It is true that the internet transcends the limitations of time,
distances and borders, but what about languages? Non-English-speaking
internet users reached 50% in July 2000.
# "Language Nations"
"Because the internet has no national boundaries, the organization of
users is bounded by other criteria driven by the medium itself. In
terms of multilingualism, you have virtual communities, for example, of
what I call 'Language Nations'... all those people on the internet
wherever they may be, for whom a given language is their native
language. Thus, the Spanish Language nation includes not only Spanish
and Latin American users, but millions of Hispanic users in the U.S.,
as well as odd places like Spanish-speaking Morocco." (Randy Hobler,
consultant in internet marketing for translation products and services,
September 1998)
# "Linguistic Democracy"
"Whereas 'mother-tongue education' was deemed a human right for every
child in the world by a UNESCO report in the early 1950s, 'mother-
tongue surfing' may very well be the Information Age equivalent. If the
internet is to truly become the Global Network that it is promoted as
being, then all users, regardless of language background, should have
access to it. To keep the internet as the preserve of those who, by
historical accident, practical necessity, or political privilege,
happen to know English, is unfair to those who don't." (Brian King,
director of the WorldWide Language Institute, September 1998)
# A medium for the world
"It is very important to be able to communicate in various languages. I
would even say this is mandatory, because the information given on the
internet is meant for the whole world, so why wouldn't we get this
information in our language or in the language we wish? Worldwide
information, but no broad choice for languages, this would be quite a
contradiction, wouldn't it?" (Maria Victoria Marinetti, teacher in
Spanish and translator, August 1999)
# Good software
"When software gets good enough for people to chat or talk on the web
in real time in different languages, then we will see a whole new world
appear before us. Scientists, political activists, businesses and many
more groups will be able to communicate immediately without having to
go through mediators or translators." (Tim McKenna, writer and
philosopher, October 2000)
***
Unless specified otherwise, quotations are excerpts from NEF
interviews. Many thanks to all those who are quoted in this book, and
who kindly answered questions about multilingualism over the years.
Most interviews are available online <http://www.etudes-
francaises.net/entretiens/>. This book is also available in French,
with a different text. Both versions are available online
<http://www.etudes-francaises.net/entretiens/multi.htm>. The author,
whose mother tongue is French, is responsible for any remaining
mistakes in English.
Marie Lebert is a researcher and editor specializing in technology for
books, other media, and languages. Her books are published by NEF (Net
des études françaises / Net of French Studies), University of Toronto,
Canada, and are freely available online <http://www.etudes-
francaises.net>.
"LANGUAGE NATIONS" ONLINE
= [Quote]
Randy Hobler, a consultant in internet marketing for Globalink, a
company specializing in language translation software and services,
wrote in September 1998: "Because the internet has no national
boundaries, the organization of users is bounded by other criteria
driven by the medium itself. In terms of multilingualism, you have
virtual communities, for example, of what I call 'Language Nations'...
all those people on the internet wherever they may be, for whom a given
language is their native language. Thus, the Spanish Language nation
includes not only Spanish and Latin American users, but millions of
Hispanic users in the U.S., as well as odd places like Spanish-speaking
Morocco."
= [Text]
At first, the internet was nearly 100% English. A network was set up by
the Pentagon in 1969, before spreading to U.S. governmental agencies
and universities from 1974 onwards, after Vinton Cerf and Bob Kahn
invented TCP/IP (transmission control protocol / internet protocol).
After the creation of the World Wide Web in 1989-90 by Tim Berners-Lee
at the European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN) in Geneva,
Switzerland, and the distribution of the first browser Mosaic, the
ancestor of Netscape, from November 1993 onwards, the internet really
took off, first in the U.S. and Canada, then worldwide.
Why did the internet spread in North America first? The U.S. and Canada
were leading the way in computer science and communication technology,
and a connection to the internet, mainly through a phone line at the
time, was much cheaper than in most countries. In Europe, avid internet
users needed to navigate the web at night, when phone rates by the
minute were cheaper, to cut their expenses. In 1998, some French,
Italian and German users were so fed up with the high rates that they
launched a movement to boycott the internet one day per week, for
internet providers and phone companies to set up a special monthly rate
for them. This paid off, and providers began to offer monthly "internet
rates".
In the 1990s, the percentage of English decreased from nearly 100% to
80%. People from all over the world began to have access to the
internet, and to post more and more webpages in their own languages.
The first major study about language distribution on the web was run by
Babel, a joint initiative from Alis Technologies, a company
specializing in language translation services, and the Internet
Society. The results were published in June 1997 on a webpage named
"Web Languages Hit Parade". The main languages were English with 82.3%,
German with 4.0%, Japanese with 1.6%, French with 1.5%, Spanish with
1.1%, Swedish with 1.1%, and Italian with 1.0%.
In "Web Embraces Language Translation", an article published in ZDNN
(ZDNetwork News) on 21 July 1998, Martha L. Stone explained: "This
year, the number of new non-English websites is expected to outpace the
growth of new sites in English, as the cyber world truly becomes a
'World Wide Web'."
According to Global Reach, a branch of Euro-Marketing Associates, an
international marketing consultancy, there were 56 million non-English-
speaking users in July 1998, with 22.4% Spanish-speaking users, 12.3%
Japanese-speaking users, 14% German-speaking users, and 10% French-
speaking users. But 80% of all webpages were still in English, whereas
only 6% of the world population was speaking English as a native
language, while 16% was speaking Spanish as a native language. 15% of
Europe's half a billion population spoke English as a first language,
28% didn't speak English at all, and 32% were using the web in English.
Jean-Pierre Cloutier was the editor of "Chroniques de Cybérie", a
weekly French-language online report of internet news. He wrote in
August 1999: "We passed a milestone this summer. Now more than half the
users of the internet live outside the United States. Next year, more
than half of all users will be non English-speaking, compared with only
5% five years ago. Isn't that great? (...) The web is going to grow in
non-English-speaking regions. So we have to take into account the
technical aspects of the medium if we want to reach these 'new' users.
I think it is a pity there are so few translations of important
documents and essays published on the web - from English into other
languages and vice versa. (...) In the same way, the recent spreading
of the internet in new regions raises questions which would be good to
read about. When will Spanish-speaking communication theorists and
those speaking other languages be translated?"
Will the web hold as many languages as the ones spoken on our planet?
This will be quite a challenge, with the 6,700 languages listed in "The
Ethnologue: Languages of the World", an authoritative catalog published
by SIL International (SIL: Summer Institute of Linguistics) and freely
available on the web since the mid-1990s.
The year 2000 was a turning point for a multilingual internet,
regarding its users. Non English-speaking users reached 50% in summer
2000. According to Global Reach, they were 52.5% in summer 2001, 57% in
December 2001, 59.8% in April 2002, 64.4% in September 2003 (including
34.9% non-English-speaking Europeans and 29.4% Asians), and 64.2% in
March 2004 (including 37.9% non-English-speaking Europeans and 33%
Asians).
Despite the so-called English-language hegemony some non-English-
speaking intellectuals were complaining about, without doing much to
promote their own language, the internet was also a good medium for
minority languages, as stated by Caoimhín Ó Donnaíle. Caoimhín has
taught computing at the Institute Sabhal Mór Ostaig, on the Island of
Skye (Scotland). He has also created and maintained the college
website, as the main site worldwide with information on Scottish
Gaelic, with a bilingual (English, Gaelic) list of European minority
languages. He wrote in May 2001: "Students do everything by computer,
use Gaelic spell-checking, a Gaelic online terminology database. There
are more hits on our website. There is more use of sound. Gaelic radio
(both Scottish and Irish) is now available continuously worldwide via
the internet. A major project has been the translation of the Opera
web-browser into Gaelic - the first software of this size available in
Gaelic."