Tag Archives: living tongues

Endangered Language Activism, Enduring Voices Project, Gregory D. S. Anderson, Indigenous Language Activists, K. David Harrison, Language Hotspots, Launches and Public Events, Media and Publicity, Support Endangered Languages

“Vanishing Voices” in National Geographic Magazine, July 2012

Great news! 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 in Arunachal Pradesh (India), among Aka speakers, is discussed. Pick up a copy in news stands before the end of the month! Here is the cover, which features coverage on Easter Island, and in the top left-hand area, you can see that “Saving Lost Languages” is one of the featured topics of the issue.

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Endangered Language Activism, Enduring Voices Project, Gregory D. S. Anderson, Indigenous Language Activists, Media and Publicity, Support Endangered Languages

Dr. Gregory Anderson helps record the Xyzyl Language in Siberia

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Dr. Anderson is currently doing fieldwork in Siberia and recently published an article about his work:

“The 2012 Enduring Voices expedition to the Siberia Language Hotspot has allowed us to explore the current state of the Xyzyl (pronounced hizzle) language from the Republic of Xakasia (pronounced ha-KAH-see-ya, also spelled “Khakasiya”).

We traveled across the birch-covered hills of southern Siberia and into the wind-swept steppe dotted with ancient burial mounds until we reached the Xyzyl territory northwest of Mongolia. We visited five villages and identified fifty to sixty total speakers and semi-speakers.

Xyzyl is an unrecognized “hidden” language officially considered a dialect of the Xakas language. Xyzyl people we interviewed insist theirs is a separate language and our linguistic analysis supports this…”

For the rest of Dr. Anderson’s article, please check out right here on Nat Geo NewsWatch.

Thanks for reading!

Digital Resources, Endangered Language Activism, Gregory D. S. Anderson, K. David Harrison, Language Hotspots, Support Endangered Languages

Thank you, volunteers!

During the last year, June 2011 to May 2012, we have welcomed many wonderful people as online volunteer researchers at Living Tongues! Most of them have been involved doing online data entry and research for our database on endangered languages. We have been lucky to work with talented, passionate individuals from all over the world who hail from diverse fields such as linguistics, anthropology and other social sciences, information technology, literature, classics, communications, computer science, history, international development and many other fields.

The volunteers were selected based on the quality of their applications. They worked from home or from school, collaborated with us online through email and Skype, many of them also helped us spread the word about our campaigns through social media. Our volunteers so far have been undergraduate students, doctoral candidates, professors, media professionals, humanitarian aid workers, and people in many other lines of work who are concerned about language endangerment. We would like to thank all of our volunteers for taking the time to do research on endangered languages, and contribute to raising awareness about language extinction. From all of us at Living Tongues,

THANK YOU!

We would like to recognize our volunteers (those who worked at different times between June 2011 – May 2012) for their efforts by listing their names below, according to the areas of the world that they worked on within our database:

North America: Sharina Kim, Eleanor Ellis, Kim Cooper, Ellen Olson, Emmy Haskett, Patricia Blatter, Rachel Maynard, Brittany Williams.

Latin America: Eleanor Pollo, Laura Backus, Molly Allison-Baker, Tanager, Natalie Feingold, Kaitlin Caruso, Eleanor Ellis, Rebecca Orford, Megan Barnett, Katie Lackler, Denis Vidal, Olga Izquierdo Sotorrio, Kim Factor.

Australia: Michelle Hunsicker, Daniel Sachs, Kate Lynn Lindsey, Rachel Maynard

Eastern Melanesia and Papua New Guinea: Julie Kanakanui, Louward Allen Zubiri and his students at the University of the Philippines, Kristin Denham and her students at Western Washington University, Erik Joel West, Claire Fallat, Lorraine Elletson, Katie Claybough, Sarah Truesdale, Julia MacNeely, Victoria Dwight, Jessica Winters

Taiwan & Phillippines: Priyanka Sinha, Murray Tong, Louward Allen Zubiri and his students at the University of the Philippines

Caucasus: Erin Simpson

Siberia: Spencer J. Campbell, Kim Hegerberg

Africa: Rachel Eidson, Riordan Woods, Kristy Spiak

Database logistics and support with guidelines: Kimberly Gladman, David Pippin, Julie Kanakanui.

Other projects: Denice Szafran (resource compiling), Ken-Terika Zellner and David Baxter and their fellow group members (BABEL project on Endangered Numeral Systems of the World).

“International Mother Language Day” events volunteer coordinators: Natalie Feingold, Ken-Terika Zellner, David Baxter.

Volunteer coordination: Anna Luisa Daigneault, Dr. Gregory DS Anderson

Database management: Anna Luisa Daigneault, Jeremy Fahringer, Dr. Gregory D.S. Anderson, Dr. K. David Harrison

We are happy to announce we are welcoming a new team of online volunteer researchers and two new guest bloggers starting in June 2012, and we are looking forward to working with them as well.

For news related to upcoming volunteer positions at Living Tongues, keep track of us on our volunteer information page.

Endangered Language Activism, International Mother Language Day, Language Hotspots, Launches and Public Events, Media and Publicity, Support Endangered Languages, Workshops

“International Mother Language Day” Events at University of West Georgia

At the University of West Georgia in Carrolton, one hour west of Atlanta, in collaboration with local UWG student group BABEL (Building Awareness for the Benefit of Endangered Languages), the events are being held on International Mother Language Day, 2012:
  • February 21 @ 5pm – 6:45pm: Endangered Languages Workshop with Anna Luisa Daigneault in Anthropology Lecture Hall, University of West Georgia. Facebook Event
  • February 21 @ 7pm – 9pm: Free Film Screening of acclaimed film “The Linguists” at University of West Georgia, 1601 Maple Street Dr., TLC Building, Lecture Hall C.  Facebook Event
– See you there! Happy Mother Languages Day!