Endangered Languages Week 2008
School of Oriental and African Studies, Russell Square,
London
30 April to 8 May 2008
Meet
an Endangered Language
Half
of the world's 7,000 languages are under threat from larger
languages.
In this series
of short presentations you will come face-to-face
with five endangered languages, learn about where
they are spoken and why they are threatened, experience their
culture - as well as learn some basic words and phrases.
Presentations are free of charge and open to anyone who
is interested in endangered languages. Time and Location: All sessions will be held from
1 to 1:40pm in R201 (near
the 2nd floor stairs, SOAS main building),
 Guernesias - spoken on Guernsey, Channel Islands
with Julia Sallabank
Wed 30 Apr, 1pm-1:40pm, R201
Guernesiais, a variety of Norman French, is highly
endangered. According to the 2001 census, there were 1,327
fluent speakers or just 2.22% of the population (and 70.4%
of them were over 64). This presentation will include a short
language lesson, some cultural images and videos, and discuss
recent examples of revitalisation measures in support of the
language.
Huave - spoken in Mexico
with Maurizio Gnerre
Thur 1 May, 1pm-1:40pm,
R201
The Huave (Ikoots 'all of us') are a minority indigenous people of Southern Mexico comprising 17,000 people settled in four villages on the Pacific Ocean coast. Until a decade ago the Huave language (ombeayiüts 'our mouth') was spoken in four, quite divergent, varieties. At present only one of these varieties is still used by everybody, including children, in the village of San Mateo. In another village (San Dionisio) the local variety is obsolescent, and demands to start a revitalization project are currently emerging. In the other two Huave villages local varieties of the language have been replaced by Spanish. This presentation will illustrate aspects of Huave language and culture.
 Talyshi – spoken in northern
Iran
with Gerardo de Caro
Tue 6 May, 1pm-1:40pm, R201
Talyshi
is an Iranian language spoken in northern Iran near the
Caspian Sea and the border with Azerbaijan . The language
shows massive dialect variation and is under pressure from
Persian. This presentation will discuss the language situation,
and present an overview of Talyshi culture and language
use.
 Kolyma Yukaghir - spoken in Siberia
with Irina Nikolaeva
Wed 7 May, 1pm-1:40pm, R201
Kolyma Yukaghir is spoken by about 40 people who live in
the north-eastern part of Siberia, on the banks of the river
Kolyma . The language is linguistically isolated, and little
is known of the history of the people who speak it. This
will be a brief introduction to Yukaghir language and culture,
including images, original music, and learning some basic
speech patterns.
 Jalonke – spoken
in Guinea, West Africa
with Friederike Lüpke
Thur 8 May, 1pm-1:40pm, R201
Jalonke is an endangered Mande language mainly spoken in
the West African country of Guinea . The taster will give
a brief introduction to the language situation and then
focus on one of the areas especially elaborate in West African
culture and crucial for every fieldworker and language learner
to master, ie. greetings.
Full programme of ELW events
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