Running Head: Lab 1 - Product Description Document
Lab 1 – Product Description Document
Team Purple
Old Dominion University
CS 411 - Brunelle
Author: George Calhoun
Last Modified: March 18, 2013
Version: 2
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Lab 1 – ELDERS
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Table of Contents
Table of Contents
1
Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 3
2
Product Description .............................................................................................................................. 6
2.1
Key Product Features and Capabilities ......................................................................................... 6
2.2
Major Components (Hardware/Software) ..................................................................................... 7
3
Identification of Case Study .................................................................................................................. 9
4
Identification of Case Study ................................................................................................................ 10
4.1
Prototype Architecture ................................................................................................................ 10
4.2
Prototype Features and Capabilities ............................................................................................ 12
4.3
Prototype Development Challenges ............................................................................................ 13
5
References ........................................................................................................................................... 14
6
Glossary .............................................................................................................................................. 15
Figures
Figure 1: Major Functional Component Diagram.………………………………………………..7
Figure 2: Prototype Functional Component Diagram..…….…………………………………….11
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Introduction
There are over 6,000 languages in use in the world today; However, within the next century
that number is expected to be halved. This would be a loss of cultures and “important ancestral
knowledge” ("Endangered Languages"). This means that measures need to be taken to preserve
endangered languages, such as the Nottoway.
The Nottoway Native American tribe has always been a small tribe. They had only 400-500
members when they were found in 1650 (Lewis). In 1820, a number of words were recorded
from the Nottoway language under the orders of Thomas Jefferson ("Library of Congress"). This
order came because the tribe was shrinking. Currently, there are around 200 members in the
Nottoway tribe.
With the decrease in size, the Nottoway language has fallen into disuse, putting it in the
category of languages not expected to be in use in a century. This means measures need to be
taken to preserve and restore the language. To a degree, some measures have been taken to
preserve the language. Specifically, the recording of words. Even with this, the language is not
expected to exist past these documents.
This belief stems from multiple problems that reviving the Nottoway language would face.
One of the main problems is that there is a lack of documentation on it. The only document that
exists is the list of words recorded in 1820. This problem stems from a lack of an alphabet. The
Nottoway language was a spoken language, so they had no alphabet, which means no written
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documents. For these reasons, there is a lack of professional interest in assisting with any revival
efforts, which furthers hinders these efforts.
As a result of these problems, there are certain characteristics that must be included in the
solution. First and foremost, the solution will have to be free, since the Nottoway are a small
tribe. In addition it will need to be easy to access for it to be of any use. It will also need to be
educational, and able to help the user learn the language.
Another major characteristic of the solution will be that it needs to be well documented. The
reason for this is because, ideally, the solution will use community involvement. The Nottoway
tribe will be the people who are actually expanding the language, so they will feel the language is
actually theirs, rather than a list of words and rules some other people made up. This should help
motivate the community to use and restore the language themselves.
By keeping records of the changes to the Nottoway language, and by keeping a list of the
original words, the language revival will be considered credible. In addition, this documentation
of the process will make it easier to modify the process to revive another language. If enough
credibility is maintained, it may even be possible to receive professional approval of the process.
This is necessary since the process involves input by nonprofessionals.
The Endangered Languages Documentation Extension and Revival System (ELDERS), is
a product being developed in an attempt to help restore the Nottoway language. ELDERS's
purpose is to store the original documentation, help facilitate the expansion of the language, and
provide help in teaching the language and history of the Nottoway to others. ELDERS will be
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different from other restoration methods because it will make use of the language's community to
help make the language grow.
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Product Description
ELDERS is a product which is to be used to enhance endangered languages. Its main
focuses will be storing, expanding, and teaching the language. It will do this by obtaining input
from the community that will be using the language to both encourage the use and facilitate the
expansion of the language. ELDERS will also provide tools to help teach the language and the
history of the language’s people. The main interface with ELDERS will be a website to help
navigate ELDERS. This is to provide an easier method of access, compared to physical
documents and CDs.
2.1
Key Product Features and Capabilities
ELDERS is a tool built to help endangered languages expand and grow. Our test case will
be the Nottoway Tribe. The Nottoway will be able to take an endangered language and then store
it in ELDERS. Doing this will create a record of the original language in a dictionary format to
preserve the language for future generations of linguists to study. After storing the original
language, a separate dictionary will be made. This dictionary will contain a copy of the original
language initially; however, this new dictionary will be able to be modified by a committee
chosen by the Nottoway. The main point of this is to give the Nottoway a say in what happens to
their language.
In addition to being a tool to store and expand the language, ELDERS is also able to be
used to teach the language to those who are trying to learn it. This section will contain
educational games and history lessons in addition to more standard language lessons, to help
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maximize the learning capability. In addition, ELDERS will provide a forum for users of
ELDERS to communicate with each other. Between these capabilities, the users will be able to
learn the Nottoway language to the best of their ability.
2.2
Major Components (Hardware/Software)
As mentioned previously, the Nottoway are not a large tribe. This means they cannot pay
for expensive software, so ELDERS will be programmed using open source software. This
means there will not be any licenses to purchase and it will be easier to pass onto whoever will
run it. Even then, the members of the tribe will still need a computer or phone with a web
browser to access ELDERS.
Figure 1: Major Functional Component Diagram
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As one of ELDERS's requirements is to help people learn Nottoway, various access
controls will be needed, such as individual accounts. These accounts will need varying levels of
access, as ELDERS will also be used to help expand the language. Those who are allowed to
vote on expanding the language will need more access than those with regular accounts.
The website that the users will be accessing will have a few key points. First, the ability to
search both of the dictionaries will be needed. In addition to searching the dictionaries, council
members will be able suggest and vote on new words for the expanded dictionary. Next, the
ability to view the history of the Nottoway people is necessary, since a language has less of an
impact without the culture behind it. Finally, the website will have a section for users to
communicate with each other, in hopes that it will be used to help practice using the language.
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Identification of Case Study
The Nottoway Language has fallen out of use in the past century, along with other Iroquoian
languages ("Library of Congress"). This sparked the interest of our mentor, Professor Morris,
because he had been studying the Cherokee language over the past eight years. When the
Nottoway were first found in 1650, the tribe was only 400-500 people strong (Lewis). In 1681,
the tribe was forced to relocate after being threatened by hostile tribes. As a result of this, the
majority of the Nottoway Tribe moved to Surry County, Virginia (Parramore 1-5). In 1820,
Thomas Jefferson requested documentation of the Nottoway language ("Library of Congress").
The state of Virginia currently recognizes two Nottoway tribes, the Nottoway Indian
Tribe of Virginia and the Cheroenhaka (Nottoway) Indian Tribe. The Nottoway Indian Tribe of
Virginia is located in Surry County and the Cheroenhaka (Nottoway) Indian Tribe is located in
Southampton County. The Nottoway Indian Tribe of Virginia is the tribe being worked with. It
currently has around 200 members and none of them are able to speak their own language.
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Identification of Case Study
As a full version of ELDERS would not be completed in the amount of time given, a
prototype will be made instead. The prototype of ELDERS will be created with the Nottoway
tribe in mind. This means that ELDERS will not be as easily converted to other language revival
efforts in the future. However, this will allow for the project to obtain the most functionality in
the time that has been given. The main functionality being provided is the documentation and
archiving of the language. Without this functionality, there really is no project. The other
functions being included are the history viewing, user restrictions, and the language expansion.
The prototype will be put through tests to make sure all these functions work.
4.1
Prototype Architecture
The prototype and the product both contain key features for ELDERS, however the time
allowed will keep some functionality of the product from being implemented. The prototype for
ELDERS will be hosted on a virtual machine, making the hardware requirements for the server
more adjustable. This server and virtual machine will be using Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP
to keep costs as low as possible.
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Figure 2: Prototype Functional Component Diagram
The documentation of the language and of its expansion will remain key point for the
prototype, since the documentation is vital to having a prototype. This documentation will be
storing the Nottoway words into separate tables in a database, one for the historical dictionary
and one for the expanded dictionary. Using the documentation, the dictionaries will be
implemented, along with an explanation of how the language is structured. This will useful in
helping teach the language.
The prototype will feature two important algorithms for the project, the voting algorithm
and the searching algorithm. The voting algorithm will be used to add new words to the language
through community input. The access control for the accounts will be in place to make sure that
only the allowed committee members can vote or suggest words. The voting algorithm is also
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very closely related to the searching algorithm. Using the searching algorithm, a user will be able
to find the words from the dictionaries quickly, and the allowed users will be prompted to
suggest words if they search for a word that does not exist in the either of the Nottoway
dictionaries.
4.2
Prototype Features and Capabilities
The prototype will contain a number of features from the product. The website,
dictionaries, and the language expansion capability are the main features that will be in the
ELDERS prototype. The website will be the most accessible section of the prototype. It will
require user registration for the same reasons the full product would need them. It will also be
able to display the history of the Nottoway and run a simple game of hangman for educational
purposes. The two main sections of the website, however, will be the dictionary search and the
forum sections.
The dictionary search will give the user the option of searching either the historic
dictionary or the expanded dictionary. The separation of these two dictionaries has multiple
reasons. The main reason, however, is to leave a record of where the language grew from, if
anyone wanted to study the language from before the revival and expansion attempts of this
group. The forum section is being included to help users communicate with each other, in hopes
that it will be used to help practice using the language.
However, ELDERS main purpose is to expand the Nottoway language. The prototype
will include the following process to achieve this.. First, if an approved user searches for an
English word that is not in the new dictionary, they will be prompted to either vote on an already
suggested translation into Nottoway, or suggest their own translation. Once a suggestion has
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received enough votes, a group of selected members will review the suggested word and vote on
whether or not to add the word to the new dictionary. After a word is added to the new
dictionary, a notification is sent to all users of the addition.
4.3
Prototype Development Challenges
Even with this planning, there are still some expected challenges, such as administrative
responsibility. Who will run the prototype when it is given to the Nottoway? The plan is to
mitigate this problem by teaching a tribe member how to run it. Other expected challenges
include its offline accessibility, testing the prototype, feedback from the Nottoway, and word
association. The accessibility problem will be mitigated by allowing some content to be
exportable. Testing problems will be mitigated by starting the testing early, feedback will be
obtained by frequently contacting the tribe, and the word association will be mitigated though
studying the documentation and using our mentor's conjunction program.
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References
Lewis, J. D. "Carolana Explorers - Edward Bland." Carolana Explorers. N.p., 2007. Web. 13
Nov. 2012.
Parramore, Thomas C. Southampton County, Virginia. Charlottesville: Published for the
Southampton County Historical Society by the UP of Virginia, 1978. Print.
United Nations. United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. Endangered
Languages. 2012. Web. <http://www.unesco.org/new/en/culture/themes/endangeredlanguages/>
"The West." Library of Congress. N.p.. Web. 18 Feb 2013.
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Glossary
ELDERS: Endangered Languages Documentation Extension and Revival System
LAMP: Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP
Graphical User Interface (GUI): How the end user will interact with the application.
Linux: A free, widely-available open-source operating system.
MySQL: the worlds most used RDBMS.
Structured Query Language (SQL): Language used to make queries to a database server.
Tables: Logical collections of data stored on a database server.
RDBMS: Relational Database Management System.
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