To save the more than 7,000 languages spoken on our planet today
from going in to oblivion by the end of this century, Linguists
from the National Geographic's 'Enduring voices' have come up with
the idea of 'walking dictionaries'.
National Geographic Fellows K. David Harrison and Gregory
Anderson, the linguists who are creating them, say that in some
cases it is for the first time that the language has been recorded
or written anywhere, according to a National Geographic statement.
Harrison, associate professor of linguistics at Swarthmore
College, and Anderson, president of the Living Tongues Institute
for Endangered Languages, have travelled to some of earth's
remotest corners, visiting language hotspots and seeking out the
last speakers of vanishing languages.
Harrison unveiled eight new talking dictionaries. They contain
more than 32,000 word entries in eight endangered languages, more
than 24,000 audio recordings of native speakers pronouncing words
and sentences, and photographs of cultural objects.
"Endangered language communities are adopting digital technology
to aid their survival and to make their voices heard around the
world," Harrison said. "This is a positive effect of
These findings were presented at the annual meeting of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in
Vancouver, British Columbia on Friday.
The AAAS meeting featured a panel on using digital tools to save
languages that included Alfred "Bud" Lane, among the last known
fluent speakers of the Native American language known as 'Siletz
Dee-ni', spoken in Oregon.