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Cultural Survival Heritage of Bambara Language by Using NLP

2024; Springer Nature; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1007/978-981-97-1987-7_14

1860-9503

Ousmane Daou, S. Mohanty,

Language, Linguistics, Cultural Analysis

Bambara, also known as Bamanankan, is a West African language primarily spoken in Mali by the Bambara ethnic group. It is the most widely spoken language in Mali, with approximately 15 million native speakers. Bambara serves as a lingua franca in the country, facilitating communication between different ethnic groups. Bambara has a rich oral tradition, strongly influencing Malian literature and music. Bambara is a member of the Mande language family and is characterized by its tonal system and complex grammatical structure. It plays a significant role in Mali's cultural heritage and societal cohesion. Indigenous languages, such as Bambara, have long faced the threat of cessation due to diverse socio-cultural factors. Nevertheless, the emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) brings new hope for the preservation and revitalization of these endangered languages. This paper explores the transformative role of AI in the context of Indigenous languages, concentrating on Bambara as a case study. It discusses how AI technologies enable efficient language documentation, machine translation, and language learning tools specifically tailored for Bambara. By harnessing AI's capabilities, languages like Bambara can be preserved, celebrated, and transmitted to future generations, guaranteeing their survival and cultural heritage for years to come.