The CELD
State University of Papua (UNIPA)
In 2009, the Center for Endangered Languages Documentation (CELD) was established at the Universitas Negeri Papua (UNIPA, State University of Papua) in order to facilitate state of the art ethnolinguistic research and local outreach for endangered language communities in Indonesian Papua.
The CELD is small but well equipped with the latest documentation technology enabling us to carry out documentations about indigenous cultures and languages as well as to develop strategies and materials in accord with the local speech communities in order to preserve their cultural knowledge and their languages.
For logistic reasons, in its first project the CELD focuses on the highly endangered languages of Yapen. Yapen is an island located in the Cenderawasih Bay, north of mainland New Guinea, currently inhabited by a total population of about 83.690 people. Over the next years, the CELD will expand its project area successively – taking into account, on the one hand, the degree of endangerment of the approximately 250 languages spoken in the area and, on the other hand, the capacities of the center and its young researchers. Recently, a documentation project on Iha, a non-Austronesian language, has started.
The current on-going project done in corporation with the speech community is the documentation of the language and culture of the Wooi community on Yapen Island. The project can serve as an example of how the CELD actually works. The starting point of this documentation has been some representatives of the Wooi community approaching Dr. Alexander Loch, a German anthropologist, to ask for support to develop a documentation of their culture. At the same time, the director of the CELD, Yusuf Sawaki, decided to work academically on the grammar of Wooi from the Yapen language cluster. A same vision, shared by the speech community and the CELD, has been developed since. One of the world's leading linguists of language documentation, Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Himmelmann, offered his support and the German Volkswagen Foundation provided funding for the project. Most of the project data will be accessible in the DoBeS archive during the next years.
Cooperation and sponsorship
Looking ahead, the CELD determines to attract Papuan linguists to carry out their own documentation projects and invites international scholars and community development experts to join in the efforts in order to make such work with indigenous communities and endangered languages a sustainable one.
More specifically we invite international researchers to join forces in language documentation and to make use of our knowledge and resources. If you are interested in working under an official CELD sponsorship please see the guidelines below:
Universitas Negeri Papua
Po Box 206
Manokwari 98314
www.celd-papua.net
