Google is setting out to save the dying languages of the world. The Internet giant entered an alliance with linguists and scholars on Wednesday. The alliance introduced on Wednesday a website for the Endangered Languages Project where people will be able to find and store information regarding different dialects that are regarded, as being in danger of disappearing.
In a blog post in Google, representatives from the search giant said that people would be able to share research and knowledge through the site and maintain the sites content up to date. The blog post said a number of diverse collaborators have already started to contribute editorial content on the site that ranges from manuscripts from the 18th century to teaching tools from modern day like audio and video language samples.
The endangeredlanguages.com website has been designed to allow its users to upload audio, video or text and encourages the user to memorialize any recordings of any rare dialects. Today there are 7,000 spoken languages and only about 50% are expected to last through the end of the current century according to one Endangered Languages video posting.
Through technology, those efforts can be strengthened said Google representatives by helping create high-quality recordings of the last people who are able to speak languages in order to connect the two – the old and new.
The project was seeded by the philanthropic arm of Google and leadership of the alliance will be ceded over to the First People’s Cultural Council in the next few months along with the Institute for Language Technology and Information from the University of Eastern Michigan.
