To be Digitally Alive or Not: The Case of an Endangered Official Language

Yıl 2019, Sayı: 31, 147 - 162, 28.12.2019

Gülin Dağdeviren-kırmızı

https://doi.org/10.20427/turkiyat.546680

Cited By: 2

Öz

Today, the issue of
Digital Language Vitality proves to be one of the central discussions in
linguistic vitality, minority and endangered languages. In this study, the
Gagauz, which is an endangered language spoken in the Gagauzia Autonomous
Territorial Unit, Moldova, has been investigated on the basis of the digital
language vitality. Digital Performance of the Gagauz language was explored
under the categories of the Available Internet Services,
Localised Social Networks, Localised Software, Machine Translation
Tools/Services and Dedicated Internet Top-level Domain of a language.
According to the independent web search, the Gagauz language has a varying
degree of digital representation. The language can be labelled as none for the
categories of Localised Social Networks, Localised Software and Dedicated
Internet Top-level Domain. On the other hand, in terms of the available
internet services, the language falls into the label of limited as there are
some web pages in the Gagauz language. Similarly, Machine Translation
Tools/Services in the Gagauz language can be labelled as medium. Lastly, the
use of the Gagauz language in Wikipedia shows that the language is digitally
labelled as Incubator which refers to a small Wikipedia. The findings are in
the same line with the previous language vitality studies.

           Keywords: Digital Language Vitality, Endangered languages,
the Gagauz Language, the Russian Language.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Dijital Dil Canlılığı, Tehlike Altındaki Diller, Gagauzca, Rusça

Dijital Olarak Canlı Olmak ya da Olmamak: Tehlike Altındaki Resmi Bir Dilin Durumu

Öz

Günümüzde Dijital Dil Canlılığı konusu dilbilimsel canlılık, azınlık ve tehlike altındaki dillerle ilgili temel tartışmalardan biri olmuştur. Bu çalışmada Moldova Gagauzya Özerk Bölgesinde konuşulan tehlike altındaki Gagauzca dijital dil canlılığı açısından değerlendirilmiştir. Gagauzcanın dijital performansı mevcut internet hizmetleri, yerelleştirilmiş sosyal ağlar, yerelleştirilmiş yazılım, makine çevirisi araçları/hizmetleri, tahsisli üst düzey alan adı uzantısı başlıkları altında incelenmiştir. Serbest internet araması sonuçlarına göre Gagauzcanın çeşitli seviyelerde dijital temsili vardır. Dil yerelleştirilmiş sosyal ağlar, yerelleştirilmiş yazılım ve Tahsisli üst düzey alan adı başlıkları kategorilerinde “yok” olarak sınıflandırılmıştır. Diğer yandan bazı Gagauzca web sayfaları olduğundan dil mevcut internet hizmetleri bakımından sınırlı olarak sınıflandırılmıştır. Benzer biçimde makine çevirisi araçları/hizmetleri açısından Gagauzca orta olarak derecelendirilebilir. Son olarak Gagauzcanın Wikipedia’da kullanımı dilin küçük Wikipedia’ya karşılık gelen kuluçka seviyesinde olduğunu göstermektedir. Sonuçlar önceki dil canlılığı çalışmalarıyla aynı doğrultudadır.

Anahtar kelimeler: Dijital Dil Canlılığı, Tehlike Altındaki Diller, Gagauzca, Rusça.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Dijital Dil Canlılığı, Tehlike Altındaki Diller, Gagauzca, Rusça

Kaynakça

• Ács, J., Pajkossy, K. & Kornai, A. (2017). Digital vitality of Uralic languages. Acta Linguistica Academica, 64 (3). pp. 327-345.
• Alexa (2019). Top Sites in Moldova. Retrieved from https://www.alexa.com/topsites/countries/MD.
• Brenzinger, M., A. Yamamoto, N. Aikawa, D. Koundiouba, A. Minasyan, A. Dwyer, C. Grinevald, M. Krauss, O. Miyaoka, O. Sakiyama, R. Smeets, O. Zepeda. (2003). Language vitality and endangerment. Paris, UNESCO Ad Hoc Expert Group Meeting on Endangered Languages. Retrieved in August 9, 2013 from http://www.unesco.org/culture/en/endangeredlanguages.
• Latham, E. Buckmaster, B., Hitchins, K.A., Nikolayevich Sukhopara, F. (2019). Moldova. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/place/Moldova.
• Crystal, D. (2000). Language death. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
• Cunliffe, D. (2007). Minority Language Media. Concepts, Critiques and Case Studies. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.
• Dağdeviren-Kırmızı, G. (2015). Emotional and Functional Attitudes of Native Speakers towards Gagauz as an Endangered Language. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Hacettepe University, Ankara.
• Diozu, V. (2015). Linguistic Preferences in the Moldavian National Cyberspace: Reflection of Political, Economic and Migration Processes in the Society . Paper presented at 3nd International Conference. http://ifapcom.ru/files/2015/khanty/yak_mling_2015.pdf.
• Facebook. (n.d.). Number of monthly active Facebook users worldwide as of 3rd quarter 2018 (in millions). In Statista - The Statistics Portal. Retrieved December 17, 2018, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/264810/number-of-monthly-active-facebook-users-worldwide/.
• Figueiredo, R.B. (2014). Features of this dictionary. Retrieved from https://www.freelang.net/dictionary/gagauz.php.
• Forcada, M. (2006). Open-source machine translation: an opportunity for minor languages. Paper presented at the 5th SALTMIL Workshop on Minority Languages Strategies for developing Machine Translation for minority languages. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/8e9d/b064a62261ba10152c11cd6d05bb306e7cc3.pdf.
• Fishman, J. A. (1991). Reversing language shift, Clevedon, UK, Multilingual Matters Ltd.
• Florey, M. (2009). Supporting Indigenous languages and Indigenous knowledge: developing community training approaches for the 21st century, in Peter Bates, Moe Chiba, Sabine Kube and Douglas Nakashima (eds.) Learning and Knowing in Indigenous Societies Today: 25-37. Paris: UNESCO.
• Galla, C. (2009). Indigenous language revitalization and technology: From traditional to contemporary domains. In J. Reyhner, & L. Lockard (Eds.), Indigenous language revitalization: Encouragement, guidance and lessons learned (pp.167–182). Flagstaff, AZ: USA.
• Glosbe, (n.d.). İngilizce Gagavuzca sözlük çevrimiçi. Retrieved from https://glosbe.com/en/gag.
• Gibson, M. (2016). Assessing Digital Vitality: Analytical and Activist Approaches. Proceedings of the LREC 2016 Workshop, CCURL 2016 – Towards an Alliance for Digital Language Diversity, Soria, C. et al. (eds.), pp. 46-51.
• Harmon, D. & Loh, J. (2010). The Index of Linguistic Diversity: A New Quantitative Measure of Trends in the Status of the World's Languages. Language Documentation & Conservation Vol. 4: 97-151.
• Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (nd). Root Zone Database. Retrieved in 17 September, 2018 from https://www.iana.org/domains/root/db.
• Jany, C. (2018) The role of new technology and social media in reversing language loss, Speech, Language and Hearing, 21:2, 73-76.
• Johanson, L. (1998).The History of Turkic. In Lars Johanson &Éva Ágnes Csató (eds) The Turkic Languages. London: Routledge, 81-125.
• Kornai, A. (2013). Digital Language Death. PLoS ONE 8(10):, Retrieved from http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/.
• Landry, R., Allard, R. (1994). Diglossia, ethnolinguistic vitality, and language behavior. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 108, 15–42.
• Lewis, M.P. & Simons, G. (2010). Assessing endangerment: Expanding Fishman’s GIDS. Revue Roumaine de Linguistique 55 (2):103-120.
• Mail.ru. (n.d.). Number of monthly active mobile VKontakte users from March 2014 to December 2017 (in millions). In Statista - The Statistics Portal. Retrieved December 17, 2018, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/425429/vkontakte-mobile-mau/.
• Meta Wikimedia (2018). List of Wikipedias. Retrieved November 13, 2018 from https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wikipedias.
• McConvell, P. & Thieberger, T. (2001). State of Indigenous languages in Australia. Australia state of the Environment Second Technical Paper Series No. 2 (Natural and Cultural Heritage). Canberra: Department of the Environment and Heritage.
• Menz, A. (2003). Endangered Turkic Languages: The case of Gagauz. In Mark Janse &Sijmen Tol (eds.) Language death and language maintenance: theoretical, practical and descriptive approaches. Amsterdam: Benjamins, pp.143-155.
• Miola, E. (2013). A Sociolinguistic account of wikipiedmontese and wikilombard. Sociolinguistica, 27, 116-131.
• Mooko, T. (2006). Counteracting the Threat of Language Death: The case of minority languages in Botswana. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development. 27(2), 109-125.
• Moseley, C. (ed.) (2010). Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger. Third Edition. UNESCO Publishing: Paris. Retrieved from http://www.unesco.org/culture/en/endangeredlanguages/atlas.
• Nantoi, O., Cantarji, V., Botan, I., Gremalschi, A. & Sirkeli, M. (2016). Moldova between East and West: Views from Gagauzia and Taraclia. Chisinau. Retrieved from http://ipp.md/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Moldova-between-East-and-West-Views-from-Gagauzia-and-Taraclia_EN.pdf.
• National Bureau of Statistics of the Republic of Moldova.(2004). 2004 Population census. Retrieved in January 23, 2018 from http://www.statistica.md./pageview.php?l=en&idc=350&id=2208.
• National Bureau of Statistics of the Republic of Moldova.(2014). Population and Housing Census in the Republic of Moldova. Retrieved in March 12, 2018 from http://www.statistica.md/pageview.php?l=en&idc=479.
• Odnoklassniki. (2019). Languages. Retrieved from https://ok.ru/
• Sirkeli, M. & Lisenco, S. (2012). Policy Brief: Implementation of linguistic rights of the Gagauz of Moldova. Integration of the Gagauz Community into the Society of Moldova. Retrieved in April 14, 2014 from http://www.edemocracy.md/files/elections/gagauzia2012/policy-brief-piligrim-demo-gagauzia-2012-en.pdf.
• Scannell, K. (2012). Translating Facebook into endangered languages. Retrieved from https://borel.slu.edu/pub/fel12.pdf.
• Soria, C., Quochi, V., Russo, I., Gurrutxaga, A., Ceberio, K. (2017). A Digital Language Vitality Scale and Indicators. Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/34966423/A_Digital_Language_Vitality_Scale_and_Indicators.
• Twitter. (n.d.). Number of monthly active Twitter users worldwide from 1st quarter 2010 to 3rd quarter 2018 (in millions). In Statista - The Statistics Portal. Retrieved December 17, 2018, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/282087/number-of-monthly-active-twitter-users/.
• UNESCO Ad Hoc Expert Group on Endangered Languages (2003). Language Vitality and Endangerment. Document submitted to the International Expert Meeting on UNESCO Programme Safeguarding of Endangered Languages, Paris, 10–12 March 2003.
• VKontakte (n.d.). Company Info. Retrieved from https://vk.com/about.
• Viernes, G.B. (2018). Minority Languages On Social Media: Multilingual Practices and Digital Presence. Paper presented in Conference on Frisian Humanities: Multilingualism, Ljouwert.
• Young, L., Bell N. & Giles, H. (1988). Perceived vitality and context: A national majority in a minority setting. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development (9). Pp. 285-289.