Written by Sotiris Bekas
The documentation and analysis of endangered linguistic and cultural diversity worldwide are the focus of research and activities carried out by the VLACH committee («Vanishing Languages and Cultural Heritage»). Established in September 2016 and based in Vienna under the supervision of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, the committee is led by the versatile German University Professor, Thede Kahl (Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr. phil. Dr. h. c.). He heads a highly experienced and active scientific team committed to the preservation, initially linguistically but also musically and through other ethnographic records, of the cultural imprints of communities often facing extinction.
It is noteworthy that the members of the VLACH committee go beyond desk-based (scientific) research, embarking on numerous missions to systematically record and visualize linguistic and ethnographic material from communities in the Balkans, as well as other regions in Asia and Latin America.
Dancing on the Greek Bridge of İkizdere – Macedonian Greek collection
The results of these investigations have yielded a significant and crucial body of material currently undergoing digital processing and archiving. Some of this material can be accessed on the valuable YouTube channel of VLACH:
https://www.youtube.com/@VLACHOEAW
In a significant note regarding the committee’s purposes on the VLACH website, it is stated that “Members, project leaders, and the scientific staff of the committee strive to create a legacy that goes beyond the documentation, analysis, and long-term archiving of linguistic and cultural heritage. They aim for more academic engagement with language, an open-access policy towards user-friendly collections that can better serve both scientific research and communities dedicated to preserving their oral heritage.”
Finally, in a video message, Thede Kahl, the head of VLACH, underscores the need for scientists to come together with communities that preserve fragments or traces of dialects and ethnographic imprints of forgotten cultures. Forgotten, but perhaps not (yet) lost.
Photos credit
VLACH («Vanishing Languages and Cultural Heritage»)
Read more
https://www.oeaw.ac.at/vlach/
https://www.facebook.com/VLACH.OEAW
