Languages in the European information society - German

Abstract

Many European languages run the risk of becoming victims of the digital age because they are underrepresented and under-resourced online. Huge regional market opportunities remain untapped today because of language barriers. If we do not take action now, many European citizens will become socially and economically disadvantaged because they speak their native language.Innovative language technology (LT) is an intermediary that will enable European citizens to participate in an egalitarian, inclusive and economically successful knowledge and information society. Multilingual language technology will be a gateway for instantaneous, cheap and effortless communication and interaction across language boundaries.Today, language services are primarily offered by commercial providers from the US. Google Translate, a free service, is just one example. The recent success of Watson, an IBM computer system that won an episode of the Jeopardy game show against human candidates, illustrates the immense potential of language technology. As Europeans, we have to ask ourselves several urgent questions:- Should our communications and knowledge infrastructure be dependent upon monopolistic companies?- Can we truly rely on language-related services that can be immediately switched off by others?- Are we actively competing in the global market for research and development in language technology?- Are third parties from other continents willing to address our translation problems and other issues that relate to European multilingualism?- Can our European cultural background help shape the knowledge society by offering better, more secure, more precise, more innovative and more robust high-quality technology?This whitepaper for the German language demonstrates that a lively language technology industry and research environment exists in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Although a number of technologies and resources for Standard German exist, there are fewer technologies and resources for the German language than for the English language. The existing technologies and resources also have a poorer quality.According to the assessment detailed in this report, immediate action must occur before any breakthroughs for the German language can be achieved.