Language documentation research

Our research focuses on the following themes:

• Description and documentation of lesser-studied languages; these include the Modern South Arabian languages (Mehri, Shehret, Harsusi); Kartvelian languages (Megrelian, Laz, Georgian); Uralic languages (Inari Sami, Mari); and Galician.
• Data storage and archiving, e.g. in partnership with the ELDP, SOAS
• Ethnolinguistic analysis
• Multimodality in language documentation methodology
• Computational and corpus approaches to language documentation, especially lexicography and morphology
• Ecolinguistics, including the relationship between languages, cultures and ecosystems; biocultural diversity
• The relationship between language and migration/people movement

We are active members of the Language@Leeds research hub, and in particular of the following Language@Leeds research satellites: Language and Nature; Kartvelian and Caucasian Languages.

We launched the Centre for Endangered Languages, Cultures and Ecosystems (CELCE) in January 2019, with a keynote by Mark Cocker: mark cocker – 'the man of most science is the man most alive, whose life is the greatest event'. Henry Thoreau.