IsiXhosa in the Digital Age: Navigating Language Preservation and Innovation: A Systematic Scoping Review

Preserving and innovating indigenous languages is crucial for maintaining cultural heritage and facilitating community development in this digital age. Understanding the digital landscape of IsiXhosa language digitization efforts, however, remains underexplored. This systematic scoping review aims to map the existing literature on digitalization efforts for IsiXhosa language preservation and innovation. A scoping review was conducted, guided by PRISMA-ScR, on relevant literature pertaining to isiXhosa digitization, preservation, and innovations. Two databases were searched (Scopus and Web of Science), and additional articles were identified through a grey literature search (Google Scholar) to identify other relevant literature. Data were extracted in terms of title, year, country, language, digitization efforts, and summary of main findings and results related to isiXhosa language preservation and innovation. A total of 85 unique articles were included from 479 records, leading to the identification of five themes under the digitization efforts. Most studies were conducted in South Africa, accounting for about 78% of the total articles. As such, significant efforts were identified in grammar and morphology, speech recognition, and machine translation. There are unresolved gaps and challenges (such as large and high-quality datasets) that must be addressed. Nevertheless, the efforts demonstrate an increased acceptance of the significance of protecting and improving indigenous African languages, such as isiXhosa, in this era of digital technology.