Languages to Live Longer

Tue Oct 9 03:13:00 UTC 2007

Aboriginal culture is turning to technology, writes Lia Timson.

In a true marriage of old and new, the internet is set to perpetuate, if
not, revive dozens of Aboriginal languages facing extinction. The
Miromaa software project - miromaa means "saved" in Arwarbukarl language
- was developed by two Aboriginal men in Newcastle despite assurances
from linguists that lay community members were ill-equipped to save
languages.

Daryn McKenny, general manager of the not-for-profit Arwarbukarl
Cultural Resource Association (www.arwarbukarl.com.au
<http://www.arwarbukarl.com.au> ) led the development of the program. It
will be used in a yet-to-be-launched website that aims to take the
linguistic salvaging effort worldwide.

It is estimated that from the 250 known Australian Aboriginal languages,
only 15 to 20 are fluently spoken today. The top five indigenous
languages are spoken at home by between 2500 and 5800 people only,
according to the 2006 census.

"What culture is left is disappearing every day with each elder who
passes away," McKenny says. "We need not just linguists but an army of
people and technology to slow down the loss."

Arwarbukarl, originally spoken by the people of what is now Newcastle,
Lake Macquarie and the lower Hunter Valley, is among those languages in
danger of disappearing.

"We were doing song and dance to educate the community and our own kids,
we wanted to teach them the culture, but without the language there was
something missing. Here we are teaching and talking about our language
but in English. It's not the same," McKenny says.

The project was almost killed four years ago when the now-defunct ATSIC
conducted a review that recommended funding be cut because "two fellas
without a linguist could not revive a language", he says.

"It was a big kick up the butt but it meant we had to change our ways
and work smarter."

With a background in computing, he started a search for language
software around the world but settled for developing one from scratch
when he realised existing programs were aimed at professionals studying
threatened languages, not those practising them.

Miromaa allows community users of different language groups to post
text, images, sound and video of words and phrases in a sort of communal
multimedia dictionary effort and in the process create a resource others
can use. It has a separate section for linguists.

It has been licensed to cultural centres in Victoria, Western Australia
and north Queensland.

But it is the Our Languages website that will allow the wider community
to learn indigenous languages when it launches later this year. It will
cater for multiple dialects, so that an online search for the word
"emu", for example, will elicit several regional results, including
audio of the correct pronunciations. The site (www.ourlanguages.com.au)
is still under development and inaccessible but will be open to all when
finished.

"Everyone in Australia talks Aboriginal and they don't even know it -
it's in the street names, the places, everywhere," McKenny says.

Our Languages will be launched with significant pro-bono help from
Microsoft under its Unlimited Potential program and technology-enabling
company, Dimension Data. It received partial funding from the Federal
Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts
(DCITA) but additional funds will be needed to add more languages.

The first dedicated national Aboriginal TV channel was launched last
month. National Indigenous Television (nitv.org.au) carries 24-hour
programming and can be seen by Optus Aurora satellite subscribers and
Imparja's Channel 31 viewers in remote Australia. The $50 million
venture, backed by the federal department, will be available nationally
via Foxtel and Austar from October.

The channel is calling for program submissions from the community,
including language-preservation ideas.

Download the actual article from here:
http://www.arwarbukarl.com.au/default.aspx?id=160 

Regards

Daryn McKenny

Arwarbukarl Cultural Resource Association Inc.

Read our Indigenous Language BLOG at http://www.arwarbukarl.net.au/blog/
<http://www.arwarbukarl.net.au/blog/> 

P | 02 4961 0515    F | 02 4940 8455    E | daryn at arwarbukarl.com.au
<mailto:daryn at arwarbukarl.com.au>     W | www.arwarbukarl.com.au

P  Please consider the environment before printing this email

The Arwarbukarl Cultural Resource Association Inc. respects the privacy
of individuals and strives to comply with all areas of the Privacy Act.
The contents of this email are intended for the purpose of the person or
persons named in either the "To" or "CC" boxes of the email. Any person
not named in these boxes in receipt of this email should immediately
delete this email and advise the sender accordingly.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ilat/attachments/20071009/13a8d7f3/attachment.htm>