SA languages boosted (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

SA languages boosted

31/03/2004 08:49  - (SA)  
http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,6119,2-7-1442_1505745,00.html

Johannesburg - The South African government announced on Tuesday it is
about to embark on a project to bring indigenous languages into line
with current international norms.

This was the message from Minister of Minerals and Energy, Arts,
Culture, Science and Technology Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka when she
announced an innovative language scheme at the Durban Convention
Centre.

The minister said Africa as a whole had a woeful history as far as
honouring the languages of the people of the continent was concerned.

"African languages' biggest problem stems from the days of colonialism
and the ill-conceived idea that African languages were inferior to
colonial languages and unfit for any functional role in business or
politics," said the minister.

As part of a strategy to reverse this situation the minister announced
three initiatives - a bursary scheme, the establishment of language
research and development centres (LRDCs) and the launch of a human
language technologies (HLT) initiative.

"I would like to state that it is the government's goal to have all the
official languages of South Africa adequately developed in order to
serve the complex and diverse requirements of modern communication,"
she said.

"Developing a language requires the use of realistic strategies, and a
proper plan of action with clear goals and objectives. When one thinks
about developing languages one has to think about research, which
provides the backbone of all language development strategies.

Terminology, literature, research

"It is for this reason that we have decided to establish language
research and development centres and to link them with academic
institutions. The mandates of these centres are terminology
development, literature development and research, and language planning
research.

Mlambo-Ngcuka said the human language technologies unit would
co-ordinate the work that was done in terms of developing and managing
electronic language and speech resources in all the official languages
of South Africa.

Department spokesperson Xolile Mfaxa said the new technology could be
used in all sections of society such as universities, government and
the private sector in promoting the use of indigenous languages.

"We want to see capacity built along the lines of terminology so there
is no excuse for not using a particular language - for example not
using Zulu because it doesn't have certain technical terms."

Mfaxa said five bursaries worth R40 000 each, were awarded to
post-graduate students in the fields of translation and editing,
interpreting, terminology development, human language technologies and
language planning.

All of these initiatives follow the February 2003 adoption by government
of the National Language Policy Framework.

Edited by Tisha Steyn