About this site
Endangered-Languages.com was created in 2008 by three Swarthmore College students: Aaron Stein ’11, Michael Shin ’11, and Rio Akasaka ’09. It was inspired by visiting Professor Keren Rice‘s language revitalization class, along with the sense of urgency of the need to delay or reverse language loss. The purpose is to educate and disseminate information in the effort to reveal the problems associated with endangered languages. One of the main causes of language loss is ignorance; outside of the field of linguistics very few people are aware of the significance of the language loss which we have suffered. It is our hope that our website will help others understand the importance and severity of recent language loss.
It is currently being expanded upon and maintained by Rio Akasaka, now a student at Stanford University. Rio graduated from Swarthmore College with a dual degree in linguistics and engineering. His linguistics advisor was Assistant Professor K. David Harrison, Director of Research for the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages.