Endangered Language Alliance

Endangered Language Alliance (ELA)
The Endangered Language Alliance is an urban initiative for endangered language research and documentation based at City University, New York, and founded by Daniel Kaufman (CUNY), Juliette Bevins (CUNY), and Bob Holman (NYU, Columbia). ELA estimates that, of the worlds nearly 7000 languages, 700 may be spoken in the New York Metro Area, and as many as 400 endangered languages may be among that number. Therefore, ELA seeks to train students in endangered language research and documentation in an urban environment. ELA produces documentation of endangered languages in the form of descriptive materials, audio-visual narratives, and, when possible, pedagogical grammars. To date, they have worked with speakers of Garifuna (Arawakan), Zaghawa (Nilo-Saharan), Mamuju (Austronesia), and Nahuatl (Uto-Aztecan) who live in New York City.

ELA students and researchers hail from City University, New York (CUNY), New York University (NYU), Queens College, and Columbia University.

ELA's personal statement: "A trio of poet, professor, and field linguist have combined forces in the heart of New York City to document, support, and protect one of the most precious stores of cultural, scientific, and creative human knowledge: living languages. The Endangered Language Alliance (ELA, pronounced ay-la) is a new organization whose goal is “is to further the documentation, description, maintenance, and revitalization of threatened and endangered languages, and to educate the public about the causes and consequences of language extinction.” In a small office on West 18th Street known as the Urban Fieldstation, endangered languages are being spoken, recorded, and translated before they possibly recede further into the margins."

ELA is a member of the Alliance for Linguistic Diversity and a part of the Endangered Languages Project.

Links for ELA
ELA website

ELA Facebook