This is a multi-faceted, multi-year project aimed at comprehensivedocumentation and description of the Lule Saami language that will meetthe needs of researchers, educators, learners and the language community.There are several related, but independent, sub-projects:
Mávsulasj báhkogirjje: The Precious Dictionary
Mávsulasj báhko: The Precious Word
Mávsulasj moallánahka: The Precious Phrase
Mávsulasj giehtos: The Precious Narrative
This project uses established methodologies and cutting-edge technologies to undertake and encourage necessary and time-critical basic research on a seriously endangered language. It promotes better contact andunderstanding between the academic community and the Lule Saamispeech community, and the resulting data and networking infrastructures areguaranteed to have long-lasting effects on a range of academic disciplines.This project also develops several user-friendly tools that can used, directly,in language vitalization efforts.
Innovative characteristics of this project include:
1) Focusing on a number of scientific and community needs
2) Using theme-based documentation that makes economical use ofresources by exploiting natural interactions among sub-projects and withongoing projects at several other institutions
3) Highlighting both diachronic and synchronic perspectives by combininglegacy and contemporary data, as well as by including data from differentgenerations
4) Concentrating on spoken (natural) rather than written (normalized)language
5) Featuring systematic documentation that allows inter- and intra-speakercomparison