International Mother Language Day 2023: Adivasi children in India unable to study in their own tongues needs redressal

Tribal children do not have teachers, reading material or even a proper script for their dialects or languages  

ChatGPT threatens language diversity. More needs to be done to protect our differences in the age of AI

When writing tools prioritise one way of writing over another, they reinforce existing hierarchies that unfairly position Standard American …

Seven decades after independence, many tribal languages in India face extinction threat

To lose these indigenous languages means losing huge human capital and rich cultural diversity 

People on Vanuatu’s Malekula Island speak more than 30 indigenous languages. Here’s why we must record them

Vanuatu has been described as the world’s “densest linguistic landscape”, with as many as 145 languages spoken by a population …

Book Excerpt: Swahili in German East Africa

Morgan J Robinson's 2022 book explores how Swahili was standardised and eventually became a pan-African language

Insights from Fulani pastoralists and host communities in southwestern Nigeria

Their migrant status and strained relationships with host communities have led to disadvantaged access to infrastructural facilities

Cambridge Dictionary’s definition of ‘woman’, ‘man’ is now more inclusive

Definition updated to include people who identify as a gender other than their biological sex

Protecting endangered languages feels right, but does it really help people?

The theme of righting historical wrongs among minority groups assumes they will somehow benefit from defence of their language

Zulu vs Xhosa: how colonialism used language to divide South Africa’s two biggest ethnic groups

The decision to think of isiZulu and isiXhosa as two separate languages can to some extent be traced back to African interpreters on whom …

When did humans first start to speak? How language evolved in Africa

Ability to produce speech sounds catapulted Homo sapiens into a world in which they would dominate all other species

Here’s all you need to know about the International Day of Sign Languages

September 23 was chosen as it marked the anniversary of the World Federation of the Deaf’s formation in 1951

Net gains as language barriers fall in global trade

All corners of the planet are en route to better internet access, helping send the traditional language barriers plaguing global trade tumbling

AI called GPT-3 can now write like a human without thinking like one

GPT-3 is capable of producing excellent syntax. It boasts a wide range of vocabulary, owing to an large knowledge base from which it can generate …

Tales for posterity: The songs and stories of the Great Andamanese

'Voices from the Lost Horizon' encapsulates the worldview of the Great Andamanese tribe through its stories and songs, capturing a culture that …

How will we know if AIs gain consciousness? A new checklist might help us assess

No current AI systems appears to be a strong candidate for consciousness, but developments likely in near future, says report

Artificial intelligence GPT-4 shows ‘sparks’ of common sense, human-like reasoning, finds Microsoft

Latest version of ChatGPT shows signs of artificial general intelligence; can solve novel and difficult tasks in various fields in a way …

Tagore’s ideals couldn’t have inspired Modi’s National Education Policy 2020: Veteran educationist Pabitra Sarkar

The PM, also Visva Bharati chancellor, spoke at the inauguration of the university’s centenary celebration and tried hard to associate his …

International Mother Language Day 2023: How an education module in tribal dialects became a game changer in Odisha

An experiment in mother language based education for children from the Kolha tribe showed how developing text books and primers in tribal …

UNPFII calls for inclusion of indigenous people in socio-economic development, conservation of environment

UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues also demanded inclusion in preserving culture & languages

We have produced a new guide to decolonise language in conservation

We at Survival want to make people stop and think about why we use the words we do when writing or talking about environmental issues

AI isn’t close to becoming sentient — the real danger lies in how easily we’re prone to anthropomorphise it

Chatbots like ChatGPT raise important new questions about how artificial intelligence will shape our lives, and about how our psychological …

Africa: Why Uganda’s English language policy is failing rural children

Learners faced various challenges in learning and acquiring English

World Kiswahili Language Day: How a standard version of the east African language formed and spread across the world

Kiswahili has been adopted as a working language at the African Union

COVID-19: Lack of funds in new normal may push some North American ethnic cultures into extinction

Museums and art venues turn to virtual tours to stay afloat but need tech overhaul

Why are algorithms called algorithms? A brief history of the Persian polymath you’ve likely never heard of

Hindu-Arabic numerals are important to the history of computing because they use the number zero and a base-ten decimal system