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Max Planck Institute
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The Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics is an institute of the German Max Planck Society. Our mission is to undertake basic research into the psychological,social and biological foundations of language. The goal is to understand how our minds and brains process language, how language interacts with other aspects of mind, and how we can learn languages of quite different types.

The institute is situated on the campus of the Radboud University. We participate in the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, and have particularly close ties to that institute's Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging. We also participate in the Centre for Language Studies. A joint graduate school, the IMPRS in Language Sciences, links the Donders Institute, the CLS and the MPI.

 

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New book on endangered languages

Gunter Senft, Professor at MPI for Psycholinguistics and the University of Cologne, has recently published a new anthology about endangered languages, entitled 'Endangered Austronesian and Australian Aboriginal languages: Essays on language documentation, archiving and revitalization'.

New book on endangered languages

January 13, 2011

Gunter Senft's anthology deals for the first time with the three cornerstones of work on endangered languages: documentation, revitalization and the archiving of documented language materials.

Loss and gain

The edited volume focuses mainly on endangered Oceanic languages, with articles on Vanuatu by Darrell Tryon and the Marquesas by Gabriele Cablitz, on situations of loss and gain in Tokelau by Ingjerd Hoem and on the Kilivila language of the Trobriands by Gunter Senft. Nick Thieberger, Peter Wittenburg and Paul Trilsbeek as well as David Blundell and colleagues write about aspects of linguistic archiving. Under the rubric of revitalization, Margaret Florey and Michael Ewing write about Maluku, Jakelin Troy and Michael Walsh about Australian Aboriginal languages in southeastern Australia, while three articles, by Sophie Nock, Diane Johnson and Winifred Crombie concern the revitalization of Maori.

Much to do

Senft: 'We are engaged here in a wide and challenging field, indeed. However, I hope that these multifarious challenges which are addressed in this book should incite as many linguists as possible to get engaged in the endeavour to document and archive and - if possible - to revitalize as many endangered languages as possible. There is much to do - so let's do it before it is too late.'

Find more information via this link.

Last checked 2011-03-16 by Myrna Tinbergen

Max Planck Institute
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