everything
by computer, use Gaelic spell-checking, and 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."

How about the internet and endangered languages? "I would emphasize the
point that as regards the future of endangered languages, the internet
speeds everything up. If people don't care about preserving languages,
the internet and accompanying globalization will greatly speed their
demise. If people do care about preserving them, the internet will be a
tremendous help."

Guy Antoine is the founder of Windows on Haiti, a reference website
about Haitian culture. He wrote in November 1999: "In Windows on Haiti,
the primary language of the site is English, but one will equally find
a center of lively discussion conducted in 'Kreyol'. In addition, one
will find documents related to Haiti in French, in the old colonial
Creole, and I am open to publishing others in Spanish and other
languages. I do not offer any sort of translation, but multilingualism
is alive and well at the site, and I predict that this will
increasingly become the norm throughout the web."

Guy added in June 2001: "Kreyol is the only national language of Haiti,
and one of its two official languages, the other being French. It is
hardly a minority language in the Caribbean context, since it is spoken
by eight to ten million people. (...) I have taken the promotion of
Kreyol as a personal cause, since that language is the strongest of
bonds uniting all Haitians, in spite of a small but disproportionately
influential Haitian elite's disdainful attitude to adopting standards
for the writing of Kreyol and supporting the publication of books and
official communications in that language. For instance, there was
recently a two-week book event in Haiti's Capital and it was promoted
as 'Livres en Folie' ('A mad feast for books'). Some 500 books from
Haitian authors were on display, among which one could find perhaps 20
written in Kreyol. This is within the context of France's major push to
celebrate Francophony among its former colonies. This plays rather well
in Haiti, but directly at the expense of Creolophony. What I have
created in response to those attitudes are two discussi