Voices Of The World

[Andre Cramblit]

International project seeks speakers of Native languages
Goal is to create online database


7/6/2005

Dear colleagues around the world,

Voices of the World aims to build international popular awareness of 
the diversity of mankind through a worldwide documentary film and media 
project.

We want to portray the peoples of the world, giving face and voice to 
each culture and empowering every language community to speak. The goal 
of Voices of the World is to strengthen our global mutual belonging.

The peoples of the world speak over 6,500 separate languages. Each 
language employs a vocabulary and a grammar that is unique to the 
communities that use them. Each reflects cultures that are equally 
unique, rich in folklore, history and humanity. In a time of 
globalization and the telecommunications revolution that is 
accompanying it, most of those languages have come under threat. A 
surprisingly large number, about 50%, will probably not survive this 
century.

Many are already in terminal decline. Indigenous peoples speak most of 
these languages. Linguists calculate that planet earth is losing one 
language every two weeks - and with each one that vanishes, a means of 
communication, a method of expression and a way of looking at the 
world, disappears.

Voices of the World is an international non-profit initiative of 
UNESCO’s Goodwill Ambassador for Languages Mrs. Vigdis Finnbogadottír, 
based on an original idea by the internationally acclaimed filmmaker 
Janus Billeskov. Jansen is supported by the Danish Government, the UN 
and by leading linguists from all over the world.

Our first task is to create a media event in connection with the UN's 
60th anniversary in October 2005. All the Nordic public service TV 
stations are already committed to this broadcast. We are presently 
working on similar arrangements with other European and international 
TV-stations. Our aim is to reach a global TV-audience. In order to make 
this a truly global event we want to invite you to participate in 
creating key elements of the central documentary film - Voices. Voices 
will tell the story of the cultural and linguistic loss the world is 
suffering from the threat of language endangerment.

But the main elements of the film are to be based on you contributions. 
We seek case stories, which pinpoint the various stages from language 
endangerment to language death. We look for storytellers who can 
explain what it feels like to lose one's language.

We aim to include material from as many different languages as possible 
in the film, but we have a limited budget. Thus we are looking for 
local contributions.

You can participate in three different ways. Firstly, you can submit 
new material. Secondly, you can submit material already recorded. And 
thirdly, you can send us contacts to speakers of endangered languages.

We are looking for charismatic storytellers who can tell moving 
personal stories to the world in their own language. The issues to be 
covered are:

1. The language generation gap - for example how does it feel to live 
in a family where grand parents and grand children find it hard to 
communicate, because the language of the older generation was not 
passed on?

2. The last speakers - for example how does it feel to be among the 
last few speakers of a language?

3. Language suppression (economic, social, political, cultural) - for 
example how do people cope with situations, when their language is not 
given space in the public sphere? What does it mean to a person or a 
community, if their language is forbidden or drained of resources?

4. Language and technology - for example how are speakers of endangered 
languages affected by globalization and the new information technology?

We are also looking for success stories such as:

5. Language revitalization - for example how did a particular 
endangered language community manage to turn the situation around and 
revitalize their language?

6. Other vital language issues? - You might come up with something 
brilliant, which we were not even able to conceptualize - given the 
limitations of our language.

If you want to participate in "Voices", please start by sending us an 
email introducing yourself, your language or the language you are 
engaged with. Please also describe your contribution and in what way 
you would like to collaborate with us. We will then send you more 
information about the project, more precise specifications of what we 
are looking for and technical requirements. We will do our best to 
support you in your filmmaking efforts and to make use of your material 
in the best possible way.

Don't miss this opportunity to present your language as part of the 
bigger picture.

After the film is finished, all the footage collected and shot for the 
Voices of the World project will be handed over to the Vigdis 
Finnbogadottír Institute of Foreign Languages at University of Iceland. 
The aim of Voices of the World and the university is to create a 
database of all the world's languages, accessible to everybody via the 
Internet.

Contact: Voices of the World Project manager: Signe Byrge Sørensen
e-mail: byrge at final-cut.dk
Address: Forbindelsesvej 7; 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
Tel: +45 35 43 60 43, Fax: +45/ 35 43 60 44
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