NUKUORO DOCUMENTATION INITIATIVE

Since 2015, I've collaborated with speakers of Nukuoro, an endangered Polynesian Outlier language spoken in Micronesia, to document the language and develop resources for language reclamation. We recently registered as an NGO in Pohnpei to help us carry out more economic and cultural development projects! You can find our Nukuoro materials in the California Language Archive at UC Berkeley, and public-facing materials can be found on the Nukuoro Documentation Initiative website.

Our efforts to document and revitalize the Nukuoro language take many forms, including:

• Developing a corpus of elicited, conversational, and narrative language material
• Hosting linguistic and cultural workshops in Pohnpei
• Building digital language tools like the Nukuoro Living Dictionary
• Publishing print resources, such as a Nukuoro phrasebook and a collection of bilingual Nukuoro narratives

Nukuoro is traditionally spoken on Nukuoro Atoll, a low-lying coral atoll about 300 miles southwest of the state capital of Pohnpei, FSM. Today, the largest Nukuoro community resides on Pohnpei, which is a three-day boat trip from the atoll, and many Nukuoro people have migrated to Guam and the United States.