Revisiting Zimbabwean Indigenous Languages Digitisation Activities: Perspectives from the PLETES Model
摘要
Fourth Industrial Revolution dubbed Globalisation 4.0 is a fusion of technologies that have triggered, nurtured and propelled the urgency of digital transformation in all possible spheres of life. In the linguistic sphere, the waves of digitising indigenous languages are felt across the world in an attempt to enhance their visibility, access and usage in the globalisation ecosystem. This chapter interrogates the state of indigenous languages digitisation in Zimbabwe, the challenges debilitating their inclusion in the bandwagon of digitisation, as well as providing a cocktail of measures which effectively negotiate their engagement in digitising namely; politics, language, economics, technology, education and sociolinguistic factors—factors informed by (Osborn, African Languages in a Digital Age: Challenges and Opportunities for Indigenous Language Computing, HSRC Press, 2010) PLETES model. These six categories and the connections between and among them shape the environment for digitisation. Data collection instruments are observation, document analysis and interviews. The study is further enriched by digital grazing which is accessing available internet repositories in indigenous languages. Eight senior lecturers teaching indigenous languages in various Zimbabwean universities are drawn using cluster and key informant sampling techniques. The chapter suggests that Zimbabwe should embrace language documentation and socio-political and economic developments as processes that are necessary for indigenous languages to gain foothold in the digitisation realm.