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Funding our research teams to plan and conduct linguistic fieldwork (through remote collaboration with speakers during the time of COVID-19)
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Supplying collaborators with Language Technology Kits to make professional audio and video recordings
Transcribing, archiving and analyzing linguistic data for scientific publications
Preparing data for use in local language revitalization programs
Mentoring local language consultants to become research assistants, colleagues, and ambassadors for their languages.
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Gutob community member in Gangare ugom (Kangapada) village, Lamtaput, Machkund, Koraput District, India, 2017. Gutob is an endangered Munda language that was documented by Living Tongues Institute between 2014-2017 with support from the National Science Foundation. Photo by Opino Gomango.
Dr. Luke Horo is a Living Tongues Institute Fellow and Post-doctoral Researcher for the South Asia Region. He is based in Guwahati, Assam, India and has been a part of the Living Tongues Team since June 2018.
In terms of field expeditions, Dr. Horo has taken part in projects with Living Tongues researchers Dr. Greg Anderson and Dr. Bikram Jora among Gutob speakers in Odisha. He has also worked among speakers of the North Munda language Korku and the isolate language Nihali in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra states. Furthermore, he has helped document Sora, Mundari, Santali, Assamese, Sadri, Sartang, and Rabha.
Dr. Horo was inspired to start working in the field of language documentation when he completed a language survey of his heritage language, Mundari. He felt an ethical obligation to work towards the preservation and documentation of lesser documented languages. He hopes to see other linguistics students explore under-documented languages through the course of their study. Dr. Horo is currently working on a project called Sora Typological Characteristics: Towards a Re-Evaluation of South Asian Human History.
He is the only adivasi (indigenous) scholar with a specialty on laboratory and field phonetics currently active in India and has done the only experimental phonetic study on any variety of a Munda language to date, as well as the only documentation of Assam Sora. Dr. Horo defended his PhD at the Indian Institute of Technology–Guwahati in 2018.
Dr. Horo has presented papers at a number of international conferences in Singapore, in Siem Reap, and in Korea in 2018, as well as a host of domestic and international conferences in India.
From left to right: Mr. Prema Soren (Santali speaker and collaborator), Dr. Luke Horo (Living Tongues linguist and coordinator), and Dr. Greg Anderson (LT Director). Location: Erasuti village, Tezpur, Assam, India. Photo by Opino Gomango.
We have had the honor of collaborating with the celebrated Mapudungun poet María Ines Huenuñir Antihuala in Chile on several occasions. She laid the groundwork for the first-ever Mapudungun Talking Dictionary and we’ve taken part in events and Living Tongues workshops with her over the years.
Now, she is releasing a new album that includes many songs based on her poetry in Mapudungun. The album title is Kuifike Aukiñ Wiño Choyütelepay. It translates into Spanish as “Ecos ancestrales volviendo al origen” (which means “Ancestral Echoes Returning to the Source” in English). It is available locally in Chile and will be officially launched in Santiago on Saturday, December 14th, 2019.
María Ines Huenuñir Antihuala also just released an official music video for her song, “Mapuche Zomo” (Mapuche Woman), directed by Chilean artist Sergio Infante. It is a beautiful and engaging work and provides a glimpse into Mapuche womanhood and identity. The lyrics are based on Maria Huenuñir’s poem by the the same name. Living Tongues Program Director, Anna Luisa Daigneault, translated this poem into English, and we are providing the poetry in Mapudungun and English below.
Song, poetry and prayers by María Huenuñir Video directed by Sergio Infante Photography by Macarena Larrain
And there is more good news on this topic! The poem (and its translation) were included in a wonderful publication called “Poems from the Edge of Extinction” edited by Chris McCabe (Chambers Books) which just came out today in the Americas and is now available for order on Amazon.
The publication features award-winning poets from cultures as diverse as the Ainu people of Japan to the Zoque of Mexico, with languages that range from the indigenous Ahtna of Alaska to the Shetlandic dialect of Scots. This collection gathers together 50 of the finest poems in endangered, or vulnerable, languages from across the continents. We are pleased that Maria Ines Huenuñir Antihuala’s poem “Mapuche Zomo” is included in this landmark publication and hope that the book reaches audiences far and wide.
Mapuche Zomo (autora: Maria Ines Huenuñir Antihuala)
Weñanküley kiñe zomo kiñe mapuche ñuke Kizu ka lelikey antü ka lelikey trimiñ pun Fey ta tukuneniekefüy Kizu ñi chamal mew weñankülekey Welu küme tukukey Ñi trapelakucha ka ñi trarilongko amun rellmu reke felekey ñi chapetun ka kiñe trariwe tukuniekey küpa yomülkey ñi ange yewekelu welu küme küzawkey Cheu ñi amun müyawkey kizu ñi zungu engu. Mapuche ñuke amun manke reke feleami fey ta yewekelay ñi kurügen küme wutrapüralekey wente mawizantu mew, eimi niemi küme piwke küme molfüñ poyeniekeimi kom tami pu püñeñ amuaimi kizu tami lelfün mew. Tiyewpüle petu rayütukey kozküya rayen eimi tami ayen mu Mañumeyu ñuke.
Mapuche Woman Author: Maria Ines Huenuñir Antihuala Translated by Anna Luisa Daigneault
The sad sigh of a woman, she is a Mapuche woman. She can see both the light of day, the dark of night. The darkness blends with the dark color of her clothes. Although she is sad, she proudly wears her beautiful silver jewelry. Laces of all colors, in her braids, she wears a red belt as well. She wants no more insults! She works so hard. Troubled by her dark skin, No one understands her. But she wants to defend her culture, Carry on with her traditional customs. Mapuche woman, be like the condor! Despite his dark feathers, He feels happiness and great honor He shines proudly on the coat of arms. You have a sincere and tender heart That overflows with pure blood Woman of eternal tenderness Protect your children with great care! Beloved mother, don’t be hard on yourself! Live peacefully, with serenity There, near the natural world I will give you a kopiwe flower To thank you for your kindness.
ICAAL 8 is coming up soon in Thailand! The 8th International Conference on Austroasiatic Linguistics will be held in Chiang Mai (Thailand) on August 29-31, 2019, hosted by The Myanmar Center at the Faculty of Humanities, Chiang Mai University.
Living Tongues linguists will be presenting their research findings at this event. Dr. Gregory Anderson and Mr. Opino Gomango will present a paper entitled “Grammatical case and referent indexing in Sora-Juray.” Dr. Bikram Jora will present “A typology of grammatical, local/directional and instrumental markers in Kherwarian languages.” Furthermore, Dr. Luke Horo and Dr. Priyankoo Sarmah will present their joint work “Acoustic Analysis of Rhythm in Sora.” All papers will contribute to the understanding of the Munda language family, which is a branch of Austroasiatic.
Austroasiatic languages are spoken in a vast area stretching from Vietnam in the East to eastern India in the West, and Northern India in the North to Malaysia and the Nicobar Islands in the South. With Khmer in Cambodia and Vietnamese in Vietnam, two Austroasiatic languages have official status, while Mon and Khmer are among the earliest documented languages of Southeast Asia, with inscriptions going back to the 6th century CE. In spite of their linguistic and historical importance, the study of Austroasiatic languages is much less advanced than other languages families of the area.
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