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National Breath of Life Launches New Workshops

The Shawnee language team researches their language materials at National Anthropological Archives, Suitland, MD

The Shawnee language team
researches their language materials
at National Anthropological
Archives, Suitland, MD

The National Breath of Life (National BoL) Archival Institute for Indigenous Languages announces new workshop initiatives to foster advanced archives-based linguistics research for language revitalization.

The field of archives-based linguistic research for revitalization has grown significantly. With four iterations between 2011 and 2017, the National BoL alone has provided training on the use of archival documentation for the revitalization of highly endangered languages to 117 community researchers from 55 language communities. With this growth comes the need for software to support the advancement of the research.

In response, the National BoL 2.0 workshops are designed to train participants in the use of the new Indigenous Languages Digital Archive (ILDA).

ILDA is the only available software that allows for the organization, storage and retrieval of digital copies of linguistic archival materials. ILDA directly links independent data derived from linguistic analysis to the original manuscript pages. Its powerful search function allows for the in-depth linguistic analysis required for the reconstruction of a highly endangered or sleeping language.

ILDA is modeled after the Miami-Illinois Digital Archive created in 2012 through the Myaamia Center at Miami University. After years of development and continued testing, ILDA is now ready for an initial release through the institute.

“The development of ILDA is in recognition of and support for the rigorous linguistic analysis that community researchers carry out in order to revitalize their languages,” said Dr. Gabriela Pérez Báez, assistant professor in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Oregon and co-director of National BoL.

 Language documents at National Anthropological Archives, Suitland, MD

Language documents at National
Anthropological Archives, Suitland, MD

In September 2018, the Myaamia Center was awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities Digital Humanities Advancement Grant Level III (HAA-261218-18), in partnership with the Northwest Indian Language Institute (NILI) at the University of Oregon, to finalize the development of ILDA and carry out two National BoL 2.0 workshops.

“NILI is excited to be partnering with the National Breath of Life team in this important national workshop, and we look forward to hosting community language leaders from across the nation,” said Dr. Janne Underriner, director of the Northwest Indian Language Institute.

Myaamia Center Director Daryl Baldwin, co-director of the National BoL, said, “We are excited to move the Breath of Life model into the next phase of development with the distribution of ILDA to communities who are ready for this next important step in archives-based language revitalization.”

For more information, including application information, visit nationalbreathoflife.org.