Greetings all,

The digital divide between SA languages remains huge; fortunately new technologies offer cheaper and faster ways of levelling the playing fields. Here's a good example.

---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Vukosi Marivate vukosi.marivate@cs.up.ac.za Date: Wed, Sep 14, 2022 at 10:51 AM Subject: #DS4SocietySeminar DS@UP🚀 - Mukondleteri Dumela - Why language technologies for African languages are important. <> 23 September 2022 To: graaf.michael@gmail.com

Seminars @ DS@UP🚀 - 2022 Data Science for Society Seminar Series #DS4SocietySeminar

Our next seminar for 2022 *Topic:* Why language technologies for African languages are important. *Speaker:* Mukondleteri Dumela *Sign Up:* RSVP http://mail01.tinyletterapp.com/datascience-up/ds4societyseminar-ds-up-mukondleteri-dumela-why-language-technologies-for-african-languages-are-important-23-september-2022/21451293-docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1faipqlsculysimayz2povay4djx2kotzek62ejgxc0fk7miptivduiq/viewform?c=6ea82c5a-4ac3-495a-b532-65f8f998f569 *Date:* 23 September 2022 *Time: * 9:00AM-10:00AM SAST

*Abstract* The world is a diverse place with thousands of languages and cultural traditions. Africa alone has over 2,000 languages spoken amongst its 1,2 billion people. However, only a few African languages benefit from emerging human language technologies, and the gap continues to grow as new human language technologies are developed. Perhaps it is time to reflect on why it is critical that emerging human language technologies be inclusive of African languages and what we risk losing if we do not change course.

*Author Bio* Mukondleteri Dumela is a Software Developer with a keen focus on African languages. Hebegan my career in the University of Pretoria in 2009 while studying towards a Bachelor of Information Science in Multimedia. Mukondleteri has since then been working on various projects to advance the status of technology for African languages.

He is the founder of the two projects:

*Angula* Angula teaches people African languages using the voices of native speakers. - Angula is in BETA and is set for release in September 2022 - The link is https://angula.app http://mail01.tinyletterapp.com/datascience-up/ds4societyseminar-ds-up-mukondleteri-dumela-why-language-technologies-for-african-languages-are-important-23-september-2022/21451297-angula.app/?c=6ea82c5a-4ac3-495a-b532-65f8f998f569

*Xitsonga.org* Xitsonga.org is a non profit organisation that is focused on digitising the Xitsonga language. - The website has been accessed by over a million people. - Our apps have downloads of over 200 000. - Xitsonga Dictionary app won the 2020 Best Educational Solution at the MTN App Awards - The link is https://xitsonga.org http://mail01.tinyletterapp.com/datascience-up/ds4societyseminar-ds-up-mukondleteri-dumela-why-language-technologies-for-african-languages-are-important-23-september-2022/21451301-xitsonga.org/?c=6ea82c5a-4ac3-495a-b532-65f8f998f569

This years schedule is below.

Date

Time [SAST]

Speaker

Organisation

21/07/2022

17:00

Rediet Abebe

UC Berkeley

12/08/2022

09:00

William Bird

Real 411 + MMA

02/09/2022

09:00

Sekou L Remy

IBM Research Nairobi

23/09/2022

09:00

Mukondleteri Dumela

Angula

21/10/2022

09:00

Skyler Wang UC Berkeley Sociology Department/Meta

04/11/2022

15:00

TBA

25/11/2022

09:00

TBA

If you have any questions, suggestions or comments, feel free to contact Neo Mokono neo.mokono@tuks.co.za DS@UP 🚀 https://tinyletter.com/datascience-up by Vukosi Marivate Lynnwood Road Pretoria, Gauteng South Africa Sent to graaf.michael@gmail.com <#m_5071571953272626675_> — Unsubscribe https://tinyletter.com/datascience-up/unsub?c=6ea82c5a-4ac3-495a-b532-65f8f998f569&m=ds4societyseminar-ds-up-mukondleteri-dumela-why-language-technologies-for-african-languages-are-important-23-september-2022 *Delivered by* [image: TinyLetter] http://www.tinyletter.com