As each year, the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) is organizing its Endangered Languages Week, take place at the school itself at Russell Square, London. Five days of lectures, discussions, films, and workshops.

A fair part of the program includes daily « meet an endangered language » sessions, a way to discover these languages, where they’re spoken, why they’re endangered, and also learn a few basic words and phrases. Presentations will include Frederieke Lüpke on Baynunk, a language of Senegal we’re most familiar with here at Sorosoro, having worked on its documentation in 2010. We also have a few videos in Baynunk available online>.

Wednesday 11 schedules a full day of films on language endangerment. Also worth noting, the presence of Anvita Abbi, well-known linguist for her documentation of the Bo language formerly spoken on the Andaman Islands, and whose last speaker Ms. Boa passed away early 2010. Saturday 14, Jeff Good and Guy de Pauw will be leading a workshop on « applied linguistic documentation in sub-Saharan Africa ».

Full program available for download

May 9-14, 2011

Endangered Languages Week

SOAS

Russell Square

London