ELL: Re: Sorbian dictionary/ web information

[Robert Beard]

I get the same problem as before:  when I try these URLs, I get the error
"Next Hop Connection Failed".  I still can't find these servers, nor can my
visitors.  Are these servers switched off part of the day?  Does the
Institute need additional equipment or funds to maintain what they have?

I discussed this matter with our CEO yesterday and yourDictionary.com is
willing use its contacts with the media in the US to try to get this
situation to a broader audience.  We will certainly feature it on our
website when we launch, hopefully, in mid-June, if that isn't too late.

yourDictionary.com is an expansion and extension of A Web of On-line
Dictionaries.  When we launch, we will have somewhere around 25,000
different visitors per day, most highly educated, highly positioned men and
women around the world.  We will be promoting the site vigorously around the
world to increase that number.

The website will also feature an "Endangered Language Repository", a section
devoted to the collection of information about endangered languages as well
as a publishing outlet for dictionaries and grammars of endangered
languages.  We have no current plans for any restrictions other than quality
on what is published there, including financial viability.  We will also be
promoting this section with the media in the US and elsewhere, offering the
opinions of experts on endangered languages to news outlets.  We have
several such experts among the 26 working members of our Advisory Council
and we know several more.  (Indeed, through this list, presumably most of
them.)  We hope that a commercial enterprise with media connections will be
more effective than traditional educational institutions in forming public
opinion on this issue.  That will leave educational institutions to the job
they do best--preserve these languages.  However, the company is being run
by a conglomerate of linguistic scholars and businessmen with a working
council of advisors comprised of 26 of the best linguists, yes, linguists,
in the world.

Everyone on this list should keep this in mind in planning to preserve
endangered languages.  YDC should be a part of the overall strategy to
preserve nearly extinct languages. Scott DeLancy, who brought this list to
my attention, is one of our advisors.  We will be hosting links and donation
information for ELF and links to all the endangered language sites around
the world.  I wish the website were already up but the scope of the project
and the newness of the concept have led to more delays than expected.

So, would an article or so in the US press help?  And, if so, where can we
get information about the German decision and who is the spokesperson for
the institute?

--RB, formerly:

-------------------------------------------------------------
Robert Beard, Ruth Everett Sierzega Professor
Russian & Linguistics Programs
Bucknell University
Lewisburg, PA 17837
Telephone: 570-523-7758 (office)
Telephone: 570-524-9240 (home)
rbeard at yourdictionary.com
http://www.departments.bucknell.edu/russian
http://www.yourdictionary.com

Now:

------------------------------------
Robert Beard, CLO & CTO
yourDictionary.com, Inc.
P. O. Box 6
Lewisburg, PA 17837
Telephone: 570-523-7758
http://www.yourdictionary.com
rbeard at yourdictionary.com


----- Original Message -----
From: "Paulina Jaenecke" <pj at mail.zedat.fu-berlin.de>
To: "Robert Beard" <rbeard at bucknell.edu>;
<endangered-languages-l at carmen.murdoch.edu.au>
Sent: Thursday, May 25, 2000 6:08 AM
Subject: Sorbian dictionary/ web information


> Dear All,
>
> the homepage of the Sorbian institute is found on this webpage:
>
> http://www.serbski-institut.de
>
> this is the link to the dictionary (Upper Sorbian):
>
> http://www.serbski-institut.de/siprojj.html
>
> from there, you should find a link to the primer for Upper Sorbian
>
> More general information on the Sorbs can be found on this page:
>
> http://www.sorben-wenden.de
>
> there you will find links to Sorbian institutions linke the Domowina,
> cultural information centers etc.
>
>
> The letter of protest from the Domowina is also available in English,
> I don't know if it's available on the net yet, but I'll find out and
> post the adress. There is a link to the German letter of protest from
> the sorben-wenden page.
>
> The proposed cut back of funds would not only mean stopping new
> Sorbian projects, but also undermine present efforts in cultural and
> linguistics activities.
>
> I hope that international protest will make the German government
> rethink its plans.
>
> Paulina
>


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