The Status of the Least Documented Language Families in the World

This paper, by Harald Hammarström, aims to list all known language families that are not yet extinct and all of whose member languages are very poorly documented, i.e., less than a sketch grammar’s worth of data has been collected. It explains what constitutes a valid family, what amount and kinds of documentary data are sufficient, when a language is considered extinct, and more. It is hoped that the survey will be useful in setting priorities for documentation fieldwork, in particular for those documentation efforts whose underlying goal is to understand linguistic diversity.

This interesting report can be accessed here, through the Language Documentation & Conservation site.

A View from England: What did you say?

"It's well-known that England and America are two countries divided by a common language, but I wonder how many people realize that even the simplest words can have different meanings and be cause for confusion."

An interesting read of the differences between American English and British English can be found here...

The brain speaks: Scientists Decode Words from Brain Signals

In an early step toward letting severely paralyzed people speak with their thoughts, University of Utah researchers translated brain signals into words using two grids of 16 microelectrodes implanted beneath the skull but atop the brain.

Click here to read the full report

Australia tries to halt loss of Aboriginal languages

A recent article about language loss, language revival, and language maintenance, and bilingual schooling, in Australia.

Click here to read about Australia's attempts to save our Indigenous languages...

Language documentation and conservation

An extremely interesting journal for all those interested in language documentation and conservation - the Journal of Language Documentation and Conservation (LD&C). LD&C publishes papers on all topics related to language documentation and conservation, including, but not limited to, the goals of language documentation, data management, fieldwork methods, ethical issues, orthography design, reference grammar design, lexicography, methods of assessing ethnolinguistic vitality, archiving matters, language planning, areal survey reports, short field reports on endangered or underdocumented languages, reports on language maintenance, preservation, and revitalization efforts.

With many different and captivating journal articles, this is a must-see site for any budding linguist.

Click here to go to the LD&C site - and have fun!

Rare Find: A New Language

As native tongues rapidly become extinct, linguists discover an exotic specimen. In the foothills of the Himalayas, two field linguists have uncovered a find as rare as any endangered species—a language completely new to science. The language is named Koro. "Their language is quite distinct on every level—the sound, the words, the sentence structure," said Gregory Anderson, director of the nonprofit Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages, who directs the project's research. Details of the language will be documented in an upcoming issue of the journal Indian Linguistics.

To read more, hear some Koro, or learn words in Koro, click here

Babylonian, dead for millennia, now online

The language of the Epic of Gilgamesh and King Hammurabi has found a new life online after being dead for some 2,000 years.
Academics from across the world have recorded audio of Babylonian epics, poems, and even a magic spell to the Internet in an effort to help scholars and laymen understand what the language of the ancient Near East sounded like.

To read the rest of the story, click here