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Mission
Our mission is to ensure language survival for generations to come. We support speakers who are safeguarding their languages from extinction through activism, education, and technology. Our research teams document endangered languages and cultural practices, publish scientific studies, run digital training workshops to empower language activists, and collaborate with communities to create language resources that will serve as a basis for language revitalization. We are funded by grants and donations.

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LIVING DICTIONARIES

Living Dictionaries – homepage map

Living Dictionaries are collaborative multimedia web tools that can help languages survive for generations to come. Ideal for maintaining indigenous as well as diaspora languages, Living Dictionaries are never out-of-print, infinitely expandable resources. They go well beyond a static print dictionary, combining language data with digital audio recordings of speakers and other multimedia. Living Dictionaries address the urgent need to provide comprehensive, freely accessible tech tools for community activists and linguists engaged in grassroots conservation efforts and revitalization programs around the world. See our tutorials. 

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PARTNERSHIP WITH SHURE

In 2024, Living Tongues Institute and audio company Shure have teamed up for the No Voice Left Behind campaign, which features our ongoing efforts to document Munda languages using Shure’s new MoveMic. Read more on our blog post

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FEATURED VIDEO



We received a National Geographic Citizen Science Grant to produce a series of short films in the Sora language of Odisha State (India) with subtitled versions in both English and Hindi. The content of the films will cover vanishing traditional knowledge domains of the Sora tribal people.

We are thrilled to share a segment from our latest video project documenting the culture and language of the Sora people of Odisha State, India. Read more on our latest blog post about this project. 

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THE LANGUAGE SUSTAINABILITY TOOLKIT

Check out the latest version of the Language Sustainability Toolkit, produced by Living Tongues in collaboration with Wikitongues. Download here.  

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JOIN THE LIVING TONGUES SOCIETY

Consider becoming a member of the Living Tongues Society! It’s a great way to support us, receive invites to exclusive live-streamed events with our researchers, and learn about our work behind the scenes. Sign up here.


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AWARDS

2023:
Winner of the “Best of Salem Awards” in the category of Community Service & Non-Profit Organizations (Salem, Oregon, USA).

Living Tongues Institute was selected as the Winner of the 2023 Best of Salem Awards in the category of Community Service & Non-Profit Organizations.

2022: Winner of the “Best of Salem Awards” in the category of Community Service & Non-Profit Organizations (Salem, Oregon, USA).

2022 Best of Salem Crystal Award - Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages
Living Tongues Institute was selected as the Winner for the 2022 Best of Salem Awards in the category of Community Service & Non-Profit Organizations.

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GRANTS

We gratefully acknowledge the support of the following organizations, funding agencies and charitable funds:

2022-2024:
Documentation and analysis of seven Munda languages and development of the Munda Virtual Archive. National Endowment for the Humanities Grant Award # PD-281083-21

2021-2026:  Words, phrases, and sentences at the interface of phonology and morphosyntax. National Science Foundation Grant Award #2041248.

2021:
General Support Grant. Richard and Mona L. Alonzo Family Fund (via the Community Foundation of Southeast Michigan). 

2019-2022.
Sora Typological Characteristics: Towards a Re-Evaluation of South Asian Human History. National Science Foundation Linguistics Grant Award NSF/BCS #1844532.

2019-2022. Citizen science and cinematography: Documenting stories and technology of the Sora tribe (India). National Geographic Citizen Science Grant.

2018-2021. Documenting the Fragile Knowledge Domains of the Birhor People. The Zegar Family Foundation.

2015-2017. Documentation of Gutob, an endangered Munda language. National Science Foundation/Documentation of Endangered Languages Grant (Award #1500092).

2013-2015. Documentation of Hill Gta’–a seriously endangered Munda language. National Endowment for the Humanities / Documentation of Endangered Languages Grant (Award # PD-50025-13). 

2013-2015. Melanesia Online: Ethnobotanical, Ethnozoological, Ethnogeographic knowledge of “tok ples” in Papua New Guinea. Christensen Fund.

2010-2011. Documentation of Remo (Bonda). National Science Foundation / Documentation of Endangered Languages Grant (Award # 0853877).

2007-2013: Enduring Voices Project (Funded by the National Geographic Society)


Living Tongues was awarded the Gold Seal of Transparency on its GuideStar non-profit profile in 2023.

 

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We are a non-profit research institute dedicated to documenting endangered languages around the world.