Preliminary video documentation of Maleku: corpus and lexicon development
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).
Maleku, also known as Guatuso, is a Chibchan language of Costa Rica. Its closest relatives are the extinct Huetar and nearly extinct Rama of Nicaragua. According to the latest census (2011) Maleku's total number of speakers has declined by approximately 50% since turn of the century, putting the total number of them at about 350. There are currently no known efforts to revert this trend. This project aims at compiling a trilingual (Spanish-Maleku-English) dictionary while evaluating the linguistic and cultural situation in the three reservations where it is spoken, as well as to draw an action plan for future endeavors.
Primary investigator: Roberto Herrera Miranda
Project Details
Location: Costa Rica, Costa Rica, Brazil, Central America, South America, Americas
Organiser(s):
Endangered Languages Documentation Programme
Project partner(s): University of Leipzig
Funder(s):
Arcadia
Funding received: £7,012.00
Commencement Date: 01/2011
Project Status: Completed
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