19 - The role of information technology in supporting minority and endangered languages

Summary

The fundamental scalability of information technology (IT) can be thought of as a great equalizer which puts the powerful resources developed for major world languages into the hands of minority language communities. This chapter describes two broad types of technologies which may support endangered languages. The first is products which are created by a group of developers or authors for a specific user community or audience. The second type consists of online technologies such as email listservs which foster communities of language learners and language users. For the most part, the technologies described in the chapter foster individual language learning. But IT can also play a role in developing and fostering a language community. One important difference between major or world languages and minor or endangered languages is that the latter almost by definition lack thriving language communities.