Some Reflections on the New Media and Lesser Used Languages

Scientific or technological inventions are neither good nor bad in themselves. It is how they are used by us that makes them either good or bad for humankind. Nuclear power immediately springs to mind as a classic example. Man's ability to fly is another. Aircraft can be used to transport people and goods from one place to another in double-quick time. Or, as we have witnessed all too often, aircraft can be used to drop bombs, kill and maim people, and destroy cities and towns.The development of information and communication technology (ICT) is undoubtedly the biggest scientific breakthrough in our lifetime. When I started working in the pre-computer age, international telephone calls, fax messages, airmail, telex, and even telegrams were the fastest way to communicate with people in other countries. Even with airmail, it could take a letter some weeks, rather than days, to reach its destination. Last night I sent an e-mail to a friend in Kalmykia in the North Caucuses. A reply was awaiting me this morning. To make a telephone call away from home or office in the pre-mobile age one had to use a public telephone and insert coins in the slot. We can now turn on our televisions and, thanks to satellites, enjoy a wide range of channels, some from the other side of the world. With Skype we can speak to and see our friends even if they live thousands of kilometres away on other continents.How these new media are affecting society is an ongoing process and one which no one can accurately forecast. It is said that the recent revolutions in Egypt and Libya were impossible to stop because the revolutionaries were able to communicate with each other and plot their next moves using text messages, e-mails, mobile phones, etc. One could suspect that neither President Mubarak nor Colonel Gaddafi foresaw what was coming down the tracks because of new communications technology.Language is an essential factor in practically all communications, be they oral, aural, or written. Modern media were developed primarily in highly developed countries in the West and in Japan. The first major consumers of these developments were again the more affluent developed counties, e.g. the USA Western Europe, Canada, Australia, Japan, etc. A few languages were set to benefit from these media developments early on, especially English.David Crystal argued in his 2001 work Language and the Internet1 that, rather than technospeak becoming dominant on the internet, English-different varieties of it-was coming to dominate. I found evidence to support his arguments in some Russian universities. Whereas in the old Soviet period every effort was made to ensure that a wide range of foreign languages were studied, I found very striking evidence that English was becoming by far the most sought after foreign language. When I enquired about the reason for this, I was told that the internet was the answer. Many of the universities could not afford to buy a lot of books published in the West, but with the internet, students could access virtual libraries, resumes of new works, etc.-in English.A lot has changed over the past decade. On the internet site Internet World Stats we find that by 2010, English language websites had an estimated 536.6 million users, whereas Chinese websites then had 444.9 million users. A number of other languages (e.g. Spanish, Japanese, Portuguese, German etc.) also had many millions of users. Thousands of languages can now be found on the internet, including many lesser used ones.What will the long-term effect of all this have on lesser used (minority or regional) languages? Will modern media drive a series of nails into the coffins of these languages? In my opinion, this will depend almost entirely on how the users of these languages employ modern media. As already observed, technology is neither good nor bad in itself: everything depends on how we use it. All the evidence suggests that users of lesser used languages are making use-often in very creative ways-of new communications technologies. …

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