NEW TRENDS IN LESS-RESOURCED LANGUAGE PROCESSING: CASE OF AMAZIGH LANGUAGE

Abstract

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has dramatically changed lifestyles in much of the world. It forced people to profoundly review their relationships and interactions with digital technologies. Nevertheless, people prefer using these technologies in their favorite languages. Unfortunately, most languages are considered even as low or less-resourced, and they do not have the potential to keep up with the new needs. Therefore, this study explores how this kind of languages, mainly the Amazigh, will behave in the wholly digital environment, and what to expect for new trends. Contrary to last decades, the research gap of low and less-resourced languages is continually reducing. Nonetheless, the literature review exploration unveils the need for innovative research to review their informatization roadmap, while rethinking, in a valuable way, people’s behaviors in this increasingly changing environment. Through this work, we will try first to introduce the technology access challenges, and explain how natural language processing contributes to their overcoming. Then, we will give an overview of existing studies and research related to under and less-resourced languages’ informatization, with an emphasis on the Amazigh language. After, based on these studies and the agile revolution, a new roadmap will be presented.