Technology rejuvenates neglected languages (fwd link)

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Technology rejuvenates neglected languages

July 15, 2010
Keh Blut uses the Open Road software to type in his native tongue  
S'gaw Karen. Photo: Joe Armao

IT'S TECHNOLOGY'S 21st century whizzbangery that usually grabs the  
headlines — 3D TV, mobile information systems, social media and the  
like — but sometimes a new application to an everyday activity is  
worth mentioning.

Internet users in the West take for granted that they can communicate  
in the digital world in their own language. But what if standard  
QWERTY keyboards aren't available in your native tongue? It's an issue  
for many minority communities that have emigrated to Australia,  
especially from places affected by drought, famine, civil unrest and  
underdevelopment.

Keh Blut  hopes that his native S'gaw Karen  language will one day be  
as available and easy to use online as behemoth Asian languages  
Chinese and Japanese.

Blut has been working with Andrew Cunningham of the State Library of  
Victoria to develop software that will enable native speakers of S'gaw  
Karen, a minority tongue used by the Karen communities of Burma and  
Thailand, to use computers in their own language.



Access full article below:

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/blogs/untangling-the-web/technology-rejuvenates-neglected-languages/20100715-10bvl.html