Native Miyako speaker Hiroyuki Nakama working with Clarissa Forbes in the 2016 CoLang Miyako practicum, July 7, 2016. Photo by Yoko Kugo. Our languages are falling asleep. What can we do to wake them up? CoLang, or the Institute for Collaborative Language Research, brings together language activists, learners,
Kevin Martens Wong wrote for Unravel Magazine about his experience attending CoLang 2016.
Our languages are falling asleep. What can we do to wake them up?
CoLang, or the Institute for Collaborative Language Research, brings together language activists, learners, linguists, speakers, students, teachers, elders, wiki bloggers, archivists, and publishers every two years to talk about how we can work together to learn about, document, and protect the many languages of our world. Of particular concern for the Institute are the world’s many endangered languages, many of whom are down to their last living speakers, and the Institute always plays host to a large number of representatives from these endangered language communities, who courageously come forward to share their stories with collaborators and friends.
I came to CoLang for my work on my heritage language Kristang, and the Institute was an amazing and tremendously fulfilling experience. It was a rare opportunity to work alongside friends, mentors, and pioneers in the fields of language documentation and conservation, and alongside other people working to save and reawaken their languages. I learned an enormous amount about how to do these things, and acquired a wealth of knowledge about a whole number of other cultures, peoples, and perspectives I seldom, if ever, get to even read about back home in Singapore.
CoLang 2018 is at the University of Florida and registration is open until April 1.
The institute is designed to provide an opportunity for community language activists and linguists to receive training in community-based language documentation and revitalization.
