Living Languages is an international

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

organisation which was established to advance the sustainability of the world's

Indigenous language An indigenous language, or autochthonous language, is a language that is native to a region and spoken by indigenous peoples. This language is from a linguistically distinct community that originated in the area. Indigenous languages are not neces ...

History

The organisation was founded as the Resource Network for Linguistic Diversity (RNLD) in 2004 by linguists Margaret Florey and

Nicholas Thieberger Nicholas Thieberger is an Australian linguist and an Associate Professor in the School of Languages and Linguistics at the University of Melbourne. He helped to establish the PARADISEC archive in 2003 and currently serves as its Director. Thieber ...

as a resource organisation aiming to support linguistic diversity by offering a range of training programs, facilitating networking between language maintenance practitioners, and maintaining a website with various practical resources. Living Languages is incorporated in Victoria,

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, and is registered as a tax-exempt organisation. Funded activities by Living Languages are primarily supported by the Indigenous Languages Support (ILS) grant scheme from the

Government of Australia The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government, is the national government of Australia, a federalism, federal parliamentary system, parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Like other Westminster system, Westminster-sty ...

. In September of 2019, it renamed to 'Living Languages', with the stated goal of better reflecting the organisation's mission.

Mission

When initially founded as the RNLD, its mission statement was stated as: Since renaming to Living Languages in 2019, this was updated to:

Training

Resources

Living Languages provides a range of resources to support language documentation and revitalisation activities. These include information about national and international funding opportunities for language work, links to blogs and networks including the active the organisation's email discussion list, and other resources for language documentation and revitalisation such as information about software, language materials, language centres, equipment for language work, orthography development, data management, training programs, and language documentation projects.

References

{{reflist Linguistics organizations Non-profit organisations based in Victoria (Australia) Language documentation Endangered languages projects