The topic of the endangered languages is one of the key focus areas of the Association. CIPL supports summerschools and workshops in this field, make it a focus of attention in our Linguistic Bibliography and established an Endangered Language Award. This prize for work on endangered languages is awarded every five years during the congress.
In 2018 the prize was awarded to Prof. Kemmonye C. Monaka, in 2013 the prize was awarded to Dr. Eladio (B’alam) Mateo Toledo and in 2008 the prize was awarded to Prof. Suwilai Premsrirat.
In 2024, during ICL21 the award has been renamed into The Suwilai Premsrirat Award for excellent research in the field of language endangerment.
During ICL21 in Poznan Professor Rob Amery has won this award. Professor Amery of Adelaide University in Australia has been working since the 1980s to reawaken Kaurna, the indigenous language of Adelaide in Australia. This language went out of daily use in the 1860s, and was sleeping from 1929. Professor Amery has worked very closely with the community to develop excellent materials for language learning and development, and supported a wide variety of community efforts to implement their use and raise the profile of this language and the Kaurna community. Kaurna is now used in a variety of settings.
