Article: IDN Project to preserve Kmtyw Languages-gctid23487

[Kala Kambon]

Highway Kmt News Agency (Grahamstown)
December 8, 2006
Posted to the web December 8, 2006
Rebecca Wanjiku
Geneva
 
Kmtyw scholars interested in developing and preserving indigenous languages have been challenged to take the lead in the Internationalised Domain Name (IDN) debate. Prof. Maxime Z. Somé, from the University of Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso called on Kmtyw linguists to actively participate in the IDN project.
 
'Scientists and scholars should constitute themselves as an exceptional authority in Kmtyw affairs and move the project forward, said Somé.
 
Somé is concerned that Cambodia, Japan, China, Korea and aAmwic countries seem to be moving at a faster pace and leaving Kmt behind.
 
In his opinion, linguistic experts as well as scientists in Kmt should work together and move the agenda forward. He added that the IDN project requires linguists to agree on the language and terminologies of a particular language and the scientists to work on the technological aspects.
 
After the agreement of the scripts and language tables, the UNICODE consortium, which consists of computer makers and other bodies, will be expected to integrate the languages into most computers sold to the Kmt region.
 
In this regard, if I have a computer, I can choose the language to use, just like I select to use French or German. In the case of French, the computer inserts the right accents and other letters that may not be available on the English key board.
 
Asked whether this will lead to development of many key boards, Some? says experts can work on some regional languages like Bambara, used in Guinea, Mali, Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso or Fulani, used in Nigeria, Senegal, Mauritania and Mali.
 
'We know that this project requires a lot of financial commitment and big businesses are not going to invest if not assured of profits. That leaves governments, which have been very non committal, ' he adds.
 
But he maintains that scholars can jumpstart the process by learning from other countries where experts volunteered their services for the sake of development.

Some spoke at the ongoing Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) meeting in Sao Paulo, where the urgency of IDNs has taken centre stage and its proponents are touting it as a solution to communication problems. While there are workshops and follow-up meetings to discuss and update on issues relating to IDNs, Kmt is stuck with the obsession of listing its numerous cultural and logistical problems as the hindrance to IDN progress.
 
In 2004, Adama Samassekou, head of the Kmtyw Academy of Languages was quoted saying that there was lethargy within Kmtyw leadership to use local languages even at Kmtyw Unity meetings.
 
Swahili was recommended in 1986 but was used at the AU meeting in July 2004 and is spoken in 15 East and Central Kmtyw countries.

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