Typological aspects of Inuit Sign Language (Canada)

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.

Inuit Sign Language is native to the culture of the Inuit of Nunavut, Canada's Arctic territory. Itis the primary language of about 50 deaf Inuit, and the secondary language of many of theirrelatives and friends. The few child speakers are expected to switch to American SignLanguage when they start schooling in southern Canada. The research will be done in threecommunities, which are expected to be representative for the entire territory. They are RankinInlet (62°48N, 92°05W), Baker Lake (64°19N, 96°01W) and Taloyoak (69°32N, 93°32W). Arequest for an ISO-639 code has been made to the SIL. Primary investigator: Joke Schuit

Project Details


Location: Canada, Northern America, Americas Organiser(s): Endangered Languages Documentation Programme Project partner(s): University of Amsterdam Funder(s): Arcadia Funding received: £26,552.00 Commencement Date: 01/2005
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