Nearly 80 percent of the world's population speaks only one percent of its languages. When the last speaker of a language dies, the world loses the knowledge that was contained in that language. The goal of the Enduring Voices Project is to document endangered languages and prevent language extinction by identifying the most crucial areas where languages are endangered and embarking on expeditions to:
- Understand the geographic dimensions of language distribution
- Determine how linguistic diversity is linked to biodiversity
- Bring wide attention to the issue of language loss
When invited, the Enduring Voices Project assists indigenous communities in their efforts to revitalize and maintain their threatened languages.
The Language Hotspots model was conceived and developed by Greg Anderson and David Harrison at the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages. It is a new way to view the distribution of global linguistic diversity, to assess the threat of language extinction, and to prioritize research. Hotspots are those regions of the world having the greatest linguistic diversity, the greatest language endangerment, and the least-studied languages.
The Enduring Voices Project Team
Chris Rainier: A documentary photographer and filmmaker who oversees Programs with the Enduring Voices Project, National Geographic Fellow Chris Rainier's life mission is to visually document endangered indigenous cultures around the globe. He also directs the All Roads Photography Program. Rainier is a contributing editor for National Geographic Traveler magazine, specializing in culture, a contributing photographer for National Geographic Adventure magazine, and a correspondent on photography for National Public Radio's Day to Day show. He has traveled to all seven continents, including extensive expeditions throughout Africa, Antarctica, and New Guinea.
Dr. K. David Harrison: David Harrison is assistant professor of linguistics at Swarthmore College and director of research for the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages. His research focuses on endangered and little-documented languages, with primary emphasis on Turkic languages of Inner Asia (Central Siberia and Western Mongolia). To date, he has investigated Tuvan, Tsengel Tuvan, Tofa, Ös (Middle Chulym), Tuha (Dukha), and Monchak. In 2005, he began fieldwork on three Munda languages of Northeast India, in 2006 on the Siletz Dee-ni language of Oregon, and in 2007 on the Kallawaya language of Bolivia. He is the author of When Languages Die: The Extinction of the World's Languages and the Erosion of Human Knowledge.
Dr. Gregory Anderson: Gregory Anderson directs the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the documentation, revitalization, and maintenance of endangered languages. He specializes in the languages of Siberia. He studied at Harvard and the University of Chicago and has conducted extensive fieldwork into the languages of the Altai Sayan group. Anderson has done fieldwork in Nigeria on Eleme, in India on the Munda languages, in Bolivia on Kallawaya, and in Oregon on Athabaskan. He has published widely in the fields of historical linguistics, descriptive grammar, morphology, verb typology, and the linguistics of Munda, Salishan, and Ogonoid languages.
