We talked recently about the Fon language, known as Fongbe, and when I ran across the Knowledge 4 All project Building a database for Fongbe language in Africa, I thought it was interesting enough to post:
This dataset is part of a 3-4 month Fellowship Program within the AI4D – African Language Program, which was conceptualized as part of a roadmap to work towards better integration of African languages on digital platforms, in aid of lowering the barrier of entry for African participation in the digital economy. This particular dataset is being developed through a process covering a variety of languages and NLP tasks, in particular Machine Translation of Fongbe. […]
The standardized Fongbe language is part of the Fongbe cluster of languages inside the Eastern Gbe languages. In that cluster, there are other languages like Goun, Maxi, Weme, Kpase which share a lot of vocabulary with the Fongbe language. Standard Fongbe is the primary target of language planning efforts in Benin, although separate efforts exist for Goun, Gen, and other languages of the country. To date, there are about 53 different dialects of the Fon language spoken throughout Benin.
Fongbe holds a special place in the socio economic scene in Benin. It’s the most used language in markets, health care centers, social gatherings, churches, banks, etc.. Most of the ads and some programs on National Television are in Fongbe. French used to be the only language of education in Benin, but in the second decade of the twenty first century, the government is experimenting with teaching some subjects in Benin schools in the country’s local languages, among them Fongbe.
I hope it turns out to be useful (note to DE: it’s not done by those people you can’t stand).
‘Tsall good. Though what’s with all this “AI” stuff again? These are not the skills you need for language planning and promotion.
Ewe is part of the same dialect continuum, but apparently not mutually comprehensible with the languages/dialects at the eastern end.
The picture is weird: blue shading for all of Nigeria, Benin and Togo.
If you’re going to be that maximalist, they should have gone ahead and shaded all of Ghana too … then Poland … then Russia …
Do any of the Fongbephones support a political faction seeking to change the name of the political entity back to “Dahomey,” to show the Communists who changed it to “Benin” in the Seventies what’s what? The pre-colonial Kingdom of Dahomey was historically dominated by Fongbephones; the ditto Kingdom of Benin (located I believe entirely within what is now Nigerian territory) not.
None of it has quite the chutzpah of Nkrumah deciding to call the Gold Coast “Ghana.” It’s on a level with calling Wales “the Roman Empire.” More so: after all, what’s now Wales actually was once at least a part of the Roman Empire, whereas …
I’ve also just noticed that the designers of the website think that Gbe is Bantu. Perhaps that’s what their “AI” told them.
I’m beginning to suspect that this is the same sort of boondoggle as the Mali-based thing we discussed not long ago.
I was afraid AI4D might mean “four dimensional AI”. Apparently, it means “Artificial Intelligence for Development” where “development” is economics rather than computing.
Where does this dataset come from, exactly? Is there some governmental entity that produces bilingual Fongbe / French?