Digital curation and event-driven methods at the service of endangered languages
Résumé
New technologies are seen as an opportunity to 'save' endangered languages. But is this the real challenge? What use is a big amount of data if it is meant to remain 'frozen' in a closed archive? For whom and with whom is the collection constructed? Our experience with fieldwork on endangered varieties in Valjouffrey (Northern Alps) and St-Rémy (Provence) has turned informants into fully-fledged team members. Together we built an evolutionary resource for the sake of knowledge and empowerment. We took advantage of the affordability of light technology to collect accurate data: multitrack sound recordings and video coverage of interactions. This material has been preserved and shared on the Speech & Language Data Repository (www.sldr.org), a Trusted Data Repository connected with an institutional archive offering long-term preservation. Thanks to updates of data collected during field sessions, the SLDR allows for an 'event-driven' methodology grounded in a sociolinguistic perspective which puts the speaker at the core of the research. In this framework, new technologies offer increasing possibilities for collecting and valorizing a cultural resource. The aim is not to reverse language shift by imposing a restored and standardised system but to restore links between speakers, their territory and language-driven cultural practices.