ELL: Minority languages in SE Asia and more
endangered-languages-l at carmen.murdoch.edu.au
endangered-languages-l at carmen.murdoch.edu.au
Tue Jul 13 13:53:00 UTC 1999
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From: tsc_msea at SIL.ORG
Date: Tue, 13 Jul 1999 09:53:00 -0400
To: <endangered-languages-l at carmen.murdoch.edu.au>
Subject: ELL: Minority languages in SE Asia and more
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Dear ELL,
I know many of you are interested in minority languages in SE Asia.
The Linguistics Department at Payap University has just completed
its
latest volume of Working Papers. I include the notice
below. Please do
not order from me if you are interested in obtain a volume. The
address for the Linguistics Department is at the bottom of
the notice.
The following peoples, languages and language families have
papers
about them:
Tibeto-Burman: Lahu Shi Balan, Bisu, Western Red
Karen
Tai: Tai Lue
Austro-Asiatic: Molbog
Indo-European: S.African/Australian English
Mon-Khmer: Huay Jo Khmu
Sincerely,
Tom Tehan, Chiangmai Thailand
______________________________________________
The Payap University
Graduate Linguistics
Department (Chiang Mai,
Thailand) has
published their third
volume of Working
Papers in
Linguistics. This
third volume includes
the following papers -
AN ACOUSTIC
PHONETIC ANALYSIS
OF THE VOWELS AND
TONES OF LAHU SHI
BALAN
Arthur
D. Cooper
THE KINSHIP
SYSTEM OF THE
BISU OF
CHIANG RAI
Kirk
R. Person
RELATIVE
CLAUSES
IN TAI
LUE
William
J. Hanna
SOME
DISCOURSE
EVIDENCE
FOR
ANALYZING
MOLBOG
AS
AN
ERGATIVE
LANGUAGE
Douglas
Inglis
A
PRELIMINARY
DISCOURSE
ANALYSIS
OF
WESTERN
RED
KAREN
NARRATIVES
Brooke
Bryant,
Karen
Block,
John
Bryant
A
SOCIOLINGUISTIC
ANALYSIS
OF
COLOURED
SOUTH
AFRICAN
SPEECH
IN
AUSTRALIA
Ken
Manson
A
PRELIMINARY
PHONOLOGICAL
ANALYSIS
OF
HUAY
JO
KHMU
Michael
Cooper
and
Susan
Cooper
This
volume
of
papers
can
be
ordered
by
writing
to
-
Department
of
Linguistics,
Graduate
School
Payap
University
Chiang
Mai,
50000
Thailand
And
sending
a
check
made
out
to
Payap
University
for
one
of
the
following
amounts
-
US$16
-
airmail
US$10
-
seamail
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=========================================================================
Date:
Tue,
13
Jul
1999
10:29:20
+0200
To:
endangered-languages-l at carmen.murdoch.edu.au
From:
Trond
Trosterud
<Trond.Trosterud at hum.uit.no>
Subject:
ELL:
On
software
for
Basque
and
other
lgs
("support")
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Date:
Tue,
13
Jul
1999
10:29:20
+0200
To:
endangered-languages-l at carmen.murdoch.edu.au
From:
Trond
Trosterud
<Trond.Trosterud at hum.uit.no>
Subject:
ELL:
On
software
for
Basque
and
other
lgs
("support")
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Wed,
07
Jul
1999
09:31:12
+0200
Jokin
Garatea
<garatea at gaia.es>
comments
a
message
from
Jeff
Allen,
reporting
that
"Microsoft
Now
Supports
Basque":
Jeff
Allen.s
quote:
> >The Microsoft Windows 98 operating system, Navigator, and Internet
> Explorer 4.0 >are now available in Basque. This follows an agreement
> between Microsoft and the >Basque Government which recently introduced the
> new products as part of its
> >policy to standardize the Basque language.
Jokin Garatea.s comment:
>In my opinion there is a missunderstanding of appreciation in what concern
the
>"support" of Microsoft to the Basque language.
In my opinion Jokin Garatea is missing the point. Let me start by the word
"support":
The English word "support" is ambiguous: 1. within an IT context, "support"
means "provide, possess, etc.", so when MS Windows supports Pascal it means
that it is possible to run Pacal programs on that platform. As the readers
of this list know, there are many ways a program or platform may "support"
a natural lg L, starting with "containing all the characters used to write
L", via "containing a keyboard layout for L", to "spellcheckers for L,
hyphenation for L, grammar tools, thesauri, html conversion, etc. for L,
the menus and help files for L, the paper manual written in L". 2. Another
meaning of "support" is "help, give financial aid, voluntarely work, voice
favourable opinions, etc.".
The subscribers of this list support minority lgs in this last meaning of
the word. Individuals working for sofwtware vendors, (perhaps even for
Microsoft) may agree with us on this point, but I have no illusions
whatsoever about MS.s (as a company) support for minority lgs. Not that it
may not happen: With the enourmous profit MS is making on its monopoly
situation, it certainly is in a position to give some money to World
Wildlife Fund or whatever, and I would personally have considered fund
donations for min lg support to be a wise marketing strategy (for buying
goodwill) for a company like MS.
Still, Jokin Garatea is probably right, the agreement with the government
probably involved some money as well, and the agreement may thus as well be
seen as a financual support form the Bascue government to Microsoft.
>Do you think that is Microsoft the one who is really supporting the Basque
>or on
>the contrary the it is Basque people through the administration who has paid
>Microsoft to create the tool?
This must not make us unable to see what we have gained here: Another lg
has taken an important step into the computerised world. Also: forgetting
the money for a moment, in one respect the "support" #must# come from
within the lg community: A software vendor based outside the lg community
cannot invent the terme needed for translating the software, cannot do the
language planning involved. Of course thay can pay someone to translate it,
but central lg planning bodies within the lg community (when they exist)
should really be involved in the work of creating the terms needed. So yes,
in this respect the Basque community really supports Microsoft, by
providing the necessary terms and texts.
>The minority languages are not a "market" by now because in most cases
>they have
>not carried out a marketable approach for their language.
This is a major point. The marked potential in mother tongue based software
is underestimated. (Too) many computer users are bilingual, and they are
too willing to use software written in another lg then their own. One of
our tasks is to work to streamline software architecture for multilingual
editions (and I must admit that here Microsoft serves as an example for
others, even though I otherwise prefer other software than microsofts), and
to make key people see that anecessary cornerstone in building a modernised
literary lg is software written in this lg (a minimum is charset and
keyboard, of course).
As long as the only communication with the computer was F3, SHIF-F7, Print,
Save, command-S, etc. it did not bother me too much to read "save" instead
of "Lagre" on the menu. But This spring I have for the first time used
Norwegian and Finnish spell chackers good enough that it is worth using
them (they cope with compounds, that.s the difference). The more advanced
the interaction with the computers get, the longer the help files, the more
important it is to have the programs in the mother tongue.
Seen in this perspective the question of who paid for what is subordinate.
All other lgs with small or poor user communities should be glad for the
achievements of Basque and Icelandic this spring. I would like to see some
concrete discussion on this list as to #how# this was achieved, and #how#
more lgs could be provided with software of different kinds.
Greetings,
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Trond Trosterud t +47 7764 4763
Lingvistisk institutt, Det humanistiske fakultet h +47 7767 3639
N-9037 Universitetet i Troms. Noreg f +47 7764 4239
Trond.Trosterud at hum.uit.no http://www2.isl.uit.no/trond/index.html
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