How is Facebook saving Endangered Languages?

Rhea Sodem
Staff Writer

          Digital tools like Facebook, Youtube, and Instagram are becoming more and more popular as technology continues to improve. Social media can be used for more than posting and liking pictures; it can even save languages that are in danger of dying. Languages are depending on translating English terms used on Facebook like friend, invite, and poke. Recently, the Corsican language is slowly dying, so many speakers came together to translate Facebook terms into ones that their language can use. For example, for the word poke they made it “stuzzicà”, which means to alert or tease someone. There are two thousand speakers meet daily trying to translate symbols and Facebook terminology.  All of the translations are not literal; some are general everyday dialect.

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         Facebook is also creating more translations of their app for endangered languages. Organizations managed to persuade Facebook that adding these languages could be of use for users and create a larger platform for the languages in the twenty first century. The goal is for other social media platforms, looking at Facebook to do the same. Now Facebook has over one hundred language options available to users. It is ironic how globalization was blamed for the disappearing of languages originally. and now is one of the only things that can actually save them. 
                Facebook is not the only way to recover languages. There are iPhone apps created to teach students new words and phrases. A professor of linguistics mentioned, "Small languages are using social media, YouTube, text messaging, and various technologies to expand their voice and expand their presence." Since teens at this generation are captivated by social media, using platforms that use technology to save languages makes teens excited to learn something or take interest in new things. It creates a broader audience other than the original speakers. Now with all these improvements, languages are still continuing.