The Endangered Language Archive (ELAR) is a digital repository preserving and publishing endangered language documentation materials from around the world. The materials we hold are digital, and are freely available (after free registration).
ELAR was originally funded by Arcadia
and is part of the Library
of SOAS University of London.
Click a region above to view browsable collections. To see all collections, click 'Search' at the centre.
Documentation of Jowshaqani, a Central Iranian language
Esfandiar Taheri
the collection contains audio and video recordings of Jowshaqani an Iranian language spoken in Jowshaqan in north of Isfahan city....
Jewish Iraqi spoken language documentation
Eli Timan
... personal stories, songs and descriptions of life in Iraq in the first half of the twentieth century, as told by Jewish Iraqi informants in London,...
Caijia: Cross-dialectal documentation of a highly endangered language in Guizhou Province of China
Lü Shanshan
The deposited data includes digital audio an video recordings covering various topics (narratives, folk songs, conversations, handcraft activities), p...
The documentation and ethnolinguistic analysis of Modern South Arabian: Mehri
Janet Watson
An audio-visual documentation of the Mehri language spoken in Oman and Yemen....
Tonsawang: a collaborative multimedia project documenting an endangered language of North Sulawesi
Timothy Brickell
Documenting the Tonsawang/Tombatu language of Indonesia....
Throughout the site you see ELAR's access protocol categories, like this: O U S . Materials marked as O U S can be accessed by anyone, even users who have not registered with ELAR. Materials marked as O U S can be accessed by any registered user of ELAR who has agreed to the Terms and Conditions of using ELAR. Materials marked as O U S are restricted in access, and registered users can apply for access to these resources.
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Why apply for an account?
Anyone can browse the ELAR catalogue of endangered language collections and can learn about the materials ELAR holds.
To listen and watch the recordings in the collections you need to register as a user and agree to the Terms and Conditions of using ELAR. Registration is free, and after registration all materials are openly accessible to you. Some sensitive materials require special access permissions, and as a registered user you can apply for access to these resources.
To apply for an account, you must provide your real name. We do not allow anonymous accounts or fictitious identities. Accounts for ordinary user access are automatically granted on application.
If you forgot your username or password, please contact elararchive@soas.ac.uk