Indigenous language documentation in Guernsey, Channel Islands
The Endangered Language Documentation Programme (ELDP) provides grants worldwide for the documentation of endangered languages and knowledge. Grantees create audiovisual collections with transcription and translations of endangered languages and practices. These collections are preserved and made freely available through the Endangered Languages Archive (ELAR).
There are probably 2-300 (mainly elderly) fluent speakers of Dgernesiais, the indigenous language of Guernsey, Channel Islands, which is categorized by the 2009 UNESCO Atlas as 'severely endangered'. Due to former negative ideologies (which contributed to endangerment) Dgernesiais has no separate ISO-639 code but is listed under French (fra). Latitude: 49°26'N, Longitude: 2°35'W. A SOAS field trip in Spring 2009 recorded 50+ hours of native speakers, several in their 90's. Funding is sought to transcribe, annotate and analyse these data and to undertake further documentation, especially of the related language variety of Sark, thought to have only 20 speakers.
Primary investigator: Julia Sallabank
Project Details
Location: Channel Islands, United Kingdom, Northern Europe, Europe
Organiser(s):
Endangered Languages Documentation Programme
Project partner(s): SOAS, University of London
Funder(s):
Arcadia
Funding received: £10,000.00
Commencement Date: 01/2005
Project Status: Completed
Project owner? Update this project
