Elhuyar Fundazioa - Language Services 

Hizking 21 project 

Details of the Project

Language info-engineering was designated by the Department for Industry, Trade and Tourism of the Basque Autonomous Community Government as a line of research of strategic interest, and was assisted by the BAC Government through the Etortek programme. Five partners formed a consortium for Hizking21:

• Elhuyar Foundation
• IXA and Aholab groups of the UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country
• Vicomtech association
• Robotiker Foundation
• The company Eleka S.L., created by IXA and Elhuyar, also lent its assistance in this project.

Main Aims

The main aim was to go further into the development of linguistic capability systems, into the development of systems that will be incorporated into different devices. The linguistic capability for Basque has been worked on with a specific aim in mind: to offer different players (scientific and technological players, entrepreneurial and social players) in the Basque Autonomous Community knowledge, language tools and innovative person-machine interfaces, by including an option to adapt these technologies to their needs.

The principal aim of this project has been to assist in the setting up of a “Basque Network for Excellence” made up of different groups of experts from the Basque Country involved in language engineering technologies, so that advanced technologies for developing the information society can be developed. That will provide the infrastructure made up of specialists and resources and which are needed to develop language engineering technologies in the Basque Autonomous Community.

Recent years have seen enormous changes in information and communication technologies in the information society. These technologies are important not only in determining the technological, entrepreneurial and economic field (by creating the so-called “new economy”), but also in determining the work and everyday language of a large percentage of the population.

These technologies also affect the local administrations, because they speed up relations with the inhabitants, they invigorate an exchange of high-interest content, and they improve the offer of public services in the social, health or infrastructure areas.

Lines of Research Specified:

• Most suitable language medium. As language is a natural means of communication between people, it is the most effective resource people have to communicate with each other. So, it is absolutely essential in all realms of life. Nevertheless, language use today comes up against certain limits, because languages are used exclusively for direct communication between people, and not in the interaction of different systems, services or applications. Among people, too, their use is restricted to the groups that use the same language, and this is why language can become an obstacle in communication. Moreover, the globalisation that goes hand in hand with the information society can pose a threat for languages that are not widespread, as in the case of Basque, for example.
• To encourage daily use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and language technologies. So that ICTs can bring about a genuine improvement in the quality of life of the inhabitants, it is essential to promote the use of them, both on a domestic and personal level.
• Advanced management of multimedia language content. Language Engineering and Linguistic Engineering were created to respond to the needs of increasingly complex content, and to facilitate natural relationships with respect to systems by breaking down the barriers that can be put up by different languages. So, each person will be able to use his or her language in all situations by transforming it into an absolutely necessary tool of the Information Society.
• To adapt and integrate language technologies to all the remaining ICTs. Linguistic engineering is about using knowledge of languages in the development of computing systems in all spheres of languages in order to know, understand, interpret and create all forms of human languages.

Duration of the Project

• 01/01/2002 - 30/06/2005

More information

• Hizking21 hizkuntz ingeniaritza XXI. mendearen atean