science

Living Languages

Living Languages is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Living Languages rather than just read about it. In short: Living Languages is an international non-profit organisation which was established to advance the sustainability of the world's Indigenous languages. History The organisation was founded as the Resource Network for Linguistic Diversity (RNLD) in 2004 by linguists Margaret Florey and Nicholas Thieberger as a resource organisation aiming to support linguistic diversity by offering a range of training programs, facilit…

Key takeaways

Living Languages belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Living Languages to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Living Languages from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Living Languages is an international non-profit organisation which was established to advance the sustainability of the world's Indigenous languages.

History The organisation was founded as the Resource Network for Linguistic Diversity (RNLD) in 2004 by linguists Margaret Florey and Nicholas Thieberger as a resource organisation aiming to support linguistic diversity by offering a range of training programs, facilitating networking between language maintenance practitioners, and maintaining a website with various practical resources. Living Languages is incorporated in Victoria, Australia, and is registered as a tax-exempt organisation. Funded activities by Living Languages are primarily supported by the Indigenous Languages Support (ILS) grant scheme from the Government of Australia. In September 2019, it renamed to 'Living Languages', with the stated goal of better reflecting the organisation's mission.

Mission When initially founded as the RNLD, its mission statement was stated as:

RNLD's mission is to advance the sustainability of Indigenous languages and to increase the participation of Indigenous peoples in all aspects of language documentation and revitalisation through training, resource sharing, networking, and advocacy. Through our activities, we contribute to the holistic health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities by providing direct relief from the suffering and distress that arises from the loss of Indigenous languages and the consequent alienation from cultural heritage and Indigenous identity. Since renaming to Living Languages in 2019, this was updated to:

To create a positive input to Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community resilience, health, wellbeing and cultural identity through enabling the sustainability of Indigenous languages.

Resources Living Languages provides a range of resources to support language documentation and revitalisation activities. These include information about national and international funding opportunities for language work, links to blogs and networks including the active the organisation's email discussion list, and other resources for language documentation and revitalisation such as information about software, language materials, language centres, equipment for language work, orthography development, data management, training programs, and language documentation projects.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Living Languages

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Living Languages claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Living Languages before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Living Languages ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Living Languages

In research: Living Languages appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Living Languages in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Living Languages is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Endangered languages projects, Language documentation, Linguistics organizations, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Living Languages outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Living Languages in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Living Languages means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Living Languages out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Living Languages in simple terms?

Living Languages is an international non-profit organisation which was established to advance the sustainability of the world's Indigenous languages. History The organisation was founded as the Resource Network for Linguistic Diversity (RNLD) in 2004 by linguists Margaret Florey and Nicholas Thiebe…

Why does Living Languages matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Living Languages?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Living Languages.