correction on the house of small languages

Wed Feb 11 22:43:01 UTC 2004

Dear Friends,

I want to respond to the message below from 
Patrick-Henri Burgaud. A web resource on 
endangered languages that provides accurate 
information is to be welcomed. However, if you go 
to Burgaud's site you may notice that the 
Australian section has the most peculiar 
statements splashed across it. This is a result 
of representations made to Patrick-Henri Burgaud 
by myself and David Nathan requesting Burgaud to 
remove misappropriated material related to 
Australian languages from his site. A letter to 
SSILA on the topic can be found in the SSILA 
buletin Number 147: September 22, 2001. 
http://linguistics.buffalo.edu/ssila/bulletins/bulletin/bull147.PDF.

In my case, Burgaud took some pages from my 
Handbook of Western Australian Aboriginal 
languages rather than linking to them, and 
reduced the information that was presented about 
them in his work of art.

While the situation could have been remedied by 
Burgaud acknowledging sources and  removing 
photographs of individuals, Burgaud chose to 
close off that section of his site, which is, of 
course his prerogative.

He further accuses linguists of holding on to 
material that he suggests should be made freely 
available:

>"Peu leur importe que les langues et ceux qui 
>les parlent meurent. Assis sur leur matériel 
>linguistique comme un avare sur son tas d'or, 
>ils interdisent toute diffusion d'information au 
>nom de leur notion étroite du copyright. Ils 
>estiment que les richesses sonores qu'ils ont 
>ramassées partout parce qu'elles sont à tout le 
>monde leur appartiennent une fois mises dans 
>leurs boîtes, articles, thèses, colloques."
>
>"It is of little concern to the ones in 
>authority that the languages and those who speak 
>them are threatened with extinction. Confortably 
>seated on their lingustic material, like a 
>Scrooge on his pile of gold coins, they will 
>forbid any spread of information because their 
>narrow sense of copyright. They consider that 
>the sonorous treasures gathered by them 
>everywhere, because they are for everybody, 
>belong to them once they are contained in boxes, 
>papers, theses, and colloqies." 
>http://www.houseofthesmalllanguages.org/txts/closed.htm

This is offensive and indicates a lack of 
understanding of the complexities of intellectual 
propery issues that we enter into when we record 
indigenous languages. This material is not 'for 
everybody' it is available subject to the wishes 
of the people recorded.

I am grateful to Mr Burgaud for bringing these 
important issues into the public domain.

Nicholas Thieberger

Project Manager
PARADISEC
Pacific And Regional Archive for DIgital Sources in Endangered Cultures
http://www.paradisec.org.au

nickt at paradisec.org.au
Department of Linguistics and Applied Linguistics
University of Melbourne
Vic 3010
Australia

>Dear sirs,
>new on the list, I should like to present myself and the site I am
>working on. My name is Patrick-Henri Burgaud. I was born in France but I
>have been living for years in the Netherlands, where I studied
>linguistics.
>I am working on a web site called
>THE HOUSE OF THE SMALL LANGUAGES:
>http://www.houseofthesmalllanguages.org
>a virtual monument devoted to the seriously endangered languages, all
>over the world. It is "a work in progress", in permanent evolution.
>Keywords are: strong social engagement and participation. The functions
>of the web site is to let know about the existence of dying languages to
>the largest possible audience and to create and increase the possibility
>of a permanent contact with and between all native speakers of
>endangered languages.
>My wish is to create for every language a separate own page,  with
>various information about the language, a sound sample of it, a picture
>of  one or more speakers  nd/or a link with an already existing home
>page in or about this language. It will become a tremendous huge site.
>The House of the Small Languages is mirrored to by the West Virginian
>University (it is at the moment under constuction). I try to update it
>with accurate information, which is very difficult to get. Information
>about dying or recently died languages looks like military secrets, it
>is very hard to get.
>I am very glad  to have heard about the list and to become a member.
>
>  friendly yours with regards
>To know more about me and my interests, please visit the site
>http://home.tiscali.nl/burgaud/ruine/entree.htm
>-----------------------------------------------
>drs. Patrick-Henri Burgaud
>Zypendaalseweg 75
>6814 CE Arnhem
>http://houseofthesmalllanguages.org <http://houseofthesmalllanguages.org/>
>--
>
>
>André Cramblit: andre.p.cramblit.86 at alum.dartmouth.org is the Operations
>Director Northern California Indian Development Council NCIDC
>(http://www.ncidc.org) is a non-profit that meets the development needs
>of American Indians
>
>To subscribe to a news letter of interest to Natives send an email to:
>IndigenousNewsNetwork-subscribe at topica.com or go to:
>http://www.topica.com/lists/IndigenousNewsNetwork/subscribe/?location=listinfo
></x-flowed>

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