Language and Culture Preservation School in India

Article about the Adivasi Academy in the Indian state of Gujarat which encourages Indian villagers to document and preserve their communities' culture and language.  This includes the creation of dictionaries for some likely heretofore undocumented languages.

--Sebastian Moya

Report in The Economist

Mainstream media is paying more and more attention to the loss of language diversity.

Arapaho Language Immersion in Wyoming Reservation

The Arapaho tribe on Wind River Reservation in Wyoming has opened an Arapaho-languag school. 

--Sebastian Moya

A Native American voice on language endangerment

Writer David Treuer elaborates on the meaning of the loss
of Native American languages from a Native American perspective.

Western Aramaic Languages in Syria

An article in the New York Times about Aramaic languages in Syria.  Communities seem to be undergoing language shift, but the article does mention a two-year-old school created to maintain the language.  The article plays up the religious aspect of the language (referring to it as "the language of Jesus" in the title), and discusses how its use has been linked to the changing religious demographics of the town in question, Malula.  Another interesting aspect is the relation of tourism and outside interest, created largely by "The Passion of the Christ" movie, to the actual contemporary spoken language.

--Sebastian Moya

Professor brings Aboriginal language to life

Lardil is not dead yet! There is one fluent speaker left who is in his 90s, but some linguists are trying to save the language from dying. In particular, Professor Norvin Richards is compiling Lardil stories in the form of text accompanied by CD recordings.

CBC Dispatch July 30, 2007: Mandarin Chinese in Indonesia

Mandarin courses in schools have become available in Indonesia (it used to be illegal, but is now encouraged). Scroll down and listen to the audio file for Angela Chang's report.

--Chiara Frigeni