World culture: Cambridge University project aims at language diversity preservation

Out of the 6,700 languages spoken by people all over the world, a third are in danger of extinction.

Preventing this, or at least slowing the process, is the massive challenge faced by researchers and academics at the World Oral Literature Project (www.oralliterature.org), which was established by Cambridge University in January 2009.

Dr Mark Turin, director of the project and research associate at the Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology, said the project has attracted much interest since its inception. Dr Turin said there were many reasons for preserving and documenting endangered languages. He said: “Each and every language is a celebration of the rich cultural diversity of our planet and an expression of the unique ethnic, social, regional or cultural identity and world view of a people.”

It works with local communities and fieldworkers who are now collecting and recording texts, myths, songs, legends, proverbs, narratives and other various literatures that can be used to save a language from vanishing without record. The project is funding fieldwork and other projects through grants in locations all over the world, including Colombia, Malawi, India, Mongolia and Nepal. It has so far supported the documentation of the oral literature, traditions and languages of some 15 communities.

The project has been holding workshops and lectures to provide an opportunity for researchers and academics to share their knowledge and findings with the public and each other. The next workshop, in December, will focus on the distribution of oral literature through traditional and digital media.