The University of Naples L’Orientale, in collaboration with the Free University of Bozen, the Ethnorêma Association and the University of Tuscia, is pleased to host the twelfth edition of the Summer School in Language Documentation (LDSS 2026) to be held in Naples from 21st to 25th September 2026. The Language Documentation Summer School 2026 (LDSS 2026) aims to provide participants with an introduction to the methods and tools of linguistic fieldwork. In continuity and complementarity with the previous editions (which focused on dialect variation and minority languages and whose programme can be consulted here), particular attention will be paid to two languages of Africa: Amazigh, an Afro-Asiatic language, and Nara, a Northern East Sudanic language. The programme of the LDSS 2026 will deal with the various methodological aspects of language documentation, presented through concrete case studies by specialists in the field. The lectures will involve discussions of the theory and practice of language documentation, description and revitalisation, also addressing the issues of the ethical aspects of language research and of the collaboration with local communities, and the problems that a researcher may encounter and their possible solutions. Practical training sessions are planned, in which participants will become familiar with the main tools used for collecting, processing and analysing data. These sessions will include as well the participation of consultants, native speakers of the two languages investigated. The students will thus have the chance to get acquainted with the tools, practices and methods illustrated in the previous sessions.
LDSS 2026 will take place in two buildings of L’Orientale: Palazzo Corigliano (Piazza San Domenico Maggiore, 12) Palazzo del Mediterraneo (Via Nuova Marina, 59) The two buildings are about 15 minutes walk apart.
