Documentation and description of Kuna: a community-based approach to documentation and gram01/03-writing

The Endangered Language Documentation Programme (ELDP) provides grants worldwide to for the linguistic documentation of endangered language and knowledge. Grantees create multimedia collection of endangered languages. These collections are preserved and made freely available through the Endangered Languages Archive (ELAR) housed at the library of SOAS University of London.

This project is a response to the limited documentation and description available to thecommunity members of Kuna, a Chibchan language spoken mostly in the Panamanian-Colombianborder area, with an estimated 44,100 speakers. It seeks to document instances of naturallyoccurring speech in Kuna and to process new and old recordings making them available to thecommunity. In addition to the new material produced, the project will produce a comprehensivegrammar of the language, with an emphasis on community interests of strengthening andrevitalization. The ISO-639 code for Kuna is cuk, located at 9°24' N latitude, 78°19' W longitude. Primary investigator: Wikaliler Smith

Project Details


Location: Panama, Panama, Central America, Americas Organiser(s): Endangered Languages Documentation Programme Project partner(s): University of Texas at Austin Funder(s): Arcadia Funding received: £17,674.00 Commencement Date: 01/2005
Project owner? Update this project



Related Projects

Archive Collage

Understanding Mandate Palestine through the publications and archive of the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem

This project digitised 33000 pages of rare books (1619-1950) and archives (1919-1950) from the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem, preserving endangered materials on M…

Explore project
EAP1402 Pub003

19th-century documents from the Peruvian asylum el Manicomio del Cercado

The Victor Larco Herrera Hospital in the centre of Lima, Peru, was closed in 1917. Its archives, dating back to 1859, consist of medical documentation as well as administrativ…

Explore project
EAP1306 Silk Museum

The Caucasian Silk Circle: Digitising Photo Collection of the State Silk Museum in Georgia

The State Silk Museum of Georgia holds the only documentary evidence of the practice of sericulture in the 19th century. Taken during expeditions of the Caucasian Sericulture …

Explore project