A kha, Dara-ang, Karen, Khamu, M labri and Urak Lawoi’ language minorities’ subjective perception of their languages and the outlook for development of digital tools (2024)

Abstract: Multilingualism is deeply rooted in the sociopolitical history of Thailand. Some minority language communities entered the Thai territory a few decades ago, while the families of some other minority speakers have been living in Thailand since at least several generations. The authors of this article address the question how Akha, Dara-ang, Karen, Khamu, Mlabri and Urak Lawoi’ language speakers perceive the current situation of their language and whether they see the need for the development of digital tools for documentation, revitalization and daily use of their languages. The objective is complemented by a discussion on the feasibility of development of such tools for some of the above mentioned languages and the motivation of their speakers to participate in this process. Furthermore, this article highlights the challenges associated with developing digital tools for these low-resource languages and outlines the standards researchers must adhere to in conceptualizing the development of such tools, collecting data, and engaging with the language communities throughout the collaborative process.

## introduction the region of southeast asia encompasses biologically and linguistically distinct countries. it is characterized by a high level of biodiversity @xcite and is renowned for its rich linguistic landscape @xcite @xcite . however, biodiversity and multilingualism in this region are becoming endangered due to globalization, industrialization and intensive tourism. available data suggest that the simultaneous disappearance of linguistic and biological diversity is correlated @xcite . this article primarily focuses on six minority language communities in thailand, located in the provinces of chiang mai, chiang rai, nan and krabi. it presents preliminary findings from interviews with representatives of the akha, dara-ang, karen, khamu, mlabri and urak lawoi' communities, and discusses efforts to collect audio data for developing voice technology for some of these languages. the aim of this article is to explore concrete steps required to foster more effective collaboration between computer scientists, documentary linguists, and language communities in thailand. it also proposes technologies for tasks in low-resource settings, particularly for the discussed endangered languages from four selected thai provinces. furthermore, it is hoped that the presented findings will initiate a discussion on how to approach the development of digital tools for endangered and low-resource languages. data collection has been conducted following the "data statements" practice developed by @xcite . the aim of this practice is to create digital tools that avoid the risk of oversimplyfing the situation of any given speech communities and prevent their exclusion, underrepresentation and misrepresentation. the preliminary data presented here was collected in november and december 2023 across four provinces of thailand: chiang mai, chiang rai, nan and krabi. this data includes approximately 18 hours of recordings and notes involving the participation of 16 adults (3 women and 13 men) aged between 30-94 years at the time of the recordings. the represented speakers' variety includes everyday, contemporary, spoken language varieties of akha, dara-ang, karen, khamu, mlabri and urak lawoi' from the chiang mai, chiang rai, nan and krabi provinces in thailand. interviews have been carried out with the support of three translators communicating with the interviewees in northern, southern and standard thai. all interviewees are at least bilingual. apart from their native languages, they speak northern thai in their everyday communication (9 persons), southern thai (5 persons) and standard thai (14 persons). speaker demographic: all 16 interviewed minority language speakers are adults aged between 30 and 94 years. there has been a noticeable tendency for men to be more willing to participate in the interviews than women, with 13 men and 3 women participating. this might result from the fact, that among the interviewed communities men tend to interact more with other social groups and villages. the speakers represent various professions: one community activist, one community activist/social entrepreneur, one healer, one farmer/pastor, five farmers, two farmers/hunter-gatherers, one fisherman/teacher, three fishermen, and one tourism sector employee. all interviewees with exception of one person have attended at least primary school and two conversation partners hold university degrees. three interviewees migrated to thailand several decades ago from myanmar and laos, while 13 have lived in their province, or a neighbouring province in one case, their entire lives. the interviewees represent diverse religious backgrounds: seven are buddhist, four follow local beliefs, four are christian and not known (1 person). furthermore, all interviewees were asked the following two questions: [1] "how would you describe your identity? are you akha /dara-ang /karen /khamu /mlabri /urak lawoi' and/or thai?" [2] "alternatively, are you thai and akha /dara-ang /karen /khamu /mlabri /urak lawoi'?" without exception, all interviewees answered that they feel first akha /dara-ang /karen /khamu /mlabri /urak lawoi', depending on their community of origin. almost all interviewees have thai citizenship, except for one person who has been actively applying for it for several years and continues to strive for full citizenship rights in thailand. three interviewees went through distressing refuge experiences in their early adolescence and adulthood periods. speech situation: twelve interviews took place in the village settings of the interviewees, two in a cafeteria, one at a school, and one in a church community area. the interviewees were informed about the interview topics beforehand and communicated with the interviewers in northern thai and standard thai (10 persons), southern thai and standard thai (4 persons) and english (two persons). the structured interview comprised four sections: general ques- all interviewed representatives of language communities recognize the need to preserve their language for future generations. they acknowledged the primary role of oral language transmission within the family and among members of the same village. furthermore, the akha, dara-ang, karen and urak lawoi' communities each possess their own written standard, which has been developed by these communities with the support of researchers and/or missionaries. notably, the akha writing system encompasses akha varieties spoken not only in thailand, but also in neighbouring countries. the written forms of dara-ang and urak lawoi' languages are based on the thai script. however, it should be noted that the transmission of the written standard in these communities has not been consistent over the past decades, and not all community members can read it. in fact, the aforementioned language communities primarily depend on oral transmission, which 2 the interviewers were advised by the dara-ang community to ask the christian pastor about the need and feasibility of the development of digital tools, as he would have the knowledge about the authors rights of the translation and recording of the bible. may also influence the potential development of digital tools for these languages in the future. among the interviewed representatives of language minorities, the akha group appears to have advanced its own language policy to the most successful stage, yet the motivation to preserve the language remains strong across all the encountered communities. notably, the motivation to preserve the dara-ang language among the christian community in the chiang mai province seems to have been inspired by the desire to practice their religion in their first language. when asked about any potential need for digital tools to preserve their community languages, interviewees from the akha, dara-ang, karen, mlabri and urak lawoi' communities expressed interest. akha interviewees were primarily interested in developing digital tools for educational purposes, while the karen speakers would like to use the digital tools to preserve the indigenous knowledge of the karen community pertaining to the names and images of healing plants and their application. mlabri and urak lawoi' interviewees both shared the views that it would be beneficial to use their native languages when using mobile phones and one of the urak lawoi' interviewees positively approached the idea of developing digital educational materials in urak lawoi' language. ## ethical statement the design of the project and its implementation follow the "the trust code -a global code of conduct for equitable research partnerships" https://www.globalcodeofconduct.org . the participants of the research were both informed about the consent procedures and the goal of the research in thai language (as all of them are fluent thai speakers). question concerning consents have been asked without recording. if the participants allowed the recording of the interview (which all of them did), they responded to the consent questions once again while being audio-recorded. after the interviews the participants received audiorecordings and photos from the meetings from the interviewers. ## acknowledgements joanna dolińska would like to acknowledge the seminal role of the university of warsaw new ideas 3a grant "interdependence of multilingualism and biodiversity in the chiang mai and satun provinces in thailand" (2023-2024), as well as the scholarship for short-term visiting scholars at the mahidol university for the conceptualization and implementation of this research project together with sumittra suraratdecha. furthermore, joanna dolińska would like to acknowledge the importance of short-term scientific action (stsm) within the lithme (languange in the machine-human area) cost action at the voice technology program, campus fryslân, university of groningen, which inspired the cooperation with shekhar nayak on the development of voice technology tools for endangered languages, as well as the conceptualization of this article and future de-velopment of voice technologies for the described endangered languages.