Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

SADiLaR is the South African Centre for Digital Language Resources. Funded by the Department of Science of Innovation and hosted at the North-West University (NWU), SADiLaR is a research centre which is part of the South African Research Infrastructure Roadmap mandated to develop and curate digital language resources. The centre also provides support, advice and research to enable and advance multilingualism in South Africa

SADiLaR is mandated to make language resources available and accessible through an inhouse-maintained repository. This repository allows the public and other human language technology (HLT) community members to access datasets and technologies developed internally. SADiLaR does the following:

• enables community of practice building for digital humanities and the human language technology community focusing on African languages (RAIL);
• provides training on related digital humanities skills;
• facilitates knowledge production and providing/supporting dissemination platforms;
• provides support, advice, awareness, contract research, and leadership in specific HLT fields.

SADiLaR Is primarily funded to support the development of official South African languages. However, this support also links more broadly to other languages as noted in the South African constitution. The infrastructure that is developed supports adaptation and inclusion of other languages, particularly those which are under-resourced.

SADiLaR is open for broader engagement and co-funded / planned projects with other countries where there is overlap with our mandate.

No, SADiLaR does not offer translation services.

Primarily via specialisation projects run by SADiLaR nodes, SADiLaR funds the creation of language resources and core HLT technologies as well as open-source software and platforms. At the core lies the SADiLaR repository with shared access to these datasets and technologies developed internally as well as by other HLT community members over decades.

No, SADiLaR is hosted by the NWU as a research entity. SADiLaR has a national responsibility to develop and curate digital language resources and to enable the promotion and advancement of multilingualism in South Africa.

SADiLaR is a multi-partner entity, with the NWU functioning as host as well as a hub for the network of linked to six nodes, comprising: 

• University of Pretoria (Department of African Languages);
• University of South Africa (Department of African Languages);
• CSIR (HLT Research Group);
• North-West University (Centre for Text Technology);
• Inter-Institutional Centre for Language Development and Assessment (ICELDA); and
• Child Language Development Node (Department of General Linguistics at Stellenbosch University)

It is foreseen that the number of nodes will increase in future as new functional nodes develop.

SADiLaR is part of the South African Research Infrastructure Roadmap and has a focus on developing and curating digital language resources. A digital language resource can be data or a tool that supports the use of human languages in the digital space. The centre also provides support, advice and research to enable and advance multilingualism in South Africa. SADiLaR is in partnership with PanSALB to jointly advance the development of South Africa’s languages.

PanSALB is the custodian of multilingualism with a mission to promote social cohesion and multilingualism in South Africa by creating conditions for the development and use of all South African official languages, including the Khoi, Nama and San languages, and South African Sign Language. PanSALB promotes respect and recognition for all languages, including previously marginalised languages and all other languages commonly used by South African communities. PanSALB also promotes the development of previously marginalised languages and advocates for rights relating to language and the status of language to initiate, enable, and conduct research in accordance with the PanSALB mandate.

Yes, SADiLaR’s digitisation node in particular can support this function. However, it will be considered on a case-by-case basis. For example, not all text or audio or books are linked to the mandate. SADiLaR can assist with initial advice and in some cases, if there is scope and funding available in our editing digitisation workshop, it can be considered.

SADiLaR does not currently offer internships. However, opportunities exist for supervision, ad hoc involvement with projects such as ESCALATOR, Wikipedia workshops, or via other funding initiatives such as the Presidential Youth Employment initiatives. SADiLaR is open to partnering with organisations on internship programmes.

SADiLaR funds different types of research projects such as the following:

• Funding for specialised projects run by SADiLaR nodes, mostly linked to the digitisation programme of SADiLaR.

• Ad hoc digital humanities and digitisation projects funded by for example open calls or possible pilot projects where there is a strong link to the mandate of SADiLaR.

• SADiLaR is also open to collaboration and co-funding of projects.

Currently in this cycle there are no open calls. The process will be revised if additional funding becomes available. Open calls are announced publicly through SADiLaR’s website and other communication channels.

At this stage, our open calls are closed, but information is available on our website on previous open call guidelines.

SADiLaR currently funds ESCALATOR with the aim to foster the growth of communities of practice in digital humanities and digital social sciences. The longer-term aim is that these communities take ownership and agency in the Escalator project.

DH-IGNITE is a specific regional event aimed at providing awareness about open science, digital humanities, and building local communities of practice in different South African regions. DH-IGNITE is funded and organised by the ESCALATOR team.

SADiLaR does not fund postgraduate studies.

Datasets can be downloaded from the repository in cases where it is an entry that only provides information about a specific dataset. The contact name listed in the entry can be contacted; alternatively, one can contact support@sadilar.org