In an effort to harness technology to preserve rather than erode indigenous languages, the African Languages Institute, headed by Yunde Adegbola, has developed a keyboard for the Yoruba language that has won this year’s edition of the IICD Award on Local Content Applications of Information Communication Technologies. Yoruba, described by Adegbola as the largest spoken mother tongue in Africa, is a tonal language, thereby making it very difficult to type a proximity on a conventional keyboard. Now Yoruba can be accurately typed with no more than two key strokes per character. There are also plans to create text-to-speech software so illiterate people can hear the written information. The African Languages Institute would also like to approach Microsoft with the project so it can be incorporated into its MS Word software.
