[Tibeto-burman-linguistics] Greetings and request to share a survey link

[Kristine Hildebrandt]

Hello all,

I realize that this list-serv is primarily focused on documentation work
with languages of the Tibeto-Burman area. Because many of these people are
also very much involved with community-engaged documentation, maintenance,
and revitalization work, I wonder if it would be okay to share this
information about a viability survey with this community? Please see below
for more details.

Thank you,
Kristine Hildebrandt

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I am writing because I have been leading an NSF-funded initiative that has
itself had to pivot in extreme ways over the past year +. We have created
two surveys (a short version and a longer version). These are
"viability/endangerment" surveys that try to gather information on
viability/endangerment of the work and the support of work for language
documentation, maintenance, and revitalization. We would appreciate it if
anyone at ELF would be able to respond to these surveys, and if you
wouldn't mind sharing these surveys on social media or amongst your network
of funded individual and groups.

At the very least, these surveys are an attempt to bear witness to and
gather information about rapid changes to such structures and opportunities
and how these changes impact others. You can see a preamble and the links
below. Thank you for your consideration!

The short version:
*https://cryptpad.fr/form/#/2/form/view/bXfPtM2-9XI9wwi3ZuYd8tOrAmPa9GKKclMfLiZKiJk/
<https://cryptpad.fr/form/#/2/form/view/bXfPtM2-9XI9wwi3ZuYd8tOrAmPa9GKKclMfLiZKiJk/>*

The longer version:
*https://cryptpad.fr/form/#/2/form/view/7IpVLIHucfDK1d2yo84cL29mx09o85ICq9IpZFzZ4fc/
<https://cryptpad.fr/form/#/2/form/view/7IpVLIHucfDK1d2yo84cL29mx09o85ICq9IpZFzZ4fc/>*

Please take a few minutes to respond to either/both of these if you have
time. Please also share these links onward to anyone who might be
interested. Here is a brief preamble that you can use (or modify) if you'd
like:

**Introduction**

The overall aim of these short and long surveys is to figure out how things
are changing in the language documentation world: both immediately and in
the longer term. In the last year, there have been rapid changes in many
aspects of the US federal funding and legal landscape that relate to
language work, and such funding has been a big (though by no means
exclusive) source of funding for language work.

These surveys are about the “structures” and institutions that make it
possible (or at least easier) for communities and linguists to make and
keep records about language: in short, to do language documentation. We
take a very broad view of "language documentation" and include any work
related to language description (for any reason), language reclamation and
revitalization, archival work, pedagogical development, oral histories, and
other related work. That is, any work that includes a component of work
that centers on language as its goal. We have abbreviated this as "LDMR"
for _Language Documentation, Maintenance, and Revitalization._

More generally, we are aiming to build a "resource viability" schema or
index to create a rubric by which the viability or threat-level to existing
language documentation resources (for example, digital archives and other
relevant technology, institutes, and so on) can be measured according to
their ability to withstand, survive, continue operations and so on during
current and future political and economic changes. We hope to identify the
points that have had the biggest impact, and to use this information for
where to focus opportunities to supplement, rebuild, and further grow.

We take as inspiration for this index discussions in Seifert et al. (2018)
and also McDonnell et al. eds. (2015), both papers which discuss resources
and documentation Our scope, however, is much broader. Note that this work
has some things in common (but not many) with Gavin et al’s (2025) Language
Freedom Index, which focuses on language rights and freedom of language use
in social, educational, and legal contexts.

For this project, we are crowdsourcing experiences. That is, we want to
know how individuals and communities are affected by these changes, as well
as what changes have happened. The short survey is for very brief snapshot
types of information. But you can also complete the longer survey if you'd
like, to give us more nuanced information about the spaces and places where
this kind of work is supported or threatened, based on your experiences.

Questions about the surveys can be directed to Kristine Hildebrandt
*(khildeb at siue.edu
<http://(khildeb@siue.edu/>*) or Claire Bowern (*claire.bowern at yale.edu
<http://claire.bowern@yale.edu/>*)

-- 
----
Orche
'Thanks' in Manange <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manang_language>

Kristine Hildebrandt
https://namedrop.io/kristineahildebrandt
Professor & Chair, English Language & Literature
<https://www.siue.edu/artsandsciences/english/faculty-staff/hildebrandt.shtml>
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
Editorial board member, *Himalayan Linguistics
<https://escholarship.org/uc/himalayanlinguistics>*

*Southern Illinois University Edwardsville exists in and serves a region
that includes the lands of the Kiikaapoi (treaty in Edwardsville, 1819);
The Illinois Confederacy, including the Peoria, Kaskaskia, Michigamea,
Cahokia, and Tamaroa (treaty in Edwardsville, 1818); Dhegiha Siouan
peoples; and others. We affirm their contemporary and ancestral ties to the
land and their contributions to this place. In alignment with the academic
mission of the institution, we are committed to building responsible
relationships with indigenous communities through the development of
educational pathways and opportunities for indigenous students and the
advancement of research and knowledge about indigenous peoples, cultures,
and histories.*
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