Experts estimate that only 50% of the over 7000 languages spoken today will still be spoken by the end of the century. In our era of globalization, the intellectual heritage of diverse languages is disappearing faster than ever before. What are the implications of this development for societies and the world’s knowledge systems, what are the processes and factors involved, and how are stakeholder (language users, the communities, linguists, policy makers, governments, NGOs) responding? These questions will be addressed in this course, which ranges from theoretical issues in language endangerment to practical measures to strengthen the vitality of languages.

• Level: MA (BA in linguistics or related field required).
• Requirements: There will be no homework.
• Materials: Course materials will be distributed.

The course trains students in conceiving a dictionary as a database, discusses the macro and micro-organisation of dictionaries. Based on the basics of lexical semantics we train in lemma writing. We look into the contribution of adequate example sentences and how to deal with idiom. Attention is devoted to techniques of lexicon collection including the use of texts and working from a FLEx database.  We practice several techniques of semantic discovery such as the use of a thesaurus. To this end we look into a number of lexical domains selecting from the following domains: cattle, botany, kinship, house, insects-birds-mammals, basketry, location, cut, astronomy-calendar-weather, pottery.

• Level: We assume basic knowledge of linguistics.
• Requirements: There is no homework, but bring a dictionary and a laptop to class.
• Materials: Materials will be made available during the course.

This course introduces students to the linguistic diversity of Amazonia, home to over 300 languages across 70 families and isolates. It surveys major language families, their distribution, and key grammatical traits, while addressing challenges of classification. Students examine common phonological, morphological, syntactic, and discourse features, such as nasality, classifiers, polysynthesis, switch reference, and evidentiality, all from a typological perspective. The course then explores historical change and grammaticalization, including sound change and alignment shifts. Finally, it analyses language contact, multilingualism, and links between areal features and socio-cultural practices, highlighting the contributions of Amazonian languages to linguistic theory in a global context.

• Level: Suited best for linguistics MA/PhD students (or advanced undergraduates), but no previous knowledge of Amazonian languages required.
• Requirements: No homework during the summer school itself, but extended reading list is made available to students.
• Materials: Readings, datasets and course materials are all provided by the instructor.

This course provides an intensive introduction to phonetics for language documentation, combining foundational theory with practical field methods. The first week covers core topics in articulatory and acoustic phonetics, including speech production, vowel and consonant systems, prosody, and phonetic transcription. The second week focuses on phonetic data collection in documentation settings, including recording techniques, elicitation strategies, speaker variation, and the analysis of natural speech. Students work with real language data and learn to use basic tools for phonetic analysis. The course emphasizes methodological rigor and ethical practice, preparing participants to collect high-quality phonetic data in real-world documentation contexts.

• Level: Suited best for linguistics MA/PhD students (or advanced undergraduates).
• Requirements: Limited homework during the summer school itself; preparatory readings required.
• Materials: Readings, datasets and course materials are all provided by the instructor.