Marcelo Dascal Endangered Languages

First, as scientists.

As scientists, we should:

• acknowledge the scientific importance of the multiplicity and diversity of languages.
• Intensify and expand research in as many languages as possible.
• Initiate and support worldwide efforts to help endangered languages.

Some such initiatives are already operative, and accessible through the Net. For example:

International Initiatives

• The Foundation for Endangered Languages (Bristol, England).
• International Clearing House for Endangered Languages (University of Tokyo).
• Terralingua (Michigan, U.S.A.).
• Language Documentation Urgency List (University of Munich, Germany).

I would like to stress once more the urgency of these tasks. Languages are

dying faster than field-linguists graduate from universities.

We must find a way to speed up the training of, say, 'linguistic technicians' to perform at least the required preliminary work of documentation.

I think the native speakers of the endangered languages are the best candidates for this. Universities in the vicinity of such languages should be the site of such programs - and they should be helped by other universities and by UNESCO.

In addition, we should:

• Provide linguistic expertise to create writing systems for endangered languages.
• Create training programs for linguists - preferably natives - for urgent documentation needs.
• Bring the issues to the attention of the media.
• etc...

At the Lester and Sally Entin Faculty of Humanities, we are doing a lot of research and teaching in many languages -- including "exotic" and "extinct" languages. This is not enough, to be sure, and more must be done, but here is -- briefly -- a list of what we do.

Naturally, we have a strong interest in Hebrew and its close

relatives, the Semitic family of languages.

Department of Hebrew and Semitic Languages

Hebrew Linguistics

• Ancient Hebrew
• Mishnaic Hebrew
• Medieval Hebrew
  

Semitic Linguistics

• Ge'ez
• Amharic
• Syriac
• Akkadian
• Phoenician
• Aramaic
  

Arabic and other Middle-Eastern and African languages also deserve

special attention.

Department of History of the Middle East and Africa

• Literary Arabic
• Persian
• Turkish
• Afrikaans
• Amharic
  

Department of Arabic Language and Literature

• Classical Arabic
• Modern Arabic
• Judeo Arabic
  

Other ancient and classical languages are investigated and studied

as well .

Department of Archaeology and Cultures of Ancient East

• Hittite
• Akkadian
• Ugaritic
• Egyptian
• Tammud
  

Modern languages studied and used at our Faculty include major Western European languages,

Department of Classics

• Greek
• Latin
• Frygian
  

Department of English Literature

• English for Humanities
  

Institute of German History

• German fot Historians
  

Department of French Language and Literature

• Conversational French
• French for Business
  

Department of Linguistics

• African Languages
• Roman Languages
• Slavic Languages
• Jewish Languages
• English
• Hebrew
• Hungarian
  

Eastern European and Asiatic languages,

The Cummings Center for Russian and East European Studies

• Russian
• Ukrainian
• Byelorussian
• Azeri
• Uzbek
• Kazakh
• Georgian
• Kyrgyz
• Turkish
• Persian
• English
• German
• French
• Romanian
• Hungarian
• Arabic
  

and modern (as well as classical) East Asian languages.

Department of East Asian Studies

• Sanskrit
• Classical Chinese (Mandarin)
• Japanese
  

And we reserve a special place, in the heart as well as in the classrooms to the preservation of the Jewish languages other than Hebrew.

Department of General Studies

• Ladino
• Yiddish
  

We have a special Division in charge of foreign language teaching, with a rapidly expanding number of language courses.

Division of Foreign Languages

• English
• Italian
• German
• Dutch
• Yiddish
• Japanese
• Chinese
• Spanish
• Spoken Arabic
• Portuguese
• French
• Russian
• Israeli Sign Language
  

In addition, our School of Education participates in the planning of language policy in Israel (an international conference on language policy was convened recently by our researchers together with those of Bar-Ilan University), as well as in research on language acquisition, together with the department of linguistics, which also -- of course -- investigates general linguistics.

Furthermore, individual researchers deal with a variety of "exotic" languages.

Individual researchers also perform research on languages such as

• Syriac
• Berber Languages
• Various dialects of Aramaic
• Chadic Languages
• Gothic
• Bantu Languages
• Middle Persian (Pahlavi)
• Ge'ez
• Inscriptional South Arabian (Sabaean dialect)
• Classical New Persian
• Classical Georgian
• Classical Armenian
• Balkanic Languages
  

In fact, practically all of our departments and research institutes deal in one way or another with languages.

Other departments requiring specific language abilities

• Philosophy
• Talmud
• Jewish History
• Bible
• Jewish Philosophy
• Comparative Literature
• General History
• etc...
  

I may have omitted some languages, but the total number I have in this quick survey is no less than .....

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