In this review essay, we compare five recent publications relating to dictionary work
with Indigenous languages. The review covers three dictionaries, one monograph
about lexicography in service of Indigenous language revitalization and the second
volume of a two-volume dictionary-cum-encyclopedia. The structure of this review
essay is as…[Read more]

Tichurong is an unwritten Tibeto-Burman language spoken by approximately
2,700 people across eighteen villages in the Tichurong valley in the
northwestern district of Dolpa in Nepal. It is also known as Poike, Poinke,
Rongke, and Tichurongke; it continues to be used in everyday interactions,
but differs in usage according to age and gender. It…[Read more]

2021. Jennifer Carpenter, Annie Guerin, Michelle Kaczmarek, Gerry Lawson, Kim Lawson, Lisa P. Nathan and Mark Turin. “Locally Contingent and Community-Dependent: Tools and Technologies for Indigenous Language Mobilization.” In Indigenous Languages and the Promise of Archives, edited by Adrianna Link, Abigail Shelton, and Patrick Spero, 125…[Read more]

In this teaching reflection, co-authored by an instructor and a teaching assistant, we
consider some of the unanticipated openings for deeper engagement that the “pivot”
to online teaching provided as we planned and then delivered an introductory course on
Indigenous language documentation, conservation, and revitalization from September
to…[Read more]

This article offers a critical review of Brazil’s
Indigenous language broadcasting landscape, from
traditional analogue transmission to podcasts and
online radio. The study introduces Brazil’s
Indigenous linguistic diversity and locates the current
vitality of Indigenous languages within Brazil’s constitutional provisions and broad…[Read more]

2021. Mark Turin. “Recognizing Authority and Respecting Expertise in Language Work.” In “Rethinking Pseudonyms in Ethnography,” edited by Carole McGranahan and Erica Weiss, American Ethnologist website, 13 December 2021.

Literacy is a linguistic innovation characterised by the encoding and decoding of language into a system of visual signs whose
relevance to daily life in most societies cannot be overstated. Understood to be both a technology and a social practice, literacy
has been the subject of anthropological inquiry since the late nineteenth century, with…[Read more]

2021. Mark Turin. “From Orality to Open: Innovations in Multimedia Monograph Publishing in the Humanities.” Pop! Public. Open. Participatory 3 (2021-10-31). https://doi.org/10.54590/pop.2021.005

Communities around the world have distinctive ways of representing language use
across space and territory. The approach to and method of mapping languages that
began with nineteenth-century European dialectology and colonial boundary making is one such way. Though practiced by relatively few linguists today, language
mapping has developed…[Read more]

2021. Mark Turin. “Foreword.” In Voices from the Lost Horizon: Stories and Songs of the Andamenese, by Anvita Abbi with illustrations by Subir Roy, 9–12. New Delhi: Niyogi Books.

This interview between the Director of the Canadian Language Museum, Elaine
Gold, and Board Member Mark Turin explores the history and goals of a small
museum that achieves national reach through travelling exhibits dedicated to an
intangible subject matter – language.

Starting from the premise that the humanities are still in urgent need of being decolonized and deprovincialized, this forum, titled “The Rise and Decline of ‘Colonial Humanities,’” offers insights into the development of the humanities disciplines in what are often referred to as “area studies” (a field itself subject to criticism) since the b…[Read more]

Mountainous regions are highly hazardous, and these hazards often lead to loss of human life. The Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH), like many mountainous regions, is the site of multiple and overlapping natural hazards, but the distribution of multi-hazard risk and the populations exposed to it are poorly understood. Here, we present high-resolution…[Read more]

Across Nepal, large numbers of adolescent boys and young men leave their rural homes to find work and
live out their dreams in the burgeoning metropolis of Kathmandu, the nation’s capital. In this challenging
transition, they have to navigate their emerging identities as independent young men—as brothers, sons,
fathers, husbands and wage ear…[Read more]

This article analyzes the audio diaries of a Tibetan physician, originally from Amdo
(Qinghai Province, China), now living in New York City. Dr. Kunchog Tseten describes
his experiences during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, in spring and summer 2020, when Queens, New York—the location where he lives and works—was
the “epicenter of th…[Read more]

Travel Guide

The sharing of existing linguistic resources through online platforms has become an increasingly important aspect in revitalization projects for Indigenous languages. This contribution addresses the urgency of such work through the lens of a partnership in support of one language, Haíɫzaqvḷa (Heiltsuk), a critically endangered Wakashan la…[Read more]

Through audio diaries and interviews, former SSRC fellow Sienna Craig and her collaborators chronicled the experiences of Himalayan New Yorkers during the pandemic. Many Himalayans live in central Queens, the epicenter of the Covid-19 outbreak in New York City. This essay shares the many challenges faced by the Himalayan community, not least their…[Read more]

In this contribution, we address a practice in which many field linguists working with endangered, Indigenous, and underresourced languages participate: the creation of a dictionary. In such lexicographical projects, there is an urgent need for language workers to become more aware of their own ideological and intellectual baggage and to explore…[Read more]

This article takes the form of a conversation between an anthropologist and seven interpreters who worked for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) during its mission in Nepal (2005–2011). As any human rights or humanitarian worker knows quite well, an interpreter is essential to any field mission; they are typically t…[Read more]