ELL: 1999 Linguistic Institute: Endangered Languages workshop

Jeff ALLEN jeff at elda.fr
Mon Apr 12 08:23:56 UTC 1999


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	    Date: Mon, 12 Apr 1999 10:23:56 +0200
	    To: endangered-languages-l at carmen.murdoch.edu.au
	    From: Jeff ALLEN <jeff at elda.fr>
	    Subject: ELL: 1999 Linguistic Institute: Endangered Languages
	    workshop
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	    To those interested in Endangered languages:

	    I just saw the following information posted to the LINGUIST list.

	    -----
	      10.526, Calls: Endangered Languages

	          1) From:     "Simon Donnelly" <104simon at muse.wits.ac.za>
		         Subject:  1999 Linguistic Institute: Endangered
		         Languages workshop

			       http://linguistlist.org/issues/10/10-526.html
			       -----

			       Best,

			       Jeff

			       =================================================
			       Jeff ALLEN - Directeur Technique
			       European Language Resources Association (ELRA)
			       &
			       European Language resources Distribution Agency
			       (ELDA)
			       (Agence Europ.enne de Distribution des
			       Ressources Linguistiques)
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			       =========================================================================
			       Date: Tue, 13 Apr 1999 08:43:43 -0400
			       To:
			       <endangered-languages-l at carmen.murdoch.edu.au>
			       Subject: Re[2]: ELL: Transparent Language
			       Systems offer and smaller c
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			       From: MQuinlan at transparent.com
			       Date: Tue, 13 Apr 1999 08:43:43 -0400
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			       Subject: Re[2]: ELL: Transparent Language
			       Systems offer and smaller c
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			       > In this Irish case, what was the cost of the
                                 project? can we get that?
				 >
				 > Matthew McDaniel

				 Mathew,

				 Thus far we have done all of our langauge
				 packages out of our own pocket. Thus
				 far: Spanish, French, German, Latin, Italian,
				 Russian, Swedish, Dutch,
				 Portuguese, Polish, Arabic, Irish.

				 A "rational" business might have done five or
				 so. And our top five languages are
				 perhaps 95% of our sales. We look for excuses
				 to push the boundaries and do more
				 langauges. In the case of Irish, we know we
				 cannot get it on the retail shelf in
				 the U.S., but we think over time it may sell
				 reasonable well in Ireland.



				 We have also created another package using
				 our LanguageNow! technology, called
				 "51 Languages of the World" which has a small
				 amount of content for 51
				 Languages. Again, we thought we might be able
				 to sell it (we were right) and
				 it's a tremendous opportunity to do even more
				 languages.

				 The consumer software business is complex,
				 but the general shapes of the key
				 issues are fairly straightforward, and I
				 think anyone on this list is able to
				 more or less think about this from our point
				 of view and come to see the ame
				 barriers and opportunities we see.

				 On the Irish project, for instance, the
				 potential Irish-market sales gave us a
				 way around the no-demand problem. It may not
				 sell, but I think it will, so we
				 did it. And the Bord na Gaeilge gave us the
				 ability to deal with the langauge
				 issues and get them more or less "right"
				 without setting ourselves up as
				 arbitrators of regional rivalries etc. That's
				 a huge help, because we don't want
				 to get it wrong, but we don't want to get
				 stuck in unending and essentially
				 unresolvable discussions about language
				 either. (Although a lot of people in our
				 company think of those kinds of discussions
				 as recreation, so some of it is
				 fine.)

				 The 51 Languages package is very similar as a
				 business issue. Software stores
				 won't sotck a product unless it "turns,"
				 meaning at least X packages are sold
				 per store per month. Lithuanian is not going
				 to "make the turns" by any store's
				 criteria. But we figured if we had a lot of
				 languages in one box, a store could
				 just stock the one box, and the aggregate of
				 sales of the one box might make the
				 turns. It did. We actually started out with
				 "31 Languages of the World" and it
				 was successful enough that we upgraded it a
				 few weeks ago to "51" and that's
				 just starting to ship into the stores now.

				 So the obvious business thing is to ignore
				 non-commercial languages. We have a
				 huge number of products we are doing
				 involving major languages. Just the
				 Internet projects alone are more than we have
				 the capability to do.

				 But, if possible, it would be nice to make
				 packages for very low-density
				 languages. That's the idea of the ELRP
				 Project. The "Cultural Partner" cannot
				 afford the project, but in this world there
				 must be groups or individuals who
				 care enough about revitalizing the language
				 of a culture that they will put up
				 some money.

				 Philanthropists like to do good things, but
				 to have them part with their money I
				 felt they probably wanted  to know that
				    - their money will be used effectively (We
				 reuse our LanguageNow! engine
				 which is the expensive part resulting in
				 great value)
				    - their money won't be wasted (we can give
				 good assurances the project will
				 succeed based on past projects)
				    - that the first grant won't turn into
				 requests for more and more money (thus
				 the fixed price)
				    - and that the result will be valuable
				 (they can see the completed project in
				 other languages before they start).

				 Michael

				 ------------------------
				 Michael Quinlan
				 President
				 Transparent Language, Inc.
				 22 Proctor Hill Rd.
				 P. O. Box 575
				 Hollis, NH 03049 USA
				                                               "Revolutionary
				 Language Software"
				 603-465-2230 ext. 303
				 603-465-2510 (fax)
				 mquinlan at transparent.com
				 http://www.transparent.com
				 http://www.freetranslation.com
				 ------------------------

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