Conceptualising language archives through legacy materials

Weber, Tobias

doi:10.1108/el-02-2022-0029

Cited by 4 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…This is the reason Diko (2023b) argues that the archiving of indigenous South African languages is an integral part of documentary linguistics that contains various types of materials, including audio and video language, corpus data from languages around the world, photographs, notes, experimental data and other pertinent information required to conserve and describe languages and how people use them, records of speech in everyday interactions in families and communities, naturalistic data from adult conversations from endangered and understudied languages, and linguistic phenomena. Thus, language archiving is a significant component of information science that hosts one of the largest collections of language materials (audio, video and texts) worldwide (Weber 2022).…”

Section: Indigenous South African Languages and Archivingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Archiving of Indigenous Languages with Specific Reference to IsiXhosa

Diko

2023

Mousaion

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It cannot be nullified that the advancement of isiXhosa will not be actualised without the employment of information science as a discipline and practice for the very reason that archiving is a significant component that can lead to visible solutions to the conundrum that has recurrently engulfed this language. Divorcing information science from isiXhosa, or vice versa, is a decaying and deliberate endeavour that delays the transformation of isiXhosa as an indigenous South African language. This conceptual article pivots on personal experiences through a qualitative research inquiry to underline some of the principal challenges that impede the archiving of indigenous South African languages with specific reference to isiXhosa. The objective is to sensitise regarding the preservation and protection of the linguistic and cultural heritage of the amaXhosa community for future generations and to guarantee its recognition and revitalisation. The study’s literature review, among other components, indicates that challenges concerning the archiving of indigenous South African languages, including isiXhosa, are advanced by languages whose stature is least known or unknown entirely. Ultimately, the principal argument underscores that language archiving through information science is an area of contention. The principal recommendation is that the advancement of the isiXhosa language requires a multi-collaborative effort in a bid to advance its intellectualisation. The closing remarks indicate the necessity to continue the discourse beyond the aims and objectives of this conceptual article.

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Section: Indigenous South African Languages and Archivingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Archiving of Indigenous Languages with Specific Reference to IsiXhosa

Diko

2023

Mousaion

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“…We may ask whether the archive itself a 'forum' or 'arena' for this discourse is just [15,28], where the focus lies on presenting data and metadata. Yet, in the decision of what to present and how to portrait or collate artefacts, the archive, and any curator or archivist, becomes a part in the discourse.…”

Section: The Role Of the Archivementioning

confidence: 99%

“…This may occasionally cause difficulties in handling data, for example in cases where information was shared that should be kept within a defined community (e.g., secret knowledge, personal narratives), or where communicative intent was biased, or the situation is not clear to outsiders. The latter are prominently reported for older data, such as legacy materials [4,28,29], but can affect new data alike. There are different positionalities and perspectives in each archival deposit, and interaction with this discourse is facilitated through the archive.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multiperspectivity and Neutrality in Language Archives

Weber¹

2023

Proceedings of the International Workshop on Digital Language Archives: LangArc-2023

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This paper discusses linguistic data and their creation with a focus on the human actions and decisions that shape them. The human factor and positionalities are often obscured by current practices in data handling. Obscuring the human agency does not only reduce the transparency of the research but also disenfranchises the humans behind the data. The language archive takes a dual role as a host for discourse and an agent within it. It cannot claim impartiality but adds perspectives to research data and narratives.

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“…Thus, metadata to represent these resources is created by library professionals, sometimes in collaboration with those linguists who collected archival materials or with language community members [3] but often -as is the case with legacy materials -without. In general, providing access to legacy data in digital language archives presents several challenges, including those related to provenance, orphan data, and citation tracking [12].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Language Archiving Training: A Case Study of a Metadata Course in Library and Information Science Graduate Program, 2020 - 2023

Zavalina¹

2023

Proceedings of the International Workshop on Digital Language Archives: LangArc-2023

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Since the early 21st century, funding agencies have been continuously supporting efforts aimed at language preservation and revitalization. This includes providing online access to unique and valuable collections of language data, which often originates from Indigenous and endangered language communities. Language materials are organized and represented in digital archives mostly by information professionals in the library, museum, and archival fields. However, a gap exists between the way these materials are organized and represented and the understanding of that data – and expectations towards the more functional ways of its organization and representation – by language preservation and revitalization researchers, and by members of language communities. Information resources collected by language archives have unique attributes of importance to their target user groups, and these attributes and their representation are not currently widely addressed by the formal training provided to information professionals. Similarly, specifics of these collections end-users’ information needs are not currently examined in this training. In this case study, we present the project that seeks to address this training gap and evaluate its preliminary results.

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Conceptualising language archives through legacy materials

Cited by 4 publications

References 35 publications

Archiving of Indigenous Languages with Specific Reference to IsiXhosa

Archiving of Indigenous Languages with Specific Reference to IsiXhosa

Multiperspectivity and Neutrality in Language Archives

Language Archiving Training: A Case Study of a Metadata Course in Library and Information Science Graduate Program, 2020 - 2023

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