The project's main purpose is to produce an interactive multimedia CD that will support the Karaim community in its efforts to maintain its language and pass the language to the younger generation provide a companion sound resource for the forthcoming book Spoken Karaim which describes the Karaim language provide information about the Karaim language and community The content of the CD will include stories spoken in Karaim, written texts, a dictionary, video clips, pictures, and Karaim music. These elements will be hyperlinked to allow the sounds, texts and dictionary to be used in many different ways. Because Karaim is an endangered language, a multimedia resource can offer several particular benefits: real sound recordings from noted community members, a variety of cultural artefacts including images and songs, in a medium that is attractive and motivating to the younger generation. The CD will use a navigational metaphor based on the map of the Karaim street in Trakai, Lithuania. Therefore, user interactions with the CD contents will depend on their knowledge of the community and its locality. This CD project was started in January 1998 under the auspices of the Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Africa and Asia at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, and should be completed around the end of 1998. The project draws upon the materials collected by Eva Agnes Csato during a three year project funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft at the University of Cologne.

Project

The Karaim community

The Karaim language

Participants