New Google site aims to save endangered languages
By Kazi Stastna, CBC News Posted: Jun 22, 2012 2:27 PM ET
Google has launched a new website this week aimed at helping preserve the more than 3,000 languages of the world that are at risk of extinction.
The goal of the Endangered Languages Project is to compile the most up-to-date and comprehensive information about endangered languages and share the latest research about those languages and efforts to preserve them.
About half of the world's estimated 7,000 languages are at risk of disappearing in the next 100 years, Google said in a blog post earlier this week announcing the launch of the project.
"We have so many languages which are in danger of dying, and though there has been work done by linguists to document these languages, there are nowhere near enough linguists to do that," said Anthony Aristar, professor of linguistics and co-director of the Institute for Language Information and Technology at Eastern Michigan University, which helped create the site.
"It's not just a matter of documenting the languages, it's also a matter of revitalizing them if we possibly can."
Access full article at:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2012/06/22/tech-google-endangered-languages.html
By Kazi Stastna, CBC News Posted: Jun 22, 2012 2:27 PM ET
Google has launched a new website this week aimed at helping preserve the more than 3,000 languages of the world that are at risk of extinction.
The goal of the Endangered Languages Project is to compile the most up-to-date and comprehensive information about endangered languages and share the latest research about those languages and efforts to preserve them.
About half of the world's estimated 7,000 languages are at risk of disappearing in the next 100 years, Google said in a blog post earlier this week announcing the launch of the project.
"We have so many languages which are in danger of dying, and though there has been work done by linguists to document these languages, there are nowhere near enough linguists to do that," said Anthony Aristar, professor of linguistics and co-director of the Institute for Language Information and Technology at Eastern Michigan University, which helped create the site.
"It's not just a matter of documenting the languages, it's also a matter of revitalizing them if we possibly can."
Access full article at:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2012/06/22/tech-google-endangered-languages.html