Australian Aboriginal Languages Virtual Library

David Nathan’s Virtual Library for Australian Aboriginal Languages has just been updated with about 50 new items added to the catalogue. There are now 310 resources listed, for about 100 languages. David has also added a custom full-text search facility which enables users to search for materials by typing any text in most fields of … Read more

ELAR cracks a ton

The Endangered Languages Archive (ELAR) at SOAS reaches an important milestone this week when our 100th deposit goes online. We will be working on a further 10 deposits and doing additional curation work on those currently online over the next two months. ELAR now has 4 terabytes (4,000 gigabytes — double that I reported in … Read more

Endangered linguistics in Australia?

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

Participant Observation: A LIP discussion

This post recaps the May meeting of Linguistics in the Pub, whose topic was More than just being there? The place of participant observation in linguistic fieldwork. Two weeks ago at Linguistics in the Pub, we discussed an issue that many linguists never really consider, but which is central to many anthropologists’ work: the role … Read more

‘e’s a diamond (jubilee) geezer, innit

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

Hunting the collectors

A major motivation for PARADISEC has been locating and digitising analog recordings before they are lost. As can be seen from various posts to this blog reporting on the progress of the collection (for 2006, for 2007, for 2008, and for 2011) we have steadily accessioned collections that would otherwise have become unplayable. We have … Read more

Australian Aboriginal Language Materials in ELAR

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

Very Long Track to the Other Side

Road construction sometimes means new names, new opportunities.. The Kempsey bypass project includes a bridge over the Macleay River and Floodplain which, at 2 kilometres long on completion, will be the longest bridge in Australia. So Yapang Gurraarrbang Gayandigayigu Very Long Track to the Other Side…. This is the neat name which, so Amanda Lissarague … Read more

LDD and FEL books on sale

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

PARADISEC prepare for new catalogue as old catalogue grows

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