Inquiring current digital use and usability of regional and minority languages: the DLDP survey

The Digital Language Diversity Project is a three-year project funded under the Erasmus+ programme that addresses the problem of low digital representation and use of EU regional and minority languages, a cause for their endangerment according to some scholars. One of the first actions of the project is to assess the current use and usability of four EU regional/minority languages, representing very different degrees of digital language representation and use: these languages are Sardinian, Karelian, Basque and Breton. From June to September 2016, the DLDP project has been spreading a survey, that was localized and translated into these languages. The survey is developed on the basis of previous work carried out in the area of ethnolinguistic vitality, such as the ELDIA Barometer, and other inquiries addressing specifically digital use of languages and availability and usability of digital resources and media. The DLDP survey consists of a general part collecting basic information on the informant (age, sex, proficiency level in the language, frequency of use, etc.). The second part is focused on gathering information about his/her personal digital use of the language and about any known digital resource and services that make use of the language. The survey is the first ever study of the digital needs of minority language speakers. It will give stakeholders and academia a detailed view into what actual language speakers are thinking about in terms of how they want to develop provision for their languages in the digital sphere. Therefore, we strongly encourage wide adoption and dissemination of the survey to regional and minority languages beyond the four investigated. The workshop intends to illustrate and discuss the model survey, to share it with researchers interested in adopting it for other languages, and to discuss collaboration paths.