Language Varieties of Italy: Technology Challenges & Opportunities 

Language Varieties of Italy: Technology Challenges & Opportunities 

Researcher: Alan Ramponi | Italy is characterized by a one-of-a-kind linguistic diversity landscape in Europe, which implicitly encodes local knowledge, cultural traditions, artistic expressions, and history of its speakers. However, most local languages and dialects in Italy are at risk of disappearing within a few generations. The NLP community has recently begun to engage with endangered languages, including those of Italy.
Language, Religion & Mythology

Language, Religion & Mythology

Lately I’ve been thinking about how so much of human language is based around religion. Even a casual farewell can invoke God! Check it out: Medieval Latin had this phrase “ad Deum,” which meant, “to God.” This gave us variations like: “adieu” in French; “adios” in Spanish, “addio” in Italian, and “addiju” in Maltese. In Persian, we bid each other farewell with a “khodahafez.” This translates to, “May God protect you.” It’s also often shortened to “khodafez.” English is religious too! “Goodbye” comes from “God be with ye.”