[LINK] SMH: 'Languages to live longer'

[Roger Clarke]

[Back at the dawn of the public Internet, I adopted the contrarian 
position that other languages would *not* be swamped by English, and 
that instead many marginal languages would *survive* because the 
Internet had arrived.  My hackneyed example was the connection of the 
Welsh-speaking diaspora in Patagonia with the remnant in the hills 
above Aberystwyth.

[I'm not right yet, but I'm still hoping.  And here's news of a 
substantial-looking project re the 235 enormously-endangered 
Aboriginal languages.]


Languages to live longer
The Sydney Morning Herald, Icon
August 20, 2007
Aboriginal culture is turning to technology, writes Lia Timson.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/web/languages-to-live-longer/2007/08/18/1186857828354.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1

In a true marriage of old and new, the internet is set to perpetuate, 
if not, revive dozens of Aboriginal languages facing extinction. The 
Miromaa software project - miromaa means "saved" in Arwarbukarl 
language - was developed by two Aboriginal men in Newcastle despite 
assurances from linguists that lay community members were 
ill-equipped to save languages.

[Miramar was a Mudgee wine-brand,  I do hope we don't end up with 
'intellectual property' problems!!  But hopefully Newcastle and 
Mudgee were different language regions.  Yep - Arwarbukarl cf. 
Wiradjuri according to http://www.foundingdocs.gov.au/pathways.asp ]

Daryn McKenny, general manager of the not-for-profit Arwarbukarl 
Cultural Resource Association (www.arwarbukarl.com.au) led the 
development of the program. It will be used in a yet-to-be-launched 
website that aims to take the linguistic salvaging effort worldwide.

It is estimated that from the 250 known Australian Aboriginal 
languages, only 15 to 20 are fluently spoken today. The top five 
indigenous languages are spoken at home by between 2500 and 5800 
people only, according to the 2006 census.

"What culture is left is disappearing every day with each elder who 
passes away," McKenny says. "We need not just linguists but an army 
of people and technology to slow down the loss."

Arwarbukarl, originally spoken by the people of what is now 
Newcastle, Lake Macquarie and the lower Hunter Valley, is among those 
languages in danger of disappearing.

"We were doing song and dance to educate the community and our own 
kids, we wanted to teach them the culture, but without the language 
there was something missing. Here we are teaching and talking about 
our language but in English. It's not the same," McKenny says.

The project was almost killed four years ago when the now-defunct 
ATSIC conducted a review that recommended funding be cut because "two 
fellas without a linguist could not revive a language", he says.

"It was a big kick up the butt but it meant we had to change our ways 
and work smarter."

With a background in computing, he started a search for language 
software around the world but settled for developing one from scratch 
when he realised existing programs were aimed at professionals 
studying threatened languages, not those practising them.

Miromaa allows community users of different language groups to post 
text, images, sound and video of words and phrases in a sort of 
communal multimedia dictionary effort and in the process create a 
resource others can use. It has a separate section for linguists.

It has been licensed to cultural centres in Victoria, Western 
Australia and north Queensland.
But it is the Our Languages website that will allow the wider 
community to learn indigenous languages when it launches later this 
year. It will cater for multiple dialects, so that an online search 
for the word "emu", for example, will elicit several regional 
results, including audio of the correct pronunciations. The site 
(www.ourlanguages.com.au) is still under development and inaccessible 
but will be open to all when finished.

"Everyone in Australia talks Aboriginal and they don't even know it - 
it's in the street names, the places, everywhere," McKenny says.

Our Languages will be launched with significant pro-bono help from 
Microsoft under its Unlimited Potential program and 
technology-enabling company, Dimension Data. It received partial 
funding from the Federal Department of Communications, Information 
Technology and the Arts (DCITA) but additional funds will be needed 
to add more languages.

The first dedicated national Aboriginal TV channel was launched last 
month. National Indigenous Television (nitv.org.au) carries 24-hour 
programming and can be seen by Optus Aurora satellite subscribers and 
Imparja's Channel 31 viewers in remote Australia. The $50 million 
venture, backed by the federal department, will be available 
nationally via Foxtel and Austar from October.

The channel is calling for program submissions from the community, 
including language-preservation ideas.


-- 
Roger Clarke                  http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/
			            
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Visiting Professor in Info Science & Eng  Australian National University
Visiting Professor in the eCommerce Program      University of Hong Kong
Visiting Professor in the Cyberspace Law & Policy Centre      Uni of NSW