admin Alongside endangered languages and cultures it is starting to look like Australia may also have endangered linguists and linguistics. According to press reports (see also here) La Trobe University in Victoria, Australia, plans to stop teaching linguistics at the undergraduate level, resulting in 4 staff positions being what the consultation document calls “surplus to our … Read more
Most of the UK seems to have been distracted over the past few weeks (and especially over the four-day long weekend that is just now drawing to an end) by the celebrations surrounding the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. Not so the hard working team at the Endangered Languages Archive (ELAR) at SOAS who … Read more
If you are interested in Australian Aboriginal languages you might like to take at look at the growing number of collections of audio, video and text materials that are now available in the ELAR archive. Currently there are six online collections (comprising almost 900 file bundles) for languages from northern Australia, with one more from … Read more
To celebrate Endangered Languages Week at SOAS we have cut the price of all issues of Language Documentation and Description by 20% until the end of May (copies now GBP 10, including postage). You can place orders through our online store. Also, all Foundation for Endangered Languages books are now 25% off. Orders may be … Read more
With the upgrade to a new catalogue system just around the corner, PARADISEC staff are busily fine-tuning metadata within existing collections whilst attending to business as usual and accessioning recordings and documents representing a wide range of languages. Take a glimpse of our latest additions and the regions they originate from below to get a … Read more
As part of Endangered Languages Week at SOAS some of our postgraduate students have prepared a series of podcasts about a range of topics that are now available from SOAS online radio. They include Facts for newbies, an introduction to endangered languages and their study. Launch of the Language Landscape website that describes a project … Read more
This year’s Endangered Languages Week will be held at SOAS from 3rd to 11th May 2012. The focus this year is on Language, Performance and Culture. There will be presentations of films, talks, and performances about endangered languages and cultures over the week. Bob Holman, poet, film maker and co-director of the Endangered Language Alliance … Read more
In the past month (since my previous update post) the Endangered Languages Archive (ELAR) at SOAS has been moving ahead with leaps and bounds. We now have 66 deposits available on our website, with six more having been added on Monday this week. There are now 41,690 files available online, amounting to 2 terabytes (2,000 … Read more
Back in the old days when some of us were younger and starting out on our language documentation and description careers (for me in 1972, as described in this blog post) the world was pretty much analogue and we didn’t have digital hardware or software to think about. Back then recordings were made with reel-to-reel … Read more
This month marks the 40th anniversary of my first venture into linguistic fieldwork and my first data collection on an Australian Aboriginal language. Looking back it was a kind of crazy way to start my career, but nonetheless one that got me set on a path that has given me the chance to work on … Read more
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