About us

Korpu Academy is a Research Center promoting research into the minority languages and cultures of the Middle East and Central Asia.  We are committed to uplifting these communities and publish the results of our research in both regional languages of wider communication (for example, English, and Farsi) and minority languages.  We desire to develop the capabilities of these communities to conduct research in their own languages and appropriately publish and distribute the results of their research for broader distribution.

Our interest is in ‘colloquial languages’,  which we define as contemporary languages with a robust community of mother-tongue speakers, such that these languages are likely to be viable for many years to come. However, for the most part, these languages are minority languages in the areas where they are spoken, and often they do not yet have a substantial body of literature published.  In fact, some of these languages do not have a written tradition at all, and we may need to distribute material in these languages by audio-visual means initially.

We have concentrated our research interests on languages of the Middle East and Central Asia because the language communities of this region have many historical and cultural linkages.  While the languages of these communities are distinct, the communities also enjoy some distinctive that mark them as distinct from languages in other parts of the world.  For example, the rich literary history of the Farsi language has helped other communities of the region to appreciate the power and desirability of written poetic expressions in their languages.