Speakers of Istro-Romanian: Volunteers Needed

Istrox

Volunteer Recruitment

If you speak or understand Istro-Romanian, you can help us preserve a record of this disappearing language.

 

ISTROX is a two-year interdisciplinary project developed in the Faculty of Linguistics, Philology, and Phonetics at the University of Oxford. It is based on a body of sound recordings donated to the Taylor Institution Library in Oxford. It combines linguistic research and community-sourcing to explore the history of a severely endangered language: Istro-Romanian. 

 

In May 2020 ISTROX is beginning a new phase of  the project, for which they will need the help of speakers of Istro-Romanian. The study is based on an online platform – called Zooniverse – on which we have uploaded audio clips taken from the recordings made by Tony Hurren during the 1960s. We invite all speakers of Vlaški and of Žejanski to listen to the recordings and perform a number of simple tasks in order to help us understand more about the language.

This process will require no other knowledge than an ability to understand the language. You do not need to speak it habitually to take part in our study. All the instructions on the platform are available in both English and Croatian.

There are no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ answers. We only want to hear your opinions about the recorded material that you are presented with: for instance, you will be invited to tell us about what you can understand from the audio clips and whether you would say the same thing in the same way today.

It is up to you how much time you would like to commit to helping us and how many tasks you wish to complete.

We will acknowledge your participation in everything that we publish as a result of our project.

Your input is vital for the project.

If you speak or understand Istro-Romanian, and if you would like to contribute to the project, click here to go to ISTROX on ZOONIVERSE

If you have friends or relatives who speak Istro-Romanian and who may want to help with the project, please direct them towards our project page on Zooniverse by sharing with them this address: www.istrox.uk