New Google site aims to save endangered languages (fwd link)

[Phillip E Cash Cash]

New Google site aims to save endangered languages

By Kazi Stastna, CBC News Posted: Jun 22, 2012 2:27 PM ET

Google has launched a new website this week aimed at helping preserve the
more than 3,000 languages of the world that are at risk of extinction.

The goal of the Endangered Languages Project is to compile the most
up-to-date and comprehensive information about endangered languages and
share the latest research about those languages and efforts to preserve
them.

About half of the world's estimated 7,000 languages are at risk of
disappearing in the next 100 years, Google said in a blog post earlier this
week announcing the launch of the project.

"We have so many languages which are in danger of dying, and though there
has been work done by linguists to document these languages, there are
nowhere near enough linguists to do that," said Anthony Aristar, professor
of linguistics and co-director of the Institute for Language Information
and Technology at Eastern Michigan University, which helped create the site.

"It's not just a matter of documenting the languages, it's also a matter of
revitalizing them if we possibly can."

Access full article below:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2012/06/22/tech-google-endangered-languages.html
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