Internet-Linguistics

Members of the scientific community are faced with two urgent situations: the number of languages in the world is rapidly diminishing while the number of initiatives to digitize language data is rapidly multiplying. The latter might seem to be an unalloyed good in the face of the former, but there are two ways things may go wrong without adequate collaboration among archivists, field linguists, and language engineers. First, a common standard for the digitization of linguistic data may never be agreed upon; and the resulting variation in archiving practices and language representation would seriously inhibit data access, searching, and cross-linguistic comparison. Second, standards may be set without guidance from descriptive linguists, the people who best know the range of structural possibilities in human language. If linguistic archives are to offer the widest possible access to the data and provide it in a maximally useful form, consensus must be reached about certain aspects of archive infrastructure. The primary goal of E-MELD is to promote this consensus.

The Tujia Language and Culture Website Welcome to the Tujia Language and Culture website! The Tujia people, with a total population of over 8 million, is the 6th largest ethnic minority in the People's Republic of China. They live in the provinces of Hunan, Hubei and Guizhou, as well as in Chongqing Municipality (formerly part of Sichuan Province). These areas lie in a region generally known as Central South China. This website contains pages introducing the Tujia culture and language, together with a photo archive. In addition the website gives access to a large archive of Tujia language material. Imperial Tiger Hunters, our popular-level introduction to the Tujia people has just been published (click on the image on the right for more details); our technical grammar The Tujia Language has also recently been published. Introduction to the Tujia People The Tujia Language Photo Archive This website is based on research carried out under the auspices of the College of Literature and Journalism, Jishou University, Xiangxi Tujia Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Hunan Province, China. The authors worked on this project while they were based at the university from January 2002 to July 2003.

Imperial Tiger Hunters:An Introduction to the Tujia People of ChinaPhilip & Cecilia Brassett  Paperback, 154 pages (October 2005) Publisher: Antony Rowe Publishing Services ISBN: 1-905200-37-4     •Buy Imperial Tiger Hunters through Amazon UK     •View sample pages (JPEG, 200kb)  Hidden among the precipitous Wuling Mountains, just south of the Yangtze Three Gorges, live the Tujia, an ethnic group numbering eight million, with a long and fascinating history.  Descendants of the ancient Ba people, they lived an essentially independent existence for nearly two millenia. Under clans of feudal chieftains, one of which held sway for a staggering 800 years, they developed a highly distinctive culture - including crying before weddings, dancing at funerals and venerating the white tiger.  Then in the 1730s the Imperial Court in Peking finally gained the upper hand over them. The subsequent 300 years of assimilation by mainstream Chinese culture has taken its toll. The Tujia, pragmatic by nature, have always been able to adapt to new situations. Today, their desire to benefit from the educational and economic benefits of integration into modern China threatens the very survival of their traditional culture.

Internet Chat rooms, Forums and Young people The Internet was claimed last week, by one of the worlds leading linguists to be a saviour of the Welsh language. Professor David Crystal of Bangor University said that the Welsh language (along with Breton) is now considered to be 'cool' to use by young people, because of its presence on the internet. Professor Crystal said: « It doesn't matter how much activism you engage in on behalf of a language if you don't attract the teenagers, the parents of the next generation of children. »And what turns teenagers on more than the internet these days? If you can get a language out there, the youngsters are much more likely to think it's cool." Professor Crystal's comments follow in the wake of the Bwrdd Yr Iaith Gymraeg/Welsh Language Board strategy document for IT and the Welsh language. The Strategy aims to provide a framework for Welsh language Information Technology (IT) work in the future and hopes to lead the way in innovative IT development.

Kinds of linguistic support that computers can now offer: Speech Understanding and Dialogue Systems Dictation Voice Control of Equipment Information Search Summarization Document Production Machine Translation Localization and Word Processing Computer Aided Language Learning Other Support

Last changed 22 August 2007 Endangered language resources scroll down for subject areas:  linguistics aspects | inventories | regional resources | language documentation and archiving | some past conferences | Examples

Endangered language resources

Why try to preserve endangered languages? Wouldn't the world be simpler if there were fewer languages? Why care if languages die out? The truth is that a people's identity and culture are intimately tied to their language. Each language is unique. No one knows what riches may be hidden within an endangered language. We may never learn about the cultures whose languages have disappeared. And the wholesale loss of languages that we face today will greatly restrict how much we can learn about human culture, human cognition and the nature of language.   'ōlelo Hawai'i     Gaeilge Success Stories Language preservation is difficult, but there are some success stories. Some languages are literally coming back from the dead. Below are just a few of them. Hawaiian Hawaiian had become nearly extinct when the U.S. banned schools from teaching students in Hawaiian after annexing Hawai'i in 1898. Today, close to 10,000 Hawaiians speak their native tongue as compared to under 1,000 in 1983. This remarkable resurgence is supported in part by the use of technology. Hebrew Hebrew evolved in the past century from a written language with no native speakers into Israel's national tongue, spoken by 5 million people. Irish Gaelic The Irish have succeeded in preserving their native Gaelic to the point where it is now spoken by 13% of the population of the Republic of Ireland. Resources The International clearinghouse for endangered languages Foundation for endangered languages Bibliography on language endangerment and language revitalization UNESCO Red Book on endangered languages: Europe Wikipedia article on endangered language SIL endangered languages Bibliography of materials on endangered languages Language revival Technology for endangered languages in Australia OLAC: Open Language Archives Community Online resources for endangered languages (OREL)

This video was made for educational purposes.***UPDATED***The main purpose of this video was to show that language in the Navajo community has changed from the past to the present, and to realize that there were environmental factors that have influenced this change. There is an apparent difference between the number of people who speak the language and who can't. This is concerning because English only speakers have surpassed those who speak Navajo only, or are fluent in Navajo.Those interviewed are taking personal steps to learn how to speak the Navajo language, whether through books/dictionaries/classes.

ENDANGERED LANGUAGES on FILM, VIDEO & DVD SURVEY This overview lists, comments and links to a majority, I believe, of the available TV/Film/Web-documentaries and features in/on endangered languages. You'll find more than 100 below. May the diversity of approaches presented here inspire more films from more countries on this truly glocal issue: the current catastrophic reduction of Humanity's linguistic and cultural diversity.

May 28, 2008,  2:46 pm What Will Globalization Do to Languages? A Freakonomics Quorum By Stephen J. Dubner The headline says it all, although the unspoken question is: will globalization indeed result in the hegemony of English, as has long been promised/threatened? We gathered up some wise people who spend their time thinking about such things — Christian Rolling, Mark Liberman, Henry Hitchings, and John Hayden — and asked them to answer our question. Many thanks for their insights.

Semantic Web to revolutionise internet search The future of the web has arrived. Earlier this month, internet startup Powerset revealed its Semantic Web search service - a way of searching that should provide users with a more satisfying experience. In theory, the Semantic Web allows computers to search all the content on the web through the collaborative use of information. In practice, Powerset is limited to searching Wikipedia. But this first version at least provides a taster of semantic-based searching, showing how users can search via conversational techniques rather than keywords. More importantly, Powerset shows a significant step towards a more intuitive web experience. Such movement should be welcomed, especially as the concept of the Semantic Web has previously been more niche than mainstream.

We will release more product lines in other African languages soon. We believe in what we do, and we think that African children should be able to learn their native languages, with as much fun as they will learn the English language. What we intend is to make learning native language as much fun as possible. Basically, all our materials are interactive, and we are confident that this approach will work to great effect.” The Executive Director of the African Languages Technology Initiative, Dr Tunde Adegbola also expresses the hope that the product line "is coming at a time when wide debate over the importance of our indigenous languages is being argued.” While this approach to learning African languages may seem relatively new, Otitoloju expresses that she is confident that these product lines will translate into increased applications from these groups.” CONCEPT Blazing Ideas Blazing Ideas Limited was established for the advancement and dissemination of African Indigenous Languages with particular emphasis on Nigerian Languages through several interactive media and materials.The company intends to design, develop, publish and distribute globally, innovative electronic language learning solutions on handheld devices, memory media cards, and via internet downloads. As an international quality African-language publishing house and a market and business research firm, Blazing Ideas has license to publish, in electronic format, reference titles, including monolingual dictionaries, bilingual dictionaries, encyclopaedias, and various other education and trade publications. Blazing Ideas is founded by Dr. Lolade Otitoloju. She is a graduate of College of Medicine, University of Ibadan (M.B.B.S) with a Diploma in Tropical Medicine & Infectious Diseases and Masters in Public Health from the University of London (London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine).

Linguistic Diversity and the Preservation of Endangered Languages   While many of us worry about the increasing loss of biodiversity from our planet, another kind of diversity loss – less widely publicised but equally disturbing – is affecting the world’s languages and cultures. Over the course of this century, many spoken languages, especially minority languages... more

Table of Contents Publication Information Repatriated Bones, Unrepatriated Spirits Richard Littlebear Introduction: Some Basics of Indigenous Language Revitalization Jon Reyhner Obstacles and Opportunities for Language Revitalization 1. Some Rare and Radical Ideas for Keeping Indigenous Languages Alive Richard Littlebear 2. Running the Gauntlet of an Indigenous Language Program Steve Greymorning Language Revitalization Efforts and Approaches 3. Sm’algyax Language Renewal: Prospects and Options Daniel S. Rubin 4. Reversing Language Shift: Can Kwak’wala Be RevivedStan J. Anonby 5. Using TPR-Storytelling to Develop Fluency and Literacy in Native American LanguagesGina P. Cantoni 6. Documenting and Maintaining Native American Languages for the 21st Century: The Indiana University Model Douglas R. Parks, Julia Kushner, Wallace Hooper, Francis Flavin, Delilah Yellow Bird, Selena Ditmar * Native Language for Every Subject: The Cree Language of Instruction Project Barbara Burnaby, Marguerite MacKenzie, Luci Bobbish Salt The Role of Writing in Language Revitalization 7. The Place of Writing in Preserving an Oral Language Ruth Bennett, Pam Mattz, Silish Jackson, Harold Campbell 8. Indigenous Language Codification: Cultural Effects Brian Bielenberg Using Technology in Language Revitalization 9. Enhancing Language Material Availability Using Computers Mizuki Miyashita and Laura A. Moll 10. The New Mass Media and the Shaping of Amazigh Identity Amar Almasude 11. Self-Publishing Indigenous Language Materials Robert N. St. Clair, John Busch, B. Joanne Webb

Revitalizing Indigenous Languages (1998) "SPEAKING IN TONGUES: As Telecommunications, Tourism and Trade Make the World a Smaller Place, Languages Are Dying at an Alarming Rate," by James Geary, Time International Edition, July 7, 1997

Technology to the "Rescue" of Endangered Languages  InvestigatorsW S Y Wang (PI), Benjamin K Tsou  Funding SourceCompetitive Earmarked Research Grant by the Research Grant Council (Hong Kong)  Project durationDec 1996 - Sep 1998 Because of the great numerical superiority of the Han ethnic group, over 95% of all Chinese, people tend to forget that there are over a hundred other ethnic groups as well in China. Like the Hans, most of these groups trace back to the dim mist of prehistory. Beijing has officially recognised only 55 of them; this gross under-estimate is due to socio-political complications as well as lack of comprehen-sive information. Experts all agree that the real number is at least twice as high. Many of these groups are disappearing fast, especially the ones that have not been officially recognised so far. The table below shows a few of these groups in South China. The data are extracted from a lecture by Professor Sun Hongkai, of the Institute of Nationalities in Beijing, given at RCL in October 1996. While the greatest concentration of these groups is in Yunnan, they can be found throughout South China.

  Technology to the "Rescue" of Endangered Languages  InvestigatorsW S Y Wang (PI), Benjamin K Tsou  Funding SourceCompetitive Earmarked Research Grant by the Research Grant Council (Hong Kong)  Project durationDec 1996 - Sep 1998 Because of the great numerical superiority of the Han ethnic group, over 95% of all Chinese, people tend to forget that there are over a hundred other ethnic groups as well in China. Like the Hans, most of these groups trace back to the dim mist of prehistory. Beijing has officially recognised only 55 of them; this gross under-estimate is due to socio-political complications as well as lack of comprehen-sive information. Experts all agree that the real number is at least twice as high. Many of these groups are disappearing fast, especially the ones that have not been officially recognised so far. The table below shows a few of these groups in South China. The data are extracted from a lecture by Professor Sun Hongkai, of the Institute of Nationalities in Beijing, given at RCL in October 1996. While the greatest concentration of these groups is in Yunnan, they can be found throughout South China.

"This is probably one language that cannot be brought back, but at least we made a record of it," Anderson said, noting that the Aborigine who spoke it strained to recall words he had heard from his father, now dead. Many of the 113 languages in the region from the Andes Mountains into the Amazon basin are poorly known and are giving way to Spanish or Portuguese, or in a few cases, a more dominant indigenous language. In this area, for example, a group known as the Kallawaya use Spanish or Quechua in daily life, but also have a secret tongue mainly for preserving knowledge of medicinal plants, some previously unknown to science. "How and why this language has survived for more than 400 years, while being spoken by very few, is a mystery," Harrison said in a news release. The dominance of English threatens the survival of the 54 indigenous languages in the Northwest Pacific plateau, a region including British Columbia, Washington and Oregon. Only one person remains who knows Siletz Dee-ni, the last of many languages once spoken on a reservation in Oregon.

LISRC, one of six university research centres at CityU, aims to foster interdisciplinary research in the diverse areas of linguistics, natural language processing and information science. It provides a forum for experienced researchers and young scholars to work together on problems of language and information technology in Chinese speech communities, to play a major role in advancing language information sciences globally, to provide a new and useful bridge between technology and the humanities and social sciences, and to inform the community about relevant research findings, especially within the Chinese context.

Chapter 21, Teaching Indigenous Languages edited by Jon Reyhner (pp. 148-262). Flagstaff, AZ: Northern Arizona University. Copyright 1997 by Northern Arizona University. Return to Table of Contents Four Successful Indigenous Language Programs Dawn B. Stiles

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