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Google’s Endangered Languages Project

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Spanky
Senior Member
Canada
Joined 5954 days ago

1021 posts - 1714 votes 
Studies: French

 
 Message 1 of 4
21 June 2012 at 8:44pm | IP Logged 
This may be of interest to some:

Endangered Languages Project - Montreal Gazette article

"Google has set out to save the world's dying languages.

In an alliance with scholars and linguists, the Internet powerhouse on Wednesday introduced an Endangered Languages Project website where people can find, share, and store information about dialects in danger of disappearing.

"People can share their knowledge and research directly through the site and help keep the content up-to-date," project managers Clara Rivera Rodriguez and Jason Rissman said in a Google blog post.

"A diverse group of collaborators have already begun to contribute content ranging from 18th-century manuscripts to modern teaching tools like video and audio language samples and knowledge-sharing articles."

The website at endangeredlanguages.com is designed to let users upload video, audio, or text files and encourages them to memorialize recordings of rare dialects.

Only half of the approximately 7,000 languages spoken today are expected to survive past the end of this century, according to an Endangered Languages video posted at Google-owned video-sharing venue YouTube.

"Documenting...languages that are on the verge of extinction is an important step in preserving cultural diversity, honoring the knowledge of our elders and empowering our youth," Rodriguez and Rissman said.

"Technology can strengthen these efforts, by helping people create high-quality recordings of their elders (often the last speakers of a language), connecting Diaspora communities through social media and facilitating language learning."

Google's philanthropic arm seeded the project, leadership of which will be ceded in coming months to the First People's Cultural Council and the Institute for Language Information and Technology at Eastern Michigan University.

The Endangered Languages Catalog (ELCat), sponsored by the University of Hawaii, will also be contributing to the project."



Edited by Spanky on 21 June 2012 at 8:45pm

6 persons have voted this message useful



Spanky
Senior Member
Canada
Joined 5954 days ago

1021 posts - 1714 votes 
Studies: French

 
 Message 2 of 4
21 June 2012 at 8:47pm | IP Logged 
Perhaps of more utility, a link to the actual site:

Endangered Languages Project site
4 persons have voted this message useful



Pisces
Bilingual Pentaglot
Senior Member
Finland
Joined 4620 days ago

143 posts - 284 votes 
Speaks: English*, Finnish*, French, SwedishC1, Esperanto
Studies: German, Spanish, Russian

 
 Message 3 of 4
22 June 2012 at 9:52am | IP Logged 
This is very interesting. I'm not quite sure what will develop out of this site, but it seems like a good effort. Glad that Google is paying attention to endangered languages.
1 person has voted this message useful



Jappy58
Bilingual Super Polyglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4636 days ago

200 posts - 413 votes 
Speaks: Spanish*, Guarani*, Arabic (Levantine), Arabic (Egyptian), Arabic (Maghribi), Arabic (Written), French, English, Persian, Quechua, Portuguese
Studies: Modern Hebrew

 
 Message 4 of 4
22 June 2012 at 10:41pm | IP Logged 
It seems like there's been some good work done. I'll continue to see how this project progresses over time. It's quite interesting exploring the map and discovering more languages.


1 person has voted this message useful



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