Micro-blogging in a mother tongue on Twitter (fwd link)

[Phillip E Cash Cash]

Friday, 8 April 2011 14:23 UK

Micro-blogging in a mother tongue on Twitter

By Dave Lee

Modern technology is often blamed for homogenising our ever-shrinking
world, particularly when it comes to traditional local cultures and
customs.

Minority and endangered languages are especially vulnerable, but one
ingenious site is working hard to track indigenous tweets.

Indigenoustweets.com logs tweeters in 68 languages across the world.
	
Using a custom-built database of words and phrases, it establishes
which tweeters embrace their mother tongue most often - and then helps
speakers get in touch with each other.
The site is the work of Kevin Scannell, a professor of Computer
Science at St. Louis University in the United States.

Access full article below:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/9450488.stm