Anupam Basu, director of the National Institute of Technology, Durgapur, on Tuesday advised linguists to make the best use of Information Technology (IT) for preserving the country’s endangered languages.
He urged the Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL) to write to the Ministry of Human Resource Development to bridge the gap between linguists and technologists for facilitating technology integration in language studies.
Speaking at the inauguration of the golden jubilee celebrations of the CIIL here, Mr. Basu, who was the chief gust, said text as well as speech of languages that are on the brink of disappearing can be protected using the new-age gadgets. Utterances in various dialects can be annotated by computers and can, thereby, help in conserving dying languages, he said.
He added that the country lacks skilled manpower to translate all its languages. With the active participation and collaboration of technologists and linguists, more tools can be developed for computer-aided translation of languages, including the endangered ones, Mr. Basu said.
He suggested that with the help of technologists, readability of language transcripts could be improved. More research can be done to translate texts into languages that can be understood by the common man.
Vast repository
Manimozhi Theodore, director of Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, DRDO, Bengaluru, who was the guest of honour, complimented the CIIL for its vast repository on languages. “The in-depth research was evident when one of my friends wanted information in the ‘80s on an indigenous tribe in Chhattisgarh, which was available with the CIIL. This tribe had only 500 people living,” she said.
CIIL director D.G. Rao presided over the function. Five recent publications were released, marking the golden jubilee.
The year-long golden jubilee celebrations include around 50 lectures under the ‘Golden Jubilee Lecture Series’ throughout the year. A training series is to be conducted in different areas of language and linguistics to cater to the needs of young linguists as well as the general public. Highlighting the 50 years of achievements of the CIIL, a documentary book and film will be created. The Indian Postal Department will be requested to launch a postal stamp commemorating the golden jubilee.