Wade Davis: Dreams from endangered cultures

From ted.com: With stunning photos and stories, National Geographic Explorer Wade Davis celebrates the extraordinary diversity of the world’s indigenous cultures, which are disappearing from the planet at an alarming rate. A National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence, he has been described as “a rare combination of scientist, scholar, poet and passionate defender […]

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Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages

The Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated solely to the documentation, maintenance, and revitalization of endangered languages globally. It develops and manages linguist-aided, community-led projects that promote the use of digital video, computers, and other modern information technology. Staff members of Living Tongues Institute […]

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Using Citizen Media Tools to Promote Under-Represented Languages

This conversation, hosted by New Tactics in Human Rights, took place between November 16-22, 2011. Conversation Summary From the New Tactics website: Thank you for joining New Tactics, Rising Voices, Indigenous Tweets, and other practitioners for an online dialogue on Using Citizen Media Tools to Promote Under-Represented Languages*. The United […]

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Can the digital age save the Cherokee language?

Phil Cash Cash, who runs the Indigenous Language and Technology listserv at the University of Arizona, sent this out today… Can the digital age save the Cherokee language? The halls of Facebook, Google and texting Written by Becky Johnson, published on Wednesday, 30 January 2013 [source] Excerpt: “Susan Gathers was […]

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Workshop: Digital Media for Speakers of Endangered Languages in Latin America

Originally posted on rising.globalvoicesonline.org by Eddie Avila on 30 November 2012 Rising Voices Note: Rising Voices is pleased to be collaborating with this upcoming event in early 2013. This is a translation of the original website in Spanish at the Living Tongues blog. Enduring Voices: Digital Media Workshop for Speakers of Endangered Languages in […]

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Language app: Iwaidja

Ma! Iwaidja app on iTunes The Ma! Iwaidja app is an initiative of the Minjilang Endangered Languages Publication project (also known as Iwaidja Inyman), based on Croker Island in Northwestern Arnhem Land in Australia’s Northern Territory. This ‘touch and listen’ app includes: a 1,000 entry Iwaidja-English dictionary a 400-entry Iwaidja-English […]

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World Oral Literature Project

About the Project From the project website: “The World Oral Literature Project is an urgent global initiative to document and disseminate endangered oral literatures before they disappear without record. The Project supports local communities and committed fieldworkers engaged in the collection and preservation of all forms of oral literature by […]

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Organization Highlight: World Oral Literature Project

About the Project From the project website: “The World Oral Literature Project is an urgent global initiative to document and disseminate endangered oral literatures before they disappear without record. The Project supports local communities and committed fieldworkers engaged in the collection and preservation of all forms of oral literature by […]

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Living Tongues Endangered Language Resources

The folks at Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages have put together a fine list of language archives and online resources dealing with endangered languages. Here is the intro from their website: “People often approach us seeking information about the world’s most endangered languages. Students ask us, “I want to […]

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Endangered Languages Project

From the Endangered Languages Project site: Humanity today is facing a massive extinction: languages are disappearing at an unprecedented pace. And when that happens, a unique vision of the world is lost. With every language that dies we lose an enormous cultural heritage; the understanding of how humans relate to […]

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Endangered Languages: a project to support language preservation and documentation around the world

About the Endangered Languages Project Website: http://www.endangeredlanguages.com/ From the Endangered Languages Project site: Humanity today is facing a massive extinction: languages are disappearing at an unprecedented pace. And when that happens, a unique vision of the world is lost. With every language that dies we lose an enormous cultural heritage; […]

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Talking Dictionaries

Introduction: The Enduring Voices Project’s Talking Dictionaries For years the Enduring Voices team has helped communities around the world to preserve their culture by preserving their language. A key element to that has been recording individual speakers and cataloguing translations of their various words and phrases. Many of those collections […]

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The Enduring Voices Project’s Talking Dictionaries

Introduction For years the Enduring Voices team has helped communities around the world to preserve their culture by preserving their language. A key element to that has been recording individual speakers and cataloguing translations of their various words and phrases. Many of those collections have then been made accessible to […]

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Transforming Communities: Technologies for Teaching and Learning Endangered Languages

Introduction Māori are the indigenous people of Aotearoa/New Zealand. Māori is one of three official languages of the country, but is not compulsory in schools. Only 4% of Aotearoa/NewZealand’s total population of around 4 million can speak Māori and only 23% of Māori are fluent in the language (Te Puni […]

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Preserving Endangered Languages using a Layered Web-based Archive

Abstract Many human languages, an essential part of culture, are in danger of extinction. UNESCO estimates that at least a half of the world’s 6500 spoken languages will disappear within the next 100 years. This problem can be addressed to some extent by computer systems that collect, archive and disseminate […]

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Indigenous Tweets

Indigenous Tweets is a website and accompanying blog by Kevin Scannell, a professor of Computer Science at Saint Louis University. To explain the project, I quote from the Indigenous Tweets blog: Project Background Speakers of indigenous and minority languages around the world are struggling to keep their languages and cultures […]

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Technology Snapshot: Indigenous Language & Cultural Preservation

How is the web impacting aboriginal communities? Phillip Djwa’s work focuses on the key components of social responsibility through technology. He’s worked for a wide variety of technology companies in senior positions for many years. Now, through Agentic Communications, which is a web development company that works with progressive organizations […]

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Language Preservation Technology: Online Torwali (Kohistani) Dictionary

Reposted from the Center for Language Engineering website: On the occasion of International Mother Languages Day (21st February 2011), Center for Language Engineering at Al-Khawarizmi Institute of Computer Science, University of Engineering and Technology is pleased to announce the launch of Online Torwali Dictionary (OTD). Torwali is an indigenous language […]

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A Value Sensitive Design Approach to Indigenous Knowledge Management Systems

Indigenous cultures across the planet are disappearing. In 2007, Wade Davis, a Harvard-trained ethnobotanist, presented at the TED conference on the (subject of endangered cultures). He said, “When each of you in this room were born, there were 6,000 languages spoken on the planet . . . and of those […]

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