Announcement: The Global Lexicostatistical Database

[Alexei Kassian]

Dear colleagues and friends,

We are happy to inform you that the latest sub-project of the long-term 
"Evolution of Human Languages" program, The Global Lexicostatistical 
Database, is finally open for public access. It can be reached either 
from the main page of our site (http://starling.rinet.ru/main.html) or 
directly at http://starling.rinet.ru/new100/main.htm.

The GLD is a collective undertaking run primarily by researchers at the 
Center for Comparative Linguistics at the Russian State University for 
the Humanities, Moscow, with some external support. The GLD's stated 
mission is to assemble a unified and ordered collection of basic lexical 
data on all/most of the world's languages, which can then be used for 
various purposes of historical and typological linguistics.

Detailed pertinent information on the project, its specifics, current 
state, Web interface features, future plans, etc., can be found in the 
"About the Project" section of the site.

In its current state, the GLD hosts Swadesh wordlists for 67 languages 
and dialects from a representative selection of 29 various small 
language groups across the world. However, the project is a long-term 
undertaking, and we hope to expand this number significantly even before 
the year is out. We also welcome both passive (remarks, criticisms, 
proofreading of data, etc.) and active (wordlist contribution in the GLD 
format) participation from every scholar interested in the project (for 
more details, see the "Collaboration" page at 
http://starling.rinet.ru/new100/collaboration.htm).

We hope that this announcement will prompt you to at least pay a visit 
to the site, and, if possible, spread the news to other colleagues in 
your respective departments who may be interested in some of the same 
aims and goals as shared by the GLD team. We will also be setting up a 
newsgroup/mailing list with timely information on all of the site's 
updates. If you wish to be included on that list, please let us know by 
responding to this E-mail.

Respectfully yours

GLD team supervisors:
George Starostin (Russian State University for the Humanities, Moscow)
Alexei Kassian (Institute of Linguistics + RSUH, Moscow)
Mikhail Zhivlov (Institute of Linguistics + RSUH, Moscow)


P.S. The following Na-Dene lists are currently compiled and available:
Tlingit Northern http://starling.rinet.ru/cgi-bin/response.cgi?root=new100&morpho=0&basename=new100\nde\tli&limit=-1
Eyak http://starling.rinet.ru/cgi-bin/response.cgi?root=new100&morpho=0&basename=new100\nde\eya&limit=-1
Hupa http://starling.rinet.ru/cgi-bin/response.cgi?root=new100&morpho=0&basename=new100\nde\pca&limit=-1
+
Haida Skidegate & Masset http://starling.rinet.ru/cgi-bin/response.cgi?root=new100&morpho=0&basename=new100\hai\hai&limit=-1

Comments, corrections and additions are welcome.