Documentation and description of Urubú-Ka'apor Sign Language

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.

Although linguists and anthropologists have known about its existence for the last decades, very few efforts have been made to document and understand the Urubú-Ka'apor sign language. It is estimated that between 7 and 13 deaf people use the language currently inside the Ka'apor indigenous villages in Maranhão (Brazil). Considering the size of the speaking community and the restrictiveness of language transmission, it is vital for the future of UKS that more research and data collection are made around it. This project aims to register the speech of UKS users in a multitude of environments, situations and conversational dynamics. Primary investigator: Vitória Gonçalves de Aniz

Project Details


Location: Brazil, South America, Brazil, Americas, United States of America Organiser(s): Endangered Languages Documentation Programme Project partner(s): University of São Paulo Funder(s): Arcadia Funding received: £9,924.00 Commencement Date: 01/2015 Project Status: Active
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