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The DLDP Survey on Digital Use and Usability of EU Regional and Minority Languages

The digital development of regional and minority languages requires careful planning to be effective and should be preceded by the identification of the current and actual extent to which those languages are used digitally, the type and frequency of their digital use, the opportunity for their use, and the main obstacles currently preventing it. This paper reports about the design, the results and the key findings of an exploratory survey launched by the Digital Language Diversity Project about the digital use and usability of regional and minority languages on digital media and devices. The aim of the survey - the first of this kind - was to investigate the real usage, needs and expectations of European minority language speakers regarding digital opportunities, with a strong focus on electronic communication. The survey is restricted to four languages (Basque, Breton, Karelian and Sardinian) at different stages of digital development, which offers a starting point to develop strategies for assessing digital vitality of these languages and overcoming specific difficulties such as, for instance, the lack of official data.