It is almost clear that digital content per sé it is not good or bad in relation of “minoritized” languages as it happens for knives, you can cut bred or kill someone. Let us analyse the process in a long-term perspective. Documents and different formats, media and alphabets survived for centuries and millennia reaching us as a legacy from past generations. They are still accessible, readable and mostly understandable. In Pompei (Naples) we can still read graffiti on plasters promoting a Roman politician or supporting a local sport team. Furthermore ancient minority languages such as Etruscan are still readable as well. What will happen in 50, 100 or more years to our documents and, much more concerning, to documents written in “minoritized” languages? As we already discussed on the occasion of the digital preservation meetings and related outcomes and recommendations, the future of digital assets it is not safe at all, digital media are disintegrating, logical formats disappear, and hardware has a short expectation of life. Apart from similar concerns, let’s consider, as an assumption, that digital preservation problems will be cleared, which kind of documents, content, knowledge, “culture” will be transferred to future generations? How can we foresee the future not only of “minoritized” languages but also even of main languages that are not the dominant ones? What will happen to “minoritized” languages? Even if today translator, virtual keyboards, extended alphabets, and more really facilitate the creation and translation of documents written in a “minoritized” language into a different language, the concept itself of networking rely on a “common/shared” language. One possible scenario is “minoritized” languages will not “fully” enjoy the opportunities offered by the network while “main” languages and much more “dominant” languages will take full advantages from networking. Information, knowledge will be transmitted, shared mainly through main and dominant languages. Main information channels, research documents, cutting edge technologies will be coded in dominant language. Competitive advantage will be relevant for those who will master that language. This means that at the end the gap between the two realities will increase. If you want to be part of the “leading team”, share knowledge and know how, you must write, read, and think in the dominant language.

National Languages and "Minoritized" Languages in a Long-Term Perspective

Alfredo Ronchi
2016-01-01

Abstract

It is almost clear that digital content per sé it is not good or bad in relation of “minoritized” languages as it happens for knives, you can cut bred or kill someone. Let us analyse the process in a long-term perspective. Documents and different formats, media and alphabets survived for centuries and millennia reaching us as a legacy from past generations. They are still accessible, readable and mostly understandable. In Pompei (Naples) we can still read graffiti on plasters promoting a Roman politician or supporting a local sport team. Furthermore ancient minority languages such as Etruscan are still readable as well. What will happen in 50, 100 or more years to our documents and, much more concerning, to documents written in “minoritized” languages? As we already discussed on the occasion of the digital preservation meetings and related outcomes and recommendations, the future of digital assets it is not safe at all, digital media are disintegrating, logical formats disappear, and hardware has a short expectation of life. Apart from similar concerns, let’s consider, as an assumption, that digital preservation problems will be cleared, which kind of documents, content, knowledge, “culture” will be transferred to future generations? How can we foresee the future not only of “minoritized” languages but also even of main languages that are not the dominant ones? What will happen to “minoritized” languages? Even if today translator, virtual keyboards, extended alphabets, and more really facilitate the creation and translation of documents written in a “minoritized” language into a different language, the concept itself of networking rely on a “common/shared” language. One possible scenario is “minoritized” languages will not “fully” enjoy the opportunities offered by the network while “main” languages and much more “dominant” languages will take full advantages from networking. Information, knowledge will be transmitted, shared mainly through main and dominant languages. Main information channels, research documents, cutting edge technologies will be coded in dominant language. Competitive advantage will be relevant for those who will master that language. This means that at the end the gap between the two realities will increase. If you want to be part of the “leading team”, share knowledge and know how, you must write, read, and think in the dominant language.
2016
Multilingualism in Cyberspace. Proceedings of the Ugra Global Expert Meeting (Khanty-Mansiysk, Russian Federation, 4–9 July, 2015)
978-5-91515-068-2
languages
minoritized languages
multilingualism
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11311/1063858
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