Projects to record the last epic singer in western Siberia, teach a Michif native of Manitoba to speak the Michif language and rescue two languages of Kenya are among the 10 ventures that will receive support this year from Yale's Endangered Language Fund (ELF).

A nonprofit organization affiliated with the Department of Linguistics, ELF is dedicated to the scientific study of languages at risk of extinction, and supporting native efforts to maintain and disseminate them.

Since it began in 1995, the fund has provided grants to native communities and scholars for a variety of projects to preserve languages that are spoken and understood by fewer and fewer individuals -- sometimes less than a handful of people. The initiatives include building text lexicons, preparing videotaped instruction in the language, and supporting "generation skipping" language lessons between community elders and their grandchildren.

More than 70 languages have benefited from the program, representing indigenous people of every inhabited continent and many islands scattered throughout the world. These include the Ban Khor Sign Language, used in remote pockets of northeastern Thailand, and Domari, an Indic language spoken by formerly itinerant artisans living in Jerusalem, and an Eskimo-Aleut language still spoken by American Yupiks but not by their Siberian relatives.

This year 68 proposals were submitted to ELF. A list of the winning projects and grant recipients follows.

* Creating a better dictionary and collecting curriculum material for classes in the Nambe dialect taught at Nambe Pueblo, located north of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Current Nambe classes serve learners from age 4 to 60, so the curriculum has to be specially designed. (Cora McKenna and Brenda McKenna, Nambe Pueblo.)

* Creating an audio dictionary for the Arapaho language. The northern Arapaho community feels a need for an audio dictionary, as pitch accents are not necessary for fluent speakers to write, but they are difficult for learners to remember. (Lisa Conathan and Belle Anne Matheson, University of California at Berkeley.)

* Documenting the endangered language and cultural heritage of Vasyugan Khanty, an eastern Khanty group native to western Siberia. Texts will serve the community and linguistic science. (Nadezhda Shalamova, Tomsk Polytechnic University; Andrei Filtchenko, Rice University; and Olga Potanina, Tomsk State Pedagogical University.)

* Recording the last epic singer in Shors, western Siberia. The heroic epics of Shors are performed by one last singer, who still remembers more than 60 of them. (Dmitri Funk, Russian Academy of Sciences.)

* Developing the Camperville Michif Master-Apprentice Program. Michif is a mixed language from Cree and French. Arthur Schmidt, one of the grant recipients who is a native Michif but not a speaker, will apprentice himself to the other two recipients, Rita Flamand and Grace Zoldy, and spend time in Camperville in Manitoba, Canada.

* Working to save the Ogiek and Sengwer of Kenya, two languages of the Rift Valley. The project will involve recording language material and gathering information from elders on cultural practices. (Cheruiyot Kiplangat, Centre for Endangered Languages, Kenya.)

* Verifying research documents on Bardi, an Australian language of the Nyulnyulan family. The numerous cultural texts collected by Gerhardt Laves in 1929 are easy to decipher for speakers of the language but difficult for those who are not. The researcher will check them with the remaining fluent speakers. (Claire Bowern, Harvard University.)

* Documenting the oral traditions of Akuku, an endangered language spoken in the Edo state of Nigeria. The information is expected to help better place the language within the Edoid family. (Francis Egbokhare, University of Ibadan, Nigeria.)

* Recording southern Zapotec language materials. It appears that there are only two remaining speakers of San Agustín Mixtepec Zapotec, a southern Zapotec language of Mexico. Coatlán-Loxicha Zapotec is also declining, although it has about 170 speakers. (Rosemary Beam de Azcona, University of California at Berkeley.)

* Producing a CD-ROM illustrating the sound system of Tanacross Athabascan, an Alaska native language. Speakers will pronounce selected words and phrases with the rich array of ejectives, affricates and fricatives as well as contrastive tone. (Rick Thoman and Gary Holton, University of Alaska at Fairbanks.)

More information about ELF is available at http://sapir.ling.yale.edu/~elf/.

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ENDOWED PROFESSORSHIPS

• Hare is appointed Noah Porter Professor
  
  
• Jones is designated Titus Street Professor
  
  
• Morris is named Ford Foundation Professor
  
  

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Pianist wins Grammy Award nomination

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Peabody festival pays tribute to Martin Luther King

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Works capture the beauty of Brazil's 'gems'

JE to host exhibit of works by Pop artist Robert Rauschenberg

Noted statesman will deliver Walker Lecture

Symposium will celebrate architect Kahn's legacy

Event to focus on use of neuroimaging in study of alcoholism

Stern among Yale alumni honored by Architectural Digest

Former Medical School Dean Dr. Fritz Redlich dies at age 93

Projects win support to preserve endangered languages

Concert will feature performances by celebrated pianist and violinist

Yale Books in Brief

Campus Notes

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