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Why Is It Important To Preserve Language – There are approximately 7,000 languages spoken around the world today. Yet, sadly, every two weeks, a language dies with its last speaker, and it is predicted that between 50% and 90% of endangered languages will disappear in the next century. When a community loses a language, it loses its connection to the past – and part of the present. You lose something of your identity. As we think about protecting this heritage and the importance of preserving the language, we believe that new technology can help.
More than most countries, New Zealanders are particularly aware of this phenomenon. Centuries ago, the Māori people came to the islands to settle and establish a new civilization. Through the centuries and in the isolation of the South Pacific, the Māori developed their own unique culture and language. Today, in New Zealand, 15% of the population is Māori yet only a quarter of Māori people speak their native language, and only 3% of all people living in New Zealand speak te reo Māori. Statistically, fluency in language is very low.
Why Is It Important To Preserve Language
New Zealand and its institutions have taken note and are taking direct steps to promote the use of te reo Māori in meaningful ways. More schools are teaching te reo Māori, and city councils are reviving the indigenous culture by giving new, non-official names to sites around their cities. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has promoted the teaching of te reo Māori, calling for one million new speakers by 2040. Simply, yet profoundly, Ardern’s statement said, “The Māori language is part of who we are.” Despite all these efforts, today the understanding of te reo Māori is low.
Can Dying Languages Be Saved?
For the past 14 years, Microsoft has been working with te reo Māori experts and Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori (the Māori Language Council) to weave te reo Māori into the technology used by thousands of Kiwis every day with the goal of ensuring soak. we still live in a language with a strong future. Our collaboration has already resulted in translations of Minecraft educational resources and we recently commissioned a game completely immersed in the traditional Māori world, Ngā Motu (Islands).
To focus only on shaping the future ignores the value of the past, as well as our responsibility to preserve and celebrate te reo Māori heritage. This is why we are proud to announce the addition of te reo Māori as an officially recognized language in our free Microsoft Translator app. Microsoft Translator supports more than 60 languages, and this means that the free application can translate te reo Māori into English and vice versa. It will also support Māori into and from all other languages supported by Microsoft Translator. This is really about breaking the language barrier at home, at work, wherever you need it.
Dr Te Taka Keegan, senior lecturer in computer science at the University of Waikato and one of the many local experts who have helped lead the project since its inception, said: “What we says in our culture. The development of this Māori language tool would not have been possible without many people working towards a goal for many years. We hope that our work not only helps to revive and adapt te reo Māori for future generations of New Zealanders, but enables it to be shared, learned and valued around the world. It is very important to me that the technology we use reinforces the meaning of our cultural heritage, and language is at the heart of that.”
Te reo Māori will use Microsoft’s Neural Machine Translation (NMT) techniques, which can be more accurate than statistical translation models. We have recently achieved convergence in translating news from Kannada to English, and the advanced machine learning used for te reo Māori will continue to get better and better as even more documents are used to “learn” it. every variation of the language. This technology will power all of our M365 products and services.
Pdf) The Power Of Language: A Sociolinguistic Perspective
But while the technology is exciting, it’s not the heart of this story. This is about collaborating to develop tools that enhance our collective well-being. The New Zealand government is also leading a “good” process for measuring a country’s progress in ways that don’t just reflect economic growth. We need to look at cultural heritage in the same way. Preserving our cultural heritage is not “a nice thing to do” – according to the UN, it is essential to our renewal, social integration and sense of heritage, celebrating the values and stories we have in common. .
I was lucky enough to visit New Zealand this year, and it is a country that is really working to achieve a delicate cultural balance, one that keeps growth in mind and care, that maintains innovation and a focus on the future while he maintains a deep respect for the past. This kind of balance is what all countries should strive for.
Globally, as part of our AI for Cultural Heritage program, Microsoft has committed $10 million over five years to support projects dedicated to the preservation and enhancement of cultural heritage that use the power of artificial intelligence. The ultimate role of technology is to serve humanity, not to replace it. We can harness new tools in ways that support a community rich in diversity, perspectives and lessons from the past. And when we let that knowledge and experience be shared with the rest of the world, the whole society benefits.
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As UNESCO brings urgent attention to indigenous languages this year, a linguist wonders whether saving languages is a passion or a necessity.
I last spoke to Naati on an empty beach in Malekula, an island in the South Pacific nation of Vanuatu. I spent hours walking through the narrow paths through the hot, humid forest and wading through the often waist-deep river with the rescue equipment. . As I dropped my bag on the sand, a man stepped down from the nearby rocks and crossed the beach towards me.
We exchanged regional greetings, and the conversation soon turned to the subject of my unlikely appearance on these shores. I told the man, Ariep, that I was in the country to learn one of his many native languages. When he learned that I was a linguist, he was happy that he spoke Naati.
Sinking several trees into the sand and using them as points of reference, Ariep explains the relationship between Naati and other local languages. With a mixture of pride and sadness, he revealed that he was the last speaker in the Naati language. Although some of his family members have some knowledge of the language and are trying to use it together, he is afraid that when Naati dies, it will disappear soon.
How To Preserve The Punjabi Language — American Pakistan Foundation
Naati’s problem is not unique. Of the 7,000 languages spoken in the world today, 50 to 90 percent are considered vulnerable to extinction by the end of the century.
The conflict has received increasing public attention over the past decade, marked by lines such as “one language dies every two weeks” and illustrated by the tragic stories of the death of the last speaker. In UNESCO’s International Year of Indigenous Languages, as alarm bells are ringing and conservation efforts are underway, we should pause to ask: Why is it important?
Should Naat’s fate affect the world? Ariep doesn’t need Naati to talk to. Like many speakers of endangered languages, he knows a surprising number of languages, including many native to his island, as well as the national language.
If we
Preserving Endangered Languages With Noto Fonts
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