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Language and Technology

Increased use of new technologies such as satellite television and the Internet have flooded many Arctic indigenous communities with outside influences. However, technology also offers many opportunities for language preservation and revitalization. For example, simple digital recording devices can be used to record everyday communication among speakers of indigenous languages. These recordings can be compiled onto CDs or DVDs, sent to others by email, or uploaded onto websites for the world to see – as we have done with the video clips on this site. Such tools can be used by language instructors, but also by individuals who wish to learn and practice their language skills.

While technology is no substitute for regular communication among speakers of indigenous languages, there are many valuable technological tools that can assist us in preserving indigenous languages and designing effective teaching materials to help people learn them. These articles describe some of the ways in which technology can be used to strengthen indigenous languages.

Preserving Endangered Languages or Local Speech Variants in Kamchatka PDF icon

This paper was prepared for the 12th Conference of the Foundation for Endangered Languages, held in September 2008. It concerns various language preservation projects in the Russian Far East that center on the production and dissemination of multimedia language teaching materials (DVD with textbook) with culturally adapted content, designed for use inside and outside the classroom. They refer to the endangered language of Itelmen as well as to endangered local variants of the Even and the Koryak languages spoken in Kamchatka.

Alaskan Native Language SoftwarePDF icon

Feb 21, 2007 - With the help of Rosetta Stone Inc., a language-learning company based in Harrisonburg, Virginia, the Iñupiat have worked for two years on a CD-ROM project to teach the Iñupiaq language.

Nunavut Living Dictionary

The Nunavut government department of Culture, Language, Elders and Youth (CLEY) has developed an on-line "Living Dictionary". The term *Living Dictionary* came from Dave Smith, former Chief Information Officer of Nunavut and Jim Howse of Multilingual E-Data Solutions, the company that conceived of the project and presented it, in 1999, to a group of interested parties drawn from the Nunavut government and from Nunavut Tunngavit Inc.

Interactive Inupiaq Dictionary

The Eskimo is admired the world over for his ability to live comfortably on the very edge of human habitat. His language reflects this genius. This dictionary is sent forth with the hope that something of this genius is displayed, both to the Eskimo (and particularly the young people who are losing their cultural heritage), and to interested non-Eskimo. These words have been gathered over a period of ten years and drawn from various Eskimo living in the villages of North and Northwest Alaska.