Helping communities use their languages to flourish.
CanIL equips linguistic scholars to serve alongside marginalized communities through language development, supporting cultural identity, education and spiritual life.
WHY IT MATTERS
No language was meant to live on the margins.
Most of the world's languages weren't born small; they were pushed to the edges by schooling that ignored them, borders that divided them, and histories that told their speakers their words mattered less. Some have never been written down; many more are spoken fluently but slipping — undocumented, unsupported, untaught. CanIL works to reverse that, alongside the communities who know these languages best, so a language can be studied, written, read, and passed on.
WHAT WE DO
One craft, in six forms.
It's all language development — the long, patient work of helping a language flourish.
Linguistic analysis — working out a language's sounds, grammar, and writing system; the foundation the rest is built on.
Documentation — recording a language's sounds, grammar, and words before that knowledge is lost.
Revitalization — helping communities reclaim and strengthen languages under pressure.
Literacy — building the materials and teaching that let people read and write their own language.
Bible translation — equipping translators to carry Scripture faithfully into a mother tongue.
Scripture engagement — helping communities hear, use, and live what's been translated.
THE HEART
Why it goes all the way to Scripture.
A language fully alive is one in which its people can live their whole lives, including the deepest parts. When a community can finally read Scripture in the language they think, pray, and dream in, something opens that nothing else reaches: they can meet God in their own words. That's the horizon all of this work moves toward.
A STORY
One Language At A Time
Study With Us
Train as a linguist, translator, or teacher alongside people doing this work. Your training takes place at CanIL; your degree is awarded by our university partners.
Support The Work
Formation takes years. Monthly partners keep students in training and translators in the field.