Reflections on language documentation in the Southern Cone

Although many indigenous languages of Chile and Argentina have been documented only in the second half of the 20th century by academic anthropologists and linguists, some languages have a comparatively long tradition of descriptive and documentary scholarship conducted by Catholic missionaries. From a present-day perspective, early descriptions and documentations show some shortcomings (viz., they are often fragmentary and biased in several respects), but they nonetheless constitute a trove of valuable resources for later work and ongoing revitalization endeavors. Current documentary work is now more balanced in terms of Himmelmann's (1998) three-parameter typology (i.e., it pays close attention to communicative events of different kinds of modality, spontaneity, and naturalness), employs audio and video recordings, and takes copyright, access, and sustainability issues seriously. It is also more collaborative and empowering vis-a-vis the role played by indigenous collaborators than in the past and tends to be reasonably multi-disciplinary.