On Endangered Languages

It turns out that here in Redmond we’re sitting in the middle of one of the global hotspots of language endangerment, as identified by this NY Times article on the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages. It is heartbreaking to realize that of the world’s 7000 or so languages, half are expected to vanish before the end of this century. It’s also humbling: our group spends much (probably most) of its time trying to extend the reach of natural language software to as many languages as we can (the language packs for Office 2007 include proofing tools support for dozens of languages). We’re exploring many ways to speed up development for natural language software, and empower people in lots of language communities to use software that “speaks their language”. But the work is painfully slow compared to the rate at which this tragedy is unfolding.

Some of the linguists in our group know from experience just how fast that clock is running. For instance, before coming to Microsoft I worked for an all-too-brief period with the folks in the Makah Cultural and Research Center in Neah Bay, Washington, on their language preservation project. Though sadly the last living native speaker of Makah has since passed away, they continue their efforts to teach the language to young speakers so that this rich piece of cultural heritage is not lost entirely.

The folks in the Living Tongues project are really in the trenches, working to preserve some of the languages in the most immediate danger. It’s well worth some time to take a look at their website and inform yourself about just what is lost to humanity when another language disappears.

--James Lyle (Test Lead)

Comments

• Anonymous
  September 22, 2007
  The hype surrounding the media splash by the so-called "Living Tongues Institute" fails to mention that there are several other groups around the world who are doing work of this kind, and who have been doing so for some years. Have a look at http://www.hrelp.org or http://www.mpi.nl/dobes or http://www.neh.gov/grants/guidelines/del.html. At these websites you will see descriptions of hundreds of projects quietly doing similar work, many of them in much closer collaboration with communities and with much more focus on language revitalisation and support than the people you report on.

• Anonymous
  October 16, 2007
  James was talking about endangered languages the other day. I have just finished reading David Harrison’s

• Anonymous
  October 20, 2007
  Mon collègue James Lyle parlait récemment des langues en danger sur l’autre blog de notre équipe il y