RAPID: Recording Endangered Salishan Languages

Northwest Indian College, Bellingham WA

Investigators

Abstract

With grant funds, the Northwest Indian College (NWIC) will document three highly endangered languages by making digital video recordings of four speakers of the languages. The intent of this RAPID (Rapid-response Research) grant is to record the speakers and archive the recordings. Transcriptions and analysis of the recordings will take place at a later date and in future projects. The languages to be documented are Lummi, Saanich, Northern Lushootseed The project promises to work with these language speakers over a 12 month period, digitally recording high quality video and archiving the results for later use. The broader impacts of this project are the involvement of community members in the process as well as the eventual development of language materials (a dictionary, reference and pedagogical grammars) to serve the community of speakers and to inform the scholarly community as well.