January 3, 2009
Text Message May Save Endangered Languages
Can a language stay relevant if it isn't used to send text messages on a cellphone? Language advocates worry that the answer is no, and they are pushing to make more written languages available on cellphones. The WSJ reports.
Texting is the cheapest and most popular mode of cellphone communication in most of the world, and last year text messages topped voice calls even in the U.S.
But companies that develop predictive text say they have created cellphone software for fewer than 80 of the world's 6,912 languages cataloged by SIL International, a Dallas organization that works to preserve languages.
"The idea of having your cultural identity represented in this technology is increasingly important," says Laura Welcher, director of the Rosetta Project of San Francisco's Long Now Foundation. Ms. Welcher, who says linguists fear half the world's languages will disappear in the near future, thinks at least 200 languages have enough speakers to justify development of cellphone text systems. "Technology empowers the poorest people," she adds.
[via Switched]
The Permanent Link to this page is: http://www.textually.org/textually/archives/2009/01/022200.htm