More Than 1 Billion Speakers Of Endangered Languages Get Access To Technology

REDMOND, Wash., Feb. 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- It is estimated that every 14 days a language dies. This means that during the Winter Olympic Games, currently happening in Vancouver, B.C., one more of the more than 7,000 languages spoken on Earth — many of them not yet recorded — will disappear, taking with it centuries of knowledge about history, culture and the natural environment. Half of those languages are expected to disappear by the end of this century.

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As UNESCO celebrates International Mother Language Day 2010, Microsoft Corp. is renewing its commitment to help reach more people worldwide with the benefits of technology, while assisting in the attempts to preserve local languages and promoting cultural identities through the Microsoft Local Language Program (LLP). In support of the Microsoft Unlimited Potential mission, the LLP is part of a worldwide initiative dedicated to providing individuals with access to desktop computer software in their native language. Beyond providing fully localized versions of Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office in nearly 40 languages, Microsoft currently supports 95 languages through the LLP. More than 1 billion people speak the languages that are supported by this program.

"Linguistic diversity is under threat. This loss not only erodes individual communities and cultures, but more broadly, the very makeup of our societies," said Irina Bokova, director-general of UNESCO. "Linguistic diversity promotes mutual understanding and dialogue. Access to learning in local languages is of utmost importance for reducing social exclusion. What is encouraging is that a growing number of partners are acknowledging the importance of languages and committing to safeguard them. It is crucial that we bolster these efforts because each language is a treasure."

Today, Microsoft is announcing three solutions that empower local language communities to discover, share and develop IT terminology in their native language. First, they are announcing the current list of languages that will be supported for the new releases of Windows, Office and, for the first time, Visual Studio:

• Fifty-nine new Language Interface Packs (LIPs) for both Windows 7 and Office 2010
• Four new LIP additions for Visual Studio 2010

These new offerings are in addition to the 178 downloads available in 67 different languages for which there are already LIPs and CLIPs for earlier versions of Windows, Office and Visual Studio.