Language barrier in info society

allAfrica.com

Despite the burgeoning progress made by individuals, corporate organisations, government, and stakeholders in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) all over the world, the language limitation has continued to constitute major hurdle for Information Society (IS).

A language is a way of communication either by writing or spoken words, which is used by the people of a given society, area or country.

Information Society is one without borders which describes the 'global village' whereby every one is not only invited but included in the scheme of things, in all ramifications without emphasise on race, gender, colour, societal status among others.

This sort of society is possible today with the acceptance of Internet, which little or no restriction offers people the right to communicate more freely than ever before without much hindrance.

Except in the cases of dealing with Internet fraudulent practices, such as the 'spam', hackers and online scams, there seems to be in 'existence' because Internet has empowered humanity tremendously and opened doors, which ordinarily were impossible.

But these achievements still have hindrance in language barriers, which if not well managed could form the toughest amongst the obstacles facing digital divide, mostly in developing countries as prevalent in Africa.

In Nigeria, for instance, there are over 500 recognized languages, according to linguists. Out of this number, there are three major languages, namely the Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa, while English was adopted as the official lingua franca. The three local languages are used for local radio and television broadcasts. A West African indigenous version of English called "Pidgin English" also exist and is very popular among Nigerians.

Experts said that about 65 per cent of the nation's population speak one of these languages, that is, Hausa is widely spoken in the north, Igbo in the southeast and Yoruba in the west.

In the world today, especially on the Internet, several languages are also emerging as individuals and corporate organizations as well as governments try to promote their languages through encouraging the citizens to use local or native languages in their websites daily, running with options of other languages like French, Spanish, Arabic, English and so on.

Apparently a major reason for this is what some analysts saw as a way of averting neo-colonialism, at this 21st century.

Although multiplicity of language application on the Internet could avert neo-colonialism, this on its own has the negative multiplier effect, in which every community endeavours to be represented electronically, or in the global village; thus language seems to be a thorn in the flesh of Information Society.

This plurality as much as it could be encouraged, should also be envisaged in the futuristic acceptance, because the number of languages would increase with few people understanding just a handful, except those who depend on it for livelihood.

In the light of the aforementioned, the major languages chosen as nation's lingua franca, would still have upper hands, while few of them must have been subsumed overtime.

An instance of recognizing language as a barrier was witnessed recently where a discussant could not respond to questions raised by another participant in an online discussion, simply because one speaks English and the other French.

It took weeks for the French speaker to realize this and had to re-send the questions and contributions raised thereof in English to get a response from fellow discussant.

Confirming this, Zambian female journalists, Mrs. Brenda Zulu noted that language is a core barrier in development of ICT, mostly in the African continent, which has remained among Least Developed Countries (LDCs).

For her, the media has a lot to do in promoting the use of African local languages in application of ICT.

She said that Zambia with 73 local languages, for example, the media uses only seven main local languages to broadcast and disseminate information.

Zulu also said that she learnt Microsoft had designed a Swahili software, describing it as a plus for Africa, because, "if you look at the use of Internet we only have foreign languages".

She said, language barrier remains a great challenge to Africa, which has many languages. "In broadcast we have tried to meet the challenge by providing our listeners with the programmes in local languages".

Noting that in several online discussions, "it's clear that the Arab and Portuguese speaking people based in Africa are being left out on so many things" and called on African professionals and media to be precise, to develop an appropriate translating mechanism, which would benefit all in the heels of being part of Info Society.

Already, a campaign to teach people Igbo language on the Internet for $38 is another business opportunity for south-easterners.

In western Nigeria for instance, dominated by Yorubas, the use of local languages seems to be on the rise, especially in number of local community newspapers in existence currently.

Dr. Uwe Seibert, Department of Languages and Linguistics, Faculty of Arts

University of Jos, while discussing "Documenting Nigerian languages" said that taking this as a scale, "only a small proportion of about 500 languages of Nigeria could be classified as "well documented".

He attributed this to what he called "sad fact" which includes lack of interest, trained linguists, funds and research equipment.

All these could be listed as possible reasons if not excuses and apart from that, there are political reasons, he said, wondering if developing all these minority languages would not create disunity, and if nations should not strive for one national language only?

Certainly every government has to settle the issue which languages should be developed to which stage in a wise and fair national language policy. But in order to make wise decisions, languages first need to be surveyed: Where are they spoken? By how many speakers? How many speakers are bilingual in another language and in which? What is the attitude of the speakers towards their own and other, major languages?

The younger members of the language community in the country, the linguist said, no longer actively speak many languages. Although, they may still be able to understand the language, but they prefer to speak English, Hausa or some other language of wider communication among themselves and to their children.

The consequence is that these languages will become extinct in the next generation, citing some Nigerian languages that are nearly extinct, such as Holma, a Chadic language spoken in Adamawa State or have already ceased to exist such as Auyokawa and Teshenanci, two Chadic languages formerly spoken in Jigawa State.

Stressing that for many Nigerian languages, there are already a certain amount of published materials available. Mostly religious literature - Bible portions, the New Testament, portions of the Bible, Catechisms and so on. But not all the languages of Nigeria have been well described and developed to an extent that would allow them to be used for educational purposes.

Nigeria is presently in the verge of upgrading its three main local languages, namely Igbo, Hausa and Yoruba, by translating the 1999 Constitution into these languages. This was disclosed by the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Chief Chukwuemeka Chikelu, last April.

The idea, according to him, was to deepen citizens' knowledge of democratic principles and values, even as translations in smaller languages would also follow.

The country is place in one of the world's highest language diversity area; given this diversity, Nigeria has strictly followed the principle of only having one official language; that of the former colonial master - English.

The official beginning of the translation process commenced with the leaders of the team of language experts' visit to Chief Chikelu in Abuja recently. They included Prof. Saidu Mohammed Gusau of the Bayero University, leading the Hausa team, Prof. Kola Owolabi of the University of Lagos, leading the Yoruba team and Prof. Sam Ugochukwu, also of University of Lagos, leading the Igbo team.

Speaking on behalf of the team leaders, Prof. Owolabi had stated that though the federal government move to translate the Constitution into local languages, "is belated, it is a big and historic venture that would encourage people to be proud to speak their local languages. It is the first time in Nigeria's history".

As Nigerians await the team to submit their draft of the translated version of the Constitution, after a three-month duration, before another set of experts would also review it, prior for its official adoption.

It is worthwhile also to incorporate African language advocacy in the agenda for developing the continent's Millennium Development Goal (MDG), as much as poverty, and health via the dreadful HIV/AIDS.

African government through the New Partnership for Africa Development (NEPAD), therefore, should evolve systems that encourages the citizens to learn an official languages, by emulating the French government. This could be done by first trying to adopt few African languages as official continental languages.

And followed up with setting up of language learning sections among African nations as well as making it almost free-of-charge, just as obtained at the Alliance Francise, globally.