Summer School on Language Endangerment: Documentation, typology, applications

The Summer School took place from 30th July — 10th August 2007 at the Faculty of Arts, Leiden University. The aim of this Summer School was to provide preparation for students of linguistics who are interested in working on an endangered language.

There were 20 participants from various parts of the world. The following courses were offered:

• Dr. Azeb Amha and Prof. Maarten Mous (Leiden University): Language area 1: Ethiopia Properties of Cushitic, Semitic and Omotic languages of Ethiopia on the basis of Ethiopia as a linguistic area.
• Dr. Eithne Carlin (Leiden University): Language area 2: Guianas Areal overview of the Amerindian languages of the Guyanas.
• Dr. Constance Kutsch Lojenga (Leiden University): Language documentation 1: Field methods Students train field linguistics by practicing elicitation with a speaker of a language they are not familiar with. Required entry knowledge: Basic articulatory phonetics, phonological and morphological analysis
• Members of DoBeS (Max Planck Insitute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen): Language documentation 2: Technical aspects Practical training in use of programs such as toolbox and ELAN for text analysis and archiving, use of video.
• Dr. Friederike Lüpke (SOAS): Endangered languages and society Aspects of sensitivies of language endangerment for the society, training in production of materials for society (story books, dictionaries, CDs, videos, etc), revitalisation, ethical aspects of fieldwork, rights and obligations.
• Dr. Oliver Bond (SOAS): The Typology of Negation Students get acquainted with the typological characteristics of a topic that is of interest for most languages.

Student evaluation

The language area courses ran parallel as did the courses on technical aspects and typology. The courses were well received. On a scale of 10, the average evaluation by students of the courses was just under 8. Parallel to the Summer School on Language Endangerment there were several other Summer Schools. This had the positive effect that some students in linguistics used the opportunity to have themselves be exposed to the field of language description. For some other students, already interested in language description and documentation, the Summer School provided the ideal opportunity to find out for themselves whether this is what they would like to pursue. There were also some students who are already involved in language documentation but felt the need for some extra training. The students indicated that they would appreciate more typology courses and language courses (both overview of language structure and introduction to the acquisition of a language).
Parallel to this programme, Summer Schools in Indo-European Linguistics, Russian, Indology, Semitics, Old Chinese Phonology, etc. were also held in Leiden.

Conclusion

The Summer School was a great success and will be organised at Leiden University every two years. CIPL will continue to see whether the Summer School will bear its name. No obligations have been assumed here in order not to confront the professors to be elected with prior decisions.