The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London is in gear for their series of events for endangered languages week starting Monday. Sponsored by the Hans Rausing Endangered Languages Project within the SOAS Department of Linguistics, the scheduled events will start off with a play “Living On” by well-known linguist David Crystal and Greg Doran of the Royal Shakespeare Society.
Updated schedule
Endangered Language Films: Tuesday has a screening of “In Languages We Live: Voices of the World“, the 2005 film by Janus Billeskov Jansen and Signe Byrge Sørensen as well as what appears to be the premier of the film “Mlabri and Outsiders” about speakers of the language Mlabri (mra) in Thailand by these same two filmmakers. On Thursday is a screening of “Fragments of the Owl’s Egg” a film directed by Kim McKenzie, coming out of the Bidwern project. This film is in Bininj Kun-wok and narrated in English by linguist Murray Garde, a lexicographer of Bininj Kun-wok, a language listed variously as Bininj Kunwok, Kuninjku, and Kundedjnjenghmi; the Ethnologue uses an older name for it, Gunwinggu (gup).
Project Day: Wednesday is open projects day including information on the Dawes Online project (planned for completion later this year) as well as student work.
While exploring the Language Week, also note the Endangered Languages Academic Programme (ELAP) at SOAS, offering master’s and PhD degrees.
To learn more about Bininj Kunwok, refer to Bininj Gun-Wok (Nicolas Evans)
Living Languages 