Documenting Endangered Languages (DEL) is a joint funding program of the National Science Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities to develop and advance scientific and scholarly knowledge concerning endangered human languages. Made urgent by the imminent death of roughly half of the approximately 7000 currently used human languages, DEL seeks not only to acquire scientific data that will soon be unobtainable, but to integrate, systematize, and make the resulting linguistic findings widely available by exploiting advances in information technology. Principal Investigators (PIs) and Applicants for Fellowships (Applicants) may propose projects involving one or more of the following three emphasis areas:
In each emphasis area, DEL encourages collaboration across academic disciplines and /or communities. For example, a DEL project might pair linguists with computer scientists, geographers, anthropologists, educators and others as appropriate. Examples of community collaborations might include scholars working in well defined partnerships with native speaker communities. DEL also encourages investigators to include in their projects innovative plans for training native speakers in descriptive linguistics and new technologies which support the documentation of endangered languages. The DEL program is also interested in contributing to a new generation of scholars through targeted supplements, which support both graduate and undergraduate research experience. DEL gives high priority to projects that involve actually recording in digital audio and video format endangered languages before they become extinct.
Previous awards can be seen at https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/advancedSearchResult?ProgEleCode=7719&BooleanElement=Any&BooleanRef=Any&ActiveAwards=trueresults.
Documentation is a key complement to language revitalization efforts, but DLI does not support projects to revive or expand the actual use of endangered languages. Tribal groups interested in the full range of language revitalization activities should contact the Native Language Program of the Administration for Native Americans in the Administration for Children & Families of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
However, DLI-DEL encourages investigators from Tribal Colleges and Universities Program (TCUP)-eligible institutions to submit either senior research proposals or collaborative proposals from consortia of TCUP-eligible institutions and partnering universities with educational or research ties to TCUP-eligible institutions' faculty or students. While one TCUP-eligible institution may be identified to take the lead on organizational activities, each institution will independently manage its award. Examples of collaborations with TCUP-eligible institutions may include:
Proposals may only be submitted by the following:
The applications are to be submitted for FY22 by October 14, 2022. A similar deadline is anticipated annually.
Approximately $4,800,000 is available in annual funding. At least half of the available funding will be awarded to projects involving fieldwork.
Award Size and Duration