Dying languages archived for future generations (fwd link)

[Neskie Manuel]

Wow that's an interesting project.  Have you developed a spellcecking
dictionary for FireFox or OpenOffice.org.  It is quite trivial once
you have a wordlist.  I sent a link out earlier on the list, so you
odn't have to go searching it is right here

http://secpewt.sd73.bc.ca/spellcheckers
http://secpewt.sd73.bc.ca/firefox

Cheers.

On Mon, Aug 24, 2009 at 12:44 PM, s.t. bischoff <bischoff.st at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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 stem lists, grammars, unpublished manuscripts).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 unpublished manuscripts, a grammatical sketch, some information about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.
>
> 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
>>
>
>



-- 
Neskie Manuel
Secwepemc Radio 91.1 FM
http://secwepemcradio.ath.cx
Ph: (866) 423-0911