Web-publishing and Archiving Language Corpora (WALC)
Project Aim
The purpose of this project is to organise, digitise, and web-publish vulnerable collections of documentation of disappearing or quickly changing speech and social customs in The Americas. More specifically, it aims to focus on three areas recognised by the NWO as areas of Dutch expertise. These are the Pacific Northwest Coast, Mexico and the Guyanas. The database will consist of audio recordings, videos, photos, fieldwork notes, dictionary databases, etc. from these areas. Endangered or extinct indigenous languages like these can be better preserved in this manner. The digitised items will be stored digitally at the Max Planck Language Archives in Nijmegen, which host several other thematically related corpora. Then, they will be made available online (partly under open access and partly under temporarily restricted access) for researchers interested in this particular subject. In this manner, the visibility and accessibility of these indigenous American languages will be increased and made available as educational materials for practice and illustration for students.
Project Output
The database will provide securely stored and web accessible archival corpora on indigenous Ameri¬can languages. A copy of the metadata will be kept at ELAR, the Endangered language Archive. Furthermore, special access arrangements to restricted access corpora will be made possible between experts at SOAS and Leiden University. This will facilitate academic research and elevate the preciseness of the studies on the three areas involved.
Project Partners
- Languages and Cultures of Native America, Faculty of Arts, Leiden University
- The Endangered Languages Programme and the Endangered Languages Archive (ELAR),
- The School of Oriental and African Studies, London
External (archiving) partner:
- The Max Planck Language Archives, Nijmegen