Search Results (59)

Toponyms, i.e., place names, are fundamental for reconstructing the diachronic development of communities without written records, encoding unique historical and cultural data of any civilisation; however, they are vulnerable to loss as languages decline. This also happens for the scarcely documented language Kula (or Tanglapui), a Papuan Alor-Pantar language (Trans-New Guinea macro-family) from Eastern Alor, Southeastern Indonesia (Alor-Pantar Archipelago, Timor area). The spatial knowledge encapsulated in Kula toponyms has been critically threatened by resettlement since the 1960s, alongside its declining daily usage. To preserve this heritage, this article presents a systemised dataset of Kula place names derived from oral traditions, documented for the first time during fieldwork between 2023 and 2026. Data collection followed established language documentation methodologies, utilising semi-structured interviews and community verification with elder native speakers and local consultants to ensure adherence to ethical standards and cultural accuracy of recording practices. The dataset comprises 31 entries of place names, each detailing toponymic variants, glosses/folk etymologies, associated natural resources, stories/historical elements, settlement type, location, habitation status, and internal and external tribal links when information is available. This paper fills a critical gap in Timor-Alor-Pantar linguistics, offering an open-access resource for reconstructing migration patterns and preserving the Kula people’s collective memory against accelerating language endangerment. Full article

Amidst global concerns for linguistic diversity, this systematic review synthesizes six decades (1965–2025) of research on Tanka, a critically endangered language spoken by the boat people along Southeast China. Analyzing 42 studies identified through the PRISMA framework, the review reveals significant sociolinguistic and epistemological imbalances. Research output disproportionately focuses on phonetics and phonology (50%), while neglecting grammar, lexicon, and sociolinguistic vitality. Linguistically, Tanka demonstrates substantial contact-induced convergence with Cantonese or Pinghua within multilingual ecologies; nevertheless, it retains distinctive phonological shifts, a unique maritime lexicon, and grammatical innovations, reflecting both regional alignment and endogenous community practices. Its heterogeneous genetic affiliation highlights local sociohistorical contact dynamics. Rapid intergenerational language shift is documented across communities, driven by intersecting pressures, including state-led urbanization, Mandarin-centric education policies, demographic shifts, occupational change, and enduring social stigmatization. Therefore, community attitudes often prioritize socio-economic mobility through dominant languages over heritage maintenance. Persistent gaps include limited syntactic and discourse analysis, minimal use of quantitative and computational methods (e.g., AI-assisted documentation), insufficient geographic coverage, and a lack of longitudinal shift studies. The field thus urgently requires enhanced international engagement via English publications and a decisive shift towards collaborative, community-centered revitalization frameworks that address power asymmetries and harness cultural resilience. Full article

The rapid decline of linguistic diversity, driven by globalization and technological standardization, presents significant challenges for the preservation of endangered languages, many of which lack sufficient parallel corpora for effective machine translation. Conventional neural translation models perform poorly in such contexts, often failing to capture semantic precision, grammatical complexity, and culturally specific nuances. This study addresses these limitations by proposing a hybrid translation framework that combines dictionary-based pre-translation, retrieval-augmented generation, and large language model post-editing. The system is designed to improve translation quality for extremely low-resource languages, with a particular focus on the endangered Paiwan language in Taiwan. In the proposed approach, a handcrafted bilingual dictionary is the first to establish deterministic lexical alignments to generate a symbolically precise intermediate representation. When gaps occur due to missing vocabulary or sparse training data, a retrieval module enriches contextual understanding by dynamically sourcing semantically relevant examples from a vector database. These enriched words are then processed by an instruction-tuned large language model that reorders syntactic structures, inflects verbs appropriately, and resolves lexical ambiguities to produce fluent and culturally coherent translations. The evaluation is conducted on a 250-sentence Paiwan–Mandarin dataset, and the results demonstrate substantial performance gains across key metrics, with cosine similarity increasing from 0.210–0.236 to 0.810–0.846, BLEU scores rising from 1.7–4.4 to 40.8–51.9, and ROUGE-L F1 scores improving from 0.135–0.177 to 0.548–0.632. These results corroborate the effectiveness of the proposed hybrid pipeline in mitigating semantic drift, preserving core meaning, and enhancing linguistic alignment in low-resource settings. Beyond technical performance, the framework contributes to broader efforts in language revitalization and cultural preservation by supporting the transmission of Indigenous knowledge through accurate, contextually grounded, and accessible translations. This research demonstrates that integrating symbolic linguistic resources with retrieval-augmented large language models offers a scalable and efficient solution for endangered language translation and provides a foundation for sustainable digital heritage preservation in multilingual societies. Full article

Automatic recognition of endangered animal behavior is crucial for biodiversity conservation and improving animal welfare, yet traditional manual observation remains inefficient and invasive. This work contributes directly to sustainable wildlife management by enabling non-invasive, scalable, and efficient monitoring, which supports long-term ecological balance and aligns with several United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 15 (Life on Land) and SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production). The current deep learning approaches often struggle with the scarcity of behavioral data and complex environments, leading to poor model generalization. To address these challenges, this study focuses on endangered animal behavior monitoring and proposes a multimodal learning framework termed ABCLIP. This model leverages multimodal contrastive learning between video-and-text pairs, utilizing natural language supervision to enhance representation ability. The framework integrates pre-training, prompt learning, and fine-tuning to optimize performance specifically for small-scale animal behavior datasets, with a focus on the specific social and ecological behaviors of giant pandas. The experimental results demonstrate that ABCLIP achieves remarkable accuracy and robustness in recognizing endangered animal behaviors, attaining Top-1 and Top-5 accuracy of 82.50% and 99.25%, respectively, on the LoTE-Animal dataset, which outperforms strong baseline methods such as SlowFast (78.54%/97.55%). Furthermore, in zero-shot recognition scenarios for unseen behaviors, ABCLIP achieves an accuracy of 58.00%. This study highlights the potential of multimodal contrastive learning in wildlife monitoring and provides efficient technical support for precise protection measures and scientific management of endangered species. Full article

Mediterranean coastal cultural heritage sites are increasingly threatened by the impacts of climate change, including sea-level rise, coastal erosion, and extreme weather events, which endanger both their physical integrity and their cultural and economic value. Safeguarding these vulnerable cultural assets requires approaches that integrate technological innovation with effective governance and management strategies. This study presents a systematic review of research published between 2000 and 2024, conducted in accordance with PRISMA guidelines to ensure methodological rigor and transparency. Searches were conducted in Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar, limited to English-language studies explicitly addressing coastal cultural heritage in the Mediterranean. A total of 77 studies were analyzed using bibliometric and spatial techniques to examine thematic trends, methodological orientations, and regional patterns. Results reveal a sharp rise in scholarly output after 2014, with Italy, Greece, and Cyprus emerging as dominant contributors. The literature demonstrates a strong emphasis on tangible cultural heritage, particularly archaeological sites and monuments, while cultural landscapes and nature–culture systems receive comparatively limited attention. Methodologically, the field is dominated by digital and technology-driven tools such as GIS, remote sensing, 3D documentation, and climate modelling, with socially grounded and participatory approaches appearing in less than 5% of studies. More than 70% of the reviewed works adopt case study designs, which constrain comparative and generalizable insights. In contrast, a predominance of future-oriented assessments highlights a persistent lack of present-day monitoring and baseline data. Collectively, these findings clarify the paper’s exclusive focus on coastal cultural heritage, underscore the need to broaden geographical coverage, integrate socio-institutional dimensions with environmental diagnostics, and prioritize empirical, present-focused approaches. In this direction, future research will advance an integrated framework for assessing coastal vulnerability at both site-specific and regional scales, supporting proactive and evidence-based conservation planning. Full article

The use of Norwegian numerals in the Sámi language is widespread among Sámi native speakers. Like the Sámi languages and the minority language Kven, Welsh is an endangered minority language in a Western European country with one school system. A study from Wales revealed that children who either spoke Welsh only at home or both at home and at school read and compared two-digit numbers more accurately than monolingual English children. Unlike the Norwegian and English languages, the Sámi, Kven, and Welsh languages have strictly regular counting systems. Analyses of the counting systems for the numerals 11–20 in eight Sámi languages and Kven and comparisons with the counting system in Standard Welsh have resulted in a categorization of the counting systems into three groups regarding transparency and possible support for children’s grouping of ten ‘ones’ into one ‘ten’. The analysis gives reason to believe that reversing the increased use of Sámi and Kven numerals may contribute to Sámi and Kven children’s grasping of the base-10 system because of the counting systems’ transparency. Understanding the base-10 system is fundamental for further learning in school mathematics. Based on the findings, we recommend that Sámi and Kven numerals be included in the mathematics curriculum. Full article

Part of the relics of colonialism on the African continent is the loss of social identity caused by the adoption of colonial languages, leading to the endangered status of indigenous African languages. This qualitative study examines the potential and challenges of podcasting in indigenous African languages, with a focus on Yoruba. We conducted a sentiment analysis of the podcast “I Speak Yoruba Too” and “learn Yoruba online” to assess the range of audience feedback on the podcast. 735 data points were gathered and preprocessed, Hugging face transformers were used to analyse the sentiments on audience feedback. The result of the analysis shows that the negative reviews were 183, the neutral reviews 226, and the positive reviews 326. The visualisation of the word cloud of the labels shows the words frequently used in the reviews, revealing the challenges and the appreciation of the commenter. An in-depth interview was conducted with the host of the “I Speak Yoruba Too” podcast and the “learn Yoruba online Podcast”. The findings reveal that part of the challenges of podcasting include the absence of a standard Yoruba curriculum for foreign learners and time constraints. This paper argues that the deterministic nature of podcast technology offers opportunities to content creators and listeners, based on the medium’s flexibility and ease of access in facilitating language acquisition. Audience reviews and interview results also confirm the potential of the podcast to generate community building and social identity formation among learners. However, the monetisation of such digital products is often underexplored by both emerging and established podcasters. Full article

I recently developed the concept of eco-cognitive openness and situatedness to explain how cognitive systems, whether human or artificial, engage dynamically with their surroundings to generate information and creative outcomes through abductive cognition. Human cognition demonstrates significant eco-cognitive openness, utilizing external resources like tools and cultural contexts to produce contextually rich hypotheses, sometimes highly creative via what I called “unlocked strategies.” Conversely, generative AI, such as large language models (LLMs) and image generators, employs “locked strategies,” relying on pre-existing datasets with minimal real-time environmental interaction—this leads to limited creativity. While these systems can yield some low-level degrees of creative outputs, their lack of human-like eco-cognitive openness restricts their ability to achieve high-level creative abductive feats, which remain a human strength, especially among the most talented. However, LLMs often outperform humans in routine cognitive tasks, exposing human intellectual limitations rather than AI deficiencies. Much human cognition is repetitive and imitative, resembling “stochastic parrots,” much like LLMs. Thus, LLMs are potent cognitive tools that can enhance human performance but also endanger creativity. Future AI developments, such as human–AI partnerships, could improve eco-cognitive openness, but risks like bias and overcomputationalization necessitate human oversight to ensure meaningful results. In collaborative settings, generative AI can serve as an epistemic mediator, narrowing the gap toward unlocked creativity. To safeguard human creativity, control over AI output must be maintained, embedding them in socio-cultural contexts. I also express concern that ethical and legal frameworks to mitigate AI’s negative impacts may fail to be enforced, risking “ethics washing” and “law washing.” Full article

This research addresses the critical need for language preservation among the Higaonon indigenous community in Mindanao, Philippines, through the development of a culturally responsive mobile dictionary application. The Higaonon language faces significant endangerment due to generational language shift, limited documentation, and a scarcity of educational materials. Employing user-centered design principles and participatory lexicography, this study involved collaboration with tribal elders, educators, and youth to document and digitize Higaonon vocabulary across ten culturally significant semantic domains. Each Higaonon lexeme was translated into English, Filipino, and Cebuano to enhance comprehension across linguistic groups. The resulting mobile application incorporates multilingual search capabilities, offline access, phonetic transcriptions, example sentences, and culturally relevant design elements. An evaluation conducted with 30 participants (15 Higaonon and 15 non-Higaonon speakers) revealed high satisfaction ratings across functionality (4.81/5.0), usability (4.63/5.0), and performance (4.73/5.0). Offline accessibility emerged as the most valued feature (4.93/5.0), while comparative analysis identified meaningful differences in user experience between native and non-native speakers, with Higaonon users providing more critical assessments particularly regarding font readability and performance optimization. The application demonstrates how community-driven technological interventions can support indigenous language revitalization while respecting cultural integrity, intellectual property rights, and addressing practical community needs. This research establishes a framework for ethical indigenous language documentation that prioritizes community self-determination and provides empirical evidence that culturally responsive digital technologies can effectively preserve endangered languages while serving as repositories for cultural knowledge embedded within linguistic systems. Full article

Native Lower Sorbian, an endangered West Slavic minority language spoken in Germany, possesses a relative clause formation strategy employing the invariant relativizer ak and optional resumption. The focus of this paper lies on the status of ak. In other languages that have them, invariant relativizers are drawn from the set of complementizers, wh-words, or demonstratives. ak seems to differ in that respect because it belongs to neither category. In this paper, I argue that ak is not an outlier. Instead, ak is a variant of the manner wh-word kak ‘how’ in its non-manner use as a complementizer. After I show how the complementizer kak differs from the wh-adverb kak and that relative clauses in Native Lower Sorbian feature empty operator movement, I argue that the empty operator sitting in SpecCP triggers a rule partially deleting the complementizer kak. More specifically, the rule elides the initial [k] of kak, reducing it to ak. This makes Native Lower Sorbian similar to Bern German or West Frisian, both of which also feature the partial deletion of a complementizer in the presence of a moved element in SpecCP. Furthermore, Native Lower Sorbian is yet another language where how has a non-manner use. Full article

In this study, the effect of ammonia on the Acipenser gueldenstaedtii was investigated using non-invasive methods. Different concentrations (100, 200, and 400 mg·lt⁻¹) of ammonium chloride (NH₄Cl) were added to the experimental groups to simulate ammonia in aquaculture systems, and the movements of the fish were monitored, recorded, and analyzed using image processing techniques and statistical methods. For image processing operations, the optical flow Farneback object-tracking algorithm and necessary image development algorithms were implemented using Python 3.9.13 Programming language codes in the Visual Studio Code software 1.98.2 development environment. At low concentrations, it was observed that the fish made circular movements, while at high concentrations, their movements were restricted and concentrated in areas close to the water’s surface. It was observed that with the increase in ammonia concentration, the movement distances of the fish decreased, and their movements became irregular. This shows that the Acipenser gueldenstaedtii is sensitive to ammonia concentrations and that these concentrations affect the behavior of the fish. These findings are significant for aquaculture conditions and water quality management of the endangered Acipenser gueldenstaedtii, which is protected from the threat of extinction. Full article

The article explores the visible, semiotic use of languages in two schoolscapes on the Arctic borderland and how these schoolscapes stimulate the learning of languages and cultures. The schools are situated in a historically multilingual area with several languages present. However, since the 17th century, the area has undergone Swedification, resulting in the current situation where all languages other than Swedish are endangered minority languages. The schoolscapes were studied through visual ethnography, and 229 photographs were analysed by qualitative content analysis. The results show that in one school in the middle of Sápmi, the Sámi languages were almost entirely excluded, despite their relevance and importance in maintaining bilingualism. Conversely, in a school where some pupils were from the Finnish side of the national border, the Finnish language was present in the form of various subject-relevant books. However, in both schools, all formal information is given to pupils in Swedish, with only a few exceptions permitted by the school management. Overall, the visual use of semiotic language is mainly teacher-produced, and the pupils’ opportunities to use the schoolscape as an affordance for active bilingualism through social participation are minimal. Full article

Through fieldwork conducted between 2014 and 2016 in Arkhangelsk, Naryan-Mar, Krasnoye, and Saint Petersburg, this paper investigates the endangered status of Tundra Nenets, an underrepresented and understudied Samoyedic minority language in northern Russia. Criteria for assessing language endangerment are applied to Tundra Nenets while also taking into consideration the interplay between language identity, reactive ethnicity, negative attitudes, and state politics. The personal story of NC, a Tundra Nenets woman, serves as a case study and exemplifies the impact of decades of marginalization, stigmatization, and discrimination on the cultural and linguistic identity. NC’s narrative illustrates how negative attitudes are exacerbating the decline of Tundra Nenets, further threatening its survival. Because of its absence from schools and institutions, Tundra Nenets seems to be turning into a heritage language in its own homeland. This paper studies the complex interplay between identity, language, and societal pressures, illustrating the broader challenges faced by the Tundra Nenets and other minority communities in maintaining their linguistic and cultural heritage. While the situation remains dire and political action is called for, efforts in boosting language awareness, documentation, and revitalization offer potential pathways for the preservation of Tundra Nenets, drawing on successful examples from other endangered language communities. Full article

This paper discusses the status of island phenomena in Avatime, an endangered Kwa language of Ghana. We focus on clausal adjuncts, specifically noun complement clauses (NCCs). We show that while standard adjuncts are strong islands in Avatime, NCCs allow argument extraction. We suggest that this is related to the fact that NCCs in Avatime are not a type of relative clause. Instead, NCCs involve a kind of serial verb construction, which independently allows for extraction. Full article

The Circassian language is the heritage language (HL) of a small minority group in Israel. Since its classification as an endangered language around the globe, the focus has been put on effective maintenance programs. Changes in education methods within Circassian communities were inevitable. In Israel, the Circassian Maintenance Program is crucial in primary schools, where formal literacy instruction in the Circassian language begins in fifth grade. This study examined the agentic role of the Circassian literacy teacher in engaging students in learning their heritage language and its maintenance, as expressed in her attitudes, beliefs and knowledge and her classroom strategies. This three-month-long ethnographic data collection was conducted at the teacher’s study centre “Nal” (i.e., a treasure in Circassian). Data was gathered through classroom observations and semi-structured interviews with a Circassian HL teacher to understand her attitudes, beliefs and knowledge and to identify strategies to encourage student engagement in HL learning. In general, the teacher showed expertise in the HL and authentic use of it, as well as cultural and religious competence, adaptability, and flexibility. In addition, she encouraged children’s agency and autonomy and provided individualised support, integration of technology and reflective practice. The results indicated that a sense of identity, unity and belonging to the community are all held together by the pillar of HL knowledge. By engaging her students in translanguaging practices, the teacher promoted their awareness of language patterns, vocabulary and grammar in both Circassian and other languages of their wide linguistic repertoire (Hebrew, Arabic and English). Full article