A unique project has been launched by the University of Cambridge to provide public access to languages in India and elsewhere that are endangered and are part of the world’s disappearing spoken traditions. The open database has been developed by the university’s researchers at the World Oral Literature Project at its website, www.oralliterature.org [1].
The projects include ethnographic documentation of the literature and culture of the indigenous Mudugar and Kurumbar communities in Palakkad district, Kerala, using digital video, audio and photography. Another India-based project is the recording of 20-hour ballad about the life and adventures of Tejaji, the Snake Deity, sung by the Mali community (gardeners) in Thikarda village of Bundi district, along with the documentation of Tejaji customs and traditions in the Hadoti region of Rajasthan. The recordings will be transcribed and translated from Hadoti into Hindi and English, and distributed as a book and DVD. The project includes records for 3,524 world languages, from those deemed “vulnerable”, to those that, like Latin, remain well understood but are effectively moribund or extinct, university sources said.
Other projects based in Asia include a year-long project to collect, record and translate Torwali oral literature with the full participation of the community in Pakistan, building on the ongoing Torwali dictionary project supported by National Geographic.
In Nepal, the project includes recording, transcribing and translating the oral literature of the Ngadag Lamas of Nubri, and four weeks of fieldwork in Mustang, during which 51 songs from the orally transmitted Kha Lu repertoire were recorded, transcribed and translated. Researchers hope that the pilot database will enable them to “crowd-source” information from all over the world about both the languages themselves and the stories, songs, myths, folklore and other traditions that they convey.
Users can search by the number of speakers, level of endangerment or country. In the UK, the site lists 21 disappearing languages, ranging from the relatively well known, like Scots and Welsh, to obscure forms such as Old Kentish Sign Language. “We want this database to be a dynamic and open resource, taking advantage of online technology to create a collaborative record that people will want to contribute to. “At present, the world has more than 6,500 languages, of which up to half will cease to exist as spoken vernaculars by the end of the century,” Dr Mark Turin, director of the World Oral Literature Project said.
Links:
[1] http://www.oralliterature.org