Tim Thornes, associate professor of linguistics in the English department, recently returned from the National Breath of Life 2.0 workshop at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. National Breath of Life seeks to assist tribal communities in language and culture revitalization practices.
This year, a selection of just four teams was made in order to beta-test prior to general release a new software program, Indigenous Language Digital Archive (ILDA) designed specifically to provide the in-house capacity to store and retrieve archival language materials with language revitalization in mind.
Thornes served as linguist-partner to the Pyramid Lake Paiute team, working together to upload century-old documents and digitized wax cylinder files for ready access through the ILDA interface. From these materials, they will be able to add entries to an online dictionary for language teachers and learners.