Indigenous Tweets is a website and accompanying blog by Kevin Scannell, a professor of Computer Science at Saint Louis University. To explain the project, I quote from the Indigenous Tweets blog:
Project Background
Speakers of indigenous and minority languages around the world are struggling to keep their languages and cultures alive. More and more language groups are turning to the web as a tool for language revitalization, and as a result there are now thousands of people blogging and using social media sites like Facebook and Twitter in their native language. These sites have allowed sometimes-scattered communities to connect and use their languages online in a natural way. Social media have also been important in engaging young people, who are the most important demographic in language revitalization efforts. Together we’re breaking down the idea that only global languages like English and French have a place online!
How to use IndigenousTweets.com
The primary aim of IndigenousTweets.com is to help build online language communities through Twitter. We hope that the site makes it easier for speakers of indigenous and minority languages to find each other in the vast sea of English, French, Spanish, and other global languages that dominate Twitter.
The main page lists all of our supported languages (35 as of the launch). Find your language in the table, click on the row, and you will be directed to a new page that lists (up to) the top 500 Twitter users in your language. For instance, here’s the page for Ojibwe/Anishinaabemowin. This is meant to be a kind of “menu” of people who tweet in your language whom you might want to follow on Twitter. If you click on someone in the table, it will open a new window or tab with their Twitter profile, so you can see some of their recent tweets and decide if you want to follow them or not. The tables are sortable by any of the columns; this is useful for example if you (like me) only want to follow people who tweet primarily in your language – just sort by the % column. Or you might be interested in the most popular tweeters in your language – in that case, sort by the “Followers” column.
Listen to a BBC podcast featuring Indigenous Tweet’s Kevin Scannell: [Listen]
Of course, you can follow Indigenous Tweets on Twitter: @IndigenousTweet
Current list of languages (as of 4/13/11 – list is growing quickly):
Afaan Oromoo
Ainu Itak
Akan
Anishinaabemowin
Asturianu
Avañe’ẽ
Aymar
Bamanankan
Bislama
Brezhoneg
Chamoru
Chicheŵa
chiShona
Cibemba
Corsu
Cymraeg
Dholuo
Diidxazá
Diné bizaad
Emiliàn e Rumagnòl
Euskara
Eʋegbe
Faka-Tonga
Frysk
Gaeilge
Gaelg
Gagana Sāmoa
Gamilaraay
Gàidhlig
Gĩkũyũ
Hausa
Igbo
Ikinyarwanda
Kalaallisut
Kapampangan
Kaqchikel
Kernewek
Kreyòl Ayisyen
Kɨlaangi
Lakȟótiyapi
Lingála
Malagasy
Mapudungun
Màaya T’àan
Míkmaq
Māori
Nawat
Nāhuatl
Occitan
Oluganda
P’urhépecha
Pulaar
Qatzijob’al
Reo Tahiti
Romani ćhib
Rumantsch
Runa Simi
Sardu
Secwepemctsín
Setswana
Sámegiella
Taqbaylit
Tekoi er a Belau
Tetun
Tok Pisin
vakaViti
Walon
Wolof
Yorùbá
ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi
ייִדיש
नेपाल भाषा
ᏣᎳᎩ
ᐃᓄᒃᑎᑐᑦ
(and two whose character sets didn’t copy so well)
