What is lost when a language dies? How does each of the world's myriad languages reflect a unique way of expressing human experience? As linguistic diversity diminishes rapidly in the modern world, the documentation and study of endangered languages becomes ever more pressing. With support from the National Science Foundation, Dr. Timothy J. Thornes will work to preserve, through intensive documentation via video and audio recordings, the Northern Paiute language of the Great Basin region of western North America. His work with some of the eldest and most fluent speakers and with teachers and students of the language includes an ongoing exploration of how to make field work relevant to the academic community as well as to the communities whose languages are being lost. This study will provide insight into how this highly endangered language with many complex features fits into a typology of the world's languages. The project will expand the amount of quality materials for use by the indigenous communities in their linguistic and cultural preservation efforts. As North American Tribes, and endangered language communities generally, begin to take stock of what is lost as speakers age, linguists and anthropologists are also taking stock of the contribution each language makes to our understanding of this most intimate expression of cultural identity.
