The Documenting Endangered Languages (DEL) program is a joint effort between the
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National ...
(NSF) and the
National Endowment for the Humanities
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...
(NEH) to help fund fieldwork, research, and community activities that are involved in recording, documenting, and archiving
endangered human languages. Linguists estimate that more than 3,000 of the 6,000-7,000 languages currently spoken will soon be extinct due to the diminishing number of speakers who pass along knowledge of their first languages to their children, and fewer daily activities that occur in these home languages. To address this issue, the NSF and NEH—in partnership with the Smithsonian Institution's
National Museum of Natural History
The National Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. It has free admission and is open 364 days a year. In 2021, with 7 ...
(NMNH) serving as a research host, but in a non-funding role—announced the first DEL awards in 2005, in an attempt to preserve records of endangered languages in use.
U.S.-based institutions that are eligible to apply for the grants include universities, colleges, tribal colleges and universities, tribal-serving institutions or tribal nations, and non-profit, non-academic institutions. Currently this program offers two subareas, one which provides funding opportunities via Senior Research Grants and Fellowships, and one that supports Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grants for dissertation students.
The DEL program is part of a worldwide focus in the 21st century by funding agencies to support projects that work on recording and analyzing the linguistic knowledge of native speakers while these languages continue to be spoken, and to assist with documentation work within communities where languages are threatened.
[Austin, Peter K., ed. 2010. Lectures in language documentation and description. Language Documentation and Description 7. London: School of Oriental and African Studies, Univ. of London http://www.hrelp.org/events/workshops/aaken2013/assets/Austin_Language_Documentation-Oxford_Bibliographies.pdf]
External links
• DEL program page: https://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=12816
• Outreach Video Series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLx12labZqbzGbA0rQU0xg5cMzz9rp_dqY
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Documenting Endangered Languages
Funding bodies
Endangered languages projects