Challenges to Representing Personal Names and Language Names in Language Archives: Examples from Northeast India

Abstract

Language archives are not only a valuable resource for language communities to tell their stories and to create lasting records of their ways of life, but also for those interested in anthropology, linguistics, agriculture, or art history. This recent emphasis on archiving primary datasets in linguistics has resulted in an abundance of datasets online; however, of the languages of South Asia, only a small percentage are represented in digital language archives or described thoroughly. Though several of these languages are being documented, this material is at risk of being lost or inaccessible without concerted attention paid to long-term preservation. There are several obstacles to documenting and archiving language materials from this area, including political instability and lack of access to infrastructure. This submission reviews one particular challenge to data management relevant to South Asia, which is the complexity of names (of individuals, groups, and languages). We provide examples from Northeast India and recommendations based on experience from CoRSAL (Computational Resource for South Asia).