The DOBES model of language documentation
- Peter Wittenburg
Abstract
The paper presents the agreements made in the DOBES programme, the state of the documentation and archiving work and discusses a number of technological problems that the programme is faced with. This paper is not intended to give a broad account of the linguistic aspects of the work, but focuses on technological aspects and those that have to do with the archiving task.
The major goal of the DOBES programme founded in 2000 is the documentation of endangered languages, i.e. languages that will become extinct within a few decades. Currently, the DOBES programme includes 21 teams consisting of linguists, ethnologists, musicologists, ethnobiologists and others from related disciplines, who look at about 30 languages. The languages selected within the DOBES programme show a worldwide distribution. Each team works independently since the specific characteristics of the language in focus and the specific circumstances of the fieldwork at each field site are rather unique. However, to realize the idea of a central archive requires a certain amount of agreement about the methods to be used and about the formats to work with.
Keywords: language documentation, DOBES, agreements, technology, archiving, challenges, endangered languages, methodology, format
How to Cite:
Wittenburg, P., (2003) “The DOBES model of language documentation”, Language Documentation and Description 1, 122-139. doi: https://doi.org/10.25894/ldd310
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