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.
Lee Pratchett
A diverse and culturally rich corpus of natural discourse, and a sociolinguistic study of Tshwa, an East Kalahari Khoe language....
Bangime language documentation and description
Abbie Hantgan
Bangime is a language isolate spoken in the Dogon language speaking area of Central Eastern Mali....
Catriona Hyslop Malau
15 hours of recordings in the Vurës language, including some transcribed, time-aligned, and translated texts....
The documentation and ethnolinguistic analysis of Modern South Arabian: Shehret
Janet Watson
Auto-visual documentation of the Shehret language spoken in Dhofar, Oman, which includes data from three dialect groups of Shehret: western, central a...
Guraferdan Sheko: linguistic treasures of a forgotten dialect
Anne-Christie Hellenthal
Documentation of Sheko spoken in Guraferda, SW-Ethiopia....
Margaret Florey
Eight hours of audio and seventeen minutes of video recorded in Rutah village, southern Seram Island, Maluku Province, eastern Indonesia....
Documenting the Sherbro language and culture of Sierra Leone
Tucker Childs
Sherbro is spoken on Sherbro Island and nearby coastal areas of Sierra Leone....
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