University of Melbourne: How Data Expertise Is Fostering Endangered Languages. “The PARADISEC digital archive model revitalising endangered languages around the Pacific has now been taken up in North America by the Cherokee Nation.”
Washington Post: Residential schools banned native languages. The Cree want theirs back.. “Across Canada, the often brutal residential school system, designed to assimilate Indigenous people into White, European culture, succeeded in breaking the tradition of passing on languages from generation to generation — and put the survival of some in jeopardy. But now, 25 years after the last residential school was shuttered, some Indigenous communities — including the one here that Pope Francis visited Monday — are reviving and relearning their native languages.” Please be advised that the first few paragraphs in this story have references to sexual abuse.
Tech Xplore: Aboriginal language could help solve complex AI problems. “An Aboriginal language could hold the key to solving some of the most challenging communication problems between humans and artificial intelligence (AI) systems. A new paper, published by Frontiers in Physics and led by UNSW Canberra’s Professor Hussein Abbass, explains how Jingulu—a language spoken by the Jingili people in the Northern Territory—has characteristics that allow it to be easily translated into AI commands.”
US Department of Education: Funding Available to Support Native Language Revitalization. “Advancing its commitment to maintaining, protecting, and revitalizing Native American languages – the U.S. Department of Education has announced approximately $1 million in grant funding available for Native American Language (NAL@ED) projects.”
New Zealand Herald: Google fails to deliver campaign promise to fix Māori pronunciation on Google Maps. “Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori (the Māori Language Commission) told Te Ao with Moana this week that Google didn’t have the right technology to fulfil promises made in a 2017 campaign to improve Māori pronunciation in the Google Maps app.”
MIT Technology Review: A new vision of artificial intelligence for the people. “In the back room of an old and graying building in the northernmost region of New Zealand, one of the most advanced computers for artificial intelligence is helping to redefine the technology’s future. Te Hiku Media, a nonprofit Māori radio station run by life partners Peter-Lucas Jones and Keoni Mahelona, bought the machine at a 50% discount to train its own algorithms for natural-language processing. It’s now a central part of the pair’s dream to revitalize the Māori language while keeping control of their community’s data.”
The Oregonian: The quest to save Oregon’s Kalapuya: ‘You lose a language, you lose a culture’. “On a drizzly January morning, Esther Stutzman’s dining room table is covered with sticky notes, worksheets, notepads and several bulky Kalapuya dictionaries. Seated next to Stutzman are her two daughters and granddaughter, all Kalapuyan descendants and enrolled members of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians. Their jovial banter belies the gravity of their mission: to revive the lost language of their ancestors. The scattered documents form a paper trail to their heritage.”
University of Massachusetts Amherst: UMass Hosts First Open Access, Multilingual Journal Dedicated To Revitalization Of Endangered And Minoritized Languages. “The goal of the journal is to promote scholarly work and experience-sharing by bringing together language revitalization practitioners from a diversity of backgrounds, whether academic or not, within a peer-reviewed publication that is not limited to academic contributions and is inclusive of a diversity of perspectives and forms of expression. Living Languages seeks to publish contributions on practical and theoretical issues directly related to actions that support language sustainability and/or revitalization in indigenous and minoritized contexts.”
Associated Press: Tech tool tribe uses to save language. “By itself, being able to read smartphone home screens in Cherokee won’t be enough to safeguard the indigenous language, endangered after a long history of erasure. But it might be a step toward immersing younger tribal citizens in the language spoken by a dwindling number of their elders. That’s the hope of Principal Chief Richard Sneed of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, who is counting on more inclusive consumer technology — and the involvement of a major tech company — to help out.”
World Economic Forum: 1,500 endangered languages could disappear by the end of the century. “There are 7,000 documented languages currently spoken across the world, but half of them could be endangered, according to a new study. It is predicted that 1,500 known languages may no longer be spoken by the end of this century. Researchers from The Australian National University (ANU) analyzed thousands of languages to identify factors that put endangered ones at risk. The findings highlight a link between higher levels of schooling and language loss, as regionally dominant languages taught in class often overshadow indigenous tongues.”
PR Newswire: Ute Mountain Ute Tribe Launch Digital Ute Language Dictionary (PRESS RELEASE). “The Ute Language digital dictionary is the latest resource for speakers and learners of the Ute Language. Time is critical for this Indigenous community as they fight to reinvigorate the next generation of learners. It is estimated that today there are a little over 110 fluent Ute Mountain Ute speakers. The Ute Mountain Ute digital dictionary will be free for learners to access on the web or to download the app on both iOS and Android devices.”
PR Newswire: Stoney Nakoda Language Resources Launched to Preserve Indigenous Language (PRESS RELEASE). “The Stoney Education Authority (SEA), with support from The Language Conservancy, is releasing historic Stoney Nakoda language learning resources this December. This release includes three picture books, a Level 1 textbook, and an alphabet colouring book. The release also includes several digital resources: a 9,000-word web and mobile dictionary, a textbook-accompanying media player app, and a vocabulary-building app.” You can learn more about the Stoney Nakoda First Nation here.
UNESCO: UNESCO launches the World Atlas of Languages to celebrate and protect linguistic diversity. “The World Atlas of Languages presents basic data on the existing 8,324 languages spoken or signed in the world, in use and not in use, as well as more detailed data documenting how 1,863 languages are used in various domains at the national level, enabling the construction of linguistic country profiles for over 80 countries. The platform featuring this rich dataset will open to the general public in February 2022.”
Penn State: Multi-university project to focus on language and history of the Choctaw Nation. “Working with a ‘rare and rich’ digital archive of 19th-century Choctaw language court documents, Penn State history scholars and graduate students are partnering with linguists from the University of Florida on a multi-faceted initiative called the Choctaw Language and History Workshop. The project, which promotes a new model for graduate students studying Native American history, will have multiple deliverables, including several scholarly articles and a Choctaw language dictionary developed in consultation with the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians.”
Penn Today: A partnership to preserve Kashaya. “Since the 1980s, linguist Eugene Buckley has studied this Native American language, now spoken by just a dozen or so people. In collaboration with members and descendants of the Kashia Band of Pomo Indians, he’s built a database of Kashaya words, sounds, and stories.”
The ResearchBuzz Firehose is regular RB content presented as individual posts.
For digest-type posts a couple of times a day, please visit ResearchBuzz.
Want to know how to best use the Firehose for content discovery?
Check out this handy article.
Catch me on GitHub: https://github.com/ResearchBuzz
RB Search Gizmos: https://researchbuzz.github.io/