What Viles’ group and many others needed was a way to collect and compare thousands of words across multiple generations and several dialects. Technology is helping to overcome some of the challenges faced by linguists and indigenous peoples trying to preserve their languages , from data protection to the risk of digital colonisation . At the recent Breath of Life conference in Miami , participants were able to access the Indigenous Languages Online Archive , software that creates a digital dictionary from uploaded documents . Meanwhile , researchers at Google have helped create a font for the local tribe that has been accepted by the Unicode standard , enabling the development of indigenous language apps .
Technology is helping to overcome some of the challenges faced by linguists and indigenous peoples trying to preserve their languages , from data protection to the risk of digital colonisation . At the recent Breath of Life conference in Miami , participants were able to access the Indigenous Languages Online Archive , software that creates a digital dictionary from uploaded documents . Meanwhile , researchers at Google have helped create a font for the local tribe that has been accepted by the Unicode standard , enabling the development of indigenous language apps .