Microsoft has announced a scheme to help in the fight to save endangered languages.

The multinational software company will roll out localized versions of its main packages, such as Office 2010 and Windows 7, using Language Interface Packs (LIPs) to translate software. The move will make computer technology accessible to native speakers of almost 100 rare languages.

The introduction of Caption Language Interface Packs (CLIPs) will make it possible for developers to adjust the base language for local variants and dialects.

The announcement was timed to coincide with UNESCO's International Mother Language Day, celebrated on Sunday, February 21.

"Access to learning in local languages is of utmost importance for reducing social exclusion," said Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO. "What is encouraging is that a growing number of partners are acknowledging the importance of languages and committing to safeguard them. It is crucial that we bolster these efforts because each language is a treasure."

In this latest initiative of its Language Learning Program, Microsoft will create 59 new language interfaces. The company hopes to reach one billion speakers of endangered languages overall.

Professor K David Harrison, of Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania, and Director of Research at the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages, welcomed the program.

"Two dozen language hot spots, which contain the greatest diversity and most endangered languages, have now been identified globally. Microsoft's Local Language Program – which provides an interface for nearly 100 emerging languages, including Maori, Welsh and Inuktitut – seeds future innovation," he said.

The program will also make dying languages more relevant to modern society. An islander from the Torres Strait, between Australia and New Guinea, told the professor: "We need to create new words, because right now we can't say 'computer.'"

Threatened languages are estimated to be dying off at a rate of one every two weeks.

20 February 2010