De nos jours, l'humanité fait face à une extinction massive : chaque mois, au moins une langue cesse d'être parlée. La disparition d'une langue entraîne la perte d'une vision unique de notre monde. Chaque langue qui s'éteint nous fait perdre un héritage culturel immense, la compréhension des liens qui unissent les êtres humains à leur environnement et des connaissances scientifiques, médicales ou botaniques. Plus important encore, nous perdons l'accès à l'expression de l'humour, de l'amour et de la vie des communautés concernées. Autrement dit, nous perdons le témoignage de siècles entiers de vie.

Les langues sont des entités vivantes en évolution constante. Leur extinction n'est pas un phénomène nouveau. Cependant, le rythme auquel les langues disparaissent aujourd'hui est sans précédent et, à ce titre, alarmant. Près de la moitié des 7 000 langues recensées dans le monde risquent de disparaître au cours des 100 prochaines années. Pourtant, aujourd'hui, nous disposons d'outils et de technologies capables de changer la donne.

Avec le projet Langues en danger, Google met sa technologie au service des organismes et des personnes qui luttent contre la disparition des langues en les documentant, en les protégeant et en les enseignant. Grâce à ce site, les utilisateurs peuvent accéder aux informations les plus actuelles et les plus complètes sur les langues en danger, ainsi qu'à des échantillons de ces langues proposés par des partenaires. Ils peuvent également jouer un rôle actif en mettant leurs langues en ligne, par l'envoi d'informations ou d'échantillons sous la forme de fichiers texte, audio ou vidéo. Enfin, les utilisateurs peuvent partager leurs bonnes pratiques et leurs études de cas via la section de partage des connaissances et en rejoignant les Google Groupes pertinents.

Si Google a supervisé le développement et le lancement de ce projet, l’objectif à long terme est que de véritables spécialistes de la préservation des langues se l’approprient in fine. C’est pourquoi la direction du projet sera bientôt confiée au First Peoples' Cultural Councilet à Endangered Languages Catalogue/Endangered Languages Project (ELCat/ELP) team at University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, en collaboration avec le Comité consultatif.

Ce site a été développé et mis en forme en collaboration avec l'agence Vizzuality et Exygy.

The languages included in this project and the information displayed about them are provided by the Catalogue of Endangered Languages (ELCat), produced by the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and Eastern Michigan University, with funding provided by the U.S. National Science Foundation (Grants #1058096 and #1057725) and the Luce Foundation, and supported by a team of global experts.

ELCat is being shared through this site so that feedback from language communities and scholars worldwide can be incorporated to update the world’s knowledge about its most at-risk languages. This means that the languages included on this site and the information presented about them is intended to change over time.

Les orientations du projet sont définies par un comité consultatif actif, qui apporte perspectives, talents et engagements au projet. L'appartenance à ce comité est possible sur invitation uniquement. Il se compose des personnes suivantes : 

• Faith Baisden, First Languages Australia
• Lyle Campbell, University of Hawai'i at Mānoa
• Craig Cornelius, Google, Inc.
• Tracey Herbert, First Peoples' Cultural Council
• Gary Holton, University of Hawai'i at Mānoa
• Veronica Grondona, Eastern Michigan University
• Daniel Kaufman, Endangered Language Alliance
• Mary S. Linn, Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, Smithsonian Institution
• Oliver Loode, Uralic Centre for Indigenous Peoples
• Kevin Lowe, Australian Indigenous Languages Institute
• Emmanuel Ngué Um, Archive of Languages and Oral Resources of Africa

Current Advisory Committee members are:

• Gregory Anderson, Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages
• Daryl Baldwin, Myaamia Centre
• Peter Brand, First Peoples’ Cultural Council
• Panchanan Mohanty, University of Hyderabad
• Susan Penfield, University of Arizona
• Inee Slaughter, Indigenous Language Institute
• Andrew Strack, Myaamia Centre
• Mark Turin, World Oral Literature Project

This site is designed to enable you to contribute to the project directly. Although we will not be able to respond to all inquiries and are not accepting requests for funding, you can propose significant collaboration opportunities by completing this form, or apply to become a moderator of flagged content through this form.

The goal of the Endangered Languages Project is to foster exchange of information related to at-risk languages. Please keep this purpose in mind when submitting content to the site. Any content deemed by moderators to be not in line with this goal may be removed.

You shall be solely responsible for your own content and the consequences of submitting it to the Endangered Languages Project. Only upload content for which you have the necessary licenses, rights, consents and permissions to publish on the site.

Please only include material that is appropriate to be shared openly online. Sacred material or other content that language speakers would not want shared should not be uploaded. If your video includes others, please make sure all speakers are properly informed and consent to the video being shared on the Internet. For reference, please review the Code of Ethics of the American Anthropological Association and the Code of Ethics of the Linguistic Society of America.

Most content uploaded to the Endangered Languages Project is hosted on several associated Google products or services, including YouTube, Picasa and Google Docs. Each of these services has their own product policies and content guidelines. In addition to these terms, all content submitted through other Google products or services must be in accordance with their associated terms. These include but are not limited to: a prohibition on content containing pornography, obscenity, pedophilia, bestiality or other sexually explicit material; hateful or violent content; harassing content or content that infringes another’s privacy.

The Endangered Languages Project must not be used for unlawful purposes or for promotion of dangerous and illegal activities. Advertising and use of the website and its resources for commercial purposes is not allowed.

We do not allow spamming or transmitting malware and viruses.

Submitting Comments

The Endangered Languages Project is designed to be a collaborative space for information sharing. For this reason comments and feedback are welcome on site content. When making comments on content displayed on the Endangered Languages Project site please abide by the following guidelines:

• Keep comments readable. Use proper grammar and check your spelling. Don't use excessive capitalization and punctuation.
• Make comments useful. Post clear, valuable, and truthful information.
• Be polite. Don't attack others or post content that is abusive, hateful, threatening, or harassing.
• Comments deemed to be off-topic or otherwise against these policies will be removed.

Reporting Content

If you find content you believe to be in violation of these guidelines please follow the flagging instructions to report the content for review.