The role of language technologies and MT in fostering multilingualism by contributing to the revitalization of minor and endangered languages

Resumo

In the Information Age communication is becoming more and more digital and users do no longer consume information and content in such a unidirectional way as they used to but rather interact with each other building virtual communities based on affinities and crossing geographical and political boundaries. Since just a scarce percentage of the over 6,800 languages spoken around the world enjoys significant online presence, there is a strong risk that bilingual speakers of minority languages resort to one of the so-called languages of globalization moved by the fear of missing the digital train and the eagerness to reach a bigger audience. Furthermore, with the enormous advances in deep learning, language technologies are improving at a vertiginous pace and gaining ground in many areas of our everyday life, be it as smart virtual assistants in our households, chatbots to interact with our bank etc. Since human language is the means of communication between people and technology the availability of technological resources in a certain language is crucial to increase its possibilities of surviving. Bearing in mind that the main technology developers are focused on profitability the defeat of the so-called digital diglossia needs the involvement of public authorities and the awareness and empowerment of the speaker community itself.