Kapampangans leap to 6th in global tweets site

June 1, 2011

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO — The Kapampangan Indigenous Tweets Page, which is just over a month old, has climbed to sixth place in the worldwide Indigenous Tweets Page, a site featuring 91 languages from around the world, and promotes indigenous languages used in Twitter.
It now has 649 users, which is nearly double the number a month ago. It has surpassed national languages such as Tswana (a national language in Botswana and official language in South Africa, with 4.5 million speakers); Malagasy (a national and official language of Madagascar, with 7.5 million speakers); Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo, the three biggest languages of Nigeria (at least 18.5 million, 18.9 million and 18 million speakers, respectively), which are taught in their respective areas; and Tetun, the national and official language of Timor Leste.
The biggest language in Indigenous Tweets in terms of number of users is Kreyòl Ayisyen or Haitian Creole, which has 9,117 users. Haitian Creole is, along with French, an official language of Haiti, and has about 12 million speakers.
Kapampangan is notable for being the first Philippine language in the Indigenous Tweets site, which is owned by Dr. Kevin Scannell of Saint Louis University in Missouri, USA who was featured on the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) last month for his work in promoting the non-dominant and indigenous languages of the world.
The Indigenous Tweets Page, one of his projects, seeks to promote the use of indigenous languages on social media like Twitter, in which he seeks to build communities of speakers of these languages.
Through his work, Dr. Scannell hopes to promote the use of Kapampangan and other non-dominant languages of the world on social media like Twitter, and on the Internet.
Like other smaller languages, Kapampangan has suffered and been undermined by the bigger, more powerful and dominant official or national languages, which have the support of government, schools, and the media.
The website of the Indigenous Tweets Page is http://indigenoustweets.com, while that of the Kapampangan Indigenous Tweets Page is http://indigenoustweets.com/pam.

Source: http://www.sunstar.com.ph/pampanga/local-news/2011/05/31/kapampangans-leap-6th-global-tweets-site-158637