Dying languages archived for future generations (fwd link)

[s.t. bischoff]

Hi all,

Over the summer a student and I, both with no webpage design/creation
background, created a "naive archive". The goal was to see what two
motivated people could do without any prior web experience in terms of
creating an archive from scratch and from legacy materials (dictionaries,
stem lists, grammars, unpublished manuscripts). We used open source material
(e.g. ubuntu and gimp) and proprietary software (e.g. windows and dream
weaver)...we found we could do everything with the open source software with
no trouble. We used the free online w3schools.com tutorials for everything
we created. We spent six weeks and used HTML and Java script for almost
everything. The most difficult part was creating a search mechanism for the
dictionary, stem list, and affix list...this required knowledge of PHP which
we learned at the w3schools.com site as well. The PHP was not necessary
however because the web browser's own search mechanism seemed to worked.

We ended up creating a searchable root dictionary from a microsoft word
version of an original print dictionary, a searchable stem list from a 1938
publication, and a searchable affix list from a 1939 grammar. The grammar
was already archived by the Internet Archive so we linked each entry to the
original source page online. We also included over 1,200 pages of
unpublished manuscripts, a grammatical sketch, some information about
various orthographies and some other things.

In short, we managed to do a good deal in a short time. The only caveat is
that we both had prior experience with programing languages so had a certain
comfort with computers and confidence in our abilities...something that can
make a big difference. You can view the site at
http://academic.uprm.edu/~sbischoff/crd_archive/start1.html<http://academic.uprm.edu/%7Esbischoff/crd_archive/start1.html>.


We hope it might serve as an example of what can be done...without
funding...though if any wants to give us some money to do more we'd be happy
to take it.

Shannon



On Mon, Aug 24, 2009 at 12:55 PM, phil cash cash<cashcash at email.arizona.edu>
wrote:
> Dying languages archived for future generations
>
> A Cambridge University project to safeguard the world's 6,000 spoken
languages
> has been launched after it emerged half could die out within a generation.
>
> Published: 3:54PM BST 24 Aug 2009
> UK
>
> The World Oral Literature Project aims to help cultures under threat from
> globalisation create lasting records of their native languages.
>
> Still in its inaugural year, the project led by Cambridge University's
Museum of
> Archaeology and Anthropology, has already handed out around 10 grants to
tribes
> from Mongolia to Nigeria - and the researchers admitted traditional
British
> languages such as Cornish and Gaelic are also at risk.
>
> Experts are encouraging native people and anthropologists to capture
myths, folk
> songs chants and poems in their dying languages through multi-media tools.
>
> Access full article below:
>
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/6081874/Dying-languages-archived-for-future-generations.html
>
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