Lesser-Known Languages of South Asia: Status and Policies, Case Studies and Applications of Information Technology

Published by De Gruyter Mouton 2006

Lesser-Known Languages of South Asia

Status and Policies, Case Studies and Applications of Information Technology

Edited by: Anju Saxena and Lars Borin

Volume 175 in the series Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs [TiLSM]

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110197785

Overview
Contents

About this book

The increasing globalization and centralization in the world is threatening the existence of a large number of smaller languages. In South Asia some locally dominant languages (e.g., Hindi, Urdu, Nepali) are gaining ground beside English at the expense of the lesser-known languages. Despite a long history of stable multilingualism, language death is not uncommon in the South Asian context. We do not know how the language situation in South Asia will be affected by modern information and communication technologies: Will cultural and linguistic diversity be strengthened or weakened as they become increasingly prevalent in all walks of life?

This volume brings together areas of research that so far do not interact to any significant extent: traditional South Asian descriptive linguistics and sociolinguistics, documentary linguistics, issues of intellectual and cultural property and fieldwork ethics, and language technology. Researchers working in the areas of documentary linguistics and language technology have become aware of each other in the last few years, and of how work in the other area could be potentially useful in furthering their own aims. Similarly, the insights of documentary linguistics are making their way into descriptive linguistics and sociolinguistics. However, the potential for synergy among these areas of research is almost limitless.

This volume provides the reader, not so much with a do-it-yourself recipe for applying modern technology to the problem of language shift in South Asia today, but rather with some basic knowledge about the problems involved and some directions from which solutions could be forthcoming, a toolbox rather than a blueprint, for helping to shape the linguistic future of South Asia.

Author / Editor information

Anju Saxena, Uppsala University, Sweden; Lars Borin, Göteborg University, Sweden.

Topics

Frontmatter Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	i
Contents Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	vii
Language situation and language policies in South Asia
Status of lesser-known languages in India Udaya Narayana Singh Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	31
Minority language policies and politics in Nepal Mark Turin Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	61
Language policy, multilingualism and language vitality in Pakistan Tariq Rahman Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	73
Lesser-known language communities of South Asia: Linguistic and sociolinguistic case studies
Vanishing voices: A typological sketch of Great Andamanese Anvita Abbi Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	107
Lisu orthographies and email David Bradley Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	125
Shina in contemporary Pakistan Razwal Kohistani and Ruth Laila Schmidt Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	137
The rise of ethnic consciousness and the politicization of language in west-central Nepal Michael Noonan Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	161
Why Ladakhi must not be written – Being part of the Great Tradition: Another kind of global thinking Bettina Zeisler Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	175
Information and communication technologies and languages of South Asia
The impact of technology on language diversity and multilingualism E. Annamalai Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	195
The impact of technological advances on Tamil language use and planning Vasu Renganathan and Harold F. Schiffman Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	203
Corpus-building for South Asian languages Andrew Hardie, Paul Baker, Tony McEnery and B. D. Jayaram Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	211
Digitized resources for languages of Nepal Boyd Michailovsky Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	243
Multimedia: A community-oriented information and communication technology David Nathan and Éva Á. Csató Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	257
Language survival kits Jens Allwood Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	279
Grammatically based language technology for minority languages Trond Trosterud Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	293
Supporting lesser-known languages: The promise of language technology Lars Borin Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	317
Worrying about ethics and wondering about “informed consent”: Fieldwork from an Americanist perspective Colette Grinevald Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	339
Backmatter Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	371

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter Mouton
Audience: Sociolinguists interested in Language Contact and Language Shift; Historical Linguists; Language Typologists; Computational Linguists interested in Linguistic Resources and Low-Density Languages; Linguists specializing in South Asia
Pages
- Front matter: 8
- Main content: 386
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 18
- Tables: 30
Keywords: South Asia/language; sociolinguistics

eBook

Published: August 22, 2008
ISBN: 9783110197785

Hardcover

Published: August 21, 2006
ISBN: 9783110189766