OK, this really got me, I am simply reporting the article from WRT . A lady called Monica Peters designs bots to “revive” endangered languages, including Mohawk.
Some bits from the lengthy interview
How did you decide to start using chatbots to preserve Mohawk and other languages?
The most important thing to remember about me and my work, is that I do NOT preserve languages. Every community facing an endangered language issue, has people that focus on preserving endangered languages before they die.
If a language has been preserved, that is when I am able to do my work. I bring endangered and dead languages to LIFE. My work is all about LANGUAGE REVIVAL!
An endangered language is close to death, because very few people are able to keep the language alive. A language is alive when many people are speaking, teaching, learning, writing, practicing, and even evolving the language (ie: jargon, new words formed to communicate new technologies)
My work brings endangered and dead languages to life…. only IF they have been preserved with some form of written documentation in regards to spelling and pronunciation.
I think of my work as Language Revival that is possible because of other people’s former preservation work.
Does “revival” imply stimulating new use of the language or fostering a recovery? I get the sense that your systems could promote interest in the language. What is your sense of the (emotional or social) potential for your systems beyond what we might call their functional inscription of the language?
When I mention ‘Language Revival’, I am referring to the next phase for an endangered or dead language that has been documented (preserved). When people preserve languages, I beleive they must have hoped that one day that language would be valued enough to be revived by one or many people again.
Revival is the process of making it possible to communicate with the language with absolutely any of today’s communication tools.
In regards to endangered and dead languages, I believe it is nearly impossible to recover all of the original languages authenticity. So, I would not state that chatbot technology can provide a full language recovery. Living languages, such as english, gain new words every day based on each person’s usage and understanding of the world around them.
Their is an interesting language in the mid-west that is used by teen-agers in specific high schools. It’s a combination of the many endangered languages, from each teenagers’ community. It’s a brand new hybrid language that First Nations teenagers have created to communicate with each other, based on the endangered and dead languages from their parents and grandparents.
I am so inspired by people that make time to remember and openly continue to communicate in their own languages with pride, even in times when their own voices are seemingly not understood by the mainstream society around them.
How well do chatbots teach, preserve, or revive, languages?
I guess that depends on the person being taught. Each individual has different learning capabilities. For myself, I learn languages when I am able to speak or sing them frequently, every day, and from every location that I may be.
I’ve never hoped to preserve languages. Like many others, I learned my language as a child then forgot it as I went out to the world to work. Preservation can only go so far before it fails people. Preservation was never meant to be the final word. It’s our duty as human beings to keep our ancestors language - stories - songs alive……. if we do in fact truly value our own history and the lessons to be learned from our history.
You want to know the answers to your future? Learn your own history.
Language education software offers one of the areas where more chatbots find employment (or more engaging employment) then, say, contemporary video games. How have your bots helped spread the use of languages?
My bots take other people’s preservation efforts to the next level. Each community has their own people that have preserved their own languages with dictionaries, books, audio, etc.
The next level is to become healthy and alive. Languages that are healthy and alive are heard and spoken all day and night with any communication device. They are quickly translated to any other living language too.
My bots and my life work is all about reviving the ‘preserved’ … bringing the preserved back to LIFE. speaking our language. When groups of people start speaking their endangered language with each other, it gains momentum and the revival begins.
What advantages does your system have over other chatbot systems particularly for the revival of languages?
I do not know of any other systems that focus on language revival, so I can’t really compare from that angle either.
I guess the advantage is that I can now live with my own language from anywhere. I am in the middle of making my smart home speak mohawk with me.
Another advantage, is that I no longer have any reason to fear the consequences of living with my own language. If I want to speak Mohawk all day and night, I now have the opportunity to be able to do so and still enjoy a successful happy existence in this world.
I have heard people state that they no longer want to live with an endangered or dead language because they can not communicate with others. (work, school, doctor, etc) My work is hopeful of removing that fear because translators can remove language barriers between people that do not speak each others’ languages. It is no longer costly or painfully complicated to revive our languages for any communication device.
I’ve used the english/spanish translators before with success. I can see no reason we can’t also enjoy endangered, dead, and fictional languages.
What are some hesitations people have about using chatbots to preserve a language?
I am a huge believer in The Law of Attraction. I don’t spend very much time thinking about hesitations because I am not interested in imposing my own idea of heaven on other people.
I was raised to always remember to take care of my own needs first, so that I can be strong and healthy when others ask for my help. I revive my language for my own well-being.
Anyone that is from a community facing endangered or dead language issues can understand my own needs and my life’s work.
When a person comes to me and they have hope to revive their own language for them self, or their family, or their community…. I am happy I can help them lay the technological foundation that is suitable for their own unique language and lifestyle.
Much of my strength comes from Kanienkeha and it is a strength that never needs to be imposed on anyone else for any reason. Each person will find their strength in their own language too.
You won the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation Technology and trades award for 2007. What has been the reception of your bots among other Native Americans? Others?
I suppose the same as any developer of a new solution to a painful problem. Each new group or person typically follows a recognizable pattern. First they ignore me, then they laugh at me, then they fight me, then they have hope to revive their own endangered or dead language for themselves.
What advantages do chatbots have over traditional oral preservations in the form of person-to-person instruction from older native speakers?
I would never suggest that anyone use bots to replace their own human speakers. In fact, I highly recommend that technology developers work closely with their fluent speakers to develop bots.
The advantage of a chatbot for language revival, is that it gives the end-user the ability to continue communicating with their language, even when no humans are present that can translate or understand their language.
The best endangered language bots will be created by a GROUP of people that include fluent speakers, writers, teachers, learners, and technology developers…. all working together somehow.
How do your chatbots facilitate the process of revival of an endangered language?
My chatbots make it affordable and easy for busy mobile adults to always have access to their languages of choice, even when they are not able to remain in physical contact with the few remaining (if any) speakers of their language. My chatbots can be accessed from any standard communication device, so that we can see, hear, practice, teach our own languages from any location at any time.The ‘human-friendly’ ergonomics aspect of my work, also makes language revival efforts more accessible for people that might have previously been scared away by complicated technologies.
It can get complicated, but I do my best to provide a finished solution based on each person’s own unique lifestyle and set of communication tools they use allready. Having my own friendly language chatbots on any of my own personal communication devices, also helps everyone I come into contact with to realize that it’s possible for them to get the same thing for them selves so they can also easily start speaking our language. When groups of people start speaking their endangered language with each other, it gains momentum and the revival begins.
Your site mentions: ” Monigarr.com ’s mission includes enabling any person to fully immerse themself in any foreign, endangered, dead and science fictional language.” What science fictional languages have you worked with?
Hee hee. I create my own vanity languages for fun. I approach and view it as a learning exercise. For example, I’ve developed one for myself that uses cryptography and that helped me learn more about that technology.
One can find vulcan, elvin, and kling-on bots online. People and Actors actually speak those science-fiction languages fluently.
More on the Writer Response Theory website. Sorry for the leeching, this is just too cool. I remember one of the few disappearing European languages that actually received funding for its preservation was Danish, I wonder if someone up there would be interested..
(courtesy of Writer Response Theory)
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