A new project aims to use virtual reality to preserve the Cornish language.
Revive, a £2.5m project led by Anglia Ruskin University in the U.K., will focus on two endangered European languages: Griko, which is spoken in parts of Italy, and Kernewek.
The project will use a combination of extended reality technologies and digital archives to bring the language to life through testimonies from local people, photographs, film, and audio.
Fabrizio Galeazzi, a senior research fellow at the university’s StoryLab Research Institute, said languages were “part of our shared heritage,” but that many were disappearing at “an alarming rate.” (The United Nations estimates two Indigenous languages are dying every month.)
“Cornish is what we call an ‘awakening language,’ and is enjoying a resurgence after becoming officially extinct in the 18th Century,” Galeazzi said. He believes the project’s mission will ensure that “every young person in Cornwall is aware of their county’s incredible linguistic heritage.”
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BBC News (1/20/25) by Jack Silver