Lesser-Known Languages of South Asia: Status and Policies, Case Studies and Applications of Information Technology (Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs [TiLSM] Book 175)

The increasing globalization and centralization in the world is threatening the existence of a large number of smaller languages. In South Asia some locally dominant languages (e.g., Hindi, Urdu, Nepali) are gaining ground beside English at the expense of the lesser-known languages. Despite a long history of stable multilingualism, language death is not uncommon in the South Asian context. We do not know how the language situation in South Asia will be affected by modern information and communication technologies: Will cultural and linguistic diversity be strengthened or weakened as they become increasingly prevalent in all walks of life? This volume brings together areas of research that so far do not interact to any significant extent: traditional South Asian descriptive linguistics and sociolinguistics, documentary linguistics, issues of intellectual and cultural property and fieldwork ethics, and language technology. Researchers working in the areas of documentary linguistics and language technology have become aware of each other in the last few years, and of how work in the other area could be potentially useful in furthering their own aims. Similarly, the insights of documentary linguistics are making their way into descriptive linguistics and sociolinguistics. However, the potential for synergy among these areas of research is almost limitless. This volume provides the reader, not so much with a do-it-yourself recipe for applying modern technology to the problem of language shift in South Asia today, but rather with some basic knowledge about the problems involved and some directions from which solutions could be forthcoming, a toolbox rather than a blueprint, for helping to shape the linguistic future of South Asia. Preface......Page 5 Contents......Page 7 Introduction......Page 9 Language situation and language policies in South Asia......Page 37 Status of lesser-known languages in India......Page 39 Minority language policies and politics in Nepal......Page 69 Language policy, multilingualism and language vitality in Pakistan......Page 81 Lesser-known language communities of South Asia: Linguistic and sociolinguistic case studies......Page 113 Vanishing voices: A typological sketch of Great Andamanese......Page 115 Lisu orthographies and email......Page 133 Shina in contemporary Pakistan......Page 145 The rise of ethnic consciousness and the politicization of language in west-central Nepal......Page 169 Why Ladakhi must not be written – Being part of the Great Tradition: Another kind of global thinking......Page 183 Information and communication technologies and languages of South Asia......Page 201 The impact of technology on language diversity and multilingualism......Page 203 The impact of technological advances on Tamil language use and planning......Page 211 Corpus-building for South Asian languages......Page 219 Digitized resources for languages of Nepal......Page 251 Multimedia: A community-oriented information and communication technology......Page 265 Language survival kits......Page 287 Grammatically based language technology for minority languages......Page 301 Supporting lesser-known languages: The promise of language technology......Page 325 Worrying about ethics and wondering about “informed consent”: Fieldwork from an Americanist perspective......Page 347 Subject index......Page 379 Language index......Page 388 We do not at the present time know how the language situation in a multilingual region such as South Asia will be affected by modern information and communication technologies: Will linguistic diversity be strengthened or weakened as they become increasingly prevalent in all walks of life? In an attempt to address this question, this volume brings together articles on South Asian descriptive linguistics and sociolinguistics, documentary linguistics, issues of intellectual and cultural property and fieldwork ethics, and language technology. Our aim in doing this is to provide the reader with some basic knowledge about the problems involved and some directions from which solutions could be forthcoming. Biographical note: Anju Saxena, Uppsala University, Sweden; Lars Borin, Göteborg University, Sweden