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  • © 2023

European Language Equality

A Strategic Agenda for Digital Language Equality

  • Presents the results of the ELE project, with key suggestions on achieving digital language equality in Europe by 2030

  • Offers an in-depth analysis of the technology support for over 30 European languages

  • Benefits students and researchers from language and speech technology, NLP, or language-centric AI

  • This book is open access, which means that you have free and unlimited access

Part of the book series: Cognitive Technologies (COGTECH)

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Table of contents (45 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xxxiv
  2. European Language Equality: Introduction

    • Georg Rehm, Andy Way
    Pages 1-10Open Access
  3. European Language Equality: Status Quo in 2022

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 11-11
    2. State-of-the-Art in Language Technology and Language-centric Artificial Intelligence

      • Rodrigo Agerri, Eneko Agirre, Itziar Aldabe, Nora Aranberri, Jose Maria Arriola, Aitziber Atutxa et al.
      Pages 13-38Open Access
    3. Digital Language Equality: Definition, Metric, Dashboard

      • Federico Gaspari, Annika Grützner-Zahn, Georg Rehm, Owen Gallagher, Maria Giagkou, Stelios Piperidis et al.
      Pages 39-73Open Access
    4. European Language Technology in 2022/2023

      • Maria Giagkou, Teresa Lynn, Jane Dunne, Stelios Piperidis, Georg Rehm
      Pages 75-94Open Access
    5. Language Report Basque

      • Kepa Sarasola, Itziar Aldabe, Arantza Diaz de Ilarraza, Ainara Estarrona, Aritz Farwell, Inma Hernáez et al.
      Pages 95-98Open Access
    6. Language Report Bosnian

      • Tarik Ćušić
      Pages 99-102Open Access
    7. Language Report Bulgarian

      • Svetla Koeva
      Pages 103-106Open Access
    8. Language Report Catalan

      • Maite Melero, Blanca Calvo, Mar Rodríguez, Marta Villegas
      Pages 107-110Open Access
    9. Language Report Croatian

      • Marko Tadić
      Pages 111-114Open Access
    10. Language Report Czech

      • Jaroslava Hlaváčová
      Pages 115-118Open Access
    11. Language Report Danish

      • Bolette Sandford Pedersen, Sussi Olsen, Lina Henriksen
      Pages 119-122Open Access
    12. Language Report Dutch

      • Frieda Steurs, Vincent Vandeghinste, Walter Daelemans
      Pages 123-126Open Access
    13. Language Report English

      • Diana Maynard, Joanna Wright, Mark A. Greenwood, Kalina Bontcheva
      Pages 127-130Open Access
    14. Language Report Estonian

      • Kadri Muischnek
      Pages 131-134Open Access
    15. Language Report Finnish

      • Krister Lindén, Wilhelmina Dyster
      Pages 135-138Open Access
    16. Language Report French

      • Gilles Adda, Ioana Vasilescu, François Yvon
      Pages 139-142Open Access
    17. Language Report Galician

      • José Manuel Ramírez Sánchez, Laura Docío Fernández, Carmen García-Mateo
      Pages 143-146Open Access
    18. Language Report German

      • Stefanie Hegele, Barbara Heinisch, Antonia Popp, Katrin Marheinecke, Annette Rios, Dagmar Gromann et al.
      Pages 147-150Open Access

About this book

This open access book presents a comprehensive collection of the European Language Equality (ELE) project’s results, its strategic agenda and roadmap with key recommendations to the European Union on how to achieve digital language equality in Europe by 2030. The fabric of the EU linguistic landscape comprises 24 official languages and over 60 regional and minority languages. However, language barriers still hamper communication and the free flow of information. Multilingualism is a key cultural cornerstone of Europe, signifying what it means to be and to feel European. Various studies and resolutions have found a striking imbalance in the support of Europe’s languages through technologies, issuing a call to action. 

Following an introduction, the book is divided into two parts. The first part describes the state of the art of language technology and language-centric AI and the definition and metrics developed to measure digital language equality. It also presents the status quo in 2022/2023, i.e., the current level of technology support for over 30 European languages. The second part describes plans and recommendations on how to bring about digital language equality in Europe by 2030. It includes chapters on the setup and results of the community consultation process, four technical deep dives, an overview of existing strategic documents and an abridged version of the strategic agenda and roadmap.

The recommendations have been prepared jointly with the European community in the fields of language technology, natural language processing, and language-centric AI, as well as with representatives of relevant initiatives and associations, language communities and regional and minority language groups. Ensuring appropriate technology support for all European languages will not only create jobs, growth and opportunities in the digital single market. Overcoming language barriers in the digital environment is also essential for an inclusive society and for providing unity in diversity for many years to come.

Keywords

  • Language equality
  • Digital language equality
  • Language extinction
  • Digital language extinction
  • Language technology support
  • Digital multilingualism
  • European language technology
  • NLP for European languages
  • Open Access

Editors and Affiliations

  • German Research Centre for Artificial In, Berlin, Germany

    Georg Rehm

  • ADAPT Centre, Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland

    Andy Way

About the editors

Prof. Georg Rehm works as a Principal Researcher in the Speech and Language Technology Department of the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) in Berlin. He is the Co-coordinator of the EU project European Language Equality (ELE) and was the Coordinator of the EU project European Language Grid (ELG). He has been involved as Coordinator or Principal Investigator in more than 20 large-scale research projects, including QURATOR, OpenGPT-X and NFDI for Data Science and AI. Prof. Rehm holds an MA in Computational Linguistics and Artificial Intelligence from the University of Osnabrück and a PhD in Computational Linguistics from the University of Gießen. He has authored, co-authored or edited around 200 research publications and organised more than 30 scientific events. In 2018, Prof. Rehm was awarded the honorary appointment as a DFKI Research Fellow for his outstanding scientific achievements. In 2021, he was appointed honorary professor for his outstanding achievements in research and education at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

Prof. Andy Way is a Full Professor in the School of Computing at Dublin City University, and Deputy Director of ADAPT, the SFI-funded Centre for Digital Content Technology, in Dublin, having previously also been a director of the Centre for Next Generation Localisation (CNGL). Prof. Way has been the lead researcher on thirteen EU projects, including European Language Equality and SignON, and has published over 400 peer-reviewed papers. His research interests include all aspects of machine translation: statistical MT, example-based MT, neural MT, rule-based MT, hybrid models of MT, MT evaluation, teaching MT, etc. He was the recipient of the 2015 DCU President’s Research Award for Science and Engineering, and in 2019 received the prestigious Award of Honour from the International Association for Machine Translation.

Bibliographic Information

Buy it now

Buying options

Softcover Book USD 49.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 59.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access