Word Domination

Don Osborn dzo at bisharat.net
Sat Oct 18 10:48:12 UTC 2008


Just a small clarification concerning a reference in the article. ASCII
actually uses 7 bits and has 128 characters (of which 94 are printable, one
is the space, and 33 are "control characters"). 8-bit (1 byte) encodings
include 256 characters of which the added 128 have been used variously for
accented characters and other alphabets. 

 

Unicode, which is not mentioned in the article, can use up to 4 bytes (but
with the utf-8 implementation may use only 1 byte for a lot of needs). It
covers all writing systems in a single coding system. 

 

In practice the additional "computing resources" necessary to use Unicode
are not that significant, esp. related to computing power today (photos,
videos, etc. use a lot more resources than any text). In fact, Unicode is
the accepted industry standard now, and the number of webpages with text in
Unicode (mainly utf-8) has vastly increased in recent years.

 

In principle, Unicode levels the field for all writing systems, which would
have interesting implications for the evolution of information technology
and the relative roles of languages using different scripts in computing and
on the internet.

 

Don

 

 

 

From: owner-lgpolicy-list at ccat.sas.upenn.edu
[mailto:owner-lgpolicy-list at ccat.sas.upenn.edu] On Behalf Of Harold
Schiffman
Sent: Friday, October 17, 2008 3:44 PM
To: lp
Subject: Word Domination

 


Word Domination


October 17th, 2008 . by David Bradley 


If you are reading the original English version, albeit with a
quasi-transatlantic twang, then you probably think of English as being the
lingua franca of global communications. After all, in almost every sphere of
human endeavor, the world over, it seems that English is the
<http://www.ghacks.net/2008/10/16/convert-between-alphabets-on-the-fly/>
predominant language. However, if you are reading a translated version of
this page in Portuguese or Spanish, Russian or Chinese, you probably don't
think of English as being the default setting for information systems at
all.

Indeed, with increasing globalization and the rapid re-emergence of Asian
regions from Beijing to Bangalore as major players, native English speakers
wherever they are now recognizing that there are many more people "out
there" who have this linguistic perspective. There are some "subtle and not
so subtle implications" for whichever language is the dominant language,
whether that is, for instance, English or Chinese. So say Carol Saunders and
Madelyn Flammia of the University of Central Florida, writing in a
forthcoming issue of the research journal IJEB. Those with their hands at
the controls of information systems, they say, need to understand the
implications that face them as citizens of an increasingly global world.

As such, the researchers address the issues facing those involved in
<http://www.sciencetext.com/web-site-translated.html> managing translation
and offer guidelines about website design that are
<http://www.netmechanic.com/news/vol6/design_no15.htm> sensitive to cultures
that do not use English as their primary or official language. The choice of
language has implications as far reaching as the digital divide but also as
localized menu and icon layout in website design. As the advertising slogans
of one bank (cough) suggests: "Global Needs to Think Local".

 
<http://www.sciencetext.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/internet-languages.jp
g> 

Over a decade ago, the importance of learning Japanese was stressed.
However, knowing Japanese does not seem as critical to the manager of today.
Rather, as the world is becoming increasingly aware of China as an
(re)awakening giant, the advantages of speaking Chinese seem manifold. That
is why managers around the globe are starting to learn Chinese, challenging
English in some territories for educational resources and policy attention.

Language certainly has implications for the power struggle at the regional,
national and international level. "Within a given language, certain dialects
or accents are privileged over others," explains the Florida team. This
association with privilege is not an intrinsic property of the language or
dialect but merely an artifact of the way those in authority and power at a
particular time and place speak. C'est la vie, one might say.

More seriously, of course, the incredibly widespread use of English can
subtly promote certain cultural values while essentially suppressing others.
The same will no doubt be said of any successor language as one inevitably
emerges when the current status quo becomes ancient history.

 ASCII <http://www.sciencetext.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/ascii.jpg> The
English language is nevertheless still in a privileged position, not least
because of the technology underpinning the internet, the researchers say.
English can be represented by the 128-bit American Standard Code for
Information Interchange (ASCII). ASCII is ubiquitous and many other standard
codes are built around ASCII. But newer codes that accommodate characters in
other languages require up to 256 bits, which means more computing resources
are needed to get your message across in languages that don't use a Roman
script, such as Arabic or Chinese.

More importantly, critical internet systems such as the Domain Name Systems
(DNS), Usenet news and internet Relay chat work only with a subset of ASCII.
The rest of the world is marginalized by the geekery of the net. Although
China came into conflict with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names
and Numbers (ICANN), a private non-profit organization, when it created
three top-level domains (TLDs based on Chinese characters: .gongsi (.com),
.wangluo (.net), and .zhongguo (China). The 22-nation Arab League has begun
a similar system using Arabic suffixes. But the English-speaking world, more
specifically the US, has veto on all domain names, although ICANN has been
<http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&art
icleId=9042479&source=rss_topic16> testing language domains.

Khaled Fattal, the Arab American Chairman of the Multilingual Internet Names
Consortium ( <http://www.minc.org/> MINC),
<http://wsjclassroom.com/archive/06apr/onln_alternet.htm> laments, "There is
no such thing as a global internet today. You have only English-language
Internet that is deployed internationally. How is that empowering millions
of Chinese or Arab citizens?"

With over 1.3 billion of Earth's inhabitants speaking Chinese as their
native tongue and many more learning it as a second language is English
likely to dominate on the internet? Saunders says, "there are actually more
people who have gone online who speak Chinese as their native language than
any other language, [according to a Nielsen/NetRatings
<http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSSHA29750720080313> study
done in conjunction with CNNIC and Beijing internet company BDA]" So, what
will be the flavor linguistic flavor of the globalization of which we hear
so much and how will that affect the internet in the long-term?

Flammia and Saunders offer a few thoughts on web design sensitivity.
Terminology and jargon, words like nuke and abort, may seem harmless to
Mountain Dew drinking western programmers, but how are such terms perceived
by  <http://webdesign.about.com/od/color/a/bl_colorculture.htm> other
cultures? Icons,
<http://mrjavo.com/choosing-the-best-colors-for-your-website/> colors, words
- there are many that are consider inappropriate at best by other cultures
and seriously offensive at worst. The ring shape between thumb and index
fingers formed as an OK by Westerners is offensive to some cultures. As are
flat hands, upturned feet, the depiction of human beings, animals,
geographic landmarks, maps, taboo symbols, and color.the list goes on. All
traps an unwary international web designer may fall into.

What about the notion that democracy is the best approach to government? Not
all cultures, particularly hierarchical ones would agree, even those at the
foot of the pyramid see their position there as valid, something that is
difficult to comprehend for individuals empowered by their right to vote and
freedom of speech. Maps too represent a serious point of contention, why
shouldn't my country, you might ask, be at the centre, with North at the
top? Ask any Australian for a response to that. And yes, Western web design
takes many of these things as given and assumes that the resst of the world
accepts them too.

Even the direction we move our eyes when reading a web page courts
controversy. Website design itself generally follows the left to right, top
to bottom approach of English-speaking readers, but millions of people read
right to left or bottom to top. There is even evidence that left-to-right is
not the most efficient approach for our brains, but that's a different
story. At the time of writing, Google was continuing to address the
<http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2008/10/helping-you-break-langua
ge-barrier.html> language issue and  <http://www.multilingual-search.com/>
Multilingual Search has much to discuss on the subject.

"The first step in mindful communication is an awareness of and respect for
other perspectives," the researchers say, "While it is true that the use of
English as the language of the internet impacts power at a societal level
and privileges one class of internet users, it is also possible for English
to be used with awareness and cultural sensitivity."

Language has power so website design has to be culturally sensitive. Of
course, the same principles apply regardless of whether the lingua franca is
English or Mandarin.

 research-blogging-icon
<http://www.sciencetext.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/research-blogging-ico
n.png> Carol S. Saunders, Madelyn Flammia (2008). A subtle war of words on
the internet International Journal of Electronic Business, 6 (4) DOI:
<http://dx.doi.org/10.1504/IJEB.2008.020673> 10.1504/IJEB.2008.020673


http://www.sciencetext.com/word-domination.html
-- 
**************************************
N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its
members
and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or
sponsor of
the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who disagree
with a 
message are encouraged to post a rebuttal. (H. Schiffman, Moderator)
*******************************************

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lgpolicy-list/attachments/20081018/34adb650/attachment.htm>


More information about the Lgpolicy-list mailing list