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Technological Approaches to Technological Approaches to

Linguistic Documentation Linguistic Documentation

andand

Metadocumentation Metadocumentation

Pankaj Dwivedi

Gulab Chand

Somdev Kar

Indian Institute of Technology Ropar

Rupnagar, Punjab 140001

India

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Language Documentation Language Documentation

Principles and methods used for the

recording and analysis of primary

language and cultural materials, and

metadata about them.

Unlike before, with the revolution in the

area of information technologies, it is now

possible to maintain organized and long-

lasting linguistic and cultural records.

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Why documenting languages is Why documenting languages is

IMPORTANT?IMPORTANT?Half of the world’s language may no

longer to continue to exist after a few

more generations as they are not being

learnt by children as first languages

(Austin & Sallabank, 2011).

Crystal (2002) claims that the rate of

language disappearance is as high as two

languages each month.

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How ?How ?

� Creating Dictionaries

� Preparing Language Teaching Materials

� Archiving

� Language Corpora (Written & Spoken)

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What is needed?What is needed?

Lot of language data and latest technology

Language data: Text, Audio and Video

Technology: software and tools which can

handle the language data and platforms

wherein these data can be effectively made

use of.

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What do we need?What do we need?

� Language data ( No Problem)

� Platforms (will see later on)

� Latest TOOLS and SOFTWARE for:

1. Recording and Capturing

2. Analysis

3. Archiving

4. Mobilization

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ONE MOMENT!!!ONE MOMENT!!!

Is ‘Latest’ the best?

or

Old is gold?

CHOOSE CAREFULLY !!!

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Is ‘TECHNOLOGY’ adoption Is ‘TECHNOLOGY’ adoption

always good? always good?

� Languages may live on without orthography.

But no language will be able to function as

administrative language in a modern society

without a developed language technology

(Trosterud, 2006).

� Technology changes quickly and an uncritical

adoption of new tools and technologies might

compromise with long-term sustainability,

portability, usability and compatibility with

other platforms (Bird & Simons, 2003).

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Striking a balanceStriking a balance

� Portability: operating systems, formats,

software, encodings

� Sustainability: long-term preservation

and usefulness

� Maintenance and Distribution: finances,

space, tools and reach

� Access and protocols: paid or free, open

or closed, research or business, full or

partial

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Capturing Audio MediaCapturing Audio Media

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Why or Why not WAV?Why or Why not WAV?

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Capturing Video MediaCapturing Video Media

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� CODECS

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CONTAINERSCONTAINERS

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Capturing Digital TextCapturing Digital Text

� Character Encoding: Unicode,

ASCII, Windows/ANSI, Big5, Latin

5 etc.

� Data Encoding: XML, SGML,

MSWord etc.

� File Encoding: plain-text, PDF,

MSWord etc.

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Digital text: An overviewDigital text: An overview

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Analysis tools Analysis tools

� Transcription

� Annotation

� Translation

�Metadata Management

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Popular ToolsPopular Tools

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Metadata Management Metadata Management

� Cataloguing: title, speakers, collectors, time

and place, language name etc.

� Descriptive: information about content,

relationship to other content etc.

� Structural: structures and patterns

� Technical: description of formats, encoding,

required tools and software

� Administrative: work log, access protocol etc.

(Nathan &Austin, 2004)

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Platforms Platforms

1. Online Language Archives:

Examples:OLAC, ANLA, ELAR, CLA, The Language Archive, PARADISEC etc.

2. Social Media: Facebook, Twitter, Blogs,

etc.

Examples: ‘Indigenous Tweets’ and ‘Facebook in your language’ by Prof. Kevin

Scannell

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Conclusion Conclusion

In the generation when the rate of languagedeath is at its peak, if we choose to usemoribund technologies to create and preservelanguage data, when technologies die, uniqueheritage is also lost or encrypted (Bird &Simons, 2003).

Wemust keep in mind:

Purpose, Presentation, Portability

and

Preservation 2 December 2013 20

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ReferencesReferences

� Austin, P., & Sallabank, J. (Eds.) (2011). The Cambridge handbook of endangered languages. Cambridge University Press

� Bird, S., & Simons, G. (2003). Seven dimensions of portability for language documentation and description. Language, 79(3), pp. 557-582

� Crystal, D. (2002). Language death. Cambridge University Press.

� Nathan, D., & Austin, P. (2004). Reconceiving metadata: language documentation through thick and thin. Language documentation and description, 2, 179-187.

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� Trosterud, T. (2006). Grammatically based

language technology for minority languages.

TRENDS IN LINGUISTICS STUDIES AND

MONOGRAPHS, 175, 293.

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Thank You!

Questions and Feedback.

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