A language technology project of the Ministry of Culture, Science and Education, Iceland

The project

For over 1,000 years, Icelandic has served as not only as the language of Icelanders, but as the medium by which one of Europe’s greatest literary treasures, the medieval sagas, has been preserved.

Since the advent of computers, however, Icelandic, like many other minority languages, has found itself under increasing pressure. Commissioned by the Ministry of Education, Science, and Culture, the LangTec project is intended both to ensure that Icelandic remains a living language in the information and knowledge-driven age of the 21st century, and create a climate for the growth of language technology as a self-supporting industry in Iceland.

Launched in the wake of a survey, which showed that language technology in Iceland is still in its infancy, LangTec is managed by a ministry-appointed steering committee and financed in part from the national budget. The project is designed to develop the range of tools necessary to communicate with the computer-based technology already in everyday use, so paving the way for the export of products and knowledge arising from it.

The programme
Care will be taken to ensure that funds allocated to LangTec are used as fully as possible to secure the position of the Icelandic language in the field of information technology, and to establish language technology as a commercial enterprise in Iceland.
During the preliminary phase, the steering committee will commission a study into the status of language technology in Iceland and abroad, and support the creation of a database for use in LangTec and other related projects.
To enable LangTec to become as financially self-supporting as possible, the steering committee will work closely with companies, institutions and individuals from both the public and private sectors. It is envisaged that funding for some tasks, including export-related activities, will be raised mainly from the private sector.

The challenge
Despite the conclusion of a few projects such as an Icelandic-language spell-checker, some computerised dictionaries, and a synthesiser designed to help the blind to read written text, language technology has yet to establish roots as a commercial industry in Iceland. A great deal of work therefore remains to be done if Icelandic is to become as functional a tool as, say, English, for use in the world of computers and communications.