LINGUAPAX REVIEW 2016

Digital Media and Revitalisation Els mitjans digitals i revitalització lingüística Linguapax Review 2016 Digital Media and Language Revitalisation Els mitjans digitals i la revitalitzacio lingüística

Editat per:

Amb el suport de:

Coordinació editorial: Josep Cru Disseny i maquetació: Amélie Ponce Revisió anglesa: Amanda Dawn Blackley

Aquesta obra està subjecta a una llicència de Reconeixement-NoComercial-CompartirIgual 4.0 Internacional de Creative Commons Dario DeFalco &Alfonso Cesarano Gabriel . Djomeni&EtienneSadembouo Genner LlanesOrtiz Claudia Soria Josep Cru, editor SHOULD WE CARE? WHAT IS DIGITAL LANGUAGE DIVERSITY AND WHY LANGUAGE MEDIA: THE CASE OF THE KENYAH LEBU’ KULIT ENDANGERED IN THE ERA OF SOCIAL CHALLENGES AND PERSPECTIVES IN AFRICAN LANGUAGES AND DIGITAL MEDIA: PRACTICE, LENGUAS INDÍGENAS DE AMÉRICA LATINA INVESTIGANDO PROYECTOS DIGITALES EN TORNO A LAS OREWORD -PRÒLEG CONTENTS -CONTINGUTS

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Linguapax Review 4 · 3 Linguapax Review 4 · 4 been highlighted that electronic media kopoulouand Spilioti2016). also It has ses, asnotedby(Georga someauthors medium-related to user-related analy tents (Cunliffe 2007) movewith a from con interaction andconstant creation of media have become site a prominent for contents. Thus, new digital a producerof user, whobecomes both aconsumer and sibilities for activeby the engagement pos of offerarange media inparticular media, social traditional consumption of tant to note that, unlike traditional passive in this Review). In this sense, it is impor senlohr 2004, also cited by Claudia Soria their ‘ideological valuation’ (Ei tion of but tional expansion also the transforma only their actual through func promotion called ‘electronic mediation’ entails not what hasbeen in subordinated languages introduction of 2011). The (Moriarty youthsamong revitalisation, particularly and maintenance language in benefits tial attention for the poten that has gained the web,ingly presenton aphenomenon are increas languages. languages These minoritised as forthe documentation of technologiesthe revitalisation aswell for new strands basedonthe possibilities of researchhas been growing with various communities,American language there by Native the Internet cipient use of Welcher (2001), which exploredthe in by Buszard- Since the seminal article worldwide. languages endangered tion of more prominent domainforthe promo New technologies have become an ever Newcastle, U.. Languages,Modern University of delegate for Europe, School of Josep Cru, editor andLinguapax FOREWORD and communication on the Internet is a and communication on the Internet ------documentació de llengües minoritzades. per alarevitalització, així com per ala les possibilitats de les noves tecnologies recerca cada vegadamés extensa sobre del Nord, ’haanatdesenvolupant una d’Amèrica nitats lingüístiques indígenes entre les comu ’ús incipient d’Internet Buszard-Welcher (2001), que explorava de pioner a tot el món. D’ençà de l’article de les a lapromoció llengües amenaçades per més un dominicadavegada important Les noves tecnologies s’han convertit en Newcastle, Regne Unit. Llengües Modernes, Universitat de Linguapax perEuropa, Escolade Josep Cru, editor idelegat de PRÒLEG a les perspectives més centrades en els elmitjàcap relacionadesamb les anàlisis continguts (Cunliffe 2007) i uncanvi de per ala interacció i la creació constant de tals s’han convertit en una àreaimportant D’aquesta manera, els nous mitjans digi dor com en un productorde continguts. que converteix tant en un consumi activa de l’usuari, a laparticipació perpart ofereixenlar unventall depossibilitats per tradicionals, les xarxes socials enparticu del consum tradicional passiu de mitjans assenyalar que, a diferència és important en aquest Sòria llibret). En aquest sentit, de lohr 2004, també citat per Claudia de la seva “valoracióideològica” (Eisen sió funcional,sinótambélatransformació real atravéspromoció la sevade la expan mediació electrònica “implicanonomés ordinades enel que s’ anomenat“la 2011). La introducció de les llengües sub especialment entre els joves (Moriarty i revitalitzarlesllengües,cials demantenir incrementat l’interès pels beneficis poten presents un fenomen que a laxarxa, ha Aquestes llengües són cadavegadamés ------

Linguapax Review 4 · 5 In this Review,In wethe presence explore gap.to fillthat sian (Jongbloed-Faber2014) are helping Luxembourgish (Wagner 2013), Friand es such asWelsh (Cunliffe et al. 2013), tributions on Europeanregional languag minoritised languages, recent con gards as re this area isstill incipient, particularly their own right. specificWhile research in ideologies byworthin exploring language which areunderpinned guistic uses, allof lin myriada of that generates domain cial networking sites have become a key so and, particularly the Internet In short, this issue. underlined by Djomeni &Sadembouoin languages, asisduly and literate use of sue that has a direct impact on bothoral is smartphones, is afurther particularly mobilephones, affordability of bility and minoritised languages. Increasing availa of quences the functionalexpansion for tension, which may have practical conse evolution, continuous innovation,ex and its rapid munication but also because of com its centrality in contemporary of closer inspection not onlybecause serves In anycase, digital communication de revitalisation. successful language these may not be enough for gies, even if new technolo by offered fix’ ‘technical confidence and hope is often given to the argued almosttwo decades ago, toomuch as Dauenhauer and Dauenhauer(1998) even threats, aswell (Prado2012). Thus, tonotetheirlimitations,is important and it promotion, technologieslanguage for offered by new opportunities promising the Peuronen 2012, Lee 2016). In spite of multilingualamong and users(Leppänen gual’ practices literacies,and choice,language which include ‘translin productive and salient field for examining flinguistic diversity on the Internet of ------suficients per aconseguir la revitalització la aconseguir per suficients ogies,que encaraaquestes ser no poden tècnica” que ofereixen les noves tecnol massavalori esperançaenla“solució dues dècades,gairebé fa tar sovint s’ator hauer iDauenhauer(1998) van argumen (Prado 2012). Així doncs, com Dauen també amenaces, les tot i fins i itacions, tenir encompte les sevesimportant lim gies per alapromoció de les llengües, és tunitats que ofereixen les noves tecnolo Lee 2016). Tot ilesprometedores opor multilingüesi Peuronen (Leppänen 2012, literacitats , entre els usuaris que inclouen pràctiques ‘’translinguals” i per estudiar les tries lingüístiques,gent és un campproductiu i emer d’Internet jans electrònics i lacomunicació a través També s’ha posat en relleu que els mit iSpilioti2016). usuaris (Georgakopoulou sobre lesllengües regionals europees minoritzades, les contribucions recents incipient, les llengües sobretot pelque fa a és específica àrea aquesta en investigació per simateixes.explorar Sibéencarala ideologies lingüístiques que valpena la d’usos lingüístics, tots ells recolzats en quantitat unagran mini clau que genera xarxes socials s’hanconvertit en un do les i,enparticular resum, Internet En embouo enaquestapublicació. llengües, com remarquen Djomeni &Sad recte tant sobre l’ús com oral escrit de les qüestió altra que impacte té és una di un mòbils, especialment telèfons intel·ligents, disponibilitat i accessibilitat dels telèfons les llengües minoritzades. L’augment de la cies pràctiquesfuncional de perl’expansió vació, i extensió, que pot tenir conseqüèn sevade la evolució, ràpida contínua inno causa també a sinó cació contemporània, només pel seu papercentral en la comuni tal mereixunainspecciófons,més a no En qualsevol cas, la comunicació digi de lesllengües. ------

Linguapax Review 4 · 6 scribed in this project, Llanes Ortiz fur scribed in this project, Llanes Ortiz de inallthe efforts from the grassroots that arises ing outthe individual agency in the digital sphere.languages Point tives which aimtopromoteindigenous initia fifteen about information detailed Voices,Global the organisation gathered the RisingVoices byproject, coordinated spells out the waysLlanes Ortiz in which following contributionbyThe Genner bespoke Kits’. tools called‘Survival of Traininga through set a and Programme on the web these languages presence of and, moreimportantly, at boosting the Basque, andBreton) Karelian, (Sardinian, minoritised languages fourEuropean of project that aims atassessing the vitality in this Review. describes a further Soria Cameroon detail byin thecase study of tal usability, an issue which is illustrated link between digital readiness and digi web,highlights theinextricable theauthor the on languages theformer presence of are still rife.languages Tothe promote dominant minoritisedand speakers of ogy, between information and services, access to technol salient inequalities of since this is a domainwhere the Internet, guistic Diversity’, on that is languages increasing what she calls ‘Digital Lin of tribution highlightstheimportance con Soria’s Claudia world, ‘offline’ the diversity that language lenges faces in chal the current After a description of and DeFalco &Cesaranorespectively). (Djomeni &Sadembouo itised languages minor social media for theof promotion new technologies and and limitationsof East Asia that illustrate the possibilities guistic practices from AfricaandSouth lin show and twoOrtiz), case studies of in LatinAmerica(Llanes enous languages indig tal initiative for theof promotion present (Claudia Soria), acontinentaldigi hrdsussbt ennso key ther discussesthe meanings of both ------als que la diversitat lingüística en afronta actu Després d’una descripció dels reptes rano respectivament). (Djomeni iSadembouoDe Falco iCesa de les llengües promoció minoritzades tecnologies i les xarxes socials per ala les possibilitats ilimitacionsde les noves d’Àfrica ielSud-est Asiàtic que il·lustren d’estudi de les pràctiques lingüístiques i mostrem dos casos (Llanes Ortiz), d’Amèrica Llati les llengües indígenes de promoció la digital continentala per (Claudia Soria),presentem una iniciativa diversitatcia dela lingüística Internet a En aquest la presèn llibret s’explora omplir aquestbuit. (Jongbloed- Faber 2014) estan ajudant a el luxemburguès (Wagner 2013), i el frisó (Cunliffe et al. 2013), com el ara gal·lès supervivència’. d’eines fetes a mida anomenades‘kits de iunconjunt deformació d’un programa cia d’aquests idiomes a laweb a través encara, impulsarlapresèn més important (sard, carelià, basc i bretó) i, de manera de quatre llengües europees minoritzades que té com aobjectiu avaluarla vitalitat volum. descriu, Soria a més, un projecte enaquest en l’estudi decasCamerun que s’il·lustra endetall tal, unproblema entre digital iusabilitatdigi disposició net, l’autora destaca el vincle indissoluble cia deles llengües minoritzades aInter sent Perprofunda. la presèn promoure i els de llengües dominants segueixen els de les parlants llengües minoritzades entre i alainformació nologia, alsserveis desigualtats d’accés a latec què les grans en que estractad’undomini Internet, lingüística digital”, les és llengües a dir a mentar el que “la diversitatella anomena d’aug Sòria posade relleu la importància Claudia de contribució la ‘offline’, món el ------

Linguapax Review 4 · 7 of colonial languages in prestigious and colonial languages of policies whichlanguage favour the use local languages,entrenched and national native speakersliteracy their toadopt in ideologies, such asresistance some from locallinguistic of a combination from hurdles toovercomemain stemming the explain They form. used in theoral for Africanlanguages, which aremainly needto developurgent writingsystems Sadembouo discuss Djomeni and the in mostpublicdomains. and ate purposes those which and liter used are for guages lan official main the still are languages continents in the world,where colonial the most linguistically diverse one of From Latin America we move to Africa, useintheoffline world. mains of inothercritical do for theirreproduction tional expansionbut may not be enough is apositivetal domain their func in step in the digi languages indigenous use of notes that the in hertext, Llanes Ortiz weaknesses. alsowarns As Claudia Soria and theirfollow upisstill one theirmain these projects sessing the actualimpactof these languages, as well for the future of other countries. bode these efforts While whohavelive and guages migrated in these lan speakers of number of large we take into account the fact if portant outreach,the transnational lies in im an this online project Another strength of in question among these actors.guages lan the indigenous in the reactivation of tandem, have outin carried beencrucial these individual projects, which areoften these efforts. Moreover, at the coreof tive, activities are andculturally pertinent the past’, through ludic, crea a ‘thing of minoritised languages, often derided as of suchdestigmatising as thenetand the use visibility Gaining in aprestigious domain these initiatives. the scope and impact of such as‘activist’ and ‘militant’ and terms ulcshrso life. acknowl While public spheresof ------d’aquests esforços. D’altra banda, aquests són elnucli fonamental ment pertinents d’activitats lúdiques, creatives i cultural des com una“cosadelpassat”, a través llengües minoritzades, sovint ridiculitza i desestigmatitzar xarxa l’ús d’aquestes de prestigi com la ibilitat enundomini d’aquest tipus d’iniciatives. Guanyar vis com “activista” i “militant” i l’abast i l’impacte clau termes de significat el també discuteix en aquest projecte, Llanes Ortiz des de la base de tots els esforços descrits senyalant l’agència individual que sorgeix en l’àmbit digital. As llengües indígenes tives que tenen com a objectiu promoure detalladasobrequinzeinicia informació Voices,Global l’organització recopilat ha el projecte Rising Voices, per coordinat enquè explica endetall la forma Ortiz, La següent contribució, de Genner Llanes les que s’utilitzen per llegiri escriure i en i oficials llengües principals les sent ixen al món,onles llengües colonials segue continents diversitatamb major lingüísti D’Amèrica Llatina passem a Àfrica, undels fline’. en altres àmbits d’ús crítics ‘of en el món reproducció seva la a per suficient ser no tiu en la sevafuncional, expansióperò pot en el domini digital és un pas posi genes tiz assenyala que l’ús de les llengües indí també adverteix en el seu text, Llanes Or principals debilitats. Com ClaudiaSòria seguiment segueix sent una deles seves l’impacte real d’aquests projectes i el seu al futur d’aquestes llengües, l’avaluació de aquests auguri per esforços sónunbon iviuen en altres països.emigrat Si bé de parlants d’aquestes llengües que han nombre ant sitenim encompte el gran en l’abasttransnacional,unfet import d’aquest projecte rau en línia punt fort en qüestió entre aquests actors. Un altre a lareactivació deles llengües indígenes per enparelles,estat han crucials a terme projectes individuals, que sovint es duen ------

Linguapax Review 4 · 8 local language insocial media has many local language Malay/Indonesian. introducing the While such asEnglishand languages dominant with Facebook andblogstogether groups Borneo, have begun using it on land of spokenthe is on language endangered Lebu’ Kulit, a highly Africa, speakers of other multilingual environments such as mote their language. Along the lines of safeguard their cultural identity and pro toFacebooklit, has turned asaspace to minority group, the Kenya Lebu’ Ku whichin study South EastAsia from a De Falcopresent and Cesarano a case in the last contribution forthis Review. It isprecisely to socialmediathatwe turn areas.Africans living inrural coverage,band to many arestill a luxury vices, such aselectricity, let alone broad sues, the authors remindus that basic ser digital domains. Besides these technical is in Africanlanguages the visibilisation of search centres could also be beneficial for linguists, computer scientists, and re of the education system, the jointworkand policies, in introducing local languages language of inthe form tutional support to Djomeni and Sadembouo, more insti EtononFacebook). According the use of isiXhosaandRivron2012 for the use of 2014 for (see Deumert languages African speakers of practices ideologies and of ter understand the complex multilingual be aproductivewhich arena helpstobet Indeed, social networking hasproved to literacy vernacular in Africa. the use of that could helpspread the gadgets main (andmobileapps)as out smartphones in digital domains.languages point They local keyare the introduction of for ogy) new terminol and creationof ardisation stand process of systems (and afurther writing that thedevelopmentmaintain of cultures,tradition inAfrican the authors the vast oral of edging the importance advantages (functional expansion, bring ------per a la introducció delesa la llengües per lo són clau i creació de nova terminologia) un procés addicional d’estandardització volupament dels sistemes d’escriptura (i ricanes, els autors sostenen que el desen de lavastaen les cultures tradicióoral af prestigi. Si béesreconeixlaimportància colonials en les esferes públiques i de lades que afavoreixen l’ús de les llengües les polítiques lingüístiques nacionals arre la literacitatadoptar en laseva llengua, i nadius a resistència la d’alguns parlants d’ideologies lingüístiques locals, comara superar, i que provenen d’una combinació Expliquen els obstacles principals que cal oral. s’utilitzen en forma principalment criptura perales llengües africanes, que de desenvoluparurgent sistemes d’es ni iSadembouodiscuteixen la necessitat dels dominis públics.la majoria Djome a molts africans que molts africansviuenenzonesrurals.a ampla, continuenbanda sent un luxe per telefònica de de sense la cobertura parlar bàsics,que serveis l’electricitat, com ara tions tècniques, els autors ens recorden digitals.dominis més d’aquestes A qües ala visibilització de les llengües africanesals per beneficiós ser podria també ca lingüistes, icentres de recer informàtics, sistema educatiu, i eltreballconjuntdels la introducció de les llengües locals enel de polítiques lingüístiques, nal en forma ni iSadembouo, institucio més suport Djome descrit per Rivron2012). Segons 2014 i l’ús de l’eton aFacebookDeumert canes (vegeu l’ús de l’isiXhosadescrit per ideologies de llengües dels parlants afri pràctiques multilingües complexes i les ductiva que les ajuda aentendre millor socials han demostrat ser una esfera pro al’Àfrica.Defet, tura vernacla les xarxes a difondrel’ús podrien ajudar de l’escrip que aparells mòbils) comels principals (i les aplicacions els telèfons intel·ligents cals en els dominis digitals. Assenyalen ------

Linguapax Review 4 · 9 in ourlives. motion inanever more central domain pro language examples of international which of is to offer an array the aim of Weenjoys thatthereader hope thisissue, 2015). 2014, alsoCru purism, see Deumert language issues of aspect (for similar to be a generational ‘correction’, whichabout language seems the other,on itand view to ‘preserving’ with a written materials inthe language about producing the one hand, aconcern using Lebu’ Kulit online, which show, on lyse the linguistic ideologies involved in Facebook, De Falcoana and Cesarano Drawing from some speakers’ posts on reproduction. for language are crucial suchthe school,as thehomeor which environments offline everyday other in language promote this highly endangered the need and to actually digital domain this on languages otherdominant sure of the authors underlinethe increasing pres knowledge, andeven politicalactivism), together, creating meaningful cultural different generations ing speakers of - - - de coneixement cultural significatiu, i fins parlants de diferents generacions, creació encontacte (ampliació funcional,posar comunicació social té molts avantatges ducció de la llengua local enles xarxes de l’anglès i el malai/indonesi. Sibé la intro amb altres llengües dominants, com ara deFacebook iblocs, juntament en grups l’illa de Borneo, han començat a utilitzar-la a d’extinció parlada perill llengua engreu ara Àfrica, els parlants de Lebu ‘Kulit, una multilingües com a altresentorns similar la sevaal ipromoure llengua. De manera per salvaguardarla seva identitat cultur ‘Kulit, ha trobatenFacebook unespai els minoritari, Kenya Lebu qual un grup un estudi de cas del sud-est asiàtic en el llibret. De Falco presenten i Cesarano contribució d’aquest centre de la darrera Els mitjanssocialssónprecisament al tral enlesnostresvides. llengües en undominicadacopmés cen de de les promoció emples internacionals número que pretén oferir unasèrie d’ex d’aquest Esperem que el lector gaudeixi 2015). 2014,tambéCru Deumert isme lingüístic enaquest àmbit, consulteu (sobre elpur una qüestió generacional lingüística, que sembla ser “correcció” la per banda, altra i,per de “preservar-la” finalitat la amb llengua aquesta en escrits materials , unapreocupacióperproduir Kulitban que una línia, mostren, en per lingüístiques implicades en l’ús de Lebu’ Falco iCesaranoanalitzenles ideologies Facebook,a guns ‘posts’ de parlants De d’al de la llengua. A partir la reproducció per a l’escola,la llar que ara són crucials com quotidians ‘offline’ entorns altres en d’extinció amenaçada llengua greument necessitat de promoure realment aquesta dominants enaquest domini digital i la taquen la creixent pressió d’altres llengües i tot activisme polític), els autors des ------

Linguapax Review 4 · 10 Leppänen, S.,Leppänen, and S. Peuronen. In .Mar 2012. Multilingualism on the Internet. Cambridge UniversityCambridge Press. (eds.)labank Moriarty, M. 2011. New Roles Languages. for Endangered In P. Austin and . Sal Lee, . Multilingualresources practices and in digitalcommunication. InA.Georga Jongbloed-Faber, L.2014. .A. and Georgakopoulou, and Spilioti2016. A. Georgakopoulou Introduction. In Eisenlohr, P. Elec Revitalization 2004. Language and New Technologies: Cultures of possibility and incyberspace.Face Wikipediaand struggle A. 2014. Sites of Deumert, Dauenhauer, . andR. Dauenhauer. 1998. Technical, emotional, andideological issues Cunliffe, D., D. Welsh Morris, andC. Prys. 2013. Investigating the Differential Use of Cunliffe, D. New Threats, and the New Internet: Oppor 2007. Minority Languages J.Cru, up: promoting Yucatec revitalisation from the ground Language Maya on Face Buszard-Welcher, L. 2001. the Can Web HelpSave In L. Hinton andK. My Language? References 33 Communities.tronic Mediation and the Refiguring of Berlin/Boston. 514. DeGruyter: book inAfrica.InJ.(ed.). Androutsopoulos University Cambridge Cambridge: Press. L. J. (eds.), Whaley in reversing shift: examples from Southeast Alaska. In L. A. Grenobleand language Industries Creative . Uribe-Jongbloedand (eds.) to-Face Settings, in Electronic Texts and onSocial Networking Sites. In E. Jones Communication inFace-in Young Speakers’ Social Networks:of AComparison Critiques andCaseStudies tunities. andN. InM.Cormack (eds.) Hourigan dx.doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2014.921184 book, CA: AcademicPress. Hale (eds.) ism, tin-Jones, A.Blackledge, andA.Creese (eds.) munication kopoulou andT. Spilioti.(eds.) Frisian Teenagers Academy-Mercator. Fryske onSocialMedia].Ljouwert: of Abingdon: Routledge. T. Spilioti. (eds.) : 21-45. 384–402.Abingdon:Routledge. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development. VolumeMulticultural Development. Multilingualand 36, Issue 3. Journal of , 118-132.Abingdon:Routledge. The Cambridge Handbook of Endangered Languages Endangered of Handbook The Cambridge The Green Book of Language Revitalization inPractice LanguageRevitalization Book of The Green , 75–86.Bristol:MultilingualMatters. h oteg adoko Language andDigital Communication, The Routledge Handbook of Endangered languages. Language loss and communityresponse, Endangered , 133–150.Clevedon: MultilingualMatters. Taalgebrûkfan Fryske opsosjale media jongerein Social Media and Minority Languages. Convergence and the and Languages.Minority Social Mediaand Convergence The Routledge Handbook of Language and Digital Com Languageand The Routledge of Handbook

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Linguapax Review 4 · 11 Wagner, M.2013. Luxembourgish onFacebook. In E.Jones andE.Uribe-Jongbloed In L.Vannini Cameroon. FacebookRivron,. by the Eton of Useof 2012. The Prado, D. Presence in the Real 2012. Language World andinCyberSpace. In L. Vanni Bristol: MultilingualMatters. (eds.) Caen: C&Féditions. (eds.).H. LeCrosnier and Caen: C&Féditions. (eds.).ni andH.Le Crosnier Social Media and Minority Languages. Convergence and the Creative Industries the Creative and Languages.Minority Social Mediaand Convergence NET.LANG NET.LANG . Towardsthe Multilingual Cyberspace . Towards the Multilingual Cyberspace , 160-166. , 87–98. , 35-42. -

Linguapax Review 4 · 12 languages otherthanso-called“major”ones.languages over digital devices, this possibility to and about what can be done inorderto grant used be a for possible it make that conditions the on reflect to important Second, it is the Internet. diversity”,the “digital language i.e. the linguistic diversity of relatedissues. First, number a of of closer examination call for considerations These thenewgenerations. in theeyesof especially lessened, be could profile and value its and endangered”, “digitally become becomes severely affected, and it might will never could be used online. language The there is no spell checker then its foralanguage, usability to write orif inthe language, the PC is notequipped with the characters and diacritics necessary the keyboard of if to beused overnot supported or ispoorly digitaldevices, alanguage instance for If itself.language it also affect the opportunities; not onlyaffects a person’s experience and choice of But it is safe to arguethat the extent can beused to whichover alanguage the Internet connect cultures”. - would and TimBerners-Lee beaplace “to cross barriers - according to the words of which theInternet, itwouldtrue, this hold Should spirit of beatoddswiththeoriginal seems, isonlyasbigone’s it language. Internet, the infinite, from Farvirtually. out carried be can that etc.) goods, other ticket,buying a restaurants,about hoteland reviewing opinions purchasingor books everyday tasks (such as be available over therefore the and amount of the Internet, that can services of the range used. It determines engine, onthe language depending . It orients a person’s asearch choices and decisions by shaping the results of you canaccess on any–information how much Itdetermines – if theInternet. of affects profoundlyperson’ emerging picture is onewherelanguage The experience 2001), (Kornai 2013),(Pimientaetal.2009),(Rehm andUszkoreit 2012). academic study,and seeinstance (MAAYAfor 2012), (Paolilloet al. 2005), (Pimienta policy interest area of is a growing relationship between and the Internet The language Introduction Zampolli”, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Pisa, Italy Claudia Soria, Researcher, Istituto diLinguistica Computazionale “A. WHY SHOULD WE CARE? WHAT IS DIGITAL LANGUAGE DIVERSITY AND

Linguapax Review 4 · 13 n aso speaking. Let’sent ways listenwhilewe of stillcan.” 2010b). (Harrison some day save us. Wevoices,their hear now muted,7000 in differ knowledge sharing were they know hunter-gatherers? What - which we’ve neveror knew - may forgotten cyber-world, to thinkthat we ago have frompeoplewhoageneration nothing tolearn powerfulvery this view a in way:allows hubris “What us,our in cocoonedcomfortably linguistic diversity,diversity. alinguist and advocate expresses David of K. Harrison, and we to lose it by cannotafford useful again centuries may eradicating language turn that knowledge was accumulated over the wealth of enormous This management. land use and resource fishing, and hunting, of farming, well as traditional methods of medicinal food, as techniques,surviving plants, animals, crops, anduse of preparation the environment, by the species against codifying the about knowledge of onry argue thatlinguistic argument, some authors diversity embodies the resilience weap to the various climatesisuniquely challenges and embodiedinlanguages.this Along the way inwhich humanbeings have adapted andresponded ment: the variety of environ its surrounding the human species to the extreme variability of sponses of themanyre diversity language terms, asoneof anthropological In is interpreted faculty.language the and the human brain humanly peculiar offer a unique view on the functioning of (sound systems, constructions) andmorphological and structures syntactic patterns forms its related variabilityand languages of the human species, the variety of study of the view of the argumentationmaintainsthat from point of cognitiveThe strand of rience. communicating and transmitting expe societies, of forming peculiarly human way of the view, can be seen as living languages monumentsFrom of anaesthetic point of cognitive, anthropologicalorecological. linguistic valuediversity. of The arguments in favor can be classified either as aesthetic, scholarlyand publicdiscourse about the Although onlyrecently, of there is agrowth socio-politicalforces. orasideeffectof artifact especially in the Westernwhile the monolingualism frequently observed countries is an ornaturalcondition, the fact that linguistic diversity the normal represents signal of have relatively as a the hasbeen natural environment.interpreted well This preserved lesser economic development, that have endured little no globalisation, or in areasof highest linguistic diversity 2010a). The tends (Harrison to be located studied languages and often the least- linguistic diversity, endangerment, but also the highest levelsof of are called ferent languages dif incredible concentration of languages, areas of more than4000 ). These for 240M people), Nigeria (more than 500 languages), India (22 official languages, 400 overNew Guinea (hometo830 languages 400.000 km2), (722 languages to concentrate instance,in someareasmorethanothers:for world Papuais reported the al. 2013), as manysignlanguages.and perhaps impressive The diversity language of According to linguists there are between 6.000 and 7.000 (Lewis spokenet languages Linguistic Diversity language hotspots : regions having not onlythe highest levels ------

Linguapax Review 4 · 14 for mobiles, engage in multi-playerfor mobiles, video-games, engage take or advantage from innovative -based applications. can enjoy They interactive ebooks, have fun with word games Web searches, content, easily perform interact, communicate through social media and can access unlimited apparently amounts of languages major be ignored.Speakers of digital devices,through and Internet a context that cannot the digital spacerepresents lives our the on happening daily basisbyto survive.order humansin Withsomuchof species” our (Turinliving are entities 2013).a that needtobeused Languages on of screen board, and web will play a decisive role inshapingthe future linguistic diversity aspires tobeavitallanguage.Turin AsMark aptly says, thekeydigital age, “inour it being dominated by ICT, if can affordtomiss the digital opportunity nolanguage diversity, the digital world cannotbe ignored anylonger. Inaworld that is increasingly In orderto establish asustainable policy for safeguarding andpromotinglinguistic lifestyles. andrelevancewith modernity tocurrent by alanguage, establishing a positive association gies facilitates better appreciation of world.modern (2004), Eisenlohr instance,for arguesthatapresence in new technolo guage's digital utmost presence importance to is be of perceived as fitting the needs of digital devices, a lan 2010). As citizens’ life makes an increasingly extensive use of use, (Crystal, forthese language yet languages they are fundamental tosecure survival the various possible contexts of versity. only one of Digital media and tools represent di linguistic of protection for battlefield important an become has world digital The The DigitalLanguage Divide perse. languages respect forthevalue of reverence and humankindorout of ourplanet and of ment to the sustainability of converge in advocating diversity, for sustaining language either as acollective commit argumentation all the different strands of consensus about its severe endangerment: diversity view wherefrom language is approached, there is the point of Regardless of tion’s extinction. such they phenomena associated more rarely are with natural popula as a languages); unfavorable associated with more dominant one or nationalpolicies and the prestige trade and media, but also of globalization economic reasons (commerce, migration, linguistic diversity with social or are mostly concerned reasons behindthe loss of The species. at afaster pace than the loss of goes languages (Sutherland 2003), the loss of similar processes. According to Sutherland crisis, and bothcrises are consequences of andLoh2010). Both are facing an extinction 2014), (Harmon faster (Loh and Harmon versity, diversity language is threatened with regions wherethislossismoreacute and biodi 2005). for Exactly as ithappens Nettle Romaineand Harmon 2000, and Loh tundra, alsoshow and such lower asdeserts 2014, linguistic diversity Harmon (Loh and tend toshow higherlinguistic diversity,particular) while areas low inspecies diversity, species that thoseplaceswithhigh diversity itappears another: (tropical forests in with versitybiodiversity, tends to correlate andmutually they underpin reinforce one linguistic diversity is the ecological one. di Language Another argument in favor of language learning facilitiesforotherwidelyspoken languages. learning language ------

Linguapax Review 4 · 15 its use and usability is dramatically affected. The amount of information and services andservices information amount of its use and usability is dramatically affected. The can hopetoaccess the Internet, languages somedominant Since only the speakers of divide aresevere.digital language such a consequences of The to the Internet. that cannot get there are entire languages access to theInternet, theworlddeprived of digital one.of areas Exactlyas thereare dominating the web,languages there is a its users. With ahandfulof the majority of duced, and also the tongue privileged of most used overstill the language the one forwhich morecontent is pro the Internet, therefore,to befarfrombeinglinguistically appear diverse. Internet, The Englishis ourplanet. contentproducedinWikipedia isaboutarelatively of smallpart of the world’s land area:the majority the area, occupying European only about2.5% of are aboutplaces, 3,336,473 articles events and people roughly concentrated in total of the global of encyclopedia are highly unevenly distributed. Slightly more thanhalf the view, versions 44 language in of Wikipediaarticles Fromof the Wikipediapoint users.Internet allregistered domains,has aboutonewebsite and three every for of to almost a third UnitedStates is home registered The domain. every usersfor about 10Internet are the world’sAfrica combinedhave websites even (2%). Globally, smallersharesof there world’s domainswhile Latin America(4%), Oceania (3%), the Middle Eastand and the contentcontrast, ishometo13%of production.Asia,in Internet of terms in those two regions America:afindingthatreinforces the dominanceof North or rope (78%) registered domains Eu are in With referencenames,to domain majority of a novate 2013). the top millionsites (LTIn spoken in the are published on morethan1% Union, of 60 or more French, Italian,Polish (German, other EUlanguages andDutch), out of five only Portuguese, and Spanish English, from Aside English. in is online content A study by W3Techs theplanet? other words, reflectthelinguisticdiversity doestheInternet of do they use? In view? Which languages users behave,ternet from alinguistic point of In But what canbesaidaboutits linguistic diversity? of Internet. How the enormity of breadth and depth the of flair givebe,a may they as numbers,imperfect as These millions 200 millions.around LinkedInusers, has115million Google+ asmany180 and Twitter’sBrazil, India,Indonesia,andMexico. number of The active users is estimated whichhighly linguistically from diverse170 are countries suchas Facebook users, of users. Internet Amassivepeople are 800 million 2013, ple in which isabout62% of social network users in Western Europewas set to reachmunity 174.2 million peo of 2.837 zettabytes, up almost 50% from 2011, on its way to 8.5ZB by com 2015. The (LTInnovateAccording toa2013 survey to 2013), 2012in digitalcontent grown has 2 1 http://w3techs.com/technologies/overview/content_language/all Source: Language Connect: 1 . 2 sosta ttetm f rtn f hsatce 59 fall 55.9% of thisarticle, writingof shows that atthetime of www.languageconnect.net linguistic divide that parallels and reinforces the and thatparallels ------

Linguapax Review 4 · 16 5 4 3 ebooks inOccitan over Amazon’s because Occitan is notamongthe Kindle platform, widely spoken languages.sell and Occitan publishers couldnotupload authors and as more opportunities do notenjoy of So called “smaller” languages the same range facilitiesforotherwidely spoken languages. learning guage in multi-playermobiles, video-games, engage take or advantage from innovative lan based applications. can enjoy They interactive ebooks, have fun with word for games searches,tent, easily perform interact, communicate through socialmediaandvoice- Web con can access apparently unlimited amounts of languages major Speakers of Booking.com 147 languages supports ent in one youdominant language, Facebook will never be able to use these services: likeeBay, Amazon, Etsy or such associal media, or reviews sites such asTripAdvisor,services or marketplaces available To of access to thewholearray atitsfullest means toget use theInternet anycontentinmanyAfrican andAsianlanguages there isanearabsenceof availablethat are articles English for number of the after the English one, hasless largest than half Wikipedia, whichman isthe fourth available editions.the fordifferent language information Ger The in theamountof in 290 languages, a fairlyremarkablenumber. However, there are striking asymmetries and most linguistically diverse largest The online encyclopedia, Wikipedia, is available from Asia,10Africa,1theAmericasandPacific region. which 39 from Europe, 38 only, accuracy - for ninety languages of of different degrees the content available yet inanotherlanguage, Google Translator is available - with very available Machine Translation onthe Internet. the information is a way hold of to get English canaccess that onlythosewhocanread the majorityof English, itisplain in andaccess to services information Inequality of Let’s brieflyreviewtheminmoredetail. ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ several differentlevels: that are available in less widely is spokenreduced, thus creating inequality at languages 7 6 ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ https://developer-tripadvisor.com/content-api/supported https://dev.twitter.com/web/overview/languages https://www.facebook.com/translations/FacebookLocales.xml www.zerogeography.net/2012/10/dominant-wikipedia-language-by-country.html German Wikipedia: 2.022.598articles; EnglishWikipedia:5.332.011. unequal opportunities for language survival. forlanguage unequal opportunities unequal accesstotechnological development andunequaldigitaldignity; andaccesstoservices; information inequality of citizens. and all for alllanguages linguistic rights and digital opportunities inequality of in43. 5 , Twitter 32 Booking.com 6 . TripAdvisoris available in29 languages ih5.%o allonlinecontent estimated : with 55.9% of , to name just a few. But unless you are flu are you few.unless a But just name to , -languages/ 3 . On the other side of the spectrum, thespectrum, the othersideof . On 4 . 7 , and - - - -

Linguapax Review 4 · 17 dorsed by the UN, Societystimulateand should befoundedon the “Information theWorldSociety en the Information Summit on According totheprinciplesof extinct. goes language lations,a conversation hold over digitaldevices. Insuch easily acontext, a language hostile environment”: onewhere it isnotpossibletotype, make searches, have trans a“digitally affected. By pushing the naturalistic further,metaphor we can thinkof dramatically is language the of usability and difficult, cumbersome,communicationis over digitaltools, thenitsuseoverthrough digitaldevices and becomes theInternet the digital space.from pear favorable there is no Where environmenta language for todisap the language brings where it isusedgradually dramaticallycollapses and contexts Technologyof then Language the range support: lack of because of Internet digital world. conditionholdswhenever isused less and less overThis alanguage the prove for manylanguages, even outside the true those far frombeing endangered nority. “digital extinction” describes a conditionthat could However, of the concept exotic extinction with very languages, orthose spoken by a restricted mi of concept to digital extinction (Rehmbring languages et al. 2012). It is common to associate the forlanguage survival Unequal opportunities tal diglossia”relationshipwithanother, language. bettersupported ina“digi thatcannotbeused overdramatic: anylanguage digitalcontexts will engage one.supported Should this happen, the profile consequences for a language would be another, better favor in language a of effect, eventuallyof leading totheabandonment uses can have adevastating it isused,it losesvalue’’. the more contexts of Shrinking its speakers], the less it is used, and the less less valuable is [in the eyes of alanguage dialectalized over the years.Leáñez (cited AccordingtoCarlos 2011), in Prado “the being marginalized, andeventually are under the serious risk of languages represented family communication and restricted topics. Less digitally once more to the realm of discriminatesless widely spoken languages, further them byopportunities relegating digital inequality of and still,with problems an Irishaccent can beexperienced. This instead, to English has toturn and Irish speakeran language cannotusein her Siri languages; official EU 30 only. languages 25 developedfor of been covers out It nine the latest voice-enabled personal assistants for smartphones, has smart Siri, one of less-widely spoken languages. Forinstance, Apple’sare notaccessible to speakers of everydaytablets or digitaldevices suchopment embedded incurrent, assmartphones Unequal access to technologicaldigital dignity unequal and development as unlesstheyarefluentinonemajorlanguage well. services spoken cannotaccess thelanguages Internet 94%of ones impliesthatspeakersjor of the otherthan languages for support theplanet,lack of of parts large skills of in some countries digital and topoor services Internet In additiontounavailability of Quechua, orInupiaq localized interface for Facebook, and there is or no Google translation forSardinian, supported languages 9 8 http://translate.google.com/about/intl/en_ALL/languages/index.html https://kdp.amazon.com/help?topicId=A9FDO0A3V0119 8 9 hr sn iiei o as;sekr fTongva have speakers isnoWikipediaforMansi; no of . There . esadls iia otxso use is whatcan : less less and digital contexts of : latest technologicaldevel ------

Linguapax Review 4 · 18 omnct f hs agae eentspotd sacneune rvso f As aconsequence, were provision these not supported. languages of communicate if based digital applications, no prospective since virtually customer would be unable to little economic interest for companiesdeveloping language- es. makes RMLsof This not essential for communicationthus making regionalandminoritylanguages purpos a minority one, everyonean officialcan majoralways language instead of make use of no citizen minority language: in aregionalor is monolingual is the fact that virtually Another reason, which is peculiar to Europe andother strongly monolingual States, culturalheritage. of preservation cultural initiatives focused on the digital activismby and/or means of to instances of RMLs over digital media and theirusability through digital devices is usually limited when accessing the digital world. presence tootherlanguages of speakers The turn that so it make profile socio-political weak a and prestige Low instance). for France, of languages the regional the totality of (as it isthe case of rarely fully supported and recognised officially not are often which languages, minority and regional many by enjoyed profile low the is One it. explain to invoked be can factors of number A digitally (Rehm, 2014e),(LTInnovate). represented (RMLs)poorly are minority languages and regional vastThe majorityof available onit,auser theservices mustswitch toanother language. and take profitof over digital devices. He can onlyaccess some webin orderto access the Internet pages: programs.and applications popular user cannotreallyinteract A using the language most is when there is a Wikipediaingiven but not language, localized interfaces of case typical vitality. A digital language true guarantee to order in condition sufficient but not content, although desirable, possible uses. is a necessary Availability of of availableterms content in and of over terms either in languages theInternet, tion of Diversity Digital Language requires to increase the representa Increasing the level of humanculture. diversity of theentireheritage language topreserve Forequitable more world,a we need How to increase andmantainDigitalLanguage Diversity? driven andunderstanding. knowledge age by information, all communities, languages, and cultures to be “first class citizens” in an basic right of imperative divide,opment. The the digital language therefore, tobridge isrootedinthe in cultural, political and economic devel to engage and education, from opportunities for health communication necessary andthe means of ment, from the information divide, digital language thus,The holds back entire societies from sustainable develop and benefitequally. novation, creativity, and development, contribute is able to participate, not everybody andcommunication technologies areopeningnew frontiers forin new information respect for cultural identity, cultural and linguistic diversity” (UN 2003). However, as over digital media and devices, is severely limited 2015). (Mariani In addition, for a applications, language-based whichstate-of-the-art would foster theiruse enableand digital languagediversity , in the sameway, in we need - - - - -

Linguapax Review 4 · 19 10 Excellence the META-NET Networkof is still under development languages.for major out by According to a research carried However, despite its increasing penetrationindailyapplications, Technology Language languages. “bigger” same technological level asthoseof the necessarily let these lesser-used have languages access to the resources tools and of diversity, language preserve especially languages, and regional minority and we must languages, see 2015, instance for and Mariani cultures and of fostering nologies formultilingualism enabling the and preservation Tech Language role of the crucial (for areview of vices using their naturallanguage an diversity. digital language Technology,Language It represents thus, of is a cornerstone dialogue andcohesion. and social knowledge different linguistic backgrounds, andthus foster exchange of contribute to socialinvolvement. It can enablericher interaction among peoplefrom over across nationalboundaries. the Internet It can enable e-Participation, and thus transactions tion. Itcanopenupthepossibilities making purchasesfor perform and content accessible, e.. retrieval andmachine transla though cross-lingual information extraction tools. Technology translators orinformation Language language can make ized interfaces, aswell assearch engines, automatic speechsynthesis, recognitionand checkers, suchnatural language, as spelling and grammar electronic dictionaries, local encompasses softwaredata and that allow the automatic recreation of processing and Technology Language (LT). broadly term This by some kind of tion, aresupported ones suchcomplex as writing emailstomore as listening toautomatic speechtransla everyday tasks taking place over from assimple ones such the Internet, majorityof The technology. of support tobewidely used digitally, RMLscan start andthis requires the become available if open data(Soria,2014), but this data canonly good-quality quantities of large ity of onthe availabil depends applications crucially language-based RMLs: development of intoavicious circle for betweenrelationship digitalusability digital readinessand turns to developbetter new and applications, will foster even which inturn wideruse. This exploited be to available readily and easily become data flourishes. Digital resentation and thus widely digitally is usable,technologicallya language its supported digital rep The lesser extent,Frisian. Basque,Galician, Welsh Catalan, to a and withthenotableexceptions of cal support, weak technologi RMLs is affected European by the problemof study, the majority of French better board supporting regionallanguages akey isnotalwaysThis the case, see for instance the recent battle for theof adoption available toolsandtechnical support forothermajorlanguages. of to be used digitally,language it has tobe“digitally ready”, i.e. it must enjoy the range 11

un-nouveau-modele-de-clavier-informatique http://www.afnor.org/liste-des-actualites/actualites/2015/novembre-2015/respect www.meta-net.eu enabling technology digital readiness digital readiness of a language is inextricablylinked to its alanguage digital presence: whenever of en fwhich speakers caninteract with machinesde and by meansof 11 umntdi h ulctoso 30 “Lan , culminated in the publications of AA.VV 10 . Accordingtothe META-NET 05.I we want tosave and . 2015). If -de-l-ecriture-francaise-vers------

Linguapax Review 4 · 20 met. are needed to developCareful considerationandplanning in order for aroadmap digital is not impossible for languages, as long assome minimal conditions are going technologies language - can be daunting. However,to availability and development of terminology, etc. their digitalencoding, lack scriptsand of of cess, problemsinterms digital dividefrom -ranging technological challenges connectivity and terms. The ac inthe digital world. need to begiven Smalllanguages engaged the voice,to get in as possible.as manylanguages for Itisbymeans simple, no a minoritylanguage, for Diversity,in orderto increase Digital Language must be enabled technology language and digital devices, on the Internet languages i.e. to increase In orderthe presence of some economicinterest. mostly invest of inlanguages multilingualism fortheir business but they of to recognize the importance starting to morelanguages.technology Some major companies, mostly from the US, are now enough to justify for moreinvestment development is good and forenlargingthe of only. languages However,user for ahandful of it must be recognized that their level the overalland applications in imbalances striking final a for acceptable qualityis final still far frombeingaperfect solution formultilingualism. As everyone knows, there are Despite having over improved the last decades, enormously Technology Language is being used,even inconfrontationwithmuch morewidelyusedlanguages. Machine Translationis available forthat same it language, will keep the other hand,if and may into the loop eventually thus language get leading to digital extinction. On be used inthe latest byvoice applications; it will be replaced another language-based or Technology, quality Language does not enjoy alanguage good it won’tdevelopment. If technological high quality LT is required to keep up with the pace of development of However, it must a bigas challenge well, be recognized that this represents as fast must receiveration acrosslanguages moreattention. Research transfer between along with increased collabo the languages andtechnology digital means. through preservation language on also and less-resourced or languages we development shouldfocus evensmaller and/ for fostering technology moreon META-NETThe study described above plans, clearlyshows term long our that,in is, languages digitallyendangered infact,significantlylarger. number of the study (Rehm et al. 2014), demonstrates, drastically,recently update of that the real tial resources. Othershave basic resources but semantic methods are still far away. A substantial gaps. lack basictechnologies Manylanguages fortext analytics and essen areas, andapplication languages others,fewa larger for usuallysmallerlanguages, have quality software andresources available there are good far frombeing perfect. While is English for buteven theotherlanguages support areas,the four of is ahead English in between the various support and areasaredramaticalarming: languages nology community differences in tech language to another, and aboutdramaticalarming Technologyhow variesLanguage study reports considerably support from one The technologies. language sufficient of interms support of lack of because extinction digital of risk at are languages European 29 language, EU official each for one 2012), Uszkoreit and (RehmPapers” White guage advancing the sustainability of less widely used languages inthedigitalworld. lesswidely usedlanguages advancing thesustainabilityof - - - -

Linguapax Review 4 · 21 12 modules. MOOC the Training Through Programme, of able onlineunderthe form by theprojectisrepresented Training a that willbemadeavail Programme coreof The education sector inthe adult asastrategic partnership pean Commissionunder Erasmus+ programme 2015 and funded by in September the Euro project is athree-year project started The motivating themtoachieve thisgoal. digital content, sharing at thesametime creating and of will put themintheposition RMLswiththeintellectual practical skillsthat and circle by empowering speakers of contribute to breaking the “low - low digitalrepresentation digitalreadiness” vicious the aimof long-term The Technology.guage video email users send 204.000.000 messages, new andYouTube users upload 72 hours of Twitter content, users tweet 277.000 times, Facebook users 2.460.000 share pieces of speakers produce data, at anincredible pace. minute, It has been estimated that every speakers asdataproducers. Weby unleashing the power of are digital “Tom Thumbs”: this can be offered strong commercial interest for big companies. A way out of not of Technologies Language smaller languages, for asthey are voted to the development of becomes widely and easily available,guages but little public privateor resources are de digital content in regionalandminoritylan can be better provided if logical support Technologies.by Language be supported As we have techno argued, language-based languages, their use and usability over and throughdigital devices needs to the Internet smaller(i.e. regional, minority,To orminoritised) of increase the digital representation the handsof theirspeakers The DigitalLanguage Diversity Project: puttingthefate of languages in out, itmightbetoolate. fectively is not immediately carried carefully planned andfocused intervention now, if we don’tbetter-resourced act quickly ones. and ef the moment Therefore, isnow: if the technological development available for tokeep upthe pace of used languages digital divide the bylanguage deepen making the possibility more remote for lesser delay Atthe same time, in development further would term. least only not inthe short applications, it cannot beexpected these solutions be nicely offered to the public, at digital language-based little economic interest playersto the major and developers of are of secondassumption isthatsince lesser used languages et al.2014). (Soria The opendata quantities of large on the availability depends of based applications crucially language- bottleneck: a major digitaldatarepresents the development of duction of Technologies, Language pro development of data-driventhe current of paradigm we The strategy propose here from starts two assumptions. The first one is that under 13 Source: Detailed information about the funding programme and the DLDP Consortium is available from the project website: http://www.dldp.eu 12 . And this data haseconomic value since data is what is needed to develop Lan https://www.domo.com/learn/data 13 . . Digital Language Diversity Project Project Digital LanguageDiversity -never-sleeps-2 (hereinafter DLDP) is to ------

Linguapax Review 4 · 22 use. They are clustered into three groups: a first group of indicators refers to refers indicators of group first a groups: three into clustered are They use. digital and alanguage (presence) of proxies both digitalrepresentation representing such indicatorsassociated with the scale are 2013) as(Kornai and (Gibson 2015). The et al. 2003)), previous workis basedon and “nine factors”(Brenzinger in thisarea Fishman 2001), updated by (Lewis and Simons2010) as EGIDS, and the UNESCO uses are possible. scaletolinguistic is inspired vitality assessment (such The as GIDS, digital notallcurrent acterising a 'digitally thriving' oneforwhich language, most if the 'pre-digital' level from1 to 7, with 1 representing and 7 charVitality Scale is graded associated indicators. DigitalLanguage The scale a set and of agraded consists of Vitality measuring tool being developed Digital Language byThe the DLDP project as well asmobilephones, smartphones, tablets, satellitenavigators, TV, Internet etc.). is present, used and usable overa language through digital devices (PCs the Internet of degree to their digitalusability. itwas Therefore, decided to developmeasuring the tool for a with respect languages measures for the propriate different conditions andneeds of must taketraining programme A thisvariabilityto deliverinto account, order in ap widespread. suchguages asBasque, Catalan, orBreton, for which andmore digital use is stronger on the other,to that be appear hardly used on the Internet; there are lan as Karelian usability which can be used over different languages digital media and devices (i.e., their them. Similarly, the extent to isobviouslydigital representation all of not the same for poor minority language, regionaland affecting problem every Despite general being a ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ alongthefollowing online. lines: ity languages Itwillbestructured minor Training wants toteachProgramme basic strategies to increasethepresence of guidelines educational practical activities,material and for the a mixtureof Through usercategories. of communities different and for types different languages/language digital readiness of urgently. more Eachmodule willberanked variable soastobesuitable for levels of niques are available, which media are moresuitable, which aspects are to be addressed online, and how their language to practically do it: which tools and tech presence of why how and willlearn toincreasethe minority languages and regional speakers of usability ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ help inovercomingspeakers explaining why intellectual barriers: is it important edutainment: ebooks, videogames, etc. bringing othersonourside:software andinterfaces'localizationprojects; asocialcommunity; creation of and Twitter and groups for the pages in minoritylanguages accounts managed Facebook focusing on the relevancehelp inbasic Social Mediamanagement: of audiomaterials such aspodcasts, web radio, YouTubehelp in creation of channels; textualcontents; help increationof tobedigitalandmotivatingfor alanguage themtocollaborate; ) varies from language to language: on the one hand there are languages such there arelanguages the onehand on ) varies tolanguage: language from of a language, for instance, the existence of Internet connection or the avail Internet for instance,a language, the existence of of digital vitality of languages, which in turn is defined as the extent to which to extent the as defined is turn in which languages, of digital digital ------

Linguapax Review 4 · 23 tends to suggest) for regional and minority language speakerscommunities and minority language and regional for in tends to suggest) Kits can beconceivedThe metaphor in as actionableguidelines (as the emergency thecontentprovided bywill thuscomplementandsupport theTraining Programme. need to be addressed first, which areas tools which aredifficulties, available.and The challenges Digitalthe Language Survivalare Kits which also but level, vitality language packs” forimproving“emergency indicating the actions to be undertaken the digital Kits” - isconceived Survival - named“DigitalLanguage set as a of instrument This vitalitylevel. digitallanguage ing theirlanguage by setting measures actions and theirlanguages forimprovthe appropriate tation of the digital represen to helpthem support communities guage a sustainable instrument previous sections, the DLDP project will make available toregionalandminoritylan described the in addition totheassessmentIn self-educational toolsand instruments 2017. aretobepublishedinFebruary thesurvey resultsof The is easily available and wouldinformation make the questionnaire unnecessarily long. since language, this or interfaces in the particular localised services ing the existence of easily retrievable in otherways. Forinstance, we deliberately left out questions address guage. We decided to givenot preference to questions that couldgive usinformation the lan that make use of and aboutanyknown digital resource language and services the digital abouthis/herpersonal use of information is focused on gathering part formant (age, sex, proficiency level in the use, language, frequency etc.). of The second the in on collecting basicinformation part ageneral consists of DLDPsurvey The digitalresourcesandmedia. of usability and availability and languages of use digital specifically addressing inquiries nolinguistic vitality, et al. 2013), and other such asthe ELDIA Barometer (Åkermark eth previouswork out in the area of carried is developed survey on the basis of The writing. veloped atthetimeof being de that is currently asurvey by means of investigation will be performed The BasqueandBreton. VitalityScale:Sardinian,Karelian, guage will be investigated in detail so asto precisely assess their position onthe Digital Lan use. and representation Four digitallanguage languages regional/minority EU of grees case studies, different de very representing tool will beappliedtoalimited number of the DLDP, Diversity During the the time Digital frame Language of Scale measuring tainment productsandservices). uses applications (e.g.and machine localised digital services, translation,edu- of ranges digital media and devices, but it is so in a full-fledged way, enjoying the widest possible digital prestige with the indicatorscorrelates of lastgroup isused social media.The on the language there are e-books, ,is used for texting and emailing, on websites, if blogs, if related tothe indicatorsis of writing the standardisedfonts forlanguage. Asecond group ability of order to identify current gaps andareaswhere action canand needs to be taken, and gaps to identify order current of a language, and are a sign of a language that not only is indeed used on a language and areasign of a language, of ult n muto digitaluse of amount and quality of a language: if and how and much language a if language: a of ------

Linguapax Review 4 · 24 14 weWhat reallyneed is sustainableinitiatives, Indigenous for tocreate opportunities solutions.fix quick term, short are these application, multi-mediaDVD or or website course these things have benefits but they are not the Messiah. We don’t need another and digital worldinternet cannotsave us. cannot save They languages. Indigenous Of John(quoted Hobson by Kevin Scannell, (Scannell 2013), “The Using the words of Conclusions regionalandminoritylanguages. of Its innovative character needslies andin its specific focus on thechallenges particular Agenda the RoadmapNPLD European for Linguistic Diversity Roadmap initiatives,is intended to complement other previousandongoing suchas tangible and far-reaching measures for strengthening Europe's linguistic diversity. The asacontributionto concrete, recommendations are therefore to be regarded These andcreatestrongpressureonlocalpoliciesinmembercountries. somelanguages of languages, all to stopunder-representationorder in speakers for of ital opportunities equal dig foraEU-wide directive the attainment of the ground concerning to prepare ate digital presence to Europe'sregionalandminoritylanguages. intention here is The is toensure and adequate that proper actions are takento ensure inorder an appropri stakeholdersguage and policy makers, the Finally, DLDP will deliver a recommendations numberspecifically addressedof at lan time. investigatedbeyondadoption after theproject's life the projectand in the languages as possible,so astobe thus applicable to as manylanguages ensuring circulation and however, its andSardinian; model andstructure, Breton, Karelian will be designed the DLDP project, the Kit will be fully developed for Basque, In theframework of applications). advanced resources and tools (e.g. language a Wordnet, multilingualor MT corpora, sites,important main operating systems and social media interfaces, and developing suchenriching ascreating or having aWikipediainthe language, localizedversion of measures, digital vitality instead will require other types of lexicon). Higher levels of , resources (at least a corpus, somebasiclanguage aspellchecker,a and connectivity, todevelop andadoptastandardizedencoding, to develop astandardized capacity”: to ensure “digital survival digital vitality will require a level of of degree measure. the same intervention Forinstance, aminimal and therapeutic phases of Vitality Scale) - are respectively Kits and the Digital Language Survival the diagnostic Language Digital the - two tools the such, As levelidentified. vitality digital particular aboutconcrete initiativesactions and learn the on that canbeputinplacedepending 16 15 http://www.flarenet.eu/sites/default/files/D8.2b.pdf http://www.meta-net.eu/sra http://www.npld.eu/uploads/publications/313.pdf 15 , and the FLaReNet Blueprint for Actions and Infrastructures , andtheFLaReNet forActionsandInfrastructures Blueprint Roadmap for Digital Language Diversity Roadmap 14 , the META-NET Strategic 16 . . Its aim - - - -

Linguapax Review 4 · 25 Eisenlohr 2004 - Eisenlohr, P. revitalization and new technologies: “Language Cultures D. 2010-Crystal, Crystal et al. 2003 - Brenzinger, M.,Yamamoto,Brenzinger A.,Aikawa, N., Koundiouba,D., S. et al. 2013 - Åkermark, S.,Åkermark Laakso, J., A.,Toivanen, Sarhimaa, ., Küh References aslarge,well-developedand “digitallongevity” intheWeb. languages to have thestrategic opportunity thesame“digitaldignity”, “digital identity” language under-resourced an the thus affording language, the technological development of Planning could help directing ers and its cultural broader context, a Digital Language by its mother-tongue speak determined isprimarily alanguage Although the destiny of (for instance, should be channelled by and funding singling directed). out where effort isneeded diversity areaandhighlightareaswhere language intervention in acertain Diversity, DigitalLanguage tool toassess tobeused as amonitoring digital Index of collectively and collaboratively indicators could be used to buildand pursued. These Diversitytal Language we desirable and is also arguethatsuchinitiativean shouldbe Digi reliableindicatorsof developmentcontent. producing The of start and Internet to access in order the instruments with to endowthe minimal necessary languages and political involvedchallenges vast, is very and must be addressed at once in order technical of range digitalextinction. The at riskof -those more particular in guages minoritylan foster thedigitalpresence andof policy makersnational shouldsupport and International it. of reflection partial a at least at aim diversity,should and can we Diversity Digital Language the world’s will never be able to mirror Even linguistic if provided inthoselanguages. and content be accessing the Internet languages tation, in principle, to the number of Diversity DigitalLanguage is desirableandpossible, astherelimi is no A widening of rently possible. than those whichfor itiscur languages number of a larger for technology language embeds technology current revitalized andkept healthy,is possibleif turn this in and thatthey can besuccessfully through the Internet It isonlyby usingthe languages speaking again.” users tocommunicate language with each otherintheirnative tongue. To people get thropology, 18(3) thropology, communities”. and electronic mediation and the refiguring of Languages Meeting onEndangered Smeets, O.Zepeda, R.,and Minasyan, A.,Dwyer, A.,Grinevald, C., Krauss, M.,Miyaoka, O., Sakiyama, O., ac.at report to the ELDIA comparative tool, with reference Djerf, E., and K.ELDIA hirt, / o:301101, 2013. , pp. 339–361,2004. . Language vitality and endangerment. Ad Hoc Expert Group Group Hoc Expert Ad endangerment. Language vitalityand , March, 2003. Eulavibar toolkit: Practical guide tothe EuLaViBar toolkit: Practical Eulavibar Cambridge University Cambridge Press, 2010. . Permalink: . Permalink: http://phaidra.univie. nulRve fAn of Review Annual ------

Linguapax Review 4 · 26 Prado 2011 – Prado, D. Languages and cyberspace: Analysis of the general context and the general 2011 Prado –Prado, D. cyberspace: and Analysis of Languages Pimienta et al. 2009 – Pimienta, D., Prado, D., Blanco, A. Pimienta 2001 –Pimienta, D. la languean hors “Quel espace reste-t-il dans l'internet, Paolilloet al. 2005 – Paolillo, J., Pimienta, D., Prado, D. Nettle and Romaine 2000 – Nettle, D., Romaine, S. J.2015 – Mariani, Mariani Technologies “How Language Facilitate Can Multilingual MAAYA 2012– LT-Innovate 2013 – 2014 – Loh,J.,Loh andHarmon D. Harmon, 2005 – Loh,J., Harmon Loh and D. Harmon, biocultural diversity”. “A globalindexof Lewis et al. 2013 – Lewis, M. P, Simons, G. F., Fennig, C. D. (Eds.) Lewis and Simons2010 - Lewis, M.P.Simons, and G. F. “Assessing endangerment: death”. A.“Digitallanguage 2013–Kornai, Kornai dying languages”. K. D.2010b –Harrison, Harrison of tragedy “The K.D. 2010a–Harrison, Harrison D., linguistic andLoh2010 diversity:– Harmon, A new Harmon Loh, J. indexof “The Gibson 2015 - Gibson, M.“A Minority Framework forMeasuringthe Presence of Fishman 2001 - Fishman, J. A.editor. markets. languages. gered Ecological Indicators, 5 theWorld. of Expanding fishmans GIDS”. Available too: 4 Documentation andConservation, the world’s languages”. trends inthe status of quantitative measure of inCyberspace and CulturalDiversity in Cyberspace”. In Languages Matters, 2001. glaise etlaculture‘madeinusa’?” es/0014/001421/142186f.pdf dans l'internet. world’s languages. Cyberspace ism”. Moscow: Interregional Library CooperationCentre, pp. Library Moscow: Interregional 72-82,2011. Conference the International of in Cyberspace. Proceedings Linguistic andCulturalDiversity multilingualism in cyberspace. In E.Kuzmin and E. Plys (Eds.), of the importance unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0018/001870/187016f.pdf et perspectives. bilan l'internet: té linguistiquedans Proceedings of 3rd International Conference on Linguistic and Cultural Diversity in CulturalDiversity on Linguistic and Conference 3rdInternational of Proceedings LT-Innovate March Report, 2013. , pp. 48-60,2015. Seventeenth 2013. edition.SILInternational, UNESCO, 2005. Available too: WWFNetherlands, 2014. VV.AA http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8500108.stm Oxford:OxfordUniversity Press, 2000. LT-Innovate.eu , pp. 231-241,2005. . Net. Lang Revue Roumainedelinguistique,Revue 2(55) . , pp. 97-151,2010. The LastSpeakers Proceedings of 3rd International Conference on Linguistic Conference 3rdInternational of Proceedings : Status and potential of the european language technology languagetechnology the european potential of : Statusand : Réussir le cyberespace multilingue : Réussirlecyberespace , pp. 61–70,2015. Les CahiersduNumérique, 2(3-4) Can Threatened Languages Be Saved? Languages Be Saved? Can Threatened Biocultural diversity: threatened species, threatened endan Biocultural diversity: UNESCO, 2009. Availabletoo: . National Geographic, 2010. . NationalGeographic, http://unesdoc.unesco.org/imag PLoS ONE,8(10) aihn ocs h xicino the Vanishing voices: the extinction of Douze ans de mesure de la diversi ans de mesure Douze Mesurer la diversité linguistique ladiversité Mesurer . . . C&FEdition,2012. Ethnologue: Languages , pp. 103–120, 2010. , 2001. BBC News, , 2013. Multilingual Language http:// 2010. - - - - - .

Linguapax Review 4 · 27 UN 2003 – Turin2013 –Turin, M. Sutherland 2003 – Sutherland,. J. “Parallel extinction risk andglobaldistributionof etC., al.2014 Soria – Soria, N., Calzolari, Monachini,M., Quochi, V., Bel, N., Choukri, and social media”. Presentation languages Scannell 2013 –Scannell, K. “Endangered Rehm et al. 2014 – Rehm, G., I., Goetcherian, Uszkoreit, V., H., Dagan, M. Dogan, Rehm and Uszkoreit 2012 – Rehm, G., Uszkoreit, H. (Eds). geneva/official/dop.html the new millennium serve-endangered-languages 2013. Available too: andspecies”. languages uation, 48(4) community recommendations”. FLaReNet synthesis of K., J.,Mariani, Odijk, J., Piperidis, the S. resource Strategic Agenda: language “The Lesser-Used Languages, 2013. September Documentation of at the Workshop atINNETSummerSchoolon Technological Approaches to the org/proceedings/lrec2014/index.html Reykjavik, Iceland, May 2014, pp. 30-37, 2014. Available too: Languages in the LinkedComputing forUnder-Resourced Open DataEra rope’s in the Digital Age”. Languages Oeter, S., Gramstad, S. the META-NET “An Study “Eu UpdateandExtensionof U., C., Mermer, T., Váradi, Kirchmeier-Andersen, S., Stickel, G., Jones, Prys M., http://www.meta-net.eu/whitepapers/overview per Series: Europe’s Languages inthe Digital Age UN Declaration of principles - building the information society: aglobal challenge in principles - buildingthe information UN Declarationof , pp. 753-775,2014. . UNESCO, 2003. Available too: Globalization helps preserve endangered languages endangered preserve helps Globalization http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/globalizationhelps Nature, 423 Nature, . . , pp. 276-279,2003. rceig fthe Workshop on Collaborationand of Proceedings . , 2012. Berlin: Springer. Available too: . http://www.itu.int/wsis/docs/ Language Resources Evaland Language Resources META-NET White PaMETA-NET White http://www.lrec-conf. . Yale-Global Online, (CCURL 2014), -pre - - - -

Linguapax Review 4 · 28 2 1 relacionados retos los a estudio del alcances los a respecto reflexiones de serie una de Rising Voices“Lenguas publicado yaen lapágina Indígenas” encuentra se que (y Fundación Ford la Global y a Voices entregó se que final reporte lo expresado en el detallado En esta Linguapax, más contribución que para repetir futuras activistas. iniciativasinusuales que por futuros y a de inspiración e innovadorasservir pudieran estricto,do de experienciasexistentes como deaquellas cuenta diera tanto delrango detectadas en laregiónatravés de unamuestra que, sinserrepresentativa ensenti entre otros.de sistematizar, Se trataba tendencias las principales y caracterizar analizar de YouTube,de WikipediaoFirefox alalocalización adiversas lenguas originarias, que desdeiban laadministracióndecuentas de Twitter,en Facebook páginas ocanales con lasy los activistas involucrados fructífero eniniciativasque un diálogo entablara en la ciberesfera. una investigaciónSe proponía lenguas indígenas de tipo participativo de las crítica unamirada y a losprocesos solidaria de representación El reto era aportar y zapoteco. y profesores, alospueblosawajún, pertenecientes aymara, maya yucateco, misak,mixe antropólogos,por lingüistas, quedaríaintegrado abogadas, viembre de 2015, el grupo no originarios. de pueblos finales activistasde A y profesionistas principalmente,por un equipomultidisciplinariofue coordinar seleccionado para que estaría compuesto, un equipo de investigación sobreeste tipo de iniciativas.integrar Quien esto escribe Voices Global nización internacional el segundosemestre en AméricaLatina.En cación enlenguade2015, orga propia la sus idiomas y ejercer su derecho aunaeducación (TIC) fortalecer y para una comuni y la comunicación“nuevas”las llamadas tán adoptando tecnologías de la información es número creciente Un culturales de promotores y “militantes” de lenguas indígenas Leiden Genner LlanesOrtiz 3 AMÉRICA LATINA EN TORNO A LAS LENGUAS INDÍGENAS DE INVESTIGANDO PROYECTOS DIGITALES voces, entodas partes, aseroídas. las todas a ayuden que relaciones y herramientas,instituciones desarrollar para organización trabaja La ignoran. conversaciónla arrojando– línea lugaresen los global a luz gentey otrosque comunicaciónde medios menudo a profesor asistente dePatrimonio delosPueblos Indígenas enlaUniversidad deLeiden,enlosPaíses Bajos. México.Actualmentede es UniversidadCIESAS Ciudad Londres-Royal la el de en en y ReinoHollowayUnido el en Antropología Social por la Universidad de Sussex en el Reino Unido en 2010. Trabajó como investigador posdoctoral Estudiantes Indígenas de la Fundación Ford y paratambién ha Posgradosido becario del CONACYT.de Becas Recibió el gradode de DoctorPrograma en del apoyo el obtuvo 2001, En (UADY).Yucatán de Autónoma Universidad La red de activistas Global Voices, con sede legal en Amsterdam, Países Bajos, busca agrupar, conservar y amplificar la de Antropológicas Ciencias de Facultad la de yucateco, maya egresado antropólogo un es Ortiz Llanes Genner Ver: http://rising.globalvoices.org/lenguas/investigacion/informe/introduccion 1 , Antropólogo maya -Global Voices /Universidad de 2 hizopúblicaunaconvocatoria en la regiónpara / 3 ), intentaré desarrollar ), intentaré desarrollar - - - - -

Linguapax Review 4 · 29 6 5 4 de medios digitales. sistemáticaindígena sobreel fenómenode la apropiación tigación pesar de comúnmente trabajar como investigador, nuncano habíarealizado una inves de “activismo digital”. Esto incluye aquien esto escribe quien, a dades como formas activi estas sobre reflexionando y investigando experiencia lado,de otro por carecía, algún tipodeiniciativa riencia desarrollando materno; digitalenrelaciónconsuidioma Latina fue diverso campo de “activismo digital” de de América las lenguas originarias este indeterminado las características y analizar principales de a latareade abordar El equipo que se integró elestudio.conformarían tarde encontraría, relativamente nuevo de las iniciativas entre los protagonistas que digital” que interesaba a GlobalVoices, el ángulo de eramás impreciso y,abordaje más avanzarlos ylasactivistasmejor lascausasdefendidas por digitales o análogos, entender tanto para mejor laproblemáticade fondo comopara estratégica, sea a través de medios de forma de información análisis y la representación estas actividades es, sinembargo, el“infoactivismo”, esdecir,captura, elmanejo, la el políticas de la consecución base para de sus objetivos político-culturales. El foco de a ambientalistas, defensores de derechos humanos, documentalistas y organizaciones Tactical Tech (conocida tambiéncomo que con laorganización entre 2008colaborado y2010 había y la comunicación (TIC’s)de la información no me completo resultaba por ajena ya aéstas mismas.en torno Lanociónde “activismo” en relación aluso de tecnologías genas, proyectos de través inicio a el como así para micro-financiamientos de digitales do en laregión,principalmente a través de encuentros de lenguas con promotores indí Voicesque Global el trabajo de nombrar propias lasmaneras parte, venía desarrollan El encabezadorevelaba, en laregiónlatinoamericana. de Lenguas Indígenas” una por de la convocatoriadel “Activismouna exploración misma,el estudio proponía Digital iniciativacon lacomunidad de compromiso ( Fundación Global la por por administrado financiado y to Ford Voices, través su a de la investigación fue llevadase Como expuso líneasarriba, acabotravés de un proyec Antecedentes delainvestigación zar susidiomasatravés demediosdigitales. alosesfuerzos revitali de por activistascon lainvestigación indígenas futura en torno y traductor aymara, de Omasuyos en el altiplano boliviano; y Mónica Bonilla Parra, estudiante colombiana de colombiana estudiante Parra, Bonilla lingüística. Mónica y boliviano; altiplano el en Omasuyos de aymara, Almendra,traductor y Calambas Duvan México; Oaxaca, Mixe, Ayutla estudiante de misak de antropología, del cabildo ayuujk,Kurak Chak-Misak Misak lingüistaen Colombia; Rubén Hilare Quispe, lingüista Gil, Aguilar Yásnaya peruana; Autónoma de Querétaro, México; Liseth Atamain Uwarai, abogada awajún de la región San Martín en la Amazonía ver history”; El equipo estuvo conformado por: Pedro Cardona Fuentes, ingeniero zapoteco e investigador de la Universidad la de investigador e zapoteco ingeniero Fuentes, Cardona Pedro por: conformado estuvo equipo El Una descripción más amplia de la inspiración y objetivos del colectivo puede consultarse en “Tactical Tech: Ashort El nombre puede traducirse como“Colectivo de Tecnología Táctica”. tiene entre sus principalestareasfacilitarelusodetecnologías digitales http://tacticaltech.org/tactical 6 . Si bien cada una y cada uno de los integrantes deéste tenía expe de losintegrantes y cadauno . Sibiencadauna Tactical Tech -tech-short-history ) entonces con sede enBrighton,Reino Unido. outreach ) denominada Rising Voices.) denominada Des 5 . En el casodel“activismo. En Tactical TechnologyCollective ------4

Linguapax Review 4 · 30 contactos y capacidad de negociación de individuos notables (porejemplo,contactos y capacidad denegociación Rodrigo de lasintuiciones,incluso proyectosson partir a personales, experimentos, construidos en ocasiones, incluso “militantes”, a favor de la lengua Los más originaria. destacados nibles. de las iniciativas Buenaparte puestas la lupacuentan bajo con clarosliderazgos, se con corresponden ejemplos claramente identificables en el universo de casos dispo ”, y otra en la que se define por el proyecto. Ambas maneras de entender el activismo diferentes de comprender el “activismo”: una en la que éste se define por el/la “activis La diferencia defondo, desde mipuntode expresarse comodosmaneras vista, podría de las trayectoriasba aentender el activismo individuales apartir de sus protagonistas. innovación iniciativas de ciertas digital, Eddie apunta de el trabajo foco propuestopor más interesado en entender los procesos que llevadohabían adopción e alaaparición, la definición de la unidad de análisis para el estudio. Mientras quien esto escribe estaba Eddie Ávilarespecto y lavisiónplanteadaporal“activismovidor digital” consistió en momento de la investigación,diferencia la principal de enfoque En cierto entre un ser Definiendo “activismo” y “digitalidad” nuestra muestra. digital” lacualinfluyóenseleccióndeloscasosqueformaron Voices,Global de entender el “activismo particular una forma Eddiehadesarrollado y con activistas indígenas contacto desempeñado como principal de organizaciones latinoamericanas.las lenguas indígenas a proyectos del rol digitales en torno Apartir Voices,Global Ávila. fue Eduardo regiones distintas en México.de contactoel lado institucional, Nuestroprincipal por unió alatareacolectiva deresidencia: Bolivia, Perú, desde sus lugares y tres Colombia, to alastareas(Slack, Trello, GoogleDrive, del equipo se entre otros). integrante Cada y utilizamos diversasdar seguimien en líneapara de coordinación Skype herramientas deestos meses,de 2016. nio A lolargo condujimosdiscusiones colectivas através de El equipo de investigación inicióactividades en noviembre de 2015 y concluyó en ju nacional. enel contexto diagnóstico de su la situación lengua enfrentada pormaterna particular sobre elnivelloraciones deavanceexperiencia que y su dela encabezaban, yprogreso basa exclusivamente en los testimonios de las personasentrevistadas, sus vapropias visitas de campo.para o cara, Portanto,lo que compone elestudio se información la a cara entrevistas hacer para suficientes recursos con contó se resultados,no de trega en la para internacional agencia y lostiemposestablecidos la económico recibido por ocasiones a través de llamadas ateléfonos celulares. Por las características del apoyo Las entrevistas através se realizaron de y en unpar de Skype, Hangouts, WhatsApp las preocupaciones de activistas al diseño de la investigación. y promotores indígenas cipal ejercicio de carácterparticipativo delestudio, es decir,directa de laincorporación serie dediscusiones con elequipo deinvestigadores-activistas. Este resultó serelprin deuna quien esto partir escribe a por guion elaborado deun partir a Esta serealizó al “activismo fue la entrevista semi-estructurada. digital” de lenguas indígenas torno capturar lacomplejidadde las experiencias en utilizadapara principal La herramienta corresponden también con contextos sociales específicos y, por lo general, se apoyan se general, lo específicos por sociales y, contextos con también corresponden Pérez enMéxico,Álvarez en Perú). Irma o individualesembargo, Sin se losliderazgos Eddie ha resultado un aliado invaluableresultado unaliado ha dediversos ------

Linguapax Review 4 · 31 7 la regiónandina.Reconociendo numérica debíaserreconocida que su importancia y México en digitales iniciativas de concentración significativa una existía geográfico, investigaciónla de posiblescasospara encontró tambiénque, desde el puntodevista equivalentes presentadas como diccionarios, entre otros.reconocimiento primer Un de y listas sus de palabras enlínea,lageneración tencia de estaciones indígena de radio la publicaciónde memes, breves en Twitter poemas onarraciones o Facebook, la exis neros (tradicional, hiphop, cumbia, entre otros), la ocasionalexpresiónde opiniones o o frases en palabras podcasts y en videos, la distribución de canciones de variadosgé de pronunciación la enseñar de intentos aislados destacaban inicialmente identificar del uso de medios digitales. apartir práctica lingüística indígena Entre las que pudimos tipode conocimiento o que existen decenas de intentos cierto de registrar oexpresar a debe se significativamente. Esto disparaba se elegibles casos de universo estudio,el el para “digitalidad” de y “activismo” de generales parámetros los definidos vez Una poco exploradashastaentonces. gitales tratando de inusualesidentificar para formas que ilustrar sirvieran posibilidades decisión Una que se tomó entonces el tendería espectro a ampliar de las iniciativas di ositios interactivosprogramas y/o enseñanza de la promoción lenguas para indígenas. caracterizan elcampomediático que animaciones,electrónicos,informáticos, posibles formatos entreotros programas (o “vlogs”), videos musicales, documentales, cortos publicaciones interactivas, libros mente incluía estrategias más creativas como,ejemplo, por lacreacióndevideo blogs Se notaba así que “lo digital” en el activismo indígena identificado hasta entonces rara documentación lingüística y cultural que medio ya de por se textos realizaban escritos. únicamente el proponían uso de cámaras digitales como unaadiciónalastareas de con muchapueblos aparecían menorfrecuencia, y cuando algunasaparecían,éstas se iniciativas lingüístico de las comunidades de registro audiovisual y digital del legado el narios) y/opara uso de las redes sociales (y casi exclusivamente, de Facebook). Otras proyectos la creaciónde páginas y sitios para web (blogs, portales, páginascondiccio de las llamadas“redes sociales”. La mayoríade las iniciativas se presentaban como aquello que tenía unavida“enlínea”,es decir, a través que tenía presencia en internet, web de Rising Voices se notaba que éste tendía a entenderse casi exclusivamente como revisarel universoAl delasiniciativas“activismo consideradascomo digital”enelsitio el procesomásqueindividuo tuvo tambiénsusexcepciones. que se condujo laselección de loscasoslamuestra, de destacar aunque el principio sonancia y concreción. Al final, fue a partir del reconocimiento de esta última dinámica colectivasdonde lavisióndelosindividuos encuentra re deorganización, en formas llamados “ebooks”, quecuentan con diversos formatos como .pdf,(los formatos .awz, .epub,.mobi,etc.).diversos en electrónicos libros y otros), entre (mp3, digital audio digitales, datos de bases y datos Spotify, etc.), Twitter, Soundcloud, Tumblr, Instagram, Facebook, Wikipedia, sociales”,como “redes llamadas las utilidades, programas, software), imágenes digitales, video digital, juegos de = “applications” video,en inglés páginas y sitios término web del “apps”, (incluyendo diminutivo o también “software”, como también (conocidos tipos “smartphones”. Los medios digitales más comunes incluyen, desde luego, programas computacionales de diversos pantallas de anuncios electrónicos, y los teléfonos celulares, particularmente los llamados teléfonos inteligentes o las electrónicos, libros de lectores los tabletas, las fotográficas, cámaras las video, de cámaras las también pero operaciones y funciones diversas.a como así Los imágenes, equipos e sonidos, que textos, a hoylugar dar día para un 1), funcionan el en y de 0 manera(el basadas dígitos “digital”dos señales en consistente binario, sistema incluyende las transmisión computadoras,y/o recepción producción, registro, el en funcionamiento su basan que “Lo digital” o “la digitalidad” se refiere, en estricto sentido, a aquellas señales, aparatos y/o medios electrónicos medios aparatos y/o señales, a aquellas sentido, estricto en refiere, se digitalidad” “la o digital” “Lo 7 . Aúnmásescasas eran laspropuestasdediseño ------

Linguapax Review 4 · 32 8 y evaluación de intentos e operación de varias formas identifica implementación, de procesos los sobre objetivos.sus reflexiona motivacionesy documento sus El cación, las características comunes y diversas de estas iniciativas, de partiendo su auto-identifi de Rising Voicesen lapágina y del cual estuve a cargo.y Enél exponen se exploran se encuentra disponible enextenso que, comose mencionó líneas arriba, en elreporte espacios y se visibilicen en laesfera digital. Este se encuentra contenido tinente ganen nativosque losidiomas para indígenas yno delcon que actores indígenas encabezan de losquince Del análisis estudios de casosedesprende uncomplejoretratodeltrabajo de textos, videosypodcasts. digital publicación y sociales, redes en grupos de animación digitales, gráficos otros y idiomas, transmisión radialen línea de lenguas indígenas, diseño y difusión de memes de enseñanza aplicaciones para ción de contenidos en lenguas indígenas, desarrollo de video-blogs y videos educativos,logos, desarrollo de agrega creaciónde portales aná digitales de enseñanza, respaldodigital de materiales lingüísticos desde formatos incluyen: de aplicaciones,localización navegadoresy sitios web, creacióndemateriales ma. Lasactividadescon elmundo relacionadas digitalque estos proyectos representan esfuerzos varios creación ydifusióndematerialeseneste de localización, idio integra y,lengua uiotocolombiana, enla análoga forma último, por iniciativa la proyecto que publica materiales en distintas variantes del náhuatl y otras lenguas mexicanas, el yuunaiki Vamos Mixteco aAprender de Wikipedia guaraní al zación Memes redes sociales y mediosproducidosenvariantes diversasagrega demixteco, los las iniciativas digitales del proyecto Maya la localizacióndeFirefoxal quechua chankaa travésrealizada de ecuatoriano,en elproyecto lasredessocialesintegradas en náhuatsalvadoreño, el portal ElChilamBalam de ellos) de cadafueron lossiguientes: uno cuenta la de Twitter en maya yucateco m náhuat salvadoreña,náhuatl mexicana(variantes diversas), quechua, uitoto (variante kichwa,guaraní, mapuche, maya tz’utujil, maya yucateca, mixteca (variantes diversas), dequince iniciativascon laslenguas que trabajan un grupo por tra quedó conformada Finalmente, después de variasrevisiones, y auto-selecciones negociaciones Las iniciativas digitales bajolalupa regiones menosrepresentativas, comoCentroaméricayelConoSur. dentro de la muestra, el estudio se propuso también localizar ejemplos significativos en ɨ parte enelestudio. internet,al entre otros), simplementeo protagonistassus que a debido decidieron ejercer derechosu tomarno a acceso irregulartrabajo, de cargas(fuertespromotores sus encontraban se que las en personalescircunstancias ic css ncamne rpets aa nerr a usr tveo qe e dscao dbd a las a debido desechados ser que tuvieron muestra la integrar para propuestos inicialmente casos Cinco n ɨ ), wayuunaiki y zapoteca (variante diiste). Los casos elegidos (y el foco particular en la variante peruana, la radio digital enmayaradio la yucateco variantela en peruana, para el Mundo para la enseñanzadel wayúu para el Mundo para colombiano, larevista digital Yadiko Ukuri , la página de Facebookpágina , la del que trabaja en la repatriación digital de materiales grabados de digital de materiales grabados que en la repatriación trabaja en unadelasvariantes oaxaqueñas, elcanalde YouTube Vikipetã Kichwa.Net , la aplicación digital para dispositivosdigital para aplicación , la móviles Tz’utujil Colectivo TzunhejékatColectivo que integra diversos que integra materiales en kichwa , el portal , el portal Kimeltuwe Ndatiaku Tu’unNdatiaku Savi que difunde materiales Radio Yúuyum Radio delenguamapuche, Lliwllapaq Runasimi Lliwllapaq Zapoteco 3.0 8 ,lamues , lalocali Quechua Yolitia que que @ ------,

Linguapax Review 4 · 33 últimos dos años. Uno de los términos usados para auto-definirse más cercanos a la a cercanos más auto-definirse para usados términos los de Uno años. dos últimos reflexión la y eventos los de RisingVoicespromovidael programa por enlos de laslenguasindígenas en torno partir a medida buena en tracción, cierta generar a za no indígenas” suelen identificarse como “activistas”. No obstante, comien el término lenguas de digital “activismo del protagonistas los de mayoría la Significativamente, de losproyectos. especializados algunos para zas estratégicas se ha podidocontarconprogramadores Mixteco). Por otrolado, sólo de manera muy a través puntual y generalmente de alian sus proyectos ejemplo,(por ColectivoTzunhejékat, Kimeltuwe yVamosAprender a hacer visual yestéticamente atractivosticipación dediseñadoresyartistas, que logran versas,talento,menor algunasconmáso las que más destacan pero cuentan par con la publicaciones académicas y las redes sociales. Este empeño se resuelve de maneras di poco frecuentes,o negados comolosmediosmasivos decomunicación (radio),las contextos en materna lengua la usar de trata se Aquí significativa. lingüísticamente y proyectos el objetivo es promover más importante un tipo de comunicación cultural yo, Para y el inspiración guía para aprendizaje y la práctica de la lengua indígena. otros estosdigitales proyectos por producidos deapo tienen como objetivoservir principal intención pedagógica. Los medios medios y contenidos digitales con unainnegable de la producciónde de las iniciativas apartir Un númeroimportante se estructuran los casosdeKimeltuwe, Wayuunaiki paraelMundo, Yadiko yVikipetã. Uruki que su dinamismo fue trabajo enpareja,notable más destacaronpor la colaboración suelen auto-definirse como “proyectos colectivos”. Sin embargo, una de de las formas individuos.destacado papel de ciertos Porla muestra los casos que integran lo general, el estos en también notorio es aunque colectivos, esfuerzos como más auto-definen se proyectos Otros Maya Tz’utujil. y 3.0 Zapoteco como casos en claramente refleja su empuje destacar y creatividad.por nuestra En se muestra, este tipo deliderazgo proyectosen ocasiones ciertos individuales logran se mencionó líneasarriba, Como Entre activismo, activación yrevitalización de la investigación, mencionado. loscuáles se describen en mayordetalle en el informe hallazgos significativos más los de algunos brevemente describen se continuación, A el potencial de de tecnologías la apropiación digitales para larevitalización lingüística. de nuevosa partir deberían serahondados y mejor equipadosentender esfuerzos por que aspectos sobresalen documento este en exploran se que especificidades las Entre Rising GlobalVoices. en la región,principalmente se a travésbrindar propone del proyecto de micro-fondos hacer másrelevantede recomendaciones a encaminadas elapoyoVoices que Global munitarios,y losaprendizajes. serie hacer una para loslogros Estoselementos sirven a estos obstáculos, la relaciónque los proyectos guardan respecto de sus contextos co losretostecnológicos que enfrentan, lasrespuestas que los activistasdado han reporta ubica las colaboraciones que hacen posible la existencia de estos proyectos. También noción de “activista”noción fue “militantes lengua” ( de la Kichwa.Net ). Este término está, ). Este término ------

Linguapax Review 4 · 34 ietw,dnes la lcncmet el egaycluad ítrCrlfcon Kimeltuwe, donde se alían el conocimiento de la lengua y cultura de Víctor Carilaf de caso el significativamente es iniciativas.Éste las en creativas respuestas y vaciones de perspectiva inno de y puntos de la alianza vista entre éstos los que suelen generar especial. Son losintercambios algo parece aportar zantes ymiembrosno-indígenas del proyecto, indígenas de los integrantes con aliados, pero lacolaboración simpati el diseño deestas En estrategias y contenidos cuenta muchola creatividad y el talento las historiaspropias. que tiene que ver con las tradiciones, las prácticas ceremoniales, la música, las fiestas y resulta más querida y popular,los activistas tantopara sus seguidores como para es la ytiemposdistintos.en lugares Porsecuencia de una grabada lado,otro temática la que un aire naturaly ameno,en el video blog tengan a pesarde ser evidente que se trata estrictamente la pronunciaciónque del wayuunaiki.sus diálogos logrado han Ambos ta atractivoes que las conversaciones ceremoniosas,solemnes ni son no se corrige ni proyecto Ramírez e Ignacio Epinayu, lo que resul de los “youtubers” wayúus Karmen entretenido en el caso Wayuunaikiparticularmente el para Mundo. Sobre este último efecto en la iniciativatido del humor también ha surtido Maya Tz’utujil y ha resultado nomás, todos son bienvenidos”. Hacer publicaciones y producir contenidos con sen tancia de esta estrategia desde el saludo mismode su página en Facebook: “es broma aspectosexplotar lúdicos. Porejemplo, Quechua Memes, que hace evidente la impor Algunas delasiniciativas que registran unmayorimpacto cuantitativo destacan por que ensímismosdemuestran elpotencialeimpactoqueestetipodeactivismo tiene. al frente delasiniciativas digitales, procesosdere-aprendizajelalengua se generan lengua yculturadesuspueblos. másjovengeneración casos dondela En que eslaestá colaborativo, alianzas estratégicas, talento creativo y un sofisticado conocimiento de la trabajo con tecnológica sofisticación la sustituyen activistas los básicos, son equipos indígenas. los lenguas Donde en específico atractivosfoco digitales un medios con de y la producción ausencia de espacios de el capacitación manejo de para herramientas ten la tareaun proyecto de iniciar digital, reto que el principal encuentran reside en la acome indígenas activistas los Cuando Latina). América en identificó estudio el que proyectos de nuestra en todoslosdemásproyectos muestra (así comogeneralmente capacidad einventivaExiste unaamplia los que animan entre los actores indígenas hablantes delenguasindígenas. lengua constituye un actodedesafíoanteel racismo que sigue contra los imperando (Yolitia)el lingüista Victorianode nahua la Cruz publicar de manera electrónica en su la tecnología digitalconseguir para objetivos diversos. actores como Así, ciertos para creativade mejor de de entenderapropiarse estos esfuerzos sea en relaciónalaforma la idea de “activación” quizás de las lenguas en el mundo digital. De ahí que la forma con relación en entendido ser a tendía reflexión, de espacios en empleaba se cuando “activismo”, ejercicio de auto-presentación fue término el de“revitalizadores”.El conscientizadores y localizadores.más comúnmente usado eneste Pero eltérmino educadores, fueron: auto-identificarse promotores,de dinamizadores, comunicadores, laUniversidaddos por delPaís Vasco, enelestadofrecuentes español. Otrasmaneras organiza intercambio e capacitación reflexión, de espacios a asociado parte, otra por la creatividad y destreza de Fiestóforo. O del proyecto Yadiko Ukuri,donde el cono ------

Linguapax Review 4 · 35 puestas han logrado en unperiodo relativamente puestas logrado han corto. Elestudio revela, sin embargo, como lacadavez mayor visibilidad, autonomía,experiencia y adopción que sus pro continuidadpropia pese a lasadversidades y la faltade apoyo técnico y económico, así iniciativas digitales que entre sus principales éxitos se encuentran, sin duda,tantosu estas de promotores los conversaciones con las sostenidas de partir a afirmar, posible auto-evaluación haceruna de los alcances desutrabajo.protagonistas los propios Es Paramedir laefectividad de estos proyectos de activismo digital, el estudio solicitó a proyectos muyde evaluar la manera clara tenga el impactooéxitodesus proyectos. jimos antes,de los casi ninguno intención pedagógicaeinclusorevitalizadora, unaclara Porúltimo, sibienlamayoríade los proyectos incluidos en el estudio tienen, como di de mapuche queresidenenBuenosAires, enBarcelonayParís. tenido el proyectoreacción similarha Una Kimeltuween internet. entre los hablantes seguir contando consus transmisiones enlíneayconlospodcasts que vanquedando quienes inclusoofrecido ayudar han con donativos alaradio enespecie, contalde puesta muy res entusiasta de los mayas yucatecos residentes en laBahíade San Francisco, una reporta que Yúuyum, Radio de el es significativo caso Un proyectos. estos uso y respuesta le dan alosmateriales, contenidos y publicaciones que en se originan enlascapitalesregionalesylosEstadosUnidos, indígenas lasque más migrantes másinsospechados.en los lugares De hecho, son lascomunidades transnacionales de sido recibidoconmucho interés y entusiasmo hablantes de las respectivaspor lenguas Aprender Mixteco, Wayuunaiki el para Mundo, Yolitia, Yadiko Ukuriy Zapoteco 3.0 ha Balam, Kimeltuwe, NdatiakuTu’un Savi, Quechua Memes, RadioYúuyum, Vamos a de El Chilam El trabajo “desterritorializados”. de una uotroforma turaleza “virtual”, yse esté donde se esté, los proyectos digitales tienden a ser,cualquier forma, su na por o temporal.De comunidadpuede hablantede la lenguaserpermanente originaria se cotidianamente habla En losotroscasos,la lengua propia. la residencia en alguna económica, en un contexto donde no migración residen, razones laboralesopor por que los activistas digitales, general lo por lengua originaria, hablantes dealguna que son interesantes en lamayoríade lascaracterísticas Una que se advierten de loscasoses de telefoníacelularyinternet. persiste aún y muchas continúan teniendo comunidadespésimas conexiones indígenas el compromiso suplen con creces las limitaciones tecnológicas, pero labrecha digital de acceso gratuito.con dichasliarizado herramientas La imaginación,lacreatividad y en uso provienen del mundo del software libre. Peroeso para hace falta estar fami digitales tienden a seraquellos donde lasherramientas y técnicamente máslogrados más versátil.la más altani etc) siempre esla no Losproyectos más creativosque son video,y dad de la calidad maniobra de los medios digitales producidos (imagen, audio, básicas,de los proyectos en el uso de se basado herramientas han lo que por su capaci de otros,de estas ninguna iniciativas su potencial. Buena parte alcanzar podido hubiera mientos y habilidadestécnicas de unososinlosconocimientos lingüísticos y culturales dar contenidopara alaversión guaraníde Wikipedia. Queda claro que sin los conoci comunicaciónextraordinaria transoceánica entre Paraguay ycolaboración yLituania viable el proyecto conjunto. Oaúnmásdel proyecto Vikipetã, donde se registra una cimiento técnico de Laura Areizay los lazoscomunitarios de Ever han hecho Kuiru otras pistasque deberán serseguidas en estudios posteriores. Entreestas se encuentran ------

Linguapax Review 4 · 36 pacio, evaluarpara el éxito de estas iniciativas el punto que considero crucial reside en Finalmente,de latécnica másallá en elciberes didáctica la mayoro visibilidad lograda tamente vinculadoasutrabajodigital. en elestudio pero que se encuentra no explíci participantes de losactivistas indígenas turales y lingüísticos de los pueblos indígenas, un objetivo buena parte por compartido cul derechos los con relacionadas públicas políticas de formación la en influencia de estrategias identificar en interés un también aprenderlo.Existe en genuino interés un que tiene entre el público no-indígena comosegunda lengua, particularmente indígena si su efectividad también se expresa en el mejoramiento del aprendizaje de un idioma gunas iniciativas tener un alto impacto en redes pero aúnfalta determinar han logrado mejor laefectividad pedagógica de los medios digitales producidos ensus idiomas. Al existe interés entre un claro quienes encabezan lasiniciativasentender por analizadas Portecnológicatraducción y y apropiación está pendiente de desarrollarse. ejemplo, que los procesos de implicados. tanto o másgrande Este campo tiene una importancia de los sabereslingüísticos y culturales o enloscomplejos procesos de representación y menos en la problemática específica de la documentación y la pedagogía de la lengua, este estudio ha sidoen la dimensiónmáspragmática, tanto técnica como organizativa, de foco el Ciertamente, colaborativa. investigación de como así reflexión, y nización de análisis dentrode procesos más ampliosde orga y herramientas falta información revitalización. Para entender mejorlarelaciónentre digitalidad y revitalización hace su registrar, para garantiza de Américano las lenguasoriginarias enseñarydifundir cuentra una advertencia respecto sí mismo,a que por elusodetecnologías digitales Sin embargo, aGlobal Voices entre la serie de recomendaciones entregadas se en relacionados conéstas. creativos de capturar, comunicar y promover sus prácticas lingüísticas y los derechos perocomo digital, la brecha nuevosse ha expuesto aquí, diversos están desarrollando modelos actores indígenas superar para suficiente sido ha no indígenas regiones de la tecnología dinámica. Elabaratamiento y su masiva difusiónencomunidades y al mismotiempomuchoresponde aunalógicadeacciónmásfragmentada,pero más las “redes sociales” en lasegundamitaddedécada2010s . Elpresente momento sobre todo en la etapa previa alaweb 2.0 y a laexplosiva de expansióny hegemonía cesos y de la comunicación,de las “nuevas”apropiación tecnologías de la información que se encargue del tema. que Existen otrostrabajos se ocupado de los pro han gación se trata, enabsoluto, enAméricaLatina.No de lenguas indígenas investi delaprimera aproximación apenas unaprimera representa al campodel “activismo llamado digital” El estudio que se describe sucinta Linguapax en esta de manera contribución para A manera deconclusión por estosactores. diversas. Todas de evaluar losalcances de la revitalizaciónpromovida estas son formas proyectos mismos,utilidadla decontenidos, o audiencias materialesymediospara digitales,aspectos de como laadaptabilidad las herramientas la consolidación de los su eficacia simbólica para romper el estigma de ser hablante de las lenguas originarias lenguas las de hablante ser de estigma el romper para simbólica eficacia su ------

Linguapax Review 4 · 37 teriales ymediosdigitales. mayoruna de contar de AméricaLatinainclusoapesar originarios de ma producción de losidiomas e inviabilidad,intergeneracional transmisión continúenafectandola subdesarrollo inferioridad, asociaciónentre indigeneidad, ylaperniciosa hegemónicas esta meta, del continente.es que probable el prestigio de las lenguas De no lograrse -

Linguapax Review 4 · 38 dcto.I at fiashv ogbe endoftheir mother tongues through education. In fact, Africans have long been weaned off in education suchpolicies in formal language the consequences of the youth isoneof Africanmothertongues among practice the of oral ing exclusively. dyingout of The addiction, they often do it in official foreign languages in which they have been school notably viasocialmedia,which and communicating hasbecome an via the internet daycannot spenda Africans without of generation theyounger mostof 2005. Though was in digitalised Africanlanguages and was present on the Internet one percent of fact, digitalisation.In as pointedoutby Amoussougbo(2015:15), less than of degree thathave tothoseforeignlanguages high a contrary that domain almost absentin are languages African languages. official states’ African as adopted later were which languages, whichforeign andinternational have been inherited from colonisation,and still are cyberspace the given by advantages the from lot a benefitting been have that languages. However, so far, velopment inAfrica,those languages of and promotion digital media has given a new impetus to the de of coming andpopularisation The Introduction Abstract Centre for Applied Linguistics Gabriel D. Djomeni&EtienneSadembouo, University of Yaoundé I, NACALCO exclusive policies, language which in public donottake intoaccount local languages IN CAMEROON PRACTICE, CHALLENGES AND PERSPECTIVES AFRICAN LANGUAGES AND DIGITAL MEDIA: African languagesusersonthewebfrom theirveryroots. by problemsfaced the tackle to able culturebe order to in specialists, science computer linguists, and of involvement the with levels, African pan an regional national, the at network collaborative interdisciplinary an create to necessity the on attention overcome.draws to paper development The application boardsmobile and encoding key relatedto those like challenges of lot therea aremedia, still digital the on sible vi languages their make to trying are committees language some and people young some there,heretherealthough and noticeable arethough commitments that unveils practices with regard to most Cameroonian languages on the digital media, the paper and mobile applications in African languages among others. In describing the current keyboardswebsites, of development the languages, Africanenvironment in literate a prerequisites among which the existence of reliable writing systems, the promotion of some filling without cyberspace access easily to languages African most for difficult digital media in Africa. With focus onthecaseofCameroon, itdemonstratesthat it is This paperaimsat accounting for the use andchallenges of African languages in the - - - -

Linguapax Review 4 · 39 education and administration to the colonial languages (EnglishandFrencheducation and administration tothe colonial languages inCam than one.a longexposure through formal there is no controversy, Where because of andeven others is still embryonic controversial because some have more system of ment is appreciable have, for some, a well-established while the writing develop development. whose level Those of have of degree alreadyreached acertain attritionwhileothers correctors. Yet,the vergestill on are of languages many African and onany computer with orthography can be easily used on the internet language arecomputerised so thatthe reading alanguage writing and for quires that the rules havelanguages Standard practical and one writing system. Digital standardisation re 1.1. websites andmobileapplications. ment of develop the and languages African in genres literary and diversified literature of tion education, the produc informal and through formal environment inthose languages aliterate whichtems for those donothaveAfrican languages one,of the promotion practicalwritingsys prerequisites need to bemet. them, Among thedevelopment of some media, digital on present efficiently effectivelyand be to languages ForAfrican 1. Someprerequisites for African languages to bevisible ondigitalmedia ourthoughtinthispaper. ity of answeringin digital media? to these The questions will shape andguide the directional Africanlanguages perspectivescyberspace? What can we for awidespread envisage of on the users inAfricanlanguages practices in Africaby internet are the current What to be present and visible in digital media? be the prerequisites for Africanlanguages would questions arise: What ensuring follow-up.and Fromthe aforesaid, anumber of they have consciously unconsciously,or beennurturing decisions by takingrigorous to critically react to this situation there isaneed for Africangovernments Therefore, inAfricancountries. usedalmosteverywhere coloniallanguages of hegemony the to respond to channels adequate find not do languages those fact, of matter a As the state development’s life. in education and other key African languages domains of to the use of lackAfrican government practicalandsustainable decisions with regard education, most formal of part makingtheir local languages countries are gradually cyberspace through digital media. It is however noticeable that although afew African the theircountries present on tomakegovernments thenativeAfrican of languages the digital and social media, a lot is still to be done by Yet, with the widespread of Africancountries. ally contributetothedevelopment of transmission,whichto revitalise African mothertongues will intergenerational eventu policiesprevailinglanguage the continent. this respect, In on they will paveways more and cultures and education-training workguages incommunion to reverse the current all the in connections withandlocalstakeholderstheir development inlan partners education. Nowadays,communicationformal and governments,that African iturges should be, there are still some stereotypes impeding some Africans tocope with the eroon), which have shaped people’s / African’s mentality about what a writing system

Development of practical writingsystems ------

Linguapax Review 4 · 40 has manyundeniableadvantages, it shall bepointedout in the that digital its domain until today. mostAfricans literature oral perceivable Though very the behaviour in of along tradition dominated by literature,oral which hascharacterised Africa, is still of systems for Africanlanguages. Yet, we shall foremost acknowledge that the impact writing for researchers to develop undertaking suitable and harmonised It is agood languages 1.2. academies. committees orlanguage aroundwhatiscalledlanguage organised languages. these InCameroon, local communities are munities local academyor of shallbe addressed by African linguists,harmonisation hand inwith local com needs to meet with of the challenges urgent in digitalmedia.The languages rican Af the and developmentpromotion of which shallaim to contribute to the ease of the strength and strong prerequisite isoneof of harmonisation The trans-border languages. African the writing systems of since 2009 toharmonise with the challenge Languages) languages. has been made my ACALAN A similar undertaking (AfricanAcademy of Cameroonian the writing system of framework(1984) set a general forharmonising computationallinguists. Tadadjeu InCameroon, Sadembouo and to ease the job of in order the cross-border languages and that of each country of the languages of the writing systems of writing.harmonisation need for urgent istherefore an There areset, while in others, has adifferent eachwayments for harmonisation language for or, instru harmonised are some countries, aim.In pedagogic a these orthographies overall bythey need well-established whenthe presence is underpinned orthographies present in digital media, to be practically and permanently ones inparticular eroonian Cam and general in isnowlanguages African to arguethatfor strong reason a There mentioned reasons. the afore- principles because of resistance towards the orthographic of degree certain veloped for Africanlanguages, some native speakers, willingly unwillingly or express a de orthographies and alphabets the of nature practical and scientific the of spite in howread theirlanguages. towrite and learning Inthisvein,(2009) Mba points outthat classes literacy in time” their “waste to want not do languages official in literate are who those why justifies This languages. official in literate are they when particularly are naturallyempowered or ratherendowed to write and readintheir mother tongues, by African Governments.local languages native Therefore, speakers think that they not find it difficult in any way. There is of of those a serious prestige planning problem its two writingsystems do and versely, Chineseinanyof they enthusiasticare tolearn to thisend.Con literacy training consider automatically without readable any prior how to write and readtheir mothertongues that they to sit and learn in aclassroom their mindset. In effect, there is no need for them not because it is hard, but because of for instance, most youth find it difficult toof learn the their writing languages, systems theirlanguages. It is even that in Cameroon ridiculous to observe writing systems of shortcomings areimmeasurable. shortcomings

Development andpromotion of aliterate environment inAfrican ------

Linguapax Review 4 · 41 ed T-shirts, slogans, signboards, notice boards, etc., is an“impor in Africanlanguages an initial practical literature,The production whichflyers,of includes print the use of production whosecontentcouldbepublishedonline. works genres,such buttakesrefer onlytoliterary as literary intoaccount any written literatures. Literature here doesnot guments tools toproduce different types and of asuitable literate environmentWhen isset, the literate peoplehave the required ar 1.3. diversified literature. the productionof trained tobe both traditionallyanddigitally literate. literacy should contribute to This providedare thatAfricans languages to digitalmediaisopenedAfrican the door media networks such asradio, television, languages.newspapers inAfrican Anyway, traditional aliterate environment alsorequires the making use of developmentThe of be empowered tousecomputersorhave adequatecomputerknowledge. teaching users or speakers shallextend to digital literacy so that language should also (adult literacy, (school/classroom)informal and formal alphabetisation)settings. The such out in the development. literacy activities The need to becarried the boosting of African communities. is why leads to That literacy in those languages development of the in languages African downneed toprove isnomore approach. There of therole development within, built fromadevelopment the based onbottom-up top- idea of shallbegivingcan governments impetus to localcommunities an nurture to thinkand Afri sharing, transferand essential knowledge tools for making Africanlanguages In stressful power development, education,etc. forsocialisation,technology ing exclusively means that people’s a foreignlanguage. This mother tongue has avery is power has everlanguage and nocommunity reached or nocountry development us theirnations. Infact, economic socialandlife of by its speakersof inalldomains by and implicationitsuse languages African towards step developmentperennial a of firm a is languages African in/of teaching learning / compulsory The administration. education and invited are urgently to make of African governments them languages writing in theirlocallanguages, readingand the to root culture In order and practice of forchange.become agents to and foster change so that they become capable to use their languages languages Africansmeanstrainingthem in readingandwriting their of Linguistic empowerment empowerment. as atoolof these people aredenied their righttouse their languages they are denied access to democratised knowledge. access cannot be possible if This population is mostly illiterate in official (colonial) languages,Due to the fact that rural nomic development. Illiteracyhasbeenproven asakey factortounderdevelopment. literacy is anegative factor, which limits socio-eco aculture of ments. Infact, a lack of the continent relies onsome foundational argu communities inside and outside of within theAfrican and literate a environmentlanguages African in of promotion The tant action” for the promotion of a literate environment as purported by Sadembouo aliterate environment as purported tant action” for the of promotion

Production of diversified literature ------

Linguapax Review 4 · 42 as itdevelops itsown cyberspace culture”. growing activity which will be increasingly practiced bypermanent the speech community itself one asarguedby DikiKidiri(2008:15), “Terminological developmentcontinuous, isa ling throughmedia will make the newly created words accessible and known to every technological innovations. practice by Permanent the speech community and channel for them to respond to the new-done in be clearly expressed in anyAfricanlanguage thecomputer knowledge, cyberspace,to digital mediahas and realities. realityof The development will be to respond to new inventions and the terminology aim of The (Djomeni,2013). extent tomobilegadgets to the are non-traditional culture. development Terminology shall because the terms thepeople related hardwareto and software, terms drovethe culturalstreamof from developmentto bedeveloped vocabulary include both shall popularised. This and related needs to computer knowledge required toexpressterms fact, the vocabulary toexpresstheirlinguistic and cultural realities. the adequate terms In velopment of speecha It isnotpossiblefor community webto publish de content without prior a 1.4. for such promotionandtherequiredterminology. channel for revitalizingAfricanlanguages,modern but this requires existing platforms the digital media,a literature discussed here caneasily integrate different types of The languages. guages,other channels are revivingand promoting for literature production inAfrican lan other from documents translated with together literature technical and Scientific and videoCD-romsshallnot be excluded from this list. So dotutorialscoursewares.or is achannelto revitalise and revive the ancestral cultural values. Dictionaries, audio poems, proverbs, lullabies, ect., in theirwritten form, story-telling, productionof The mittees doalike occasionally. with its local newspapercalled(Biyo: com News) the Lamnso’ language and Karang (News) is just illustrative. committee with its Huubarudji the Fulfulde language The (Messenger), Nsienken-Ngwe’ Nufi called in Fe’efe’e newspaper local its with (Nufi), the Fe’efe’e committee ly, language newspapers intheirlocallanguages. case of The committees do produce or publish, though irregular In Cameroon, some language constitute in whichanother domain genres literature shall beproduced. literary major within which can fallnewspapers, novels poetic and theatrical works, i.e, the and minor commonandpublicliterature languages.for some Cameroonian productionof The literature isthemostdeveloped pedagogical It isworthof notingthatthedomain literature. alltypes from basic to highereducation fall within pedagogical materials of didactic bookcontent, the development of the On other hand,the of production meetingscanalsobeadded tothiscategory. utes of (2001:75-85). He alsonoted that other documents such asinter-personal letters, min

Terminology development ------

Linguapax Review 4 · 43 of mobile gadgets is overpowering that of computers (desktops or laptops). The mo computers (desktops or laptops). The is overpowering mobile gadgets that of of use the because languages digitalisingAfrican towards steps firm the of one be shall mobile applications for tablets, phones,Android iPhones and others development of Yet, perennially beremedied the situationcanonlyandbythemselves. Africans The globalisation with the incapacity to bring their own stone to the the edifice.building of the product of their identity. are often seen as mere consumers of They of what is part most Africans do not often care about is mostly due to the fact that in general, This their mobilegadgets.on and withproblems usingtheirmothertongues the on internet more them arefacingmoreand notably digitalmedia.However,nologies and mostof is becomingaddicttonewtechAfrica in learners language of generation younger The thelanguage. the native andnon-native of speakers andlearners universal access tothe contents accessible both byto abroad, home and peoplefrom versions. allows and favoursthese the Exposing materials on Internet or alarge in pdf literature discussed above of any otherform and languages cal newspapers inAfrican lo reviveits andculture through digitaldidactic materials, the language soft copies of video files with a teaching/learning purpose. In short, the websites shall be designed to commonweb contents and audio teaching through publicationof inthe language Normally, committee eachshall have language a website where they showcase the the be shall cooperationamongstakeholders. languages result of African in websites the of monitoring and codification The the worldthe on web. of the languages cance online presence”, increase there is an of maintain asignifi languages in online multilingualism since the 90s, only ahandfulof increase significant a “Despite (2012), Prado to according active.Though and live be the sites them for to web contents. It also entails regularandthoroughmonitoringof among linguists and computer scientists,requires to a synergy design in order adequate the websites themselvessuch aswebsite, mobileapplications, etc. development The of for the In order literature to beused on cyberspace, there should beexisting platforms 1.5. ERELA. puter and cyberspace following some workshops within the framework organised of development for com terminology committees,language are addressing this issue of ERELA objectives indeed. Currently, languages,some Cameroonian via their of is part applies. and developmentElectronique en Langues africaines) purports Terminology development.(Ecole rurale ERELA model, through iswhattheCameroonian This under the language society the traditional of requires of sound cultural knowledge tonamenewrealities language a in newterms levels.all fact, In the development of at theirlanguages developmentand whose role istocareaboutthe promotion of committee specialist(s)the language and thelanguage thoughts among actions and of asynergy specialist alone. development Terminology should bethe outcome of thelanguage language.in anyAfrican domain However,of thisshouldnotbethejob inanynew As demonstrated by Djomeni (2013), it is possibletocreate new terms bile apps that will include the writing systems of the languages in presence will allow the languages bile that apps will include the writing systems of

Development of websites andmobile applications - - - - -

Linguapax Review 4 · 44 It shall however for instance do not benoted that South Africanlanguages dominicweb.africankeyboard GB6cqzeVFjZE1WZUdla3c following link orviagoogleplaystore: two These can respectively applications Languages). Cameroonian be accessed the on the General Alphabetof keyboardswithin which like one can access particular that of alphabets, countries harmonised committee), African keyboard( Built the on bases of hislanguage tion, developed byIT specialist a Cameroonian with the assistance of these Among applications,Cameroon. in we cannamesulang (underexperimenta instance) actually for who are (Lollipop fewer thanthosewhouse the earlierversion android onlythose who possesses the latest versions of conceived to suit the needs of (Jelly android Bean) what means that the applications are on the earlier versions of application the use to difficult is it instance, Fortry. a after attention their raised we above. However, whichon we notice that theirappsstill exhibit someshortcomings haveabroad, attempted to develop tothe end discussed mobile applications android to be mentioned in this study.recently, More some IT specialists,or from Cameroon are fine-tuned, be to still are they although attempts, major some token, same the By mobile applications. keyboard issolved, remains thatof of thisproblem awaited by the public. Even if now by is still the Goethe Institute some years in Cameroon ago organised languages workshops oncreating a keyboard fortyping in Cameroonian aseries of outcome of users type in their mother tongues.the to SIL-Cameroonhelp locallanguage(s) The soft keyboard fonts,with theirUnicode Sil) created byCharis namelyDoulosSiland the mobiletools.on keyboardskeyboard, (Cameroon areexistingvirtual Micro There keyboards or that can install special fonts for a specific or specific African language(s) users today. developingneed for urgent isan mobileapplicationsthatcontain There language on old and new media and digital media as well, which is impacting the life of but also, its users not only inits oral form, in its written form the scope of widening of and Africanlanguages encouraging andenthusiastic of contribution tothe promotion are abletotype in theirmothertongues on anydevice, it will be anexciting,particular in andCameroonians Africansingeneral extent. If to a large in Africanlanguages will undoubtedly mobileapps ease access to the digital world developmentThe of monpulsar.com the mostly used social media in Africa( one of the Facebook linguistic platform, Somali andKinyarwanda– We in do notinclude in this Afrikaans list-) are integrated over almost2000 African languages, forthe time being, only four(Hausa, Kiswhahili, in the existing tools. integrated It might howeverare notcurrently be pointed out that which and thoselanguages special fontsused to write some of solve of theproblem will eventually these languages veloping mobileappscontainingthe writing systems of tongues. By doing so, they will be abletoacquire digital self-literacy techniques. De for those who are still illiterate in their mother their languages writing systems of whatsapp, youtube, viber, imo, etc., in theirmothertongues and to be exposedtothe on social media such as facebook, tweeter, users to perform African mobile gadgets aetecalne o rpi ytm ntecbrpc eas hymk s f systems on the cyberspace because they make use face of thefor graphic challenges ). .

and https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?jd=eu. https://drive.google.com/open?id=OB9HpH www. - - -

Linguapax Review 4 · 45 a digitalliteracyenvironment inCameroonianlanguages. by decisivevery is a ERELA thelearners of the promotion in step of empowerment trainingand of degree The Cameroon. in the Ewondo area, of language schools Bafang (fortheFe’efe’ein rural West language), Region,schools two and rural schools in Dschang (for the Yemba rural in four in the West language), Region, two In its experimental pilot phase between 2006-2011, ERELA was successfully applied andurbanAfricancentres.tween rural be the digital gap areas, thus contributing to the reduction inthe of rural knowledge computer of shall lead schoolsto a generalisation inAfricanlanguages African rural by idea is underpinned the hypothesisAfrica. This that the long process for digitalising schools in model for ICTeducation and ICTskills in rural perimenting a generalisable ex at aims It countries. African of system education formal the in languages official make and education alongside the themtoolsfor local languages African systems of the informatics and which should further stressedlanguages that African governments scholarsworking onthe development of the network of the recommendationof of ERELA, known as Electronic Rural is Schoolthe application inAfricanLanguages 2.1. their languages. isolated individual practices the web,on todigitalise committees’ efforts language and these activities, we can nameERELA(Electronic Rural School inAfricanLanguages), digitalisation. Among and linkbetweenlanguages African establishpermanent en to a For limited and scarce,the time being, though very there are some activities undertak Cameroon 2. account thatitisoftenafieldfor“funwritings”. any kind without could any be difficultyshared in any takingAfrican into language of must be shaped anddeveloped to respond to the so that challenges any information span inAfricanlanguages, they real-time digital social mediadatainashort manage but also the wayproduced andmanaged, it is communicated, to beable in order hasconsiderablyaltered not onlythe way that the internet is knowledge itistrue If rately usedindigitalmedia. them are dispa leadstonotice thatsomeof observation in digital media, the ongoing to bethoroughlypresent the alotisstill languages to bedonefor translation. Though and media with a possibility for automatic completely present on digital platforms Once the prerequisites discussed above can beableto are met, African languages ing. Latin scripts anddonottake intoconsiderationanyspecial character, even tonemark

Digital mediaandAfrican languages: Current practices in The ERELAexperience inCameroon - - - - -

Linguapax Review 4 · 46 the use of Facebook by the Eton of Cameroon points out that Cameroon Facebook isused by Facebook by the Eton of the use of practicesocialmedia, Rivronin (2012), discussing language the perspectiveStill in of and otherspecial letters in theirwritten form. tones (forthose that are tonallanguages) like thoselanguages Latin scripts.not take do intoaccount the peculiarities of They only South Africa do make use of above, of that is; the fact that the African languages systems is duetowhatwe have graphic alreadymentioned of tioning theproblem men Her lack Cameroon. of mal, playful and enjoyable of manner. isalsotrue This touchwith oneanother, interactivefriendly and througha environment usinginfor in South Africa,she notes that applications give people the possibility to remain into use in social media bylanguage. On the other hand, talking about language the youth youth cultures. She looks at digital literacy as something linked to non-standard ties of in South Africa demonstrated that mobile phonesarecentral to many literacy activi (2010, 2014) who hasextensivelyDeumert worked practice in social media on language inthemachine-readably encodedformat. languages those argument towardstongues shall be viewed important the of as avery promotion African teaching of creasing and the attempt by to allow the governments the formal in allthe challenges, is gradually digital literacy rate in Africanlanguages In spite of Africa wherethereisstillalottodointhisvein. in namely nations, developing most in configuration keyboards of normalisation the for there is urgency communication. Ingeneral, larger of like inmanyotherlanguages encoded keyboardsthose for languages the the relies on lackchallenges of One of visible in the cyberspace have attempted many strategies to overcome the limitations. to fonts’relatedissues, committees who wantthose language thosepeopleor tobe slow, theirdigitalisation is still very maybe also due social media. Although the pace of in the cyberspace and make Africanlanguages them visible on the web and in use of the surrounding difficulties existing many the challenge tolack not ingenuity do users language thatmostAfrican observed As alreadypointedoutearlieron,itisgenerally 2.2. limitedaccesstoelectricity.be addedapoororvery resources.financial difficulties, these To could lackand of resources human propriate ap of shortcoming existinginfrastructures, inadequacy of schoolcurricula, normal or current the in inserted being of difficulties the as such challenges facing been has as pointed out bylanguages eroonian Tadadjeu and Kouesso (2015: 163-179), ERELA Cam of digitisation and localisation the to contribution significant some of spite In in2006. phase thatstarted initial the financed which Africa, for commission economic UN approvedwasthe by society which tookplaceinTunis. information It the worldsummit of phase of ond the sec Committee,Languages Cameroonian on the eve of National Association of the project wasThe initiated in 2005 in Cameroon by Tadadjeu, the then president of affirm traditional culture and by extension, to promote their mother tongue outside tongue mother their promote to extension, by and culture traditional affirm theBeti-Fanglinguistic continuumsocial mediato on thisvariantof the speaker of

Practice ontheweb andinthesocialmedia ------

Linguapax Review 4 · 47 some languages developed in the form of mobile apps to help learners acquiresome to helplearners mobileapps of developedsome languages the form in and practice exercises, digital audioandvideo lessons. are alsosome quizzes in There practices, conversational common grammar, to dedicated contents find to possible is it Here languages. official the in literate are who those for self-literacy encourage and and culture, not onlyinFe’efe’e, but also inEnglishandFrench access to allow a larger the Nufi website ( of case the is It languages. official the and language their time same the at promote mittee) have created their websites or where they promote either only their language com language (Fe’efe’e Nufi like academies language or committees language Some iPhones, tablets, etc. ers do not face the same difficultieslevel likeof those who via Android mobile phones, languages. those Therefore, who want to publish their content online viatheir comput mobile applications downloadable onplaystore, istore or anywhere else to type in local the languages, there are notexisting where for most of the case with mobile gadgets keyboardslanguages. andtyping in African/Cameroonian creating virtual isnot This that assist in done via desktops and laptopsbecause there are computer programmes mostly are theweblanguages contents Cameroonian in published online Most of cyberspace: the youth with the objectives to promoteandrevitalise their mothertongues on the perspective,animated. Inasimilar otherwebsites scarce) are created by (tough very named: May cebook page org Nufi the committee ( thelanguage download newspaper onlineviathewebsite of to possible is it perspective, different a In applications. mobile appropriate keyboardlack encodingand of would like todoso, face of the problem who the page. Those sent their comments questions and in Fe’efe’e, of the language they “like”not have butdo thepage, general, In we theknowledge haveor torespond the members. people” that we created on facebook, to see what will be the reaction of named “Gh experimenting thisapproachthe web on since 2014, byproverbs publishing page a on on the webadequately written materials intheirlanguages viadesktops. We have been keyboards thathelpthem type in theirmothertongues to publish virtual make use of the people andto contribute amongmembers.to theirpromotion Users culture of discussion boards, etc. arecreated to showcase andthe Somegroups the language viainteractivetheir language cyberspace which includes: e-mails, chat rooms, forums, created in commonsocialmediawhere members practise to theirbest through groups cansimplybeobserved since 2010. This mother tongue content the internet on them, the youthhave in Cameroon active been very in using their afew of Though asachannel torevitalisetheirlanguage. thislanguage the speakers of facts and like in manyothercases, social media areused by municate. Asamatter of system used by theparticipants/Facebookers graphic tocom about thetype reader of the inform uncodified, to butfails remains Eton argues thatthewritingsystem He of system. its graphic its habitual context and uses, development of and the correlated linguistic or cultural knowledge of their language wherever theirlanguage the world. they in are In of culturallinguistic knowledge or ). A similar experience is been carried outby Ewondoexperience is beencarried similar ). A speakers their Fa through ə www.nuficanada.ca piNt www.nufi-cameroun.org ʉ ́ ɑ ́ ngwe ɛ ́ ge nkɔ ge ̌ꞌ pɑ ̌ꞌ ̌ , Fe’efe’e (Nufi) : Language and culture of the Fe’efe’e the of culture and Language : (Nufi) Fe’efe’e www.resulam.com ́ bɔ Ewondo. However, we did not find it active and active it find Ewondo.not However,did we ), designed to promote the Fe’efe’e language , etc. www.nufi-cameroun. - - - -

Linguapax Review 4 · 48 a morepolishedview users attached to their mother tongues. have Once learners ac through literacy the locallanguage in titudes what willfacilitate the development of settings in Africanlanguages, the stakeholders willenhancelearner’sthe informal at point. Indeveloping afavourable andnurturing and environment both inthe formal laws applied byand regulations adoptedand shall clearly stress this the governments the citizens in education. The will be the one giving prioritytothe native of languages their nations. policies to bedeveloped Infact, the accurate language in Africannations shall ensure policies that for they design integrativeAfrican governments language a) Setting integrative language policies such education. of capture thegoodwill mothertongueeducation in and thepivotalof role whereby peoplewillbeawareof education is the main channel on the continent. in formal Initial orbasicpromotion Africanlanguages shall playgovernments African a catalytic of role inthe promotion 3.1. theproposalsarehereindiscussed. tion. Someof theirdigitalisa of challenges andfurther tongues to adequately respond to the current work and atalllevels theirlanguages toenabletheirmother firmly of the promotion for hand-in-hand up stand to Africans for need the emphasise also shall we before, ispower, thatlanguage we agree asstated toreversecould beproposed thesituation. If and their effective presence inthe cyberspace and digital media, some prescriptions languages African most of digitalisation the for existing difficulties many the to Due 3. and digitalforms. write their mothertongues and use it in day-to-day communication inthe written oral, how toread/ literacy tolearn classes localpeopletojoin order in incited lot of has a Bible in locallanguages Linguistics), to promote the and Cameroon use in Ghana of developedmother tongue based audioprogramme, by the SIL (Summer Institute of a “proclaimer programme”, CD-Roms cyberspace.and In that vein, the success of by creating audio contentslanguages thatarewidespread through Cameroonian of young people are committed to contribute to the promotion of why some groups justifies This pole. positive the to negative the slightly,from though languages, their prestige has alsoshifted and people’s those languages the of attitude perception and of planning to contributed significantly even and considerably has subject as years the school in system these local languages past Cameroonian of introduction The countries: Cameroon,Gabon,EquatorialGuineaandCongo-. crosoft store –Ewondois Beti-Fanga trans-border spoken in 4 Central African Mi on available ewondo” en compter vais “je instance for find can wecategory, this quired the traditional literacy skills and computer knowledge, they can easily transfer Perspectives

Commitment of African governments - - - -

Linguapax Review 4 · 49 nity’s multimedia centres where students communityand/or members will betaught schools/commu this would favouraccess to computer teachingsdevelopment or of areas ruralcould schoolsbe rural electrified, wouldget also access to electricity and If speech andcreativity through“fun”and“licence”language. of this process, mostly in socialmediawhere the users have freedom and shareacertain today should ease smartphones they speak over and the widespread use of the internet there is always an excitement to discover from the people in the the language and web contents in theirmother tongues where they access exist. In fact, to internet possibilities.connexion Withan easy access to electricity, localpeoplecanextent their areas, extending their network operators aregradually which to rural alsooffer internet both at home and at school. forinstance, InCameroon and the internet mobile phone peopletoaccess electricity to allowin order rural plants invillages solar constructing byalternative. can invest governments such The assolarenergy in renewable energy renewable energies offers an in countries like However, Cameroon. the coming of worst situation israther areas aswell.areas urban or ral The those living for rural in to many Africansinthe ru access to electricity remains aluxury in the 21stcentury; areasandthe ease to access electricity.rural to notice that even In fact, it is regrettable electricity networkin shallcommitthemselvesthe government of is the broadening whichon point important yet Another very by regularlyaccessing internet. languages digitalising African will give their citizens possibilities to meet with the of challenges African governments andcheapIn allowinginternet, access to broadband a larger rural areas c) Tackling theproblem of access to broadband Internet andelectricity in African institutionssuch asACALAN, CODESRIA,CERDOTOLA,etc. levelspan-African and be extendedshall totheregional some well-known through difficulties. ideas Such without content digital any publish and languages their in type way thatAfricans, whatever theirmothertongues,the web,on be abletopublish shall suchpractically reliablesolutionstoaddressthemin ties encounteredpropose and a The collaborative network expected from them must be set to challenge all the difficul ontheweb. theselanguages Africans toensurethepresenceof by digitising African languages problems to be solved by the team should be that of the key ideas and practical solutions shall be discussed, amended andadopted. One of collaborative a network. institutions,fact, suchIn in interdisciplinary all the setting of sciences specialists imperativebe an shall language-culture-computer action among in of Africaby each with a synergy Africangovernment, and cultures of the languages the developmenton research government agencies of promotion and of creation The b) Creating interdisciplinary research agencies public andprivate administrationaswell. the Nation such as the life of tor, but shall alsobeextended to otherkey domains of their L1. Not only the shall be done inthe promotion education sec revitalisation of the tools for the digital literacy skills, of which will be part them to the acquisition of - - - -

Linguapax Review 4 · 50 We earliermentionedthe imperative collaborative need establishing nurturing for and media. the webto bereallyvisible on with attractive contents to beeasily used and in social languages African isthatalottobedonefor might have abit,butthe truth changed communicationlanguage.African an Today, of them used the situation about1,374 African websites, only3.22% of by Diki-Kidiri(2003), in asampleof and cyberspace requires from stakeholders to workAs demonstrated incollaboration. the urgingadvocacythe digitalmedia to bepresenton languages African need for and coupled with access to internet panacea tosolve of the them.generalisation Therefore, Africans know exactly what their difficulties are and can work to find out the accurate the continent 3.3. on socialmedia. Africanlanguages literacy, which will helpwidespreadtheuseof digital andtheirpresence in digitalmediacoupledof with the promotion in generally on the World Africanlanguages WideWeb that practical impact the use of grammes users.to internet However, theabovementioned intopro still tobeturned projects are revitalising evenand cultures and aserver,on accessible languages oral dyingAfrican digital humanities, aims at safeguarding Ressources orales d’Afrique) as an outcome of knownits French from (Archivesas ALORA acronym numériques des Langues et des Africanlanguages. CERDOTOLA’swards contributing to the digitalisation of project falls within thisperspective. up, thisprojecthasnotstarted Though to itisastep webmasters, various softwares,ferences, workshops, in-training of development of on the World Africanlanguages Wide Webaims at ensuring the use of through con In fact, the ACALAN projectknown as“African Cyberspace”, and whichLanguages andculturesinthecyberspacedigitalmedia. can languages Afri the of promotion shall alsobe at the forefront of mental or non-governmental, and cultures African institutions,(ALORA), regional,sub-regionalandpan govern over languages digitalising African withitsprojecton thecontinent, CERDOTOLA socialsciences tongues,African with its the focus developmenton CODESRIA of ers andstates in institutions such asACALAN whose role istopromoteandrevitalise By subsidising research activities, establishing collaborative networksresearch among indigitalmedia. Africanlanguages revitalisation of and strategic the promotion for plans strongly emphasised in the implementation of national, sub-regional, regional andpan-Africaninstitutions shall be key The role of 3.2. for settingandusingdigitalmedia. allow them to havecomputer that knowledge will henceforth digital usable knowledge networks and a synergy of actions among language specialists and computer scientists actions among language of networks andasynergy

Establishing asynergy amonglinguists andcomputer scientists on Commitment of African national andregional institutions ------

Linguapax Review 4 · 51 national regional, sub-regional, panAfrican and Universityand regional, sub-regional,panAfrican national institutions shall constitute actions. Therefore, of net or ondigital media need to be addressed through asynergy inter the on present efficiently and effectively be to order in languages those by met and the harder they will work to make their dream areality. Yet, challenges the current the in theirlanguage, more they would like to access web content in those languages this presence. more people would The be literate the pace of Africans will determine by languages African literacy in/of traditional of thispresence. degree The formalising education is also accelerating and progressive inclusion in formal digital media. Their becomingpresent in the slow inavery are gradually pace,Though languages African Conclusion as awholeandinCameroonparticular. inAfrica prestige the strategies enhancing digital language for isone of market. This and evenuse improvethe same technology African a larger it when they are targeting makersthey will and telephone foster change all over the worldwill be compelled to receivedmessage audio just bythe phone); selectingon option the locallanguage an in (sending sms,their languages operators, listening to telephone any possibilitytohear areasto communicate modules that enable people,in guage notably those in the rural created phone brands in Africabyfor instance android Africans, which include lan can influence their economic activitiesthink those languages inAfrica. Let us imagine the perspectivedrastically change how and they far foreignerslookatthe languages continents, marketing policies set by only good Africans fortheir mother tongues will among knowledge and multilingual digitalisation aiming at reducing the digital gaps about theirvalue market. on the language With the new trends in the globalisation of Africanscontinue their languages, to depreciate no oneelse will care themselves. If market, the more the interest language to them paid byAfricans and non-Africans on the African languages African languages. higher the price of The market value of the collaborative the research studies should be used to upgrade outcome of The tobepresentoncyberspaceanddigitalmedia. African languages will modules.be developed to respond to the faced challenges programme by This synergy, which will include computational linguistics to establish trainingprogrammes this or centres through linguists and computer scientists, within the framework of the synergy. iswhy; for Universities That it is urgent and research institutions result of digital literacy as well shall bethe end and the strengthening of in Africanlanguages adigitalliteracy environment all web contents,good of nurturing the creation and accurate and practical mobile apps, the development of purpose, the development of digital for the languages there haveand manylimitations. the encoding of Therefore, specialists do notwork sporadic andisolated incommunion.actions taken The here that for the time being, most often, linguists and computer science It is unfortunate more usableinsocialmedia. them visibleontheinternet, tool fordevelopment and cultures an important and maketo making theirlanguages Africansdevoted of on the continent in orderto be abletotrainanew-generation the backbone for the reflexions on the solving of the general problems of access to access of problems general the of solving the on reflexions the for backbone the - -

Linguapax Review 4 · 52 Sadembouo, E. 2001. Créneaux ded’un environnementla promotion lettré en langues In Cameroon. facebookby the Eton of Rivron,Vassili.2012. use of The Prado, D. presence in the real world 2012. Language andcyberspace. In G.Mba, 2009. Vers unedidactique multilingue de l’intercompréhension auCameroun. ICTlexiconin the case of Djomeni, G. and terminology: 2013. technology Language, DikiKidiri, M.2008. DikiKidiri, M &M.A.Baboya Edema. 2003. Les langues africaines sur latoile. In, onsocial network(ing) sites. In, ludic self of performance A. 2014. The Deumert, Deumert, Amoussougbo, T. 2005. Avant-propos. In, References be cautiousenoughtoavoid derailment. the driversalready left has the stationand digitalising Africanlanguages for train shall the fact that alotisstill to bedone, the in allthe possible ways.languages Inspite of canhelprevitalise minority forums place whereminoritylanguages’ as a be nurtured youth) relate to themselves and othersinaplayful way 2014), it hasalsoto (Deumert, license-language, it provides space in which users (mostly the is viewed asaplace of committees agencies.or socialmedia with local language ing incollaboration Though websites, etc., involve and inAfricanlanguages,languages the development work of African for mobileapplications development through literacy African languages in of digital the of on continent the and promotion putational linguists languages in African allowing and increasingaccess to digital data inAfricanlanguages. need for com The facilities conditions for is sinequanon the continent. Access to these two types of overinternet accessareas and tobroadband urban and electricity both inthe rural gique,p.46-48 deFrancophonieet Communauté intergouvernementale française deBel Agence Le P& Seargeant, pe et orientation politiquepanafricaine périmentation auCameroun (CLA), p.78-85. Linguistics (AJAL) No2 africaines. In, Towards themultilingualcyberspace wards themultilingualCyberspace de LinguistiqueAppliquée(CLA),p.195-208. In, ANACLAC deLinguistiqueAppliquée(CLA),p.160-161. Linguistics(AJAL) Applied No7 en langues africaines.Journal African of Fe’efe’e. In,Sadembouo, E.,G,(eds.): Mba Town, University of CapeTown.Town, University of

African Journal of Applied Linguistics (AJAL) Applied No6 African Journal of traitement automatique des traitement automatiquelangues africaines. Les Cahiers du Rifal, n°23 A.2010.KlKCC Topics in African Languages and Universology. African Journal of Applied Applied Topics African Journal of in AfricanLanguages and Universology. C.Tagg Securing aplaceforlanguageinthecyberspace . 1…: , Yaoundé, CentreANACLAC deLinguistique Appliquée Identity andcommunityontheinternet Supporting indigenousliteracies in the digital space. Report Supporting . France,C&F éditions, Caen,p.35-51. . C&FCaen,France. Ecole rural électronique en langues africaines : Ex électronique Ecole rural Alphabétisation, Développement terminologique Développement terminologique Alphabétisation, ,Yaoundé, Centre ANACLAC . Paris, p.13-17. L’harmattan, . Palgrave, Macmillan. . UNESCO, Paris. , Yaoundé, Centre Net-lang : To , Bruxelles, Net-lang : , Ca ------

Linguapax Review 4 · 53 www.monpulsar.com www.cerdotola.org http://www.acalan.org/en/projects/african Tadadjeu, M &J.R. Kouesso. 2015. Acquis et perspectives du projet ERELACam 24 August 2016]. orientation politiquepanafricaine eroun. In, Ecole rurale électronique en langues africaines : Expérimentation au Cameroun et Cameroun au en languesafricaines:Expérimentation électronique Ecole rurale [consultedon24August 2016]. [consultedon24August 2016]. . Paris, p.163-179. L’Harmattan, -languages-and-cyberspace [consulted on -

Linguapax Review 4 · 54 For the Kenyah people, the term provinces,Kalimantan inIndonesia. Northern and Eastern the current developed theirsettlements areas of inthe inner “Kenyah” the as identified group ethnic an is there Borneo, of island the of area inland the In Introduction Keywords Abstract Mediterranean, University of Naples “L’Orientale”, Italy Dario DeFalco &Alfonso Cesarano, of Asia, Department Africa andthe LEBU’ KULIT LANGUAGE SOCIAL MEDIA: THE CASE OF THE KENYAH ENDANGERED LANGUAGES IN THE ERAOF f h od“aa, f h aa tncgop hc sdrvdfo h aeo ethnic group, the Kayan which is derived from the name of the word “Kayan,” of of cial Network,Community, Languagedocumentation. So Media, Social , Lebu’Sarawak, Kenyah, Kulit, languages, Endangered a wayofpreserving anddocumentinganendangered language? Ifso,how? However,there as seen arebe explorenetwork to social questions a additional Can : both theprivateandcommunitygroups theyhavecreated. external an is linguistic influence,there referencing statistical data when regarding the usage of Lebu’instance Kulit, in for environment; virtual a joins it when Kulit), Lebu’case this group(in ethnic minority a of language the to happens what study to a by media social of usage attempts the it Second, them. for has it significance the and threatened analyses identity linguistic it first, twofold: is paper this of aim The new villagedownstream, followingtheirrelocation. content and information between those who still live upstream, and those living in the cultural share they where pages, public and groups private into divided mostly are been using social media to its advantage. The Lebu’has group Kulits communities on Facebook the Facebook), case this (in network media social a within communities several of creation the to Thanks language. endangered an speak and Sarawak, river in Asap the of edge the on living group ethnic minority a is Lebu’Kulit Kenyah Kenyah Lebu’ Kulit of Borneo, located in the geographic areathe of Sarawak, Malaysia. as such groups ethnic certain them, within and areas, remote most truly the reachedhas media Social information. exchanging for and world, the over connecting all for people instrument an as used widely is media social 2.0, web of era the In . Many theories have been written regarding their origin. The theorieshave. Many The origin. their beenwritten regarding “Kenyah” in itself represents a toponym, asisthe case represents initself “Kenyah” people -

Linguapax Review 4 · 55 Kalimantan Lebu’ Kulits, Kalimantan not soinvolved whoare active and the web on with social or about the events intheirvillages. organised Unfortunately, this is not the case for the such as Sarawak easy, onlineis very since they havethe Lebu’ Kulit people of created blogs, about ceremonies, it will be information totally lost. Indeed, the search forfurther it promoted throughfestivals,is not enhanced, or workshopsand they know that if cultural situation, and theircurrent SarawakanThe Lebu’ Kulits aware are very of world, by usingFacebook. Sarawak have developed a‘network’ between their cultural identity the and outside social media (and related networks) the Lebu’ Kulits of to the spread of Thanks linguistically speaking. to allthe communities, whichso differenteachare from other, culturally both and underamacro-name, groups often a tendency to classify (Soriente,all these is ethnic very languages 2004). There Austronesian Kenyah belongstothe Lebu’linguistic Kulitfamily of The language Kulit. KenyahFrom ethnic group,the large has chosen thispaper tofocus Kenyahon Lebu’ sian. Thus, arealsoconsideredtobethreatened. theKenyah languages by thenative youngest speakers, speakinginMalayIndone or often more comfortable or dying due to their under-use in Indonesiaareendangered Many minoritylanguages were builtwithoutthetraditionalhouse. Sarawak (Malaysia), people have beenrelocated in different areas, where new Kulit of the Kenyah Lebu’ used, since many people moved to nearby cities or, as is the case of discussions), and which there.were Todayorganised also longer the‘longhouse’isno aswelllage, the village’s asall activities (suchas religiousceremonies, culturalevents buildinghosted the entire vil wooden buildings, known kindof as ‘longhouses’. This large in lived people Kenyah the past, the In fishing. and hunting are subsistence of the Kenyah peopleisstrictly rice farming.based on Othermeans subsistence of The Rajang rivers intheSarawak State, Malaysia. Indonesia,there are alsoafew settlementsthe Baluy, along and Baram provinces of communitiesriversand Malinau Mahakam settled along the Kayan, in the Kalimantan provinces, which Although there are Kenyah belongto the Indonesian government. Kalimantan andNorthern them are located in the Eastern (King 1978, 92). Most of 40,000 arearound Kenyah speakersThere recordedin110 different communities should beconsideredmoreanexonym thananendonym. verb-say ken + 3SGpronoun, “Kenyah” itself. theterm of the etymology the river assumes that the answer canbefoundin where they settled.theory Another 1 id/kaya1332 2.7 - Kayan-Kenyah. (n.d.). Retrieved 18th September 2016, from lebukulit.com may indeed be derivedthe from word , which offer a vast amount of cultural information andupdates cultural information , which offeravast amount of ‘Kayan-Kenyah’ ia aswritten in Soriente(2014: 72-73). Thus, 1 . However, this tendency is detrimental ‘kenya’ (He/She says), composed by the http://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/ “Kenyah” “Kenyah” - -

Linguapax Review 4 · 56 2 TV, newspapers, etc.),about 300 there education. different are Indonesia and In ethnic language, more, or are limited to a few contexts. Such is the case in Indonesia,where the national tend not tobespoken any reasonminoritylanguages canbeanother ard’ language) ‘stand (i.e. with the status of amajoritylanguage language anational presence of The Woodbury (2013)says: inthepast? consideredendangered languages However, we might also ask, how this relates to Ancient Greek and Latin. Were these ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ arevariousThere possiblereasons, as summarisedbelow: questionis,The how mightthishappen? by amajorlanguage. which is a language will die out in the near future, is threatened guage because its usage which may not actually make it to the next century. lan Anendangered of world, half As recorded by Woodbury spoken (2006), there are around6,500 in the languages The endangered languages the Sarawak State. connection isnotaswidely availabledue tothefact that internet media, probably as in ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ Indonesian word ‘keluarga’. replacedpengelamin),been morehas or bythe panak common Malay/words(LK of use ‘family’ daily as the such This can be seen in the Lebu’ Kulit language used by the users of the ‘Kenyah Lebu’ Kulit’ Facebookgroup,where ‘Kenyah Kulit’ the usersLebu’ of the by used Kulitlanguage Lebu’ the in seen be can This rcs fdecay inthefirst process of syntactic,borrow phonetic, leadingtoa a ‘B’ fromlanguage, lexical patterns and the ‘A’ speakers of to start language of attrition: whenanew generation Language theMayan, AztecandIncacivilisations. disappearance of in CentralandSouthAmericaalmost led to the complete ish-speaking groups groups,Australianpeople in with theAboriginal and territories. Likewise, Span Nativeethnic American America,that reduced the number of North in groups Anglophone occurs,Linguicide: forced colonisation when a aswas thecase of gual environment, theGovernment adoptsanationalunifyinglanguage. Top-down: In amultilin from the government. starts change when the language their children. the decide ‘’ language, not to pass it on to instance, parents that are speakers of family context. within a For from starts change Bottom-up: when thelanguage slowly evolvedintoRomancelanguages’. other languages; instead, Ancient Greek slowly evolved into modern Greek, and Latin form in which we find them in ancient writings. But they weren’t abruptly replaced by the in spoken longer areno they because areconsidereddead languages These ‘No. Bahasa Indonesia , is the language established for the government, media (radio, established for the government, , is the language 2 . - - - - -

Linguapax Review 4 · 57 5 3 Lebu’ Kulit people’s presence social networkson we haveis concerned, two main the Sarawakan Lebu’ Kulits. cultural identity,a certain Asfarasthe asinthe case of a means to safeguard it could represent in asocial networklanguage by questioning if endangered an of use the on specifically focus will study identity. This linguistic and cultural A social network problems concerning is an ideal tool to address the current their culturalroots. simply toshare or communication,place toexchange a information, means of use as a Lebu’ Kulit communityThe Facebook,on has created several which socialgroups they The Lebu’ Kulit communityonFacebook Sarawakan Lebu’Kulit, thesocialnetworks. cultural festivals,through themedia,such or newspapers,as online as isthecase for or A positive attitude could be the community’s to keep theirlinguistic identity alive effort tourbancontext. shift fromarural becomes useless when there is an environmental language considered ‘useful’. The their children.often takes Inaddition,the local language a back seat because it is not ‘stigmatised’ and speakers may be ashamedtouse it, therefore do nottransmitit to the latter, andmost likely is not apeaceful situation, the local language In the case of positive andnegative. (an islandlocated in the English Channel), Guernsey of study: the language of area her attitudes regarding (2010, According toSallabank 65-66), there aretwo types of mentioned reasons. for the afore language 8,000 people (2007 A. Soriente) is considered an endangered same status as but still considered minority because it does not sharethe thus it is not endangered, Forinstance, the JavaneseJava in language spoken byis currently people 98million language’. does not necessarily mean ‘endangered shift. Note that ‘minority language’ became ‘minority languages,’moment that the ‘local languages’ producingalanguage locallanguages. It was at this despite the existence of the of was the new Indonesian government to promote the use of the goals 1945), one of following the Dutchfrom theirindependence Government Colonial (on17th August nationalistmovement. by the new-born the country From this moment onwards, and Pemuda) on 28th October 1928, Bahasa Indonesiawasof proclaimed‘the language’ languages considered to be ‘Nativegroups Indonesian ancestry’ 6 4 Sensus Penduduk 2010.: BPS. international. Not yet documented ornotwell-documented languages are notincluded. East, K.F. (1999). Statistik, B. (2011). P. Lewis, M. P., Simons, G. F., & Fennig, C. D. (2009). D. C. Fennig, F.,& G. P.,Simons, M. Lewis, 4 arespoken throughout the archipelago Bahasa Indonesia A worldofdifference Kewarganegaraan, suku bangsa, agama, dan bahasa sehari-hari penduduk Indonesia penduduk sehari-hari bahasa dan agama, bangsa, suku Kewarganegaraan, . However, the Lebu’ Kulit spokenlanguage, by around . 99. Ethnologue: Languages of the world (Vol. 16) (Vol. world the of Languages Ethnologue: 5 .After the Youth (Sumpah Pledge 3 andmorethan700 different . Dallas, TX: SIL TX: Dallas, . : Hasil : 6 - ,

Linguapax Review 4 · 58 nificant to our purposes allthesame.nificant toourpurposes posts analysed here is not highinnumber, but sig for this reason, that the number of to our criteria and needs.all until we found those that corresponded It is presumably checked them we “posted”), latest the to first chronologically, very “posts” the (from Facebookenablesanalyse ustolist and groups criteria. Given of thatthe pattern “comments” in the Lebu’ Kulitthat might have language matched our aforementioned numbers of large qualitative data fromthe public Facebook due to the page, lack of by the new trilingual generations.guage bilingual or We chose tobaseouranalysison the lan to help us better understand the effectivepiled a statistical diagram of usage speakers.ments from second and thirdgeneration we com Usingthis information, As such, we decided to collect qualitative10 posts, datafrom with at least three com is notalways so. may ‘X’ in thesamelanguage, obvious bean guage choice tostimulate butit its usage, its cultural identity,meeting place aiming topreserve toapostwritten in lan toreply network. In this case, one might think that as a linguistic minority, which has a specific social choicelarge a post on whenrespondingtoa of Lebu’Kulit asthelanguage of to offer a likelyare bilingual,oreven statistic for the real use trilingual, it is necessary the speakers lingual contexts such aswithin Indonesia andMalaysia, where most of speakers. Infact, in multi- of morerecent generations as the increased presence of in operation,but a multi-lingual language environment, most likely due to factors such inputs, including Malay and English.Assuch, one sole the situation does not represent different linguistic on this page. However, active users are exposedtoanumber of Lebu’ Kulit in Lebu’ Kulit, Malay, high use of isavery andsometimes English. There the the Asap river Lebu’ Kulit community.tive are written of posts on the page The “Lebu’ Kulit” has 1485 users.The appears as the public representa page page This lebukulit.com entitled “Lebu’ Kulit,”references: public page a whichis linked tothewebsite, , andtheprivate group, “Lebu’Kulit, Asap”. www. ------

Linguapax Review 4 · 59 the aims of the group are: to deliver information to those who arefarfromthe com are: to deliver the group information the aims of about551 people. Founded22nd March on 2011, privateis composed of This group tion provides a smalltext written in the Lebu’ Kulit which language, istranslated below: descrip group only). The ‘Kulit, Asap” private (accessible via applicationform group Sarawak isthe “Lebu secondreference the point forLebu’ KulitThe communities of words. sepedenak (family) are Malay words, whereas Salam takziah family keluarga big grandfather God ja’au Tuhan pui Sampun Regards ti nak Salam se=pedenak tawai takziah sis: met ‘mixed’ a the analy foundduring reply example of outlines an following diagram The me’telu 18-30 versus 30-50). speakers (aged 3. A linguistic can bemadebetweencomparison two of generations harap a‘standardised’writingsystem. ones,’ maybe duetothelack of 2. We also noticed that patterns orthographic are not as well-unified as theKalimantan linguistic inputssuch asMalay andEnglish. membersareexposedtodifferent 1. Beside usedthispage, the on Lebu’ Kulit language assumed that: Havingthe two analyseddatafrom environments”, it canbe aforementioned“virtual Kulit, Asap”)Facebook pages. environment, wethe public(“Lebu’ at both willlookKulit”) the privateand (“Lebu’ (Lebu’ Kulit) social media language within a endangered an To of analyse theusage munity,to sharephotos, and videos, readingsaswelldiscussions topics astoplan on news andimportantissuesforallofus.” videos, sharephotos, to good be would upstream.It live who those downstream,and Asap/Long river the from live who those cities, the news in live who those orderto In news Belaga. deliver Jawe’, to receiving and sharing of] aim the [With us. “For (decoy), (Condolences), DEM.that condolences tawai (peace),

harap from FUT NUM=decoy peace kume met (hope), (for), (from), ja’au Tuhan me’telu PN 1PLEXCL.PAU (big), (God), (we inclusive pronoun), pui (grandfather) areLebu’ Kulit (grandfather) nak (want/would), hope ti kume for keluarga (that), - - -

Linguapax Review 4 · 60 native towrite Sami speakerseven areencouraged single words orsentences in Sami #sámásmuinna Twitter. on actually language use theSami write andin Byusing‘hashtags’ Europe. Keskitalo proposed aninnovativein Northern project where speakers will the Sami Parliament inNorway, aproject to revitalise the ‘Sami’ language, of began language.. Recently, anendangered Aili Keskitalo,revitalisation process of President “made” by social networks efforts the tosupport arenumerous examples of There Why asocialnetwork? linguisticcoherence. of ispresumablytied to amatter posts originally written for in Lebu’pattern Kulit. This noticed that in apost originally written in ML,users would in ML,andvice versa reply postwas originallywritten in LKML.Infact, or weto berelated to whether a certain is likely LK and ML.This 5% between of the usage shows a difference of graph The study. the latestpostwrittenatmomentof more, we also analysed all the posts ever publishedinthe group, fromits creation until “other” was substituted with “English”. Further entry rather than10. The 20 replies in postresponses. However, inthis case the method is quantitative, with the analysis of Lebu’ Kulit piled data from the private of the usage group, representing with a diagram As with the data obtained fromthe “Lebu ‘Kulit” we public page, have likewise com users. such aslocalpolitics. Allactivities are stronglyrecommended by the activefounder and 7 to find messages withaspecificthemeor content. (Source: A type of label or metadata tag used in social networks and microblogging services, which makes it easier for users , #saemesthmnnjien , #sámástamujna , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hashtag #snakksamisktemæ , and #speaksamitome ). 7 suchas - - ,

Linguapax Review 4 · 61 8 outside commentators,is by academics, particularly sinceasMakoniPennycookand (2008: 26) have in quite the same way language community as it byaminoritized may notbe perceived endangerment the about language inquestion and its associated speakers.translate into perceptions […] asense of (May 2005). […] These ideologies often purposes only goodfor“identity” languages minority are languages majority and progress/mobility, and the claim that language shift, the link between ity of languages to minority include the inevitabil commonly held ideological positions relating concerned, languagesis identity. of as the as far social hierarchies […] group and individual for constructing (2015: 125): as written in Hornsby issues. ideology Indeed, aforementioned advantages are strictly related to language The ona‘real’dailybasisandcontext(athome, school, etc.). itself language the environment, of indetriment tothe actual usage just virtual onebrand-new of takingadvantage within that boundaries environment; 3) the risk of and the lack of the environment, nature of lish or otherwidely-spoken due to the ‘virtual’ languages itself the group that may lead tothe actual closure of consmight be: 1) ‘spam’ withinthe group The the ‘X’culturalidentity, etc. (folk tales,edge myths, etc.); 5)politicalactivism strictly relatedtotherecognitionof practice; speakers;4) spreading knowl 3) language tween two of different generations unity between minorityculturalidentities; 2) discussion be feeling might be:1)a of andpeople as reference,Using ourexperience with the Lebu’ Kulit some pros groups tural andlinguisticidentity? cul using social networks astoolsforpreserving Yet, what are the and cons of pros thanks tosuch web-corpora. is provided the toolsthathave on information beendeveloped, each.for Furthermore, forallthese languages, andeven todownloadpossible toobtaininformation data-sets was worldwide. offered for morethan2000 different languages port Thus, it is now project was designed for sixCeltic languages, but in the last ten years additional sup language. Initially, acertain the speakers of numbers) of of (in terms limited groups benefit to availableand online,‘text’ free of amount huge the of advantage take to is developing new software idea behind this project applications(Scannell, 2007). The and is availablefrom open(free) sources and on-lineplatforms, forusers interested in which metadata related hasbeenextracted to ‘uncommonlanguages’, of is acorpus Another interesting project was created by KevinProject” Crubadan Scannell. “The theSamiPresidentexplainedreasonsbehindproject, lated interview voice-note and/or picture profiles, a attaching media social their of one on 9 from ‘private’ following issues. ‘spamming’ 2016]. http://mentalfloss.com/article/68609/how-social-media-helping-save-endangered-languages Billock, J. (2015). How Social Media Is Helping to Save Endangered Languages. [online] Mental Floss. Availableat:Mental Floss. [online] Save EndangeredLanguages.to Helping Is Media Social How (2015). J. Billock, In the case of the Lebu’ Kulits, for instance, the privacy settings of the group itself have been changed to ‘hidden’ changed to itself been Kulits,have the group forLebu’ of instance, privacysettings the the of case the In language, and to show them that even if you can only write one word in your own your in language, youcanstillmakeadifference.”word one write only can you if even that them show to and language, Sami the for arena an as media social see to people young motivate to “Wewanted 9 ; 2) increased exposure to (linguistic) external influences such as “the language ideologies can represent an important means an important “the language ideologies can represent Acse 2 Sep. 22 [Accessed 8 . In are ------

Linguapax Review 4 · 62 wards a more correct use of it.” useof wards amorecorrect make while using andtherefore the they[the language, ones] can be led younger to because they [the older ones]cansee,example, for what mistakes ones the younger social media, communication between andolderspeakersthe younger becomes easier [A socialnetwork] locallanguages. should beused more frequently to support Through His answer andtranslationinEnglishisoutlinedbelow: extinction?” atriskof language socialnetworksminority a asa means topreserve isyour“What the use on of opinion was the“Lebu’Kulit, asked, Asap”group founderof The culture, arts, andsongs, ourlanguage.” andhostspecialsessionsconcerning “[We need to] collect vocabularies, make dictionaries, collect folktales, our eternalise references[aboutit].” further generations Lebu’ Kulits in orderto give the newest and the culture of books about the language “In additiontosocialmedia,there need to beincreasingincentives, dictionariesand lations areoutlinedbelow: trans answers language.corresponding and Their theirendangered media) to preserve the blog and the “Lebu’ Kulit, Asap” group Firstly, we questioned the individual foundersof language. safeguard anendangered social network a means to as a within whichthe use of on itisused, their opinions and context the language, their of usage daily the on specifically focused which tionnaire the private“Lebu’ Kulit, Asap” tocomplete a ques group We asked 10 members of available toanyone. the river. is shared onacommoninterface All information in the city or upperareaof River theAsap those wholive and between thosewholiveinformation downstream of the Lebu’ Kulit’s effectively linguistic community group exchangedemonstrates an of Returning to the fact that a social networkbarriers, is able to dissolve geographical colonial structure’.” justification of indigenous languages constitutes a retrospective the continued use of noted, ‘promoting boleh belajardariahliyangtuajikaterdapat kesilapanmenggunakanbahasa.” kerana melalui sosial media komunikasi berlaku di antara semua “Harus digunakan secara lebih kerap untuk mempertahankan bahasa-bahasa daerah budaya /kesenianlagu,mengadakansesikhususmengenaibahasa.” mengekal lama, cerita mengumpul kamus, menghasilkan kata, daftar “Mengumpul rujukan sebagai generasi yangmuda.” dijadikan untuk kulit lebu’ kebudayaan dan bahasa tentang buku buku- dan kamus lagi diwujudkan/diperbanyakkan seharusnya sosial, media “Selain lebukulit.com bu h ido toolswhich shouldbeused (other social than , aboutthe kind of ahli.ahli yang muda - - -

Linguapax Review 4 · 63 antan, Indonesia. This was limited materials available due to very antan, Indonesia.This these for particular mainly the Sarawakan Lebu’ Kulit linguistic community, rather thanthose in Kalim happy tocooperate with us in this quest. However,very our focus in this project was Lebu’ Kulit community’sThe helpful, and users seemed to be has been very support Norway ortheUK. spokenterritories, inEuropean such currently scholarspean as minority languages for social networks, mostly developed by Euro through the use of languages endangered projects focussing on the revitalisation of we have other examples of also reported thisresearch, to the theme of distant groups. Inregards the variousgeographically a meanstounify therefore represents discussion group Malaysia. The Sarawak State of the Asap River, District, in the Belaga text), and those who live in the upper areaof living Kulit con downstream, group those living inthe city (and thus outside the rural linguistic communities,in particular, and asacommunication tool between the Lebu’ areused as atoolforexchanging betweenon Facebook. ‘groups’ These information theKenyah Lebu’ Kulit communities Sarawak,in Malaysia, of the ‘discussion groups’ works as a possible tool to safeguard them from disappearance. As such, we observed and socialnet minority languages endangered has discussed paper the issue of This Conclusion the community feelsitisendangered. speaking), and is a means to keep their cultural identity alive, moment from the very between individuals by separated distance (geographically information exchange of communication and an all ages, new things, provides a place to learn a means of of Kenyah Lebu’ Kulits,social network a unites people view), a the casein of of point So we canconclude by sayingemic an perspective, thatfrom (fromthe native speakers’ oriented contexts. for morepublic- the context) at this time, of along with the usage can still be considered ‘standard’ (within and dailyconversationa familiar language the Lebu’ Kulit of whose usage are the only group weak.older generations very The the Lebu’ to be appears Kulit language speakers’of usage of generation ‘middle-age’ barelyuse the Lebu’ in dailycontexts,Kulit generations younger language andthe the speakers; the of the Lebu’ Kulitthe age and language, link between of the usage the regarding coherent pattern Ironically, of we noticed that there isindeed, a sort ing thefuture. detail and depth one.to the younger son Itisaworthwhile ingreater topic toexplore their own language, in compari previous has generation less confidence in the fate of were much morepositive. Such data, albeit limited, leads us to consider the reason a 5 and 3, while ratings given speakers by generation younger 61 and 65 gave ratings of zerototen, two speakers aged one.compared tothe a scale On of the local naires,to thevalue speakers completed by of with regards oldergeneration question the of results the from arising data in conflict However, certain a was there communities as well as the lack of participation from the Kalimantan Lebu’ Kulits the from Kalimantan participation communities as well asthe lack of ------

Linguapax Review 4 · 64 Cru, J.Cru, Yucatec up:promoting revitalisation from the ground (2014). Language Maya Blust, R. (2009). Billock, J. (2015). B.,Arobba, McGrath,R.,Futrelle, J.A. (2010).Craig, and References available online. in orderto compare naturalistic elicited and/or ‘oral’ dataalongside the written data dataonthe Lebu’ Kulitand culture, language to collect increasing amounts of essary as Twitter, YouTube Blogger, (for oral materials) etc. Moreover, fieldwork will be nec such more complete and detailed study including other widely-used online platforms social network a witha language, asatooltosafeguardanendangered the use of of future research based on this paper,Further analysis will focus on amorein-depth naturalistic environments (i.e., in‘reallife’versus life’). a‘second’or‘virtual the Lebu’ in bothnaturalistic Kulitand non- language of project to embracethe usage the issues involved, point forafuture a soundstarting but is certainly complexity of the spoken was onadailybasisinthe village, language because of notstudied in-depth environment mutationsto the compared the virtual in comments containing language the speakers themselves. revisionof This mutations,language thankstothe help of view, hypothetical it has been possible tohighlightcertain from alinguistic point of in such anon-naturalistic context, but also, itself the language of tion on the usage chosen ‘comments’ because they enabled us not onlytocompile statistical informa themselves. the discussion groups We have of the content shared onthe main page ‘posts’ or ‘status’), in the Lebu’ Kulit based on variouslanguage, inputs. In this case all Statistical analysis was by towritten undertaken countingthe‘comments’ (aka replies platform. international the Lebu’ Kulitthrough statistics composed from the language of analyse the usage analysed. Facebook hasbeen used as aneffective ‘database,’ where it is possible to here issue the towards speakers the of approach and situation linguistic the define to ers themselves, and produced results that, although preliminary, are enough to be able was conducted using questionnaires submitted to thespeak sociolinguistic A survey for ourpurpose. members in the “Lebu’ Kulit, Asap” discussion group, which appearedproblematic on Facebook. Pacific andAsianStudies, ing-save-endangered-languages Floss. Available at: net Culture Languagesand Endangered forPreserving Media Approach . Available at: h utoeinlnugs abra aii igitc,Rsac colo of School Pacific Research Linguistics, Canberra: languages. Austronesian The How Social Media Is Helping to Save Endangered Languages. Endangered toSave How SocialMediaIs Helping Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 36(3) MultilingualandMulticultural Development, Journal of http://hdl.handle.net/2142/17078 http://mentalfloss.com/article/68609/how Australian NationalUniversity. [Accessed22Sep. 2016]. . A Community-BasedSocial . [online] -social-media-help [online]Mental , pp.284-296. Hdl.handle. - - - -

Linguapax Review 4 · 65 Woodbury, A.(2006). Prospects Soriente,and A.(2014). Studying Linguistic and CulturalContact in Borneo: Soriente, A. (2006). in languages Kenyah the of classification A (2004). A. Soriente, Languages. Kayanic and Kenyah of Classification the On (2015). A. Smith, under-resourced buildingfor Project: Corpus Crúbadán lan Scannell, K.(2007). The Mainte SocialNetworks Language Endangered in J.Sallabank, Role (2010). The of King, V. (1978). Hornsby, M.(2015). Hicks, D. andKing,V.T. societies’, (1980) ‘EssaysBorneo on Fernando, C., Valijärvi, R.andGoldstein, R. (2010). Challenges. Press. Sarawak. Kebangsaan University Malaysia. Linguistics, 54(2) shop, 4 guages. pological Linguistics, 52(2) Islands. inthe Channel Guernesiais Revitalisation:nance and Caseof The by theOxfordUniversity Press. 172. doi:10.2307/2756998. 82(1) Languages. Human Biology, Strategies Endangered guage Extinction andRevitalisation to Save , pp.47-75. , pp.5-15. uligadEpoigWbCroa rceig fthe 3rd Web Work as Corpus of Building and Exploring Web Proceedings Corpora: Antropologia, 1(1) Antropologia, Essays on Borneo societies Essays on Borneo , pp.333-357. Mencalèny &Usung Bayung Marang. Revitalising MinorityLanguages Revitalising What is an endangered language isanendangered What , pp.184-205. , pp.59-81. xod ulse o h nvriyo Hull . Oxford: Published for the University of . Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. . Linguistic society of America. . Linguisticsocietyof oe f h ehnsso Lan the Mechanisms of A Modelof Jakarta: Atma Jaya University Pacific Affairs, 53(1) Affairs, Pacific East and Kalimantan Anthro Oceanic , p. - - - - -

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