Minority languages are being increasingly replaced by various politically, economically, or socio-culturally dominant ones. Every two weeks the last fluent speaker of a language passes on and with him/her goes literally hundreds of generations of traditional knowledge encoded in these ancestral tongues. Nearly half of the world’s languages are likely to vanish in the next 100 years.
The mission of the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages is to promote the documentation, maintenance, preservation, and revitalization of endangered languages worldwide through linguist-aided, community-driven multi-media language documentation projects. The Institute was founded by linguist Gregory D.S. Anderson Ph.D and he is the current director and president of the organization. Swarthmore College Linguistics professor K. David Harrison Ph.D is vice-president and director of research of the institute. A complete list of Living Tongues officers, language activists, fellows and associates is available on the website.
This blog is updated by Anna Luisa Daigneault M.Sc, Latin American Projects Coordinator and Organizational Fellow at Living Tongues Institute. Please direct any questions you may have to: annaluisa@livingtongues.org
