16.41, Jobs: Lang Preservation/Description: External Advisor,DC

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LINGUIST List: Vol-16-41. Tue Jan 11 2005. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 16.41, Jobs: Lang Preservation/Description: External Advisor,DC

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===========================Directory==============================

1)
Date: 05-Jan-2005
From: Jacob Labendz < labendz at hotmail.com >
Subject: Language Preservation and Description: External Advisor, Community Under Construction, DC, USA


-------------------------Message 1 ----------------------------------
Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2005 16:08:07
From: Jacob Labendz < labendz at hotmail.com >
Subject: Language Preservation and Description: External Advisor, Community Under Construction, DC, USA


University or Organization: Community Under Construction
Job Rank: External Advisor
Specialty Areas: Anthropological Linguistics; Language Description; Translation;
                          Writing Systems; Language Preservation and Description

Description:

Community Under Construction is looking for a linguist to advise/design model
for transcribing the Valach language in order to facilitate the program
described below.  Some attempts at transcription have been made using both Latin
and Cyrilic alphabets, yet none have been accepted by the Valach community.
This has been for both cultural and political reasons.

Our Valach program has been greeted warmly by UNSESCO and stands a very
good chance of being funded in the very near future.  Much of the funding issues
revolve around retaining a strong professional linguist to advise on the
project.  This is a wonderful opportunity to become involved in UN programs.

Please contact Jacob Labendz ASAP if you are interested in participaing in this
project.  You may e-mail him at labendz at hotmail.com or call him at 973-768-0994.
Unfortunately we do not have a lot of time to find our staff.  Please contact
us immediately.


Here is the summary of the project and a little background information:

The project will capture Valach history of the 19-20th century in the Valach
language in order both to preserve and to regenerate the language. To that end,
project team members, specially trained for that purpose, will interview a
representative number of members of this minority from different parts of the
region to obtain a diverse record of the language and of personal histories.
Team members, a large percentage of whom will be drawn from the community, will
also conduct and record group discussions about these histories. These will be
formed into a website and a book in three languages: Valach, English and
Serbian. The process and the products of this project will provide a
well-documented overview of the Valach language and culture that will be
accessible to the Valach community, Valach communities in other countries, local
and international scholars, as well as the local and national population.
Additional objectives are empowering the Valach minority by creating and
legitimizing a Valach discourse about Valach language and history and creating a
basis for Valach to become a written language as a way of ensuring formal and
informal education in Valach.

In spite of the harsh living and economic conditions prevalent in the Homolje
Mountains, where the Valach Oral History Documentation Project will take place,
and the subtle but strong pressure to assimilate, Valach cultural practices are
still maintained to a great extent: rituals are performed, magic is practised
and the language is spoken. However, since people are leaving and the
traditional social structure is falling apart, this is probably the last
generation in which these practices will survive as a constitutive part of the
community. This project will document both language and culture and create a
website where Valach is used, so that the results remain accessible both to
people in the area and in the diaspora.

The Valachs are a Romanian community of 300,000 people spread along the Romanian
border from Hungary to Bulgaria, since the time of the Roman Empire. Their
language is closely related to Romanian and is essentially rooted in Late Latin.
Since they have always been a minority, the language has never been, and still
is not, taught in schools or in any other institutions, and has therefore never
become a written language. Their history has never been written. These
circumstances contribute to the fact that they were never able to acquire any
political, cultural or economic rights or recognition. Our Valach NGO will
remedy this situation by creating a Valach website and publishing a book that
will be the basis for a written language i.e. the basis for written history and
civil society.


Address for Applications:

        Jacob Labendz
        1212 W St., NW
        Washington, DC 20009
        United States of America

Application Deadline: 21-Jan-2005

Contact Information:

        Jacob Labendz
        Email: labendz at hotmail.com
        Phone: 973-768-0994

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