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We are living a digital revolution that is having a dramatic impact on communication and society. Recent developments in information and communication technology are sometimes compared to the so-called Gutenberg Revolution created by the invention of the printing press.
What can this analogy with the Gutenberg Revolution tell us about the future of our languages?
The printing press undoubtedly helped to increase the exchange of information. However, it also led to the extinction of many languages. Regional and minority languages were rarely printed and were limited to oral forms of transmission, which in turn restricted the scope of their use.
Will the new technologies have a similar impact on our languages? Are there new risks of extinction for our languages?
Human language is a gateway to the world around us. Through its daily use we communicate, learn, share information, plan our future, coordinate with each other, and enjoy stories and poems.
However, in the digital age and in a globalized world, human language also creates major barriers. Whilst new technologies permit people all over the world to communicate with each other by providing immediate access to an endless repository of information, much of this new universe remains inaccessible and closed, locked within the invisible barriers created by the diversity of languages in which it is expressed.
Language technology and linguistic research can make a significant contribution towards the dismantling of these linguistic barriers. And that is only part of an even more far-reaching impact: they will eventually enable intuitive language-based interaction with technological devices ranging from household electronic machinery and vehicles to computers and robots.
But will all languages be suitably prepared to be used under such new technological conditions?
Are all languages being researched and equipped with appropriate language technology to face their future and strive in the digital age?
The attempt to answer questions like these triggered the publication of series of White Papers for thirty languages spoken in the EU.
The same questions are stimulating the organization of the present series of workshops described in this website.
What can this analogy with the Gutenberg Revolution tell us about the future of our languages?
The printing press undoubtedly helped to increase the exchange of information. However, it also led to the extinction of many languages. Regional and minority languages were rarely printed and were limited to oral forms of transmission, which in turn restricted the scope of their use.
Will the new technologies have a similar impact on our languages? Are there new risks of extinction for our languages?
Human language is a gateway to the world around us. Through its daily use we communicate, learn, share information, plan our future, coordinate with each other, and enjoy stories and poems.
However, in the digital age and in a globalized world, human language also creates major barriers. Whilst new technologies permit people all over the world to communicate with each other by providing immediate access to an endless repository of information, much of this new universe remains inaccessible and closed, locked within the invisible barriers created by the diversity of languages in which it is expressed.
Language technology and linguistic research can make a significant contribution towards the dismantling of these linguistic barriers. And that is only part of an even more far-reaching impact: they will eventually enable intuitive language-based interaction with technological devices ranging from household electronic machinery and vehicles to computers and robots.
But will all languages be suitably prepared to be used under such new technological conditions?
Are all languages being researched and equipped with appropriate language technology to face their future and strive in the digital age?
The attempt to answer questions like these triggered the publication of series of White Papers for thirty languages spoken in the EU.
The same questions are stimulating the organization of the present series of workshops described in this website.
