are pleased to announce that we have published a new article entitled “Living Dictionaries: A Platform for Indigenous and Under-Resourced Languages” in the latest issue of Dictionaries, a journal published by the Dictionary Society of North America. Special thanks to the journal editors Christine Schreyer, Mark Turin and M. Lynne Murphy for their hard work. Here is the announcement from the publisher, below.

 

The Dictionary Society of North America is pleased to announce publication of Dictionaries 44:2, a special issue on Indigenous Lexicography guest-edited by Christine Schreyer, Mark Turin and M. Lynne Murphy. Read it online at Project MUSE, where, thanks in part to support from the University of British Columbia, it’s available open-access!

Dictionaries 44.2 (2023)

Special Issue: Indigenous Lexicography

Table of Contents

Editorial

M. Lynne Murphy

 

Indigenous Lexicography: An Introduction

Christine Schreyer and Mark Turin

 

The Evolution of Inuktut Dictionary-Making: From Historical Documentation to Inuit Authorship and Collaborations

Kumiko Murasugi and Donna Patrick

 

How a Dictionary Became an Archive: Community Language Reclamation Using the Mukurtu Content Management System

Erin Debenport, Mishuana Goeman, Maria Montenegro, and Michael Wynne

 

Living Dictionaries: A Platform for Indigenous and Under-Resourced Languages

Anna Luisa Daigneault and Gregory D. S. Anderson

 

Modern Wendat Lexicography: Using XML to Reflect the Grammar and Lexicon of an Iroquoian Language

Megan Lukaniec and Martin Holmes

 

The Upper Nicola Nsyilxcn Talking Dictionary Project: Community-Driven Revitalization Lexicography within an Academic Context

John Lyon, k̓ʷak̓ʷíslaʔqn Justine Manuel, and xʷəstalqs Kathleen Michel

 

nêhiyawi-pîkiskwêwina maskwacîsihk: Spoken Dictionary of Maskwacîs Cree

Antti Arppe, Atticus G. Harrigan, Katherine Schmirler, Daniel Dacanay, and Rose Makinaw

 

Designing Corpus-Creation Tools for Language Revitalization

Darren Flavelle and Jordan Lachler

 

An Open-Access Toolkit for Collaborative, Community-Informed Dictionaries

Bailey Trotter, Christine Schreyer, and Mark Turin

 

Creating the Passamaquoddy-Wolastoqey Dictionary: A Personal Reflection on Fifty Years of Lexicography

Robert M. Leavitt

 

The Witsuwit’en–English Dictionary Project

Sharon Hargus

 

Thematic Picture Dictionaries and Other Visual Resources for Costa Rican Indigenous Languages: Beyond Bilingual Equivalencies

Carlos Sánchez Avendaño and Henry Angulo-Jiménez

 

BOOK REVIEWS

Revitalization Lexicography: The Making of a New Tunica Dictionary by Patricia Anderson (book review).

 

Bailey Trotter

Endangered Language Activism, Language Documentation, Launches and Public Events, Living Dictionaries, Media and Publicity, Projects, Support Endangered Languages

The Brezhoneg Living Dictionary is now available!

On behalf of the Living Tongues Institute, it has been our pleasure to collaborate with cultural non-profit organization Breizh Amerika on the creation of the new Brezhoneg Living Dictionary.

A searchable, mobile-friendly tool containing 300+ entries in Brezhoneg with accompanying audio recordings, and translations into English and French, this project will help create visibility and access to the language across the Breton diaspora in Europe and North America.

Brezhoneg Living Dictionary in the press

On a personal note, this project makes me particularly proud, because my great-grandfather Joseph-Marie Gallon was a fluent Breton speaker. An immigrant from northern France to Canada in the early 20th century, he often sang and performed in his mother tongue. Although he never transmitted the language to his children, who grew up speaking French and English, his daughter Cécile Gallon (my grandmother) lovingly recalled him speaking in Breton and always felt a connection to the language. My memory of her affection for it stays with me until this day.

——
Au nom de l’Institut Living Tongues, nous avons eu le plaisir de collaborer avec Breizh Amerika à la création du Dictionnaire vivant brezhoneg. Cet outil, qui est consultable et adapté aux téléphones portables, contient plus de 300 entrées en brezhoneg, accompagnées d’enregistrements audio et de traductions en anglais et en français. Ce projet contribuera à la visibilité et à l’accès à la langue au sein de la diaspora bretonne en Europe et en Amérique du Nord.

D’un point de vue personnel, ce projet me rend particulièrement fière, car mon arrière-grand-père Joseph-Marie Gallon parlait couramment le breton. Un immigré du nord de la France au Canada au début du 20e siècle, il chantait et jouait souvent dans sa langue maternelle. Bien qu’il n’ait jamais transmis la langue à ses enfants, qui ont grandi en parlant le français et l’anglais, sa fille Cécile Gallon (ma grand-mère) se souvenait affectueusement qu’il parlait en breton, et elle a toujours ressenti un lien avec la langue. Le souvenir de sa joie reste gravé dans ma mémoire jusqu’à aujourd’hui.

– Anna Luisa Daigneault
Program Director
Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages
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✍️ RSVP for the Living Tongues Online Gala on Dec 9, 2023

Living Tongues gala flyer 2023

Join the researchers of Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages for our 2nd Annual Online Gala, where we present some of our highlights and innovations from 2023!

When: Saturday, Dec 9, 2023
Time: 01:00 PM – 02:30 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Where: Zoom online meeting

Register in advance for this meeting

2023 was a huge year for us. During this event, our researchers from around the world will share news about our language documentation projects, updates regarding the Living Dictionaries online platform, as well as our new research findings, publications and awards.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Want to support our work? Please visit: https://livingtongues.org/how-to-help/support/

Climate Change, Digital Resources, Living Dictionaries

Congrats to the team who built the Nukuoro Living Dictionary!

Congrats to Nukuoro language expert Johnny Rudolph, linguist Emily Drummond from UC Berkeley, and the entire support team who helped build the Nukuoro Living Dictionary over the years!

Nukuoro speakers Johnny Rudolph (right) and Ruth Rudolph (left). 
Johnny Rudolph (right) interviewing Curtis Charley (left)
Nukuoro speaker Mina Lekka (left), linguist Emily Drummond (middle), and researcher Lydia Ding (right)
Screenshot of the search results for “fish” in the Nukuoro Living Dictionary

At over 6k entries, it is a cultural & linguistic treasure. In particular, this dictionary contains a wide variety of terms related to marine life and local ecological knowledge.

Explore it here:
https://livingdictionaries.app/nukuoro/entries/list

Nukuoro is a Polynesian Outlier language spoken on Nukuoro Atoll, an outlying island of Pohnpei State, Federated States of Micronesia. By recent estimates, there are about 1,200 speakers of Nukuoro worldwide, with Nukuoro communities on Nukuoro Atoll, Pohnpei, Guam, and various places in the United States (Drummond & Rudolph 2021).

While Nukuoro is the primary language of use on Nukuoro Atoll, diaspora communities are facing increased influence from regionally dominant languages like Pohnpeian and English. Many Nukuoro community members under 30 feel more comfortable speaking other languages, or do not identify as Nukuoro speakers at all.

As rising sea levels threaten the sustainability of life on the atoll, diaspora communities will continue to grow, putting greater pressure of majority languages on the Nukuoro-speaking community. The Nukuoro Living Dictionary was created in part to support maintenance of the Nukuoro language outside of Nukuoro Atoll.

Photos are included with permission, and are courtesy of Emily Drummond.