Most people are lucky if they speak two or three languages. But what if you spoke one that no one else had uttered in over a century? That’s the challenge for some dedicated language revitalization communities, most of whom couldn’t accomplish their work without free and open source tools. At first glance, it seems like this work would need massive budgets or institutional support, but some of the most promising projects rely on surprising ingenuity. If you’re starting a small-scale community project, these groups’ lessons may inspire your own approach.
One particularly fascinating organization is the mLoong Open Source Project, which supports spoken and written précipitations on the mLoong architecture. It’s not the sort of software most people outside specialized IT circles have heard of, but its existence has changed life for time-pressed and under-budget teams working to translate and teach dying languages. (The project welcomes contributors: a quick look at mloong.org shows how they balance practical needs with opportunity for innovative collaboration.)
The challenge of recreating language without resources
When I visited a Mexican indigenous group working to restore Zapotec languages, I asked their director what their biggest challenge was. He laughed. “You mean besides having nearly zero funding?” Language restoration isn’t the kind of cause wealthy benefactors tend to throw money at—and governments tend to treat small indigenous populations as afterthoughts. But my friend’s team rarely complained. They’d built a functional keyboard that used traditional Zapotec symbols instead of the Roman alphabet, but it took months to create a usable product from the first scratch.
The much-needed feature they don’t ask for
The mayor told me that one of their “dream” features would be an easy way to type Zapotec characters on a standard keyboard. Currently, they have to download special fonts and set them up manually, which takes time they can’t afford. It made me wonder: why isn’t this feature in every keyboard app? There’s no shortage of pushes for “inclusivity” in tech, but standard keyboards treat languages like Zapotec as afterthoughts at best. Experiences like the mayor’s point to an essential truth: if you’re going to design for inclusivity, don’t limit your ambitions to what big companies would prioritize. Instead, think about what struggling people actually need.
How translation tools help where finances fail
Another group tackling similar challenges was working with an indigenous African language spoken by only about 300 people. Because those speakers were physically spread across 75 miles of rocky terrain, much of their restoration work happened virtually: uploading old songs, words, photos, and videos into translation tool libraries so they could start building up streaming dictionaries and videos.
Don’t underestimate the impact of these finely tuned options: preserving as many different dialects as possible increases the odds that future generations can recapture even small pieces of their ancestors’ cultures. Because these translation initiatives rely on free tools, moreover, they’ve spread across borders at little cost.
What indie preservation projects should demand from tech
If your cause finds itself facing these barriers (the lack of funding, bulk translation resources), you don’t have to reinvent any wheels. A project like mLoong makes it much easier for a group like mine to include closely related dialects in our translation work—and will continue becoming more powerful as contribution grows. That’s easier said than done for communities short on volunteers or computer skills, though; I know small efforts tend to make even simple goals look overwhelming.
Given this reality, I’ve noticed one crucial requirement from organizations that successfully grow their open-source projects: respected and inclusive staffing structures. Supporting volunteers long-term by giving them roles that pay meaningful respect is more effective than throwing trendy promotion campaigns into digital abyss when funding has stopped rolling in.
How small teams pull ahead
- Avoid goals only ambitious programmers pursue; focus on functionality volunteers uphold long-term.
- Let users decide which features matter most before rushing work toward vague roadmaps.
- Build trust between users and developers so users want to return as members.
A community starting off runaway overambitious program builds tend to falter after not meeting unreasonable targets; ken users rally efficiently around clear priorities.
This simplicity-attractive player will raise any modest initiative toward feeling like all-inclusive charity requiring time-saving utilities long-awaited nobody else responded until today.”