Breath of Life Language Workshop

Breath of Life Language Workshop
The Breath of Life Language Workshop is a workshop supported by the Endangered Language Fund to create week long, intensive workshops in linguistics and language renewal for Native American communities attempting language documentation. The workshop is especially designed for indigenous people from communities who no longer have any fluent, first language speakers. With motivation from community members, archival documentation, and training in how to use this documentation, these languages can have a new breath of life and can be spoken again.

The Breath of Life Language Workshops train participants how to:


 * find archived language materials


 * read phonetic writing


 * understand how their language works


 * start a database to manage and access their language information


 * begin the process of language and cultural revitalization

The Breath of Life Language Workshops are also sponsored by grants from outside organizations like the National Science Foundation, as well as certain universities. The University of California, Berkeley sponsored the Breath of Life Language Workshop for California Indians along with the Advocates for Indigenous California Language Survival, while the University of Texas, Arlington sponsors the Oklahoma Breath of Life, Silent No More workshop.
 * create fun and interactive teaching materials from old sources

Breath of Life Language Workshops are also supported by the Consortium for Training in Language Documentation and Conservation.

Links for Breath of Life Language Workshop
Oklahoma Breath of Life Language Workshop

California Breath of Life Workshop