Table of Contents
- Featured Global Voices Posts on Language
- Special Section: Welsh Language and Digital Media
- Resources:
The arrival of the Internet age has already radically changed the way we communicate. We have developed this page to track the relationship of languages and the Internet, looking at use of language online, and the development and preservation of language in an increasingly digital world.
If you would like to contribute to this page, or suggest any related resources, please contact Global Voices Multilingual Editor, Paula Góes.
What we do: Global Voices bloggers report on how citizens use the internet and social media to make their voices heard, often translating from different languages. For more information on indigenous cultures, please visit our Indigenous Rights page.
In association with:
Featured Global Voices Posts on Language
2012
7 Sep – Young People, Technology and the Welsh Language
31 Aug – Venezuela: Preserving the Oral Traditions of the Plains
23 Aug – Argentina: Blogging in Welsh from Patagonia
14 Aug – Wales Celebrates its National Eisteddfod Festival, With a Digital Twist
03 Aug – The Welsh Language's Digital Toolbox
31 Jul – Wales: Imagining the Welsh Language Web
21 Jul – Wales: The State of Welsh Language Blogging
01 Feb – China: Several Tibetan Language Blog Sites Shut Down
2011
29 Nov – Online Activism To Save Chakma Language
22 Nov – Promoting Indigenous African Language Films
19 Nov – Conversations in Cherokee with a Wolf
07 Nov – Acting for Nishnaabe Revitalization
02 Nov – Languages: Let's Tweet and Speak in Quechua
01 Nov – Global Voices Podcast: Bridging the Language Gaps
31 Oct – Ségou Villages: The Wisdom of Bambara Proverbs
27 Oct – Collecting Audio of UN Human Rights Declaration in 370 Languages
27 Oct – A Podcast of Champions in Warlpiri
26 Oct – Free Wi-Fi on Niue as a Catalyst
17 Oct – Poetry Slam Activism in Francophone Africa
06 Oct – Phil Cash Cash and Nez Perce
09 Sep – Peru: The State of Quechua on the Internet
01 Sep – Moldova: “Our Romanian Language” Day Protest
30 Aug – Jean Came Poulard on Haitian Creole
25 Aug – Kazakhstan: Controversy Over State Language Promotion
13 Aug – Comedic Fun with Japanese Hashtag Memes
12 Aug – Ukraine: Basic Language Tips
11 Aug – Russia: One Million Twitter Accounts in Russian
10 Aug – Egypt: The Unspoken Languages of the Streets
01 Aug – Global Voices Podcast 2: Speaking Our Language
01 Aug – Global Voices in Aymara: Preserving Indigenous Language Online
27 Jul – Tweeting in Chichewa in Southern Africa
18 Jul – Twitter to Promote and Preserve Underrepresented Languages
06 Jul – Trydar y Cymry! The Welsh Language Thrives Online
07 Jun – Equatorial Guinea: A Language That Ignores Human Rights
19 May – Mozambique: Portuguese, the Language of Mozambicanness
19 May – Cape Verde: Creole and Portuguese Languages, an Unofficial Pair
23 Feb – A declaration of love to the Portuguese language, in all its variations
22 Feb – Video: Learning a New Language Through Online Video
2010
24 Dec – “In the beginning was the Word”: Blogs by Bible translators
17 Nov – Russia: Controversy as Cyrillic Domains Hit the Open Market
15 Aug – Morocco: English as the Second Language
15 Jul – Morocco: The Complexities of Language
29 Jun – Global: Greek to English, Chinese to Russian, and Spanish to Macedonian
04 May – Pakistan: Internet and the challenge of language
20 Apr – Bangladesh: Let Language Be Free
24 Feb – Americas: International Mother Language Day
08 Feb – India: Death of a Prehistoric Language
Special Section: Welsh Language and Digital Media
07 Sep – Young People, Technology and the Welsh Language
14 Aug – Wales Celebrates its National Eisteddfod Festival, With a Digital Twist
03 Aug – The Welsh Language's Digital Toolbox
31 Jul – Wales: Imagining the Welsh Language Web
21 Jul – Wales: The State of Welsh Language Blogging
Resources
Translation tools
- Google Translate – Multilingual machine translation tool.
- Numbers from 1 to 10 in Over 5000 Languages
- Open-Tran – Translation online.
- Open Translation Tools (Social Source Commons) - A collection of Free and Open Source (FOSS or FLOSS) software tools that support translation and localization of software and content.
- Tatoeba Project – Search example sentences translated into many languages. Add and translate your own sentences.
- Universal Subtitles – Open source tools to make the work of subtitling and translating video simpler
- World Atlas of Language Structures (WALS) – Large database of structural (phonological, grammatical, lexical) properties of languages.
- Wikidioms – An online resource that aims at helping translators to cope with the translation of idioms.
Websites
- Aboriginal Studies Electronic Data Archive (ASEDA) - Computer-based (digital) materials about Australian Indigenous studies collected from the late 80’s to early 2009 by the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS).
- Australian Audiovisual Archive – Recorded Sound and Moving Image Collections include examples of over 200 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages in the form of readings, conversations, grammatical and lexical elicitation, oral histories, ceremonies and songs.
- AUSTLANG – Web-based Australian Indigenous language database which assembles information from various sources.
- Endangered Language Fund – Supporting endangered language preservation and documentation projects.
- Google Zambia – Available in Chinyanja, IciBemba and Chitumbuka languages.
- Global Recordings Network - Online audio database of Christian gospel translations into many languages.
- iLoveLanguages – Comprehensive catalog of language-related Internet resources.
- Indigenous Language Institute – Provides vital language related services to Native communities.
- indigenoustweets.com – List of Twitter users tweeting in endangered languages.
- Latin American Network Information Center - Resources list.
- Live And Tell Project – User-generated content site for documenting and learning rare languages.
- National Geographic Enduring Voices – Strives to preserve endangered languages by identifying language hotspots.
- Oxford University Language Centre – Great list of international resources.
- Runasimipi Qespisqa Software – Project to Create Free Software in Quechua
- Teaching Indigenous Languages – Focuses on “the linguistic, educational, social, and political issues related to the survival of the endangered indigenous languages of the world”.
- The Mercator Project – To promote the interests of the minority/regional languages and cultures within the European Union.
- UNESCO Map of Endangered Languages
- Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies at New York University – Quechua language resources including podcast and lessons.
Online books
- Effective Language Education Practices and Native Language Survival – Now out of print, contain descriptions of promising Native language programs in New Zealand, Canada, and the United States.
- Ethnologue: Languages of the World – An encyclopedic reference work cataloging all of the world’s 6,909 known living languages.
- Indigenous Languages Across the Community – Indigenous language efforts in Canada, the USA, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Mexico, Russia, and the Caribbean.
- Indigenous Language Revitalization: Encouragement, Guidance & Lessons Learned – Includes papers on the challenges faced by linguists working in Indigenous communities, Maori and Hawaiian revitalization efforts, the use of technology in language revitalization, and Indigenous language assessment.
- Nurturing Native Languages – Immersion language teaching methods, and the use of technology in language revitalization.
- Revitalizing Indigenous Languages – Opportunities and obstacles faced by language revitalization efforts.
- Stabilizing Indigenous Languages – American Indian and Alaska Native languages.
- Teaching Indigenous Languages – Experiences and thoughts of indigenous language activists working in the United States, Canada, New Zealand, and Mexico.
Multimedia
Podcasts
Rimasun – Biweekly Quechua language podcast series by the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies at New York University
Videos
National Geographic Enduring Voices – An introduction to the project.
Infographics
Map showing number of endangered language per country – By Charts Bin.
