The last 100 years have witnessed a lot of changes in the realm of linguistic research into various aspects of languages.  (Higgins, 2009) (Leonard & Haynes, 2010)  (Rice, Ethical issues in linguistic fieldwork: An overview, 2006). One of the prominent changes among these is the change of roles and responsibilities of the researchers and the researched in terms of design and implementation of research endeavours, participation in research activities and ownership of the research outcome achieved through collaborative mode (Nath, 2013). Particularly in the field of language documentation and revitalization, the active participation of the community members has added new vigor to such efforts. This presentation revolves around the issue of active participation of the community members in community-based language research (Higgins, 2009) in the light of the author's experience in the field of endangered language documentation and mother tongue literacy development programs for some of the indigenous minority language communities in Northeast India. In this context this presentation will focus, in particular, on documentation and development of the Singpho and  Tai Khamyang languages spoken in Northeast India. The presentation will take the audience through various stages of both the research endeavours and will highlight the use of participatory methods in achieving the goals in both the contexts. It will also focus on the challenges both on the part of the linguist and the language communities working in collaborative and participatory mode.

Bibliography

Higgins, E. C. (2009). Research Models, Community Engagement, and Linguistic Fieldwork: Reflections on Working within Canadian Indigenous Communities. Language Documentation & Conservation, 3(1), 15-50. Retrieved from http://handle.net/10125/4423

Leonard, W. Y., & Haynes, E. (2010). Making "collaboration" collaborative An examination of perspectives that frame linguisitc field research. Language Documentation & Conservation, 4, 268-293. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10125/4482

Nath, P. K. (2013). Collaborative Approach towards Language Preservation and Revitalization-Perspectives from North east India. In M. J. Norris (Ed.), Endangered Languages Beyond Boundaries (pp. 47-52). Foundation for Endangered Languages.

Rice, K. (2006). Ethical issues in linguistic fieldwork: An overview. Journal of Academic Ethics, 4, 123-155.