03/22/2019 12:00:00 AMUNT associate professor receives $284,000 to document and preserve severely endangered language. Campus NewsCollege of Arts & Sciences, Department of Linguistics and Technical Communicationsstory A young Mankiyali speaker is pictured in the Danna village in Pakistan. The National Science Foundation has awarded Sadaf Munshi, associate professor of linguistics, a $284,000 grant to document and preserve Mankyali, a severely endangered language. Munshi, the principal investigator, will collaborate with linguists and scholars from local partner Air University. Together, they will work with members of the Mankiyali community and also with personnel at the Forum for Language Initiative in Pakistan. The fewer than 500 native Mankiyali speakers left in the world live in a remote village of Pakistan. UNT researchers and students will travel to the region and help provide a lasting record of the language.