Daniel Bögre Udell and Kristen Tcherneshoff
Wikitongues
New York (Operating globally)
Language diversity is in peril: today some 7,000 languages are spoken and signed around the world, but acute challenges facing linguistic communities—from forced assimilation to political exclusion—could make 3,000 of those languages fall silent by the end of this century. Such a loss would take a tragic toll upon our collective spiritual, cultural, and ecological knowledge. In response, Wikitongues seeks to build a “language revitalization accelerator” that gives marginalized people resources to launch mother-tongue projects in their communities. By equipping individuals to document, teach, and promote their languages, the project strengthens intergenerational heritage, cultivates self-expression, and builds community resilience. Research shows, for example, that language revitalization promotes better mental health and stronger outcomes in early childhood education. And because Indigenous languages encode expressions reflecting delicate ecosystems, sustaining threatened languages directly supports biodiversity and resource conservation. Through interlocking strategies of language documentation, revitalization, and activism, Wikitongues shows how promoting language justice can forge needed connections for people and the planet. “In preserving and understanding what makes us different,” noted Wikitongues cofounder Daniel Bögre Udell, “we may come to understand what makes us the same.”
Learn More About This Project
https://wikitongues.org/
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About The J.M.K. Innovation Prize & The J.M. Kaplan Fund
Drawing on more than three generations of support for early-stage innovation, The J.M. Kaplan Fund launched The J.M.K. Innovation Prize in the belief that social entrepreneurship can spark transformative change. Currently on a biennial schedule, the Prize reaches across America to identify, support, and elevate nonprofit and mission-driven, for-profit organizations that are spearheading visionary, early-stage projects in the fields of the environment, heritage conservation, and social justice.
The J.M. Kaplan Fund champions transformative social, environmental, and cultural causes through inventive grant-making. Over its 75-year history, the Fund has devoted $280 million to propel fledgling efforts concerning civil liberties, human rights, the arts, and the conservation and enhancement of the built and natural worlds. Today, the Fund is active across the United States and beyond, operating grant programs focusing on social justice, the environment, and heritage conservation. Learn more at http://www.jmkfund.org
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