Endangered Language Fund
Encyclopedia
The Endangered Language Fund (ELF) is a small non-profit organization based in New Haven, Connecticut
. E.L.F. supports endangered language
maintenance and documentation
projects that aim to preserve the world’s languages while contributing rare linguistic
data to the scientific community.
ELF's main mechanism of support work is funding for individuals, tribes and museums. Supported programs have been projects to develop indigenous radio programs in South Dakota, recording elders and last living speakers of endangered languages, and the production of materials to be used for language teaching programs all over the world.
There are two main grants which accept proposals annually, the Language Legacies Grant and Native Voices . The Language Legacies Grant support language revitalization and documentation efforts from all over the world. It is open to community members and language research scholars across the country. Native Voices is a grant managed and distributed by ELF for Native American language revitalization from the Native Voices Endowment: A Lewis & Clark Expedition Bicentennial Legacy. Grants through this program are available to members of the Native American tribes that came in contact with the Lewis and Clark Expedition between 1803-1806. Applicants must be Federal Recognized tribal enrolled members, tribal language programs, and tribal schools and colleges.
In addition, ELF sponsors a workshop The Breath of Life
for Native American communities who have either no living speakers or perhaps no fluent speakers. At the workshop, linguistic mentors are paired with participants to explore language resources and archives. The workshop is supplemented with lectures and workshops on linguistics and related topics such as language learning and teaching. The name and design is based on the Breath of Life Language Workshop for California Indians , a biennial event designed and organized by the Advocates for Indigenous California Language Survival and hosted at the University of California at Berkeley.
Douglas Whalen
is the President of the Endangered Language Fund. The office of the Fund are presently located in space lent by Haskins Laboratories
. There is no formal affiliation between the two organizations.
The ELF is associated with the international network of the Linguapax Institute
, as the lead of Linguapax North America.
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is the second-largest city in Connecticut and the sixth-largest in New England. According to the 2010 Census, New Haven's population increased by 5.0% between 2000 and 2010, a rate higher than that of the State of Connecticut, and higher than that of the state's five largest cities, and...
. E.L.F. supports endangered language
Endangered language
An endangered language is a language that is at risk of falling out of use. If it loses all its native speakers, it becomes a dead language. If eventually no one speaks the language at all it becomes an "extinct language"....
maintenance and documentation
Documentation
Documentation is a term used in several different ways. Generally, documentation refers to the process of providing evidence.Modules of Documentation are Helpful...
projects that aim to preserve the world’s languages while contributing rare linguistic
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
data to the scientific community.
Introduction
The Fund has sponsored over 100 language projects in 30 countries since 1997, and has recently begun developing a large digital archive of endangered language data.ELF's main mechanism of support work is funding for individuals, tribes and museums. Supported programs have been projects to develop indigenous radio programs in South Dakota, recording elders and last living speakers of endangered languages, and the production of materials to be used for language teaching programs all over the world.
There are two main grants which accept proposals annually, the Language Legacies Grant and Native Voices . The Language Legacies Grant support language revitalization and documentation efforts from all over the world. It is open to community members and language research scholars across the country. Native Voices is a grant managed and distributed by ELF for Native American language revitalization from the Native Voices Endowment: A Lewis & Clark Expedition Bicentennial Legacy. Grants through this program are available to members of the Native American tribes that came in contact with the Lewis and Clark Expedition between 1803-1806. Applicants must be Federal Recognized tribal enrolled members, tribal language programs, and tribal schools and colleges.
In addition, ELF sponsors a workshop The Breath of Life
for Native American communities who have either no living speakers or perhaps no fluent speakers. At the workshop, linguistic mentors are paired with participants to explore language resources and archives. The workshop is supplemented with lectures and workshops on linguistics and related topics such as language learning and teaching. The name and design is based on the Breath of Life Language Workshop for California Indians , a biennial event designed and organized by the Advocates for Indigenous California Language Survival and hosted at the University of California at Berkeley.
Douglas Whalen
Douglas Whalen
Douglas H. Whalen is an American linguist who is presently a program officer at the National Science Foundation where he is affiliated with the Cognitive Neuroscience, Documenting Endangered Languages, and Linguistics programs...
is the President of the Endangered Language Fund. The office of the Fund are presently located in space lent by Haskins Laboratories
Haskins Laboratories
Haskins Laboratories is an independent, international, multidisciplinary community of researchers conducting basic research on spoken and written language. Founded in 1935 and located in New Haven, Connecticut since 1970, Haskins Laboratories is a private, non-profit research institute with a...
. There is no formal affiliation between the two organizations.
The ELF is associated with the international network of the Linguapax Institute
Linguapax Institute
The Linguapax Institute is a non-governmental organization based in Barcelona, Spain, that is "dedicated to the preservation and promotion of linguistic diversity worldwide." Among its areas of concern are endangered languages and Multilingual Education....
, as the lead of Linguapax North America.