Blog

Recent news and updates regarding the Endangered Languages Project

  • Wednesday, September 23, 2015

    ELP Website Translated into Five Languages
    Contributed by: Linn Hu

    Everything started at an event at Google in February. The topic for the International Multilingual User Group (IMUG) event that night was “Global Linguistic Diversity and the Endangered Languages Project.” Shay Boechler, one of the speakers, introduced ELP’s efforts to document, preserve and revive endangered languages in various parts of the world.

    At that time, very little content on ELP’s website was available in languages other than English. Even the user interface was only partially translated. After the event, Shay and I discussed a project focusing on user-interface translation to make the website accessible to non-English speakers.

    Our team was made up of 13 professional translators and “localizers” from the Translation, Conference Interpreting and Localization programs at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey (MIIS). With excellent linguistic skills and knowledge of the localization workflow, our team was able to deliver translations into Chinese, German, Portuguese, Spanish and Russian.
      
    Throughout the process, our team worked closely with ELP’s project manager, Stephanie Walla and engineer, Lwin Moe to tackle technical challenges that we encountered in translating the website.

    It has been a memorable experience for all of us at MIIS, and an awesome opportunity to apply our translation and localization skills to a great project. We are excited to see our translations go live on the website, and hope more translators and localizers will join our effort.

    MIIS Team members:

    Linn Hu: Team Lead
    Katrin Liebert: German Project Coordinator
    Johannes Härtel: German Editor
    Verena Ritter: German Translator
    Isabelle Setti: Portuguese Project Coordinator
    Bruno Rossi: Portuguese Translator & Editor
    Olga Melnikoff: Russian Project Coordinator
    Penny Le: Chinese Project Coordinator
    Tingting Xu: Chinese Translator
    Lisa Li: Chinese Translator
    Wendy Zhou: Chinese Translator
    Sophie Yang: Chinese Translator
    Zihan Fan: Chinese Editor
    Roberto Koeneke: Spanish Project Coordinator 


    MIIS Team

  • Tuesday, April 21, 2015

    Endangered Languages Project Website – New and Improved!

    We’re pleased to announce the launch of the new and improved Endangered Languages Project website! Here are some of the new features we’re excited to share with you:

    1. New and improved browsing

    Our new browse by category feature makes finding information and resources concerning the world’s endangered languages much easier! For example, if you are interested in resources about language education you can filter your search to topics such as "curriculum design" or "immersion and language nest resources."

    You can also browse resources based on their format (audio, video, image, guide, document or link) and choose to view resources by newly added or most viewed. Our resources include information on anthropology, sociology, education, cognitive science, environmental science, public policy, and more and have been uploaded by users and researchers alike.

    2. Easier process for submitting materials

    With our new submission process, you can add resources by category and tag resources so that they can be easily searched. You can choose from existing tags such as "language advocacy" or "language teaching methods" or create your own!

    We are also happy to report that the Endangered Languages Project will be available in five additional languages later this spring!

    We’re very happy to bring you these new features and we hope that you will join us in this worldwide effort to share knowledge, resources and connect with others who are passionate about language conservation.

    Feel free to get in touch with us. We’d love to hear from you!

    With warm regards,

    The Endangered Languages Project team

  • Wednesday, March 11, 2015

    Minority languages in the digital world: Irish community experience with technology
    Contributed by Eoin P. Ó Murchú
    I was raised with Irish and English, attended an Irish speaking secondary school and studied some modules in Irish at third level. I have been interested in translation and crowdsourced translation for various online projects for some years now.
    Irish or Gaeilge is a minority language − it has state support, but this is often quite passive, and its use is in decline in traditional linguistic heartlands, though there might be hope for the language in urban settings. In our increasingly digital world, one of the big fears for less widely spoken languages is getting left behind. For example, the challenge of ‘voice to text’ is the next big thing, something in which Irish is lagging behind.
    I was asked to take part in the translation of the Gmail interface into Irish. A small community has built up to translate various digital resources into Irish. For Gmail we helped with the translation of 60,000 strings (and counting!) − words and phrases used in the Gmail interface. We divided up the work and set about translating the strings, sometimes with the help of machine translation, debating various terms, ensuring consistency and finally proofing for typographical errors.
    Having Gmail and other technologies available in Irish is a good way to show that the language has a value and a place in the modern world. It shows people that they can use it online and also helps to standardize technological terminology. It means that speakers can passively learn the language to a certain degree simply by switching their account to Irish, while fluent speakers can achieve a higher level of understanding and linguistic competency. As daily speakers of minority languages may have a lower level of reading or writing ability, this may help to bridge that gap.
    Though small, Google Search is also available in Irish, which is a visible and important thing. It says that Irish is still here and despite all the negative stories about the many challenges facing minority languages, Irish will have a role to play into the next century at least.
    We are currently translating Twitter into Irish but some common problems pop up as with Facebook – there is a lack of quality control as much of the content is volunteer-generated (though often expert) and there are challenges keeping up with massive amounts of updates. There are also problems with language community take-up − many people simply view it as easier or better to use the original English language version.
    It’s important to remember that we are merely passing the language on − our challenge is to not be left behind in an increasingly digital-based and hyper-connected world.
    For more information about this initiative, check out Use your cúpla focal on Gmail, now in Irish on the official Gmail blog!

  • Friday, November 14, 2014

    Forget Ice Water, Take the Indigenous Language Challenge Instead

    By Eduardo Avila

    Originally published on the Rising Voices and Global Voices blog

    Love it or hate it, the online buzz surrounding the Ice Bucket Challenge earlier this year brought more awareness to the disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Participants filmed themselves dumping cold water on their heads and challenging another person to do the same or donate money toward research for a cure.

    Now a similar concept aimed at awareness for indigenous languages is making its way around the internet. In the Indigenous Language Challenge, the one who accepts the challenge must record a video speaking an indigenous language and tap someone else to do the same. The outcome has been a wide range of people around the world who are producing videos, some for the first time, as a way to proudly share their language online and encouraging more to do the same.

    A Facebook group was created to collect links to the videos, where people could share their motivations and connect with others taking part in the Challenge. Many chose to upload their videos directly to Facebook where one can hear North American languages like Kwak'wala and Lakota, as well as the Miriwoong language from Australia, for example.

    Efforts to pinpoint the origin of this challenge are ongoing, but according to the group administrator, one of the first participants was James Gensaw, speaking words in the Yurok language.

    Who are some of the participants? And why is this activity so important? Colleen Fitzgerald, Director of the Native American Languages Lab at The University of Texas at Arlington, shares her thoughts on her blog post at the Huffington Post:

    "Many of these videos come from adults who are second language learners. For many years, government-run boarding schools in both the U.S. and Canada took children from Native families. This had an immense effect on Native language acquisition. Children lost priceless years of daily home environments with parents and grandparents communicating to them in their language. Home is where children's language development thrives and grows, and where children acquire the many different speech forms that express the human experience. What gets lost? So much, from the everyday language of instructions, telling jokes, or a recipe, to the ritual language of prayers, ceremonial speeches, or sharing stories of the ancestors."

    Here are two examples of participants in this Challenge, who uploaded their videos to YouTube. Jackelyn Seitcher speaking in the Nuu-chah-nulth language shares words after accepting the challenge.


    Monica Peters takes the opportunity for the challenge to show the translations of works in Kanienkeha. She then goes onto challenge members of the “Keeping the Kanienkeha Language Strong” Facebook group, community leaders and teachers, and students that are just starting out to speak the language.

    There are other videos collected on the blog News From Native California.     Konwennenhon Marion Delaronde also posted her video in the group speaking Kanien'keha (Mohawk). After being challenged by Kehte Deer, she enthusiastically took part and shared her reflections after uploading her video:

    "Already I think I heard all the languages from different nations. I have to tell you all that all your languages are so beautiful. Always speak your own languages if you can. It’s hopeful. I want to encourage all of you to continue to learn, continue to teach other and to really put your life into it, speaking. I’m so happy that I can speak Mohawk. I’m not fluent, a lot is still missing, but I want to thank everyone who has recorded themselves for this challenge, because you inspired me."

  • Thursday, August 21, 2014

    A Gathering of Indigenous Language Digital Activism in Oaxaca, Mexico
    By: Eduardo Avila
    Originally published at Rising Voices and Global Voices

    Global Voices through its Rising Voices initiative, the Juan de Córdova Research Library, and SURCO invite indigenous language activists from all across Mexico to take part in the Indigenous Language Digital Activism Gathering that will take place on October 3-5 at the San Pablo Cultural Center in the historical center of Oaxaca de Juárez, Mexico.

    The central focus of this gathering is to provide a space for peer learning and exchange targeted at 25 indigenous language digital activists that are currently using their languages in digital media.

    Mexico is one of the most linguistically diverse countries in Latin America with more than 300 indigenous languages spoken and written on a daily basis, and many of these are in danger of extinction. Technology has been adopted in recent times for academic documentation and for the creation of language learning software as a way to study and preserve these languages.

    New generations have also been taking to the Internet to tweet, blog, or podcast in their native languages as part of their daily online routines. However, an emerging movement comprised of indigenous Internet users are welcoming the responsibility to promote their language and culture online in an effort to revitalize the language and encourage the next generations of speakers. This sense of duty to their community drives these digital activists to dedicate their own time and resources towards this noble cause.

    Despite these grassroots efforts, many digital activists work in relative isolation facing unique and ongoing challenges, such as:

    Technical challenges - including the unavailability of a keyboard with the appropriate characters necessary for writing in the language.

    Linguistic challenges – including a lack of a consensus among the community on the correct version of the written alphabet, or a lack of technology-related terminology in the language

    Socio-cultural challenges – including communities that may yet to have discussions about how their language and culture should or should not be openly shared online.

    The good news is that there are strategies to address these challenges in unique contexts, as demonstrated by the growing number of success stories of how communities have been using participatory media to promote their languages online. However, there continues to be a need to find ways for these digital activists to connect with one another to share their stories and experiences.

    That's where the Indigenous Language Digital Activism Gathering comes in. This group will include bloggers, audio-visual producers, Wikipedia editors, and free software localizers, all creating digital content in Mexican indigenous languages.

    Through peer-led discussions and hands-on workshops, there will be ample opportunity for the participants to build digital skills, as well to engage in conversations about the unique challenges that they face. In addition, workshops exploring the topic of online and offline digital activism and how their work can continue to have an impact in their communities.

    There will also be two public events where those interested in learning more about how these communities are working to help make this social change through their digital work. Those interested can apply to attend and full and partial travel scholarships are available.

    Please note: this opportunity is only open for participants that speak an indigenous language and who reside in Mexico. The deadline to apply is August 29, 2014. For more information, please use the Contact Form on the event's blog.
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