Community Language Research

In Northeast India, government initiatives or academic institutions are unlikely to be enough to meet the urgent need to support the preservation and sustainability of indigenous languages. It is becoming increasingly clear that indigenous peoples have to do much of this work themselves. Over the past two decades, the region has seen significant growth in the number and types of linguists in the community, perhaps more than in most other parts of the world. The aim of this entry is to examine the different types of community language research in Northeast India and discuss the nature of their results, goals, challenges and achievements. In addition, this entry also examines collaborative work that includes partnerships between language communities and local and international professional linguists.