No subject

[David Nash]

	     Jeff ALLEN <jeff at elda.fr> wrote:
	       I have several articles, written independently by people who do
	       not
	         work together at all, here on my desk and on my hard drive
	       that
	         argue that the hope for preserving endangered and neglected
	       languages
	         is to computerize and internetize them.  It is the way of
	       getting them
	         recognized.

		 Perhaps some of the citations could be posted on ELL.

		 The papers may be independent of each other, but I wonder if
		 they
		 might have in common that the authors are computing
		 enthusiasts who've
		 heard about endangered languages, vs. people grappling with
		 language
		 endangerment who've heard about advances in
		 computing/Internet?

		 I think the key point from Nick Ostler's earlier posting
		 (Wed, 24 Feb
		 1999 14:53:29 +0000) which has not been responded to is:
		   And will people learn a language from
		     a multimedia environment that simulates the community, if
		 they won't learn
		   it from the real community?

		   Related to this flaw is the weakness of reliance on
		   literacy in
		   Transparent's approach -- this I infer from what I saw on
		   their web
		   pages (incl
		   http://www.transparent.com/endangered/index.htm) joined
		   with the lack (right?) of speech-recognition software for
		   smaller
		   communities' languages (esp. for speech-recognition of
		   second-language
		   learners).

		   --
		   David.Nash at anu.edu.au
		   http://www.anu.edu.au/linguistics/nash