IT Applications for the Tuvan Language: Regional Practices and Future Plans

In the era of digitalization and globalization, the likelihood of the disappearance of small languages, including the Tuvan language is very high. One of the reliable and promising solutions for preserving a language is its inclusion in the digital space as a language of accumulation, processing and transmission of information, a language of communication on the Internet. Currently, a number of tasks aimed at preserving and popularizing the Tuvan language are being car­ried out within the framework of the state program to support the development of the Tuvan language in the Republic of Tuva. Various government agencies of the Republic of Tuva and interested IT specialists are working on the digitalization of the Tuvan language. Tuvan State University (TuvSU) also makes a significant contribution to the development and popularization of the Tuvan language. Teachers of the Department of Informatics of TuvSU together with scientists from the Faculty of Philology and the "Turkology" scientific and educational centerwork in the following areas: development of software products for teaching the Tuvan language, creation of software tools for text processing in the Tuvan language, creation of linguistic information resources. Along with TuvSU teachers, students from the faculties of physics, mathematics and philology also take part in this research work. The topics of students' coursework and final qualification papers are related to IT developments. This article presents the experience of research and development of teachers of the Department of Computer Science in the field of preservation, study and development of the Tuvan language using information and communication technologies in these three areas. In the first direction, electronic textbooks, interactive simulators, and mobile applications for teaching the Tuvan language are being developed. The second direction is focused on the creation of software products for processing texts in the Tuvan language — a morphological analyzer of the Tuvan language, program for checking Tuvan texts for plagiarism. The last direction is related to the creation of electronic dictionaries and translators for the Tuvan language, which can be used in all spheres of life.