The Language Resource Initiative

Creating useful language resources through research, collaboration, and community partnership.

The Language Resource Initiative (LRI) is a program within the Youth Conlang Society dedicated to creating free, accessible, and practical resources for languages and language communities with fewer educational materials available to them.


Our process is simple:

RESEARCH → IDENTIFY A NEED → CREATE → REVIEW → DELIVER → PUBLISH

LRI teams research a language/area of study within linguistics and its existing resources, identify a realistic need, and collaboratively create something useful. Completed resources are reviewed for accuracy, clarity, consistency, accessibility, and cultural respect (if applicable) before being shared with their intended communities and published through YCS.


WHAT WE CREATE

Each project is shaped by the language, its community, and the needs of its intended audience. Resources may include:

  • Beginner language-learning guides

  • Pronunciation and writing-system guides

  • Vocabulary and grammar resources

  • Phrasebooks, flashcards, and study materials

  • Cultural and linguistic information guides

  • Educational infographics and digital materials

  • Resource collections and directories

  • and others!

Our goal is not to create the largest resource possible. It is to create something accurate, understandable, useful, accessible, and realistic for a student team to complete.


HOW AN LRI PROJECT WORKS

  1. A team chooses a language or area of linguistics study.

  2. Members research the language, its community, and its existing resources.

  3. The team defines a specific project: who it serves, what it will create, what need it addresses, and when it should be completed.

  4. Interested YCS members join the project and receive roles in research, writing, editing, design, or outreach.

  5. The team creates the resource under the guidance of an LRI project manager.

  6. LRI members review and fact-check the work for accuracy, clarity, usefulness, consistency, sourcing, and respect.

  7. YCS publication editors complete a final editorial review.

  8. A relevant speaker, educator, researcher, organization, or community representative reviews the resource if possible.

  9. The completed resource is delivered free of any charge to the people, school, organization, or program for which it was created.

  10. The project is published on the YCS website and featured in a YCS Showcase.


WHO CAN PARTICIPATE?

You do not need to be an expert linguist, speak a project’s language, or have professional research experience. You only need to be willing to learn, communicate, use reliable sources, accept feedback, respect the communities involved, and complete the work you agree to undertake.

Each project is coordinated by a student manager who organizes responsibilities, creates realistic deadlines, checks progress, supports contributors, and communicates challenges early. Managers also contribute directly to the resource, but their primary responsibility is helping the entire team succeed.


WHY LRI EXISTS

Languages are inseparable from culture, history, education, identity, and community. Access to language-learning materials is deeply unequal: while some languages have thousands of textbooks, courses, dictionaries, websites, videos, and applications, others have far fewer accessible resources.

YCS cannot solve that inequality alone—but we can still contribute something useful.

Through LRI, young people who care about language and community can transform their interests into collaborative work with real outcomes. We research, create, and learn. Project by project, we leave behind useful resources that were not there before.

JOIN THE LANGUAGE RESOURCE INITIATIVE

Help research, write, edit, design, manage, or review an upcoming LRI project!

JOIN THE LANGUAGE RESOURCE INITIATIVE!!