The Cambridge Group for Endangered Languages and Cultures (CELC) pursues an interdisciplinary approach to the theory, methodology and practice of endangered language and culture documentation.
The group brings together linguists and anthropologists to create a forum where scholars interested in linguistic diversity and cultural heritage from Cambridge and other academic institutions can exchange ideas and discuss common concerns. We remain committed to the dissemination of research findings from language and cultural documentation research to a wider public and to source communities.
Through our series of workshops and seminars, we connect scholarship across disciplines and provide a forum for young career researchers and senior scholars to engage in a dialogue on linguistic and cultural preservation. By addressing issues of public importance and by promoting multidisciplinary research into endangered languages and cultures, we aim to meet the following objectives:
- support the documentation, preservation and revitalisation of endangered languages, cultures and oral traditions
- encourage fieldwork on endangered languages, and explore innovative field methods and new technologies for language and culture documentation projects
- raise awareness of the threats facing linguistic and cultural diversity, and share information and knowledge of these issues across departments within the University of Cambridge and beyond
Picture (above) Cambridge PhD student Tom Artiss in Labrador.
News & events
- Click here to join the CELC mailinglist.
The CELC seminar programme for 2011-12 is now available. We look forward to seeing you at
one of these events!- The Second
Cambridge Conference on Endangered Languages will be held at CRASSH
and Peterhouse on July 6th
2012. The theme of the conference will be 'Methodologies and New Challenges'.
Keynote addresses will be given by Nicholas
Ostler (Foundation for Endangered Languages) and Tjeerd
de Graaf (Frisian Academy). Further details and list of confirmed speakers are available here.
- A collaborative workshop, Charting Vanishing Voices will be held at CRASSH on June 29 and 30 2012. The workshop will bring together scholars, digital archivists and international organisations to share experiences of mapping ethno-linguistic diversity using interactive digital technologies. Further details are available here
- Last year, Cambridge hosted two international events focussing on endangered languages. In December 2010 we hosted a Workshop on Archiving Orality and Connecting with Communities and in March 2011 we hosted the First Cambridge Conference on Language Endangerment featuring keynote addresses by Peter Austin (SOAS) and Nikolaus Himmelmann (Cologne).
- Podcast of Professor Peter Trudgill's talk to CELC "Languages in Contact and Isolation: Mature Phenomena and Societies of Intimates"
- Podcast of Christopher Moseley's talk to CELC "Mapping Linguistic Endangerment: The UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger"
- Recent and upcoming talks:
- Full listing here.
- Dictionaries and Endangered Languages project and dictionary survey by Dr Sarah Ogilvie.
- Vanishing Voices Short video on Dr Mark Turin's work in Cambridge and Nepal.
- Work on Romeyka, an endangered Greek dialect, by Dr Ioanna Sitaridou.
- Work on Inughuit, spoken in Greenland, by Dr Stephen Leonard.