Observatories

The UNLAP program explores extraordinary language phenomena in their linguistic, social and cultural context all over the world. Our main observatories are:

Arwako, northern Colombia

East Bantu, Eastern and South Africa

Hindukush, Central Asia

Bomberai, New Guinea

Aslian, Malaysia and Thailand

UNLAP operates diverse Language Observatories represented by understudied speech communities, drawing on the unique expertise and access to such settings of the applicants and affiliated researchers, i.e. field linguists with long-term experience in the respective community. Each observatory comes with its own set of qualities and phenomena and provides an ecosystem for in-depth inquiry involving identification, analysis and understanding of the structural and functional properties of features as well as their systemic significance. The observatories provide the main methodological infrastructure and empirical backbone of the research program.

Associated Observatories

Our network of Associated Researchers involves expertise in and field access to the following ten languages, representing ten distinct and diverse families, regions, and types:

1. Dêw-Nadëb (Naduhup, Brazil)

2. Kata Kolok (sign language isolate, Indonesia)

3. Nordalta (Austronesian, Philippines)

4. Wik Mungkan (Pama-Nyungan, Australia)

5. Seri (isolate, Mexico)

6. Navajo (Na-Dene, USA)

7. Sydsamiska (Uralic, Sweden)

8. Squamish (Salish, Canada)

9. Tira (Kordofanian, Sudan)

10. Lacandon Maya (Yukatekan, Mexico)