tutorial on IT support for small languages - invitation to participate

[Lars Borin]

IT support for small languages

a tutorial in conjunction with the
ALLC/ACH conference
Göteborg, Sweden, 9-10 June, 2004
<http://svenska.gu.se/~svelb/ALLC-ACH-04/>

The world's linguistic diversity is decreasing at an alarming rate. Even 
according to the most optimistic predictions, one fourth of the world's 
languages will be gone by the end of this century, unless we can do 
something to reverse this trend. A language is a reflection of the 
community that speaks it. When the language dies, not only the linguistic 
knowledge itself is lost, but also the unique philosophy and world-view of 
its people, embodied in the language, and, indeed, inseparable from it.

Threatened language communities and linguists alike are becoming 
increasingly aware of this development, and increasingly concerned about 
it. In this connection, modern information and communication technologies 
can potentially be of enormous help. We can see many ways in which digital 
recording and storage technologies, the internet, multimedia, e-learning, 
corpus linguistics, language technology and other kinds of IT could be 
employed in support of small and threatened language communities.

The aim of this two-day tutorial on IT support for small languages is to 
provide an up-to-date overview of this important area. It will cover topics 
such as
- Uses of IT in support of small languages (general documentation/resource 
creation, revitalization, teaching/learning, status raising, etc.)
- Digital documentation of (small) languages:
- - general
- - modalities (writing, speech, video, etc.)
- - resource types (corpora, lexicons, etc.)
- - standards, formats
- - intellectual property rights and ethical issues
- Language technology for language support
- Community-related multimedia products

Organizers:

Professor Peter Austin
Märit Rausing Chair in Field Linguistics,
Director: Endangered Languages Academic Programme,
School of Oriental and African Studies, UK
<http://www.hrelp.org/acad_staff_pa.htm>

Professor Lars Borin
Chair in Natural Language Processing,
Director: Bank of Swedish,
Göteborg University, Sweden
<http://svenska.gu.se/~svelb/>

Practical details:

You register for the tutorial using the main ALLC/ACH conference 
registration form, found here: <http://www.hum.gu.se/allcach2004/Reg/>. The 
tutorial fee is 625 SEK (incl VAT) (about 70 Euro), which includes lunch 
and coffee/tea. Note that it is possible to register only for the tutorial; 
you don't need to register for the main conference.

The tutorial webpage: <http://svenska.gu.se/~svelb/ALLC-ACH-04/>.
The ALLC/ACH conference website: <http://www.hum.gu.se/allcach2004/>

In case you have questions, please contact Lars Borin 
<lars.borin at svenska.gu.se>