Language documentation and description

Documentary linguistics aims to describe the world's languages in a multitude of ways. This can include reference grammars (traditionally referred to as language description), audio and video recordings and interviews with the speakers. Part of the work can also be distributing the gathered knowledge. While on the first glance language documentation is best suited for purely academic linguistic goals, it can also be tailored to help in language and culture revitalization.

The practice can be highly interdisciplinary and draw on "theoretical concepts and methods from linguistics, ethnography, folklore studies, psychology, information and library science, archiving and museum studies, digital humanities, media and recording arts, pedagogy, ethics, and other research areas".

While being a highly useful and necessary subfield of linguistics, there are several ethical questions and problems to be answered when gathering information, related for example to language standardization, representation and the authenticity of data.