Attempts at a web presence inventory of African minority languages

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Description/Abstract

Making an inventory of minority languages that have web sites is difficult. We show that, even if we define “minority” as African languages, then this is of little use since the appearance of web sites in any African languages are few. Many African web sites are hosted outside the continent, and few have totally indigenous languages displayed; rather, it contains a mixture of ex-colonial language illustrating documents in the African language concerned. In addition, many countries have more than one official language and much mixing does take place naturally in daily use. Considerable effort is needed to extend this survey, but it is already clear that the empowerment of Africans is being side-lined by this technology.