First Nation uses translation machine to save language (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

First Nation uses translation machine to save language

Last Updated: Thursday, January 18, 2007 | 4:02 PM ET
CBC News
http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2007/01/18/language-device.html

A translation device developed for the U.S. military after the Sept. 11
attacks is helping an Alberta First Nation and other aboriginal groups
across North America preserve their languages.

The Phraselator, used by U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, translates
English phrases into the language chosen by the user. The hand-held
device, about 10 by 18 centimetres, is programmed with thousands of
phrases deemed to be useful in a specific situation.

When a person speaks English, it repeats the phrase in the programmed
language.

A teacher at the Siksika First Nation just east of Calgary said young
people in particular could be helped by the device.

"Siksika is one of the languages that is decreasing. It's not being
taught at home anymore," said Herman Yellowoldwoman. "The only people
that are teaching the language are the schools, and very little is
being taught at home."

Developed by VoxTec International of Maryland for military use in
Afghanistan after Sept. 11, 2001, it has now been adopted by U.S.
law-enforcement organizations and aboriginal groups.

Thornton Media of California, owned by an American Indian, has worked
with more than 40 tribes in the U.S. and Canada to help them control
their own language destiny, the company website said.

"If your kids aren't learning the language, it doesn't matter how many
speakers you have. If your kids aren't learning it, then your language
is in trouble," Don Thornton said.

Most Siksika speakers older

On the Siksika reserve, about 40 per cent of residents are fluent in the
language, but most of them are over 45. Yellowoldwoman said even
teachers have a hard time giving lessons to students.

"One of the biggest things is the sounds. When you write and read the
Siksika language, the sound is not correct. And the only way they can
ever get the correct sound is by listening."

The Phraselator has the sounds. And the machine can be programmed.

"You can also enter songs or words," Thornton said. On its website,
Thornton Media promises the hardware, software and training so users
can program "in YOUR language" — at $3,300 US a unit.

On the Siksika reserve, teachers want to use the tool one on one with
students. They like the idea.

"It's [the language] a very important part of our culture. We want to
keep it alive before it slowly disappears," said Larissa Calfrobe, 18.

Staff at the medical centre will also use the Phraselator so they can
better communicate with patients who are more comfortable using their
mother tongue.

Algorithms key to device

The Phraselator uses speech recognition algorithms, but is based on a
different concept from most machine translation systems, the VoxTec
website said.

Most efforts over the past 50 years of intense research have been based
on the problem of recognizing phonemes — the smallest phonetic units
that convey a distinct meaning, such as the "b" in bat — and universal
translation.

Progress on the phoneme front has been slow, but VoxTec went at the
problem by looking for a way to deal with phrases, recognizing that for
most situations, there is "a specific lexicon that can effectively be
communicated using a pre-defined, well-organized set of functional
phrases."

Phraselator uses modules, groups of phrases in a given language designed
by experts for specific uses such as disaster relief, the military or
law enforcement, and then translated by linguists from the region where
the language is spoken.

The modules advertised on its website range from Albanian to Vietnamese.