How Computers are Saving Languages
By Sarah-Claire Jordan
Computers and endangered languages is probably not the first combination to come to mind when you’re thinking about things that work well together. Using a computer does involve language, and computers have their own languages or “codes” used to build programs and applications, but otherwise the two don’t seem like a likely pair, at least at first glance. Personally, the only connection I could see between the two at first was that any information I needed about endangered languages was easily at my fingertips, thanks to the internet.
Which languages are considered endangered, though? About 40% of the languages spoken today in the world are in danger of extinction, which means 40% of about 7,000 languages. The great majority of these endangered languages are “ethnic” languages, meaning they are spoken by minority groups, indigenous peoples, and other small cultural groups. The differ from “national” languages in that they are not widely spoken or known and are never the national language of any country.
When we lose a language, we lose so much more than just words and sounds. The unique cultural perspective of those who spoke the language and that the language exemplified is gone forever, as well as the oral and written traditions passed down from generation to generation. A lot of new (to us) and probably very useful information about plants, animals, the weather, and medicine is gone before we can decipher it and put it to good use in our communities. Most importantly, however, a way of life is lost as well with each language that disappears from our world.
Languages become endangered for many reasons, but many times those reasons tend to be political. For instance, there are 16 major indigenous languages found in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, many of which are considered ethnic and endangered. In a country with Spanish as the main language, it can be hard to remain monolingual in an indigenous language and not be influenced by the language spoken by the majority of the population. Couple that with the fact that most indigenous communities are also considered minorities, and you can see why the languages spoken by many indigenous peoples get overlooked and neglected.
This is where computers and the internet step in and do their part, in the form of a couple of huge names in the software industry. One hurdle that many speakers of ethnic or endangered languages have to deal with is the fact that, when they want to use a computer and the internet, they have to do so in a language that is not their mother tongue. Not only is this difficult at times and limiting in terms of how they can express themselves and understand what they’re reading, but it gives them yet another example of how they are basically invisible to the rest of the world.
Facebook noticed this and teamed up with some linguists and software engineers to try to start bridging the gap between those who speak ethnic languages and the rest of the world. They realized that, though many ethnic languages can be found outside of the developing world, those who speak them can still contribute to the emerging market in their region. One effort that Facebook has made to be more linguistically inclusive is to launch the Facebook platform in Guaraní, an indigenous language spoken in Brazil and Paraguay. They found that in Paraguay, 50% more people started using Facebook because they could now use it in their native language. Encouraged by the success of that endeavor, Facebook promises to continue adding language platforms so that soon, everyone will be able to access the social media site without sacrificing their identity.
Facebook’s commitment to accessibility for all goes beyond inclusion, however. Since Facebook is primarily used as a way to stay in touch with friends and family, users who speak ethnic languages can continue to practice their language with relatives and friends, strengthening their community’s identity in the process. Members of an indigenous community can also use this new development as a way to pass on their language to the younger generation, who may be more inclined to learn a language if it’s linked to a popular social media site.
Microsoft took the idea of staying in touch even further with its Skype Translator service, which can be used to translate any written or spoken text instantly into a variety of other languages. This can help elders in a community that speaks an ethnic language to stay in touch with the younger generation, and teach them the language as well so that it won’t die out. This is also a useful tool for linguists who need to speak with ethnic language speakers, but may not be able to fully understand the language or travel to speak with them in person. Obviously this service is not meant to replace certified human translators and interpreters, but it does make things easier for those who can’t afford one themselves.
Google has taken on a rather huge project that consists of continuously adding more and more languages, many of them ethnic, to the list of languages that can be used to access the Google search engine, the most popular of its kind. Though some countries may have search engine restrictions, at least the language spoken by someone won’t be the cause of not being able to access certain information. Currently, Google has a list of over 120 languages that can be used to access its search engine, and its translation tool works with about 90 languages.
Before being able to configure its search engine to work with so many languages, Google teamed up with the Alliance for Linguistic Diversity to create the Endangered Languages Project. It consists of a website where users have access to tons of information about any endangered language, uploaded by speakers of said languages. It is meant to be a research aid for linguists who are studying endangered languages, and is the best site available for documenting, teaching, and ultimately preserving endangered languages.
But what happens if the ethnic language that you speak has a unique writing system that isn’t supported by any word processors to date? This has been a problem that has been worked on since the 80s, when a curious and tech-savvy anthropologist by the name of H. Russell Bernard went to Mexico and ended up developing some rudimentary digital outlines for several indigenous languages there. Since some of these languages didn’t have writing systems to begin with, no one was literate in them. Bernard changed that by training some native speakers to use the new writing systems, who then went on to publish books and other works that were used to teach and spread literacy within their communities.
Microsoft picked up where Bernard left off, owing a lot to his work of course. Before releasing Windows 10, Microsoft made some huge changes to the shaping engine it usually used to create the characters for different languages to that they would display correctly when using Windows. The Universal Shaping Engine that was used for Windows 10 is an overhauled version of their old shaping engine, with the added bonus of having the technical details available for any and all font developers to access and use.
Normally, to create the fonts used for languages who have different writing systems from what we are used to, both software engineers and linguists alike have to work side by side to analyze every detail of the script and figure out the best way to get it to display properly on the platform. They basically have to reinvent the shaping engine for each new writing system, which can be extremely tedious and daunting. With the Universal Shaping Engine technical details, they can reference a general standard for creating a shaping engine and create one that adheres to those standards and works. Now font developers can work with different language communities to get their writing system up and running on Windows 10.
This is a huge development for the ethnic and endangered language community. For those languages that didn’t have a writing system to begin with, their speakers can now become literate and not have to rely only on passing the language down orally. Books and other materials can be published, with the correct writing system, to teach any of these languages so that they don’t die out. If a language did have a writing system already, it may not have been supported before by Windows or another platform, and so publishing a book, much less communicating through Facebook or other social media sites, was near impossible.
Many people think that computers will bring about the death of certain aspects of culture, and that they are making us more inclined to communicate only in a certain way, but there is so much more to it than that. Some people may choose written language over spoken language, but what huge software companies like Google, Microsoft, and Facebook are doing for the languages that usually don’t get much attention is literally revolutionizing the way we think about language and giving all ethnic and endangered languages a fighting chance.
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Category: Translation Tools
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