iguanamon
Pentaglot
Senior Member
Virgin Islands
Speaks: Ladino
Joined 5265 days ago
2241 posts - 6731 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French)
| Message 1 of 1 29 October 2014 at 8:12pm | IP Logged |
The title caught my eye Twitter snackt nu ook op Platt As a reader of Iversen's log, I know he studies Low German, so I had to investigate further. As a learner of minority languages, I find this way of using minority languages and creating virtual communities interesting. I follow @indigenoustweets on Twitter. Now you can find some minority language blogs gathered by the same folks at Indigenous Blogs. The hard part of learning a minority language is finding content.
The Glossa (King's College London Modern Language Magazine) wrote:
...140 characters offer enough space to see two linguistic extremes collide: on the one hand, a regional language whose vocabulary varies from village to village and whose speakers are considered incomprehensible in neighbouring counties. On the other hand, a global communications giant whose standardised phrases are being distributed all over the world by its roughly 650 million users (cf. http://www.statisticbrain.com/twitter-statistics/ [19/10/2014]). When the world becomes a village, where does that leave the village?
Kevin Scannell, Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science at Saint Louis University, Missouri, has developed two websites that highlight just this connection: IndigenousTweets.com and IndigenousBlogs.com track Twitter and blog activity in a constantly growing number of under-represented languages. On the sites, you can look up the most active Twitter accounts in the West Frisian language (self-designation: Frysk), follow tweets from the digital Māori community or check the number, vitality and authorship of Occitan blogs. Generally more familiar languages such as Irish (Gaeilge), Breton (Brezhoneg) or Basque (Euskara) feature just as much among the current 171 Twitter and 78 language entries as lesser known examples like Fala, Tamasheq or Myaamia.
...global social networking – does it present a threat or an opportunity for small language communities?
This last question is answered with a resounding affirmative by projects such as Indigenous Tweets. After all, language is a utilitarian object and if its relevance to the lives of its speakers is to be sustained in changing circumstances, it must attend to those circumstances. ‘The primary aim of IndigenousTweets.com is to help build online language communities through Twitter. We hope that the site makes it easier for speakers of indigenous and minority languages to find each other in the vast sea of English, French, Spanish, and other global languages that dominate Twitter,’ says Scannell. The other aim: ‘it’s a message to the world that says “We are here and we’re proud of our languages”. For languages with just a few users, I hope it inspires some people to start – make your voice heard!’ In demographic terms, Twitter as a medium used principally by young people is of particular importance to revitalisation efforts – when language communities can be scattered all over the globalised world, it is especially easy for the transgenerational transmission chain to break. Indigenous Tweets and Indigenous Blogs, Scannell hopes, will reconnect these communities and encourage natural, enduring language use. source |
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Edited by iguanamon on 29 October 2014 at 8:15pm
2 persons have voted this message useful
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