Microsoft throws a lifeline to endangered languages

 

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By Hani Megerisi

Posted on 22 Feb 2010 at 10:58

Microsoft has announced an initiative to help save thousands of rare languages.

The company’s Office, Windows and Visual Studio programs will, for the first time, be equipped with new language packs and methods for communities to develop IT terminology in their own tongues.

The announcement was made in conjunction with UNESCO (The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) for International Mother Language Day 2010, an event which aims to preserve local dialects and languages around the world.

We need to create new words, because right now we can’t say ‘computer'

Research from the heritage trust estimates that a language ‘dies’ every 14 days, losing with it centuries of culture and history. Languages such as Welsh, Maori and Inuktitut are all increasingly under threat in the modern digital age, the heritage group claimed.

To make their programs more accessible to different languages, Microsoft has added Caption Language Interface Packs (CLIPs) to its software. These will allow users to adjust the base language on Office and Windows’ Language Interface Packs (LIPs), to allow smoother transition between dialects and “greater computer literacy in multiple languages,” the IT giant said.

“Allowing for people to use and build software in their native language helps emerging markets build a stronger workforce and ultimately better prepares employees to help grow their local economies," said Lauren Woodman, senior director of Microsoft’s government and education engagement programs. “This new CLIP technology will also help people bridge the language gap and, for the first time, use technology in a meaningful way.”

Linguists claim the initiative could even help modernise the old languages. “A Torres Straits’ Islander in Australia told me: ‘Our language is standing still; we need to make it relevant to today’s society. We need to create new words, because right now we can’t say ‘computer'," said Professor K. David Harrison, a linguist at Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania, and director of research for the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages.