Google has taken an initiative to prevent endangered languages from vanishing forever. The initiative is called ‘The Endangered Languages Project’. Google aims to use to the latest technology to encourage communication between people familiar with languages on the verge of extinction and create a comprehensive database that preserves the language forever.
“Today we’re introducing something we hope will help [preserve languages on the brink of disappearing]: the Endangered Languages Project, a website for people to find and share the most up-to-date and comprehensive information about endangered languages,” wrote Clara Rivera Rodriguez and Jason Rissman, project managers of Google’s Endangers Languages Project, in a blog post.
Google further said the move to create database of the 3,000 endangered languages would help in preserving “cultural diversity, honouring the knowledge of our elders and empowering our youth”. Google hopes technology helps people familiar with such languages communicate more and preserve them as well.
Google’s initiative is backed by a new coalition, called the Alliance for Linguistic Diversity. Under the project, Google will provide users a dedicate space to store such languages and access research. At endangeredlanguages.com, users can upload video, audio, or text files and are encouraged o memorialize recordings of rare dialects. Google seeks contributions from the experts in the field of language preservation.
Only half of the about 7,000 languages spoken today are likely to survive past the end of the century, says a project video on YouTube. Check out the video below:
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