[lg policy] discussion: Social Media and Endangered Languages

[Harold Schiffman]

Social Media and Endangered Languages


Great discussion topic, Roger, thanks!

While those endangered language communities which have no access to
the internet will probably not benefit directly from digital tools,
they can still benefit indirectly, e.g. through language documentation
on YouTube.

In these times when mobile phones have penetrated to rural areas, much
more is possible for indigenous language use on the web. One digital
tool showing this for many under-resourced languages (granted, not
many of those are also endangered) is IndigenousTweets, cf.
http://indigenoustweets.com/.

A more individual success story may be the Rangi chat group on
Facebook which has grown to over 300 members, quite a number of whom
contribute via mobile from rural villages in Kondoa district, Northern
Central Tanzania, cf.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/TuluusikeKilaangi/.

Usage of LWCs notwithstanding (which is impossible to disappear), the
more online niches are created and advertised, the better for
endangered language communities (in the opinion of yours truly).

http://linguistlist.org/issues/23/23-904.html

-- 
**************************************
N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to
its members
and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner
or sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents.
Members who disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal,
and to write directly to the original sender of any offensive message.
 A copy of this may be forwarded to this list as well.  (H. Schiffman,
Moderator)

For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to
https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/
listinfo/lgpolicy-list
*******************************************

_______________________________________________
This message came to you by way of the lgpolicy-list mailing list
lgpolicy-list at groups.sas.upenn.edu
To manage your subscription unsubscribe, or arrange digest format: https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/listinfo/lgpolicy-list