Brentwood Bay, B.C. – The Endangered Languages Project is launching a new website today (www.endangeredlanguages.com) to improve access to information and resources on endangered languages for a global audience of Indigenous language speakers and language experts.
“Our goal is to create a collaborative online space where the world’s languages have a voice and where people of all audiences can share language information, resources and connect with one another,” says Tracey Herbert, Executive Director of the First Peoples’ Cultural Council and Chair of the Endangered Languages Project Governance Council.
New website features let users browse resources by category, tag (or topic), format and most viewed. Categories include language education, language revitalization, language and technology, and more. In addition, a new process for submitting materials will make it easier to find a wide range of resources concerning the world’s endangered languages.
“In response to user feedback, our team of global language experts and designers has developed an improved website that will be a more interactive and accessible resource,” says Verónica Grondona, Catalogue of Endangered Languages Manager at Eastern Michigan University. “For example, the website will be available in five additional languages later this spring, making it available to more user communities.”
The Endangered Languages Project is a collaborative initiative designed to facilitate the documentation and revitalization of at-risk languages around the world. Languages included on the website and the information displayed about them are provided by the Catalogue of Endangered Languages (ELCat), a project by the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa and Eastern Michigan University, which aims to have the most up-to-date and accurate data about the endangered languages of the world. Language communities and speakers can play an active role in putting their languages online by submitting resources in the form of text, audio, links, images or video files.
The Endangered Languages Project website URL: www.endangeredlanguages.com.
The Endangered Languages Project is supported by Governance Council volunteers, The National Science Foundation, The Luce Foundation and Google.org.
The four founding partners who oversaw the website’s development and launch include:
· The First Peoples’ Cultural Council: www.fpcc.ca
· Eastern Michigan University: www.emich.edu/english/programs/linguistics/elp-elcat.php
· University of Hawai’i at Mānoa linguistics department: www.ling.hawaii.edu
· Google.org, Google’s philanthropic arm: www.google.org