- Concerns that African languages could become extinct are almost over. The internet is becoming a refuge for the continent’s languages that would otherwise become extinct.
Despite the powerful influence of English, French and Portuguese as official languages in certain African countries, indigenous African languages are proving that technology belongs to no language.
Kiswahili, a language spoken by about 80 million people in Eastern and Central Africa and recently adopted as one of African Union’s official languages, is extensively used on internet websites by newspapers and bloggers.
Linguists interested in African languages are increasingly turning their interests to translate and teach Kiswahili on the internet.
The Kamusi Project by Yale University www.yale.edu.swahili is a recent initiative aimed at translating Kiswahili into English.
Tanzania is probably Africa’s central place for development of Kiswahili. 99 percent of the country’s 35 million people speak Kiswahili.
Sections of daily newspapers, portals, national websites and other relevant information is now accessible on Internet, making the internet a new space for African languages.
Other languages enjoying similar advancements include Uganda’s Luganda, Kenya’s Kikuyu, Burundi’s Kirundi, Rwanda’s Kinyarwanda, Somalia’s Somali, and Nigeria’s Hausa.
The proliferation of African languages on the internet is giving these languages a new breath of life.
The internet has provided a platform for Africans to communicate with friends, relatives and in the diaspora in their indigenous languages. Several Africans now maintain blogs where they write in different African languages.
By Ansbert Ngurumo, Highway Africa News Agency (HANA)
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