Running Head: Lab 1 - Product Description Document 1

Lab 1 – Product Description Document

Team Purple

Old Dominion University

CS 411 - Brunelle

Author: George Calhoun

Last Modified: March 18, 2013

Version: 2

Lab 1 – ELDERS 2

Table of Contents

Table of Contents1 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

FiguresFigure 1: Major Functional Component Diagram.………………………………………………..7

Figure 2: Prototype Functional Component Diagram..…….…………………………………….11

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1 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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2 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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3 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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4 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

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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

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

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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

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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5 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/endangered-languages/>

"The West." Library of Congress. N.p.. Web. 18 Feb 2013.

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6 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.