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<blockquote type="cite" cite>I'm wondering (re the
"houseofthesmalllanguages.org" posting) in what way<br>
information about endangered languages languages is held like
military<br>
secrets.</blockquote>
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<div><font face="Trebuchet MS" size="+1" color="#000000">I'm sure
the comment must not have been intended this way, but it seems to make
light of some important issues around the main concern of what sorts
of information are proprietary. This, as well as who should have
access to proprietary information and under what circumstances (etc.)
are touchy now in part because of the history of exploitation
experienced by native peoples (or substitute your favourite term)
under colonization in many parts of the world. That would be,
colonization first by, say, Europeans, and then again (in the eyes of
many) by other outsiders like, say, scholars. We've often been
perceived as gathering information from native communities, then using
it to further academic careers, with no return of anything of
practical use to the source community. Small groups with a
history like this may naturally want to retain some control over what
happens to information about them that they feel is privileged.
In the case of major world languages like English or Italian, what we
do with data we gather and analyse isn't particularly sensitive.
There are no huge issues around who owns the data - realistically,
who would we ask? (...if it's just a matter of what we do with, say,
verb paradigms and the like.) But, in the case of smaller
communities whose language may now be endangered precisely because of
a history of contact with outsiders, (and who may feel they've been
ill served by scholars in the past) there often is an easily
identifiable community that can be said to "own" the language.
And often, these communities wish to restrict access, in different
degrees, to information about them and their language. (As an
example that isn't hard to understand, it may not be appropriate to
distribute transcripts of events with deep ritual significance to
those participating in them. If language is sacred, then outsiders may
have no right to access; or, dissecting it outside the context for
which it was intended might be considered a major violation. But even
for more mundane language, for very small groups, how it's
used can be sensitive.) As for information that's freely
available on some sites - how many speakers of language X there are
may not be sensitive, but in the case of language data, just
because it's there doesn't necessarily mean its presence there is
ethical. A lot of archive designers now understand these
issues and are being careful about the issue of access (check out the
AILLA site at the University of Texas). Well, this has begun to
sound a bit preachy, and it's possible that I joined the discussion
late, and have misunderstood points that have been made. But,
"military secrets" analogy struck me as problematic; my
point in response is that it isn't a question of treating data like
military secrets - it's fundamentally about rights, and respect,
and accommodating a range of perspectives beyond the usual privileged
ones.</font></div>
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color="#000000"><br></font></div>
<div><font face="Trebuchet MS" size="+1" color="#000000">Megan
Crowhurst</font></div>
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<blockquote type="cite" cite> Ethnologue, for example, isn't
exactly subject to the thirty year<br>
rule, and numerous sites exist for the languages of the Americas
(links<br>
off www.ssila.org), Australia (www.dnathan.com), there's one for
minor<br>
languages of Russia whose address I can't remember, one for Turkic,
Juno<br>
Mahi's great sub-saharan African site for info on Khoi-San languages
...<br>
Titus, for dead and minor IE and Caucasian languages.<br>
<br>
Claire<br>
<br>
-----------------------------</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Claire Bowern</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Department of Linguistics</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Harvard University</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>305 Boylston Hall</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Cambridge, MA, 02138</blockquote>
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>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<span
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Megan J. Crowhurst, Ph.D.<br>
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Dr. Crowhurst<br>
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1 University Station B5100<br>
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USA<br>
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Phone: 512-471-1701<br>
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