Tuesday 3 December 2013

Only 4% of Languages are used online.

In Only 4% of Languages are used online, Priceonomics reports on the paper  “Digital Language Death”, by Andreas Kornai.

The article mentions that the internet is a potential threat to many languages.  If a language is unused in this domain, it may suffer a loss of function and prestige.

It makes an interesting point that the internet situation is not a normal case of language decline, but the reverse:  whether languages will  "establish themselves as viable options for digital use."

In investigating online language use, the article states:   "A language’s Wikipedia presence was one of the most important indicators of its ability to leap into the digital age."   Which is interesting, considering that Even Hindi Falls Behind.

No comments:

Post a Comment