Organization in Language Documentation and Conservation

Katya Jenson, Linguistics

Frans Jozef Velasco Albarillo, Linguistics

Language Documentation is a subfield of Linguistics that focuses primarily on Linguistic fieldwork. Anywhere from fifty to ninety percent of the world's languages will be lost within the next generation (David Crystal, Ken Hale). Such widespread language death, which principally affects languages with little or no documentation, represents an incalculable loss in human cultural, historical, and intellectual knowledge.

    Various bodies have declared a commitment to supporting language diversity, but maintenance efforts have been largely uncoordinated and underfunded. Some institutions discussed in this article will be UNESCO, the Endangered Language Fund, SOAS, ANU, the University of Hawaii's Language Documentation center, the Volkswagen Foundation, and the Summer Institute of Linguistics.

    We have investigated the funding sources, methodology, and products of these organizations. The present situation is characterized by incoherent activity and incompatible agendas. Language documentation is frequently a side product of some other activity which may or may not be in line with the wishes or interests of the language communities they involve. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate a need for and propose the establishment of a more coherent framework in which to address the problem of language death and support language documentation. A comprehensive organization is needed to organize the field, establish priorities and guidelines, raise and manage funds, and provide language workers with the opportunity to concentrate their efforts on the tasks at hand. A secular, international organization will give scientific research and community needs the primacy they deserve.