All the languages of the world were unwritten in the early stages of their existence. As civilizations developed, various types of writing (alphabetic, syllabic, hieroglyphic) covered most of the planet. The spoken world languages (English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Russian, etc.), at least a well-standardized literary language, have spread widely around the world due to the existence of a writing system.
At the same time, many languages remain unwritten or poorly written, especially those of small indigenous peoples who have preserved their traditional way of life. Sometimes an unwritten language can be called a dialect with a controversial status.
Almost half of the 7,000 languages known in the world and 4 out of 10 languages are spoken directly without being written down. These unwritten languages cannot be translated, especially in translation systems of digital algorithms. Meta, working on the “Universal Speech Translator,” announced that it is working on two hundred languages that are difficult to translate such as Asturian, Luganda and Urdu, within the “No Language Left Behind (NLLB)” project in July 2022. The meta-researchers studied the unwritten Hokkien language, one of Taiwan's official languages and spoken by minorities in Asia.
Meta AI trying to create algorithms for translating unwritten languages normally processes machine translations using both written and spoken examples of the language.
Why is it necessary to focus on unwritten languages?
Because languages such as English and Spanish can be translated with high accuracy by many algorithms. However, according to the data shared by Meta, the languages used by 20 percent of the world's population are not supported by these systems.
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