A Senior lecturer in the Department of Computer Science, University of Uyo, Nigeria, Dr. Moses Effiong Ekpenyong has said that our languages are dying because most parents have refused to communicate them with their children at homes.
Dr. Effiong said this while speaking on ACALAN TV after an interactive 2 Days workshop organized by the African Academy of Languages (ACALAN), the African Union specialized agency that seeks to promote African languages on 2nd - 3rd of October, 2019 in Bamako, Mali.
The workshop with the theme “Comprehensive and Interactive Platform and Bridging the 6’ Gap Between the Computer and the African” aimed at drawing a road map for developing a comprehensive and interactive platform for the ACALAN organs, working structures and partners in view of raising its visibility; identify and assess works on African Languages and their presence in the cyberspace, and equipping African languages and adding values to their presence in the cyberspace, and applying Human Language Technology to them among others.
Speaking on the ACALAN comprehensive platform workshop, Dr. Effiong said, “I think the platform shall serve as a network and support for researchers of like minds to develop language resources for the benefit of African communities. It shall also be an interdisciplinary platform that would bring together related researches for the benefit of the societies”.
“Our languages are dying because most parents have refused to communicate them with their children and then, also pass them to the next generation” he said.
He stated that policy makers should begin to listen to the voice of the calling to know that language is life and a necessary resource for fruitful communication and peaceful coexistence,
The Computational linguist further stated that “government should bring together a conference of linguists and academicians to rethink and reposition our languages”.
Dr. Effiong however urges that African governments should necessitate policies and show that commitment of saving our languages from dying.
