Endangered Languages Project Website Launched

Native News Network Staff in Native Currents. Discussion »

SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO – Google and 29 other organizations including the Indigenous Language Institute form the Alliance for Linguistic Diversity that launched a website called the Endangered Languages Project www.EndangeredLanguages.com an online collaborative effort to protect global linguistic diversity.

Access to Western Ojibwe Hymns are included in the online resource.

The Endangered Languages Project is an online resource to record, access, and share samples of and research on endangered languages, as well as to share advice and best practices for those working to document or strengthen languages under threat. On the main page you can click on a dot on the interactive map and find a language where you can see videos, hear audio samples, or review Google books or articles.

The Indigenous Language Institute is serving on the project's Advisory Committee, helping make the site a place where communities can post their materials to make it content-rich. The site is a work in progress and as of today, many language websites contain little content. It is designed to collect information from a diverse array of sources, from indigenous language speakers to linguistics scholars.

One of the goals of this project that the Indigenous Language Institute is focusing on is to ensure active, dynamic participation by indigenous communities, indigenous language programs and practitioners. It is important to collectively build the content with information, samples (language videos, audios, language materials, whitepapers, websites), etc. that can be shared across communities. The Google project team has made the interactive and participation process user friendly. You can upload digital video and audio files, YouTube videos, and PDF documents right away!

“Indigenous Language Institute is proud to be associated with Google on this important initiative, which we believe will be of immense use to Native Language teachers, activists and learners, ”

said Indigenous Language Institute Board of Directors President Gerald L. Hill, Oneida.

The Indigenous Language Institute has worked with Google since 2011 providing audio clips, video clips and other language resources for this site. Some of the videos are the Digital Stories some of you have created at ILI's technology workshops and on your own, which the Indigenous Language Institute is sharing widely. By entering the language in the Search box, you may find your Digital Story! We believe this will encourage other language activists to create and share their own.

posted July 13, 2012 7:30 am edt