Many European languages in danger of digital extinction

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At least 21 European languages face digital extinction, a new study by Europe’s leading language technology experts finds. Assessing the level of support through language technology for 30 of the approximately 80 European languages, the experts conclude that digital support for 21 of the 30 languages investigated is “non-existent” or “weak” at best. The study was carried out by META-NET, a European network of excellence that consists of 60 research centres in 34 countries. The findings are presented in a series of 30 Language White Papers, indicating the risks and threats for each of the languages. Utrecht University is a participant in META-NET and Prof. Jan Odijk is the author of the white paper about the Dutch language.

Over 200 expert have assessed the language technology support for 30 of the ca 80 European languages. A total of 21 of the 30 languages (70%) were placed in the lowest category, “support is weak or non-existent” for at least one area. Well-known examples of language technology software include spell and grammar checkers, interactive personal assistants on smartphones (such as Siri on the iPhone), dialogue systems that work over the phone, automatic translation systems, web search engines, and synthetic voices used in car navigation systems.

Poor language technology support

Language technology support has been assessed for each language in four different areas: automatic translation, speech interaction, text analysis and the availability of language resources. Several languages, for example, Icelandic, Latvian, Lithuanian and Maltese, receive this lowest score in all four areas. In total, 21 languages receive the lowest score in at least one area. Remarkably, no language was considered to have “excellent support”. Only English was assessed as having “good support”, followed by languages such as Dutch, French, German, Italian and Spanish with “moderate support”.

META-NET White Paper series

The META-NET White Paper series “Languages in the European Information Society” is available in print and online.