Language Projects
The Urban Fieldstation for Linguistic Research was initiated with three projects on languages spoken by communities and individuals in the NYC area. These language projects are on-going and have the aim of producing documentation in the form of descriptive materials, audio-visual narratives, and, in the case of Garifuna, a pedagogical grammar. While none of the languages here can be termed critically endangered, we believe that they are all very much endangered, despite having relatively large number of speakers. This is because they are all being transmitted with far less frequency to the younger generations. It is not uncommon for younger people who identify with these ethnic groups to not speak or understand their heritage language, a state of affairs which does not bode well for the future of these languages.
Garifuna
Zaghawa
Mamuju
