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.

Contents

Introduction Anju Saxena

Language situation and language policies in South Asia

Status of lesser-known languages in India Udaya Narayana Singh

Minority language policies and politics in Nepal Mark Turin

Language policy, multilingualism and language vitality in Pakistan Tariq Rahman

Lesser-known language communities of South Asia: Linguistic and sociolinguistic case studies

Vanishing voices: A typological sketch of Great Andamanese Anvita Abbi

Lisu orthographies and email David Bradley

Shina in contemporary Pakistan Razwal Kohistani and Ruth Laila Schmidt

The rise of ethnic consciousness and the politicization of language in west-central Nepal Michael Noonan

Why Ladakhi must not be written – Being part of the great tradition: Another kind of global thinking Bettina Zeisler

Information and communication technologies and languages of South Asia

The impact of technology on language diversity and multilingualism E. Annamalai

The impact of technological advances on Tamil language use and planning Vasu Renganathan and Harold F. Schiffman

Corpus-building for South Asian languages Andrew Hardie, Paul Baker, Tony McEnery and B. D. Jayaram

Digitized resources for languages of Nepal Boyd Michailovsky

Multimedia: A community-oriented information and communication technology David Nathan and Éva Á. Csató

Language survival kits Jens Allwood

Grammatically based language technology for minority languages Trond Trosterud

Supporting lesser-known languages: The promise of language technology Lars Borin

Worrying about ethics and wondering about “informed consent”: Fieldwork from an Americanist perspective Colette Grinevald

Subject index, Language index