@inproceedings{bird-2026-towards,
title = "Towards a general theory of linguistic diversity",
author = "Bird, Steven",
editor = "Ojha, Atul Kr. and
Sakti, Sakriani and
Soria, Claudia and
Melero, Maite and
McCrae, John P. and
Lignos, Constantine and
Liu, Chao-Hong and
Claramunt, German Rigau and
Rehm, Georg",
booktitle = "Proceedings of the {SIGUL} 2026 Joint Workshop with {ELE}, {EURALI}, and {DCLRL}: Towards Inclusivity and Equality: Language Resources and Technologies for Under-Resourced and Endangered Languages",
month = may,
year = "2026",
address = "Palma, Mallorca, Spain",
publisher = "ELRA Language Resources Association (ELRA)",
url = "https://aclanthology.org/2026.sigul-1.18/",
doi = "10.63317/27xpbzgmsuxp",
pages = "169--182",
abstract = "The world{'}s languages are commonly categorised in terms of available language technologies such as speech recognition and machine translation. On this view, ``under-resourced languages'' suffer from language barriers which cut people off from markets, healthcare, human rights, and AI. The ``solution'' is more funding for language technologies, opening the way to a utopia of digital language equality and AI-enabled mobility. Yet the world{'}s linguistic diversity is not a set of language objects to be pushed up a cline from emerging to thriving. It consists of polyglossic communities who have long used vernaculars for local functions and dominant languages for external functions. I present a new theory of linguistic diversity which places the world of vernaculars alongside the world of institutional languages, and articulates diverse language technology agendas that lie within and between these worlds."
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<abstract>The world’s languages are commonly categorised in terms of available language technologies such as speech recognition and machine translation. On this view, “under-resourced languages” suffer from language barriers which cut people off from markets, healthcare, human rights, and AI. The “solution” is more funding for language technologies, opening the way to a utopia of digital language equality and AI-enabled mobility. Yet the world’s linguistic diversity is not a set of language objects to be pushed up a cline from emerging to thriving. It consists of polyglossic communities who have long used vernaculars for local functions and dominant languages for external functions. I present a new theory of linguistic diversity which places the world of vernaculars alongside the world of institutional languages, and articulates diverse language technology agendas that lie within and between these worlds.</abstract>
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%0 Conference Proceedings
%T Towards a general theory of linguistic diversity
%A Bird, Steven
%Y Ojha, Atul Kr.
%Y Sakti, Sakriani
%Y Soria, Claudia
%Y Melero, Maite
%Y McCrae, John P.
%Y Lignos, Constantine
%Y Liu, Chao-Hong
%Y Claramunt, German Rigau
%Y Rehm, Georg
%S Proceedings of the SIGUL 2026 Joint Workshop with ELE, EURALI, and DCLRL: Towards Inclusivity and Equality: Language Resources and Technologies for Under-Resourced and Endangered Languages
%D 2026
%8 May
%I ELRA Language Resources Association (ELRA)
%C Palma, Mallorca, Spain
%F bird-2026-towards
%X The world’s languages are commonly categorised in terms of available language technologies such as speech recognition and machine translation. On this view, “under-resourced languages” suffer from language barriers which cut people off from markets, healthcare, human rights, and AI. The “solution” is more funding for language technologies, opening the way to a utopia of digital language equality and AI-enabled mobility. Yet the world’s linguistic diversity is not a set of language objects to be pushed up a cline from emerging to thriving. It consists of polyglossic communities who have long used vernaculars for local functions and dominant languages for external functions. I present a new theory of linguistic diversity which places the world of vernaculars alongside the world of institutional languages, and articulates diverse language technology agendas that lie within and between these worlds.
%R 10.63317/27xpbzgmsuxp
%U https://aclanthology.org/2026.sigul-1.18/
%U https://doi.org/10.63317/27xpbzgmsuxp
%P 169-182
Markdown (Informal)
[Towards a general theory of linguistic diversity](https://aclanthology.org/2026.sigul-1.18/) (Bird, SIGUL-EURALI-DCLRL 2026)
ACL
- Steven Bird. 2026. Towards a general theory of linguistic diversity. In Proceedings of the SIGUL 2026 Joint Workshop with ELE, EURALI, and DCLRL: Towards Inclusivity and Equality: Language Resources and Technologies for Under-Resourced and Endangered Languages, pages 169–182, Palma, Mallorca, Spain. ELRA Language Resources Association (ELRA).