Agence France-Presse
VOULIAGMENI, Greece -- Experts at a UN forum on Internet governance on Wednesday warned that the predominant use of English on the worldwide web needs to be checked before it crowds out other languages.
They fear forms of cultural knowledge accumulated over centuries of human progress could be lost forever.
"Some 90 percent of 6,000 languages (at use today) are not represented on the Internet," said Yoshinori Imai of NHK, Japan's Broadcasting Corporation.
"These people could be left out in the desert of no information and no knowledge," he said.
In countries such as Colombia and Senegal, oral tradition and cultural heritage that could be used for research and education purposes may never reach the broader world, sociologists and linguists told the four-day forum, held in the southern Athens suburb of Vouliagmeni until November 2.
"A large part of the population are voiceless because they cannot share the information," said Adama Samassekou, president of the African Academy of Languages in Mali.
"Every time a language dies, a vision of the world disappears," he said.
"Even in the research field there's a linguistic bias, English is far and away the dominant language," added Divina Frau-Meigs, a professor of media sociology at the University of Sorbonne in Paris.
When it comes to creating sites with non-English content, users in many countries face difficulty in that HTML -- computer language through which web pages are created -- largely uses English words and abbreviations, said Bernard Benhamou, senior lecturer on the information society at the Political Sciences Institute in Paris.
"For (Westerners) this does not mean much, but for a user who doesn't speak English it's a hell of a task," he told Agence France-Presse.
In one case in Cambodia, the local Internet community developed its own software in Khmer after being turned down by a software developer, said Markus Kummer, chairman of the United Nations working group on Internet governance.
For the time being, initiatives to diversify language use on the Internet are undertaken by various countries at local level.
But the United Nations and other organizations such as ICANN, the non-profit organisation that manages the Internet's technical root, are mindful that fragmentation could occur if this issue is not adequately addressed.
If that were ever to happen, experts say that typing an Internet address would produce different links depending on the user's geographical location, while email would get hopelessly lost en route.
"The risk of fragmentation today is low, but if were to occur it would be really bad," said Patrick Faelstroem, a senior consulting engineer at Cisco Systems and a member of the Swedish government's IT policy and strategy group.
"It would mean that if you send me an email from Greece, I may not be able to even reply to you from Sweden," he added.
They fear forms of cultural knowledge accumulated over centuries of human progress could be lost forever.
"Some 90 percent of 6,000 languages (at use today) are not represented on the Internet," said Yoshinori Imai of NHK, Japan's Broadcasting Corporation.
"These people could be left out in the desert of no information and no knowledge," he said.
In countries such as Colombia and Senegal, oral tradition and cultural heritage that could be used for research and education purposes may never reach the broader world, sociologists and linguists told the four-day forum, held in the southern Athens suburb of Vouliagmeni until November 2.
"A large part of the population are voiceless because they cannot share the information," said Adama Samassekou, president of the African Academy of Languages in Mali.
"Every time a language dies, a vision of the world disappears," he said.
"Even in the research field there's a linguistic bias, English is far and away the dominant language," added Divina Frau-Meigs, a professor of media sociology at the University of Sorbonne in Paris.
When it comes to creating sites with non-English content, users in many countries face difficulty in that HTML -- computer language through which web pages are created -- largely uses English words and abbreviations, said Bernard Benhamou, senior lecturer on the information society at the Political Sciences Institute in Paris.
"For (Westerners) this does not mean much, but for a user who doesn't speak English it's a hell of a task," he told Agence France-Presse.
In one case in Cambodia, the local Internet community developed its own software in Khmer after being turned down by a software developer, said Markus Kummer, chairman of the United Nations working group on Internet governance.
For the time being, initiatives to diversify language use on the Internet are undertaken by various countries at local level.
But the United Nations and other organizations such as ICANN, the non-profit organisation that manages the Internet's technical root, are mindful that fragmentation could occur if this issue is not adequately addressed.
If that were ever to happen, experts say that typing an Internet address would produce different links depending on the user's geographical location, while email would get hopelessly lost en route.
"The risk of fragmentation today is low, but if were to occur it would be really bad," said Patrick Faelstroem, a senior consulting engineer at Cisco Systems and a member of the Swedish government's IT policy and strategy group.
"It would mean that if you send me an email from Greece, I may not be able to even reply to you from Sweden," he added.
10 comments:
I agree with Yoshinori Imai that we should promote our Cambodian language and culture beside promoting English language which has already dominated.
Moreover, We acknowledge Westerner that our language and culture as important as theirs. In addition, Software specialist in others languages can have a market potential.
As a Cambodian, we have two choices- to use Khmer or English for email or posting on the Web. Page, and for those Cambodian who are using internet and email, what one can do is to install Khmer Unicode on the XP. That's simple.
To switch to just Cambodian language right now is not a good idea. English is still the best method to reach large audiances. There are young Khmers scatter in many countries across th eglobe. You and I know how many of them had their chances to learn or practice in Khmer. Our language for our people in other countries is still considering as a special class or interest, yet. They don't have a way to understand it, not,yet. I think KI should publish in both languages.
KI in English is just fine!
Lot of encouraging words and initiatives (for both English and Khmer veriosn). Keep English as it is, but addind khmer version would be useful. Question is: Does KI have the capacity and capability to do it at this stage?
As a matter of fact, it has been my observation that our retired rarely using khmer version in his messages to the public (mostly in French)then KI needd to do another translation into either English or Khmer in other site. This is really disappointing as a Cambodian. TT
English is spoken worldwide, eventhough it's not #1. Stick with English if you want other people besides Khmer to hear about the unfornate people who's being oppressed by CPP!
ENGLISH MUST STAY! HEAR ME!
YES KI-MEDIA MUST STOP YOUR TITLE " IN ORANGE" WE DO NOT NEED IT.
THANK YOU
My question is who are your audiences?
If your audiences are in the globe and you are aiming for everyone beside Cambodian, you should keep it in English. However, if your audiences are Cambodian, you should consider Khmer's laguage. If Cambodian who doesn't know Khmer, they should learn the language. It is so ashame that you say you are Khmer and you know nothing about Khmer.
I remembered one phrase from the book which was written in French a long time ago and it was an insult to Cambodian. It said, " Cambodian think that they are the Angkorian, and they are proud of the Angkor Wat, but when ask what does the scripted say on the Angkor wall or what is it about, they know nothing of it."
I am Cambodian and I greed with the French that we are not sure if we are Cambodian who are the Angkorian people. We know nothing and we let other fixing the Angkor for us.
Now, it comes to the language. You say you are Cambodian, and you don't want use our language, how much is it there in you of whom you say?
I don't want to be a nationalist or extremist about the nationality and language regarding Cambodian, but I just want us to think about it and what the French said to us in their book.
KI, if you can add Khmer to it, it is much better.
ANYONE WHO WISHES TO BLACK OUT AND ORANGE OUT THIS MEDIA'S TITLE "KI " SHOULD FIND NEW MEDIA TO READ WHICH CALLS "DK". YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN.
A regular KI MEDIA reader,
This is called natural selection!
Post a Comment