With seed funding from the National Science Foundation, the Diaspora Languages Project in Hawaii (DLPHI) supports diaspora language communities through training in linguistic documentation methods and research that focuses on the Micronesian Diaspora in Hawaiʻi.
Goals
- Produce richly annotated, multipurpose language documentation materials that serve as the foundation for a wide variety of grammatical studies.
- Analyze and document unique speech phenomena in several languages using modern tools of phonetics, phonology, and typology, including ultrasound technology to complement acoustic measurements.
- Build lasting capacity for language work within diaspora communities through training workshops and educational experiences for undergraduate students, graduate students, and community organizations outside of academia.
Why Micronesia?
By focusing on the Micronesian diaspora, this project supports a key immigrant community in Hawai‘i to preserve its rich linguistic resources. The Indigenous languages of Micronesia face a multitude of threats, ranging from outmigration to climate change. Throughout the region young people increasingly seek educational and economic opportunities in urban centers, and this migration is compounded by rising sea levels which is fast making some islands uninhabitable. As a result the Micronesian population in Hawai‘i has swelled to as many as 30,000, representing nearly 2% of the state’s population, and yet support for Micronesian languages in the state is almost non-existent. This is unexpected given the state’s post-colonial history of language mixing and the wide-spread and highly visible support for Hawaiian language renaissance.
Projects
DLPHI comprises multiple overlapping projects and initiatives.
1. LDTC – The Language Documentation and Training Center is being revamped under DLPHI to hold intensive training workshops once or twice per semester, and also during the summers. Each workshop will target a specific language documentation skill for a specific community.
Contact: KeLsey Bialo (kbialo [at] hawaii [dot] edu) and ldtc [at] hawaii [dot] edu.
2. MURAL – The Micronesian Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship in Linguistics focuses on training of undergraduate students who are Micronesian or of Micronesian heritage in the methods and tools of language documentation and linguistics research. Undergraduate students work together with Linguistics faculty and graduate students to complete an original documentation project on their language(s), which culminates in a public presentation at the end of each academic year.
Status: Our graduate student mentors and undergraduate apprentices are meeting regularly this semester to develop their projects. Please get in touch if you’d like to be involved.
Contact: Brad McDonnell (mcdonn [at] hawaii [dot] edu)
3. ICLDC 10 – The 10th International Conference on Language Documentation and Conservation will be held on March 4-7, 2027 in Honolulu, Hawai‘i. Its theme will be “Arts Sustaining Language.” The conference will be chaired by Gary Holton and Leah Pappas. More details and the Call for Proposals coming soon! ICLDC 9 – Last year’s conference, the 9th International Conference on Language Documentation and Conservation took place on March 6-9, 2025, in person in Honolulu. The theme of the conference was “Navigating new realities in diaspora communities”. Please see the ICLDC9 website for information on 2025’s conference: https://ling.lll.hawaii.edu/sites/icldc/
Contact: icldc [at] hawaii [dot] edu
4. Corpus-building – TBA!
Status: TBA!
Contact: Leah Pappas (lpappas [at] hawaii [dot] edu)
5. Ultrasound research – We have launched new research projects that focus on articulation and acoustics in Micronesian languages using ultrasound technology. Past presentations of this work have occurred at conferences such as ASA and future presentations will occur at LabPhon.
Status: There are ongoing projects on Palauan and Woleaian.
Contact: Andrew Cheng (acheng20 [at] hawaii [dot] edu)
6. Other targeted research – Other research projects involving Micronesian languages include investigations of phonological typology, spatial grammar and cognition, and morphosyntax. Stay tuned for more!
Contact Us
Sign up for our list-serv to receive our monthly newsletter and join the conversation. Please send general inquiries to: dlphi [at] hawaii [dot] edu.
Support for DLPHI is provided by a grant from the National Science Foundation (Award no. 2421485). Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.