The Centre for Language Technology at the University of the Faroe Islands and the publisher Fróðskapur have signed an agreement allowing texts published by Fróðskapur to be used for the development of Faroese language technology.
The agreement is part of the Faroese MegaWord Corpus project, which aims to gather large amounts of Faroese texts for various purposes. This text corpus can, for example, be used to develop language technology tools for Faroese and for research into the Faroese language.
Fróðskapur has been publishing Faroese scientific works and books for many years. With this agreement, Fróðskapur provides the Centre for Language Technology with material that enriches the text corpus in vocabulary, diction, and topics covered. Such agreements ensure that the development of Faroese language technology is based on wide and diverse materials, with special emphasis on Faroese phrasings, sentences, and varied language use.
Annika Sølvará, director of Fróðskapur, comments on the agreement:
"Since taking over the publishing activities in 2005, which were initiated by the Fróðskaparfelagið from its foundation in the 1950s until 2005, one of our main goals has been to develop Faroese scientific language. In recent years, we have expanded our activities with a digital platform. We are pleased to allow the Centre for Language Technology to use digital editions from Fróðskapur to develop language technology tools that will benefit everyone."
The Centre for Language Technology is working on securing more such agreements with other publishers, so that the Faroese MegaWord Corpus becomes as representative as possible for the benefit of the Faroese language and people.
The material granted by Fróðskapur for the Centre for Language Technology’s use can be found at https://ojs.setur.fo.
