[Lexicog] Using old dictionaries

[Martin Benjamin]

We did this years ago at kamusi.org .  One of the made-up entries was 
Swahili "sega" = English "videogame".  Imagine my surprise several years 
later to be visiting with a family in Dar es Salaam and listening to a 
little boy begging to be allowed to play his "sega" - in the years in 
between, the technology had moved into Tanzania, and my made-up term had 
made it into the actual lexicon :)

On the other hand, that didn't stop some company from copying all our 
data and putting it into a program they offered for sale as a "universal 
translator".  In part because of sega, we could prove that the data was 
taken in contravention of the copyright notice, but it would have taken 
an expensive legal suit to actually enforce the ownership :(

Map-makers often do something similar, such as altering the location of 
a bridge on a minor road by a small distance.

Cheers,
Martin

David Joffe wrote:
>  
> 
> I have actually seen this done. Apart from 'made-up' words, a few
> 'obscure' proper names may also be added throughout.
> 
> - David (Joffe)
> 
> On 17 Dec 2009 at 9:32, Chaz Mortensen - work wrote:
> 
> To: lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com 
> <mailto:lexicographylist%40yahoogroups.com>
> From: Chaz Mortensen - work <chaz_mortensen at sil.org 
> <mailto:chaz_mortensen%40sil.org>>
> Date sent: Thu, 17 Dec 2009 09:32:24 -0500
> Subject: Re: [Lexicog] Using old dictionaries
> Send reply to: lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com 
> <mailto:lexicographylist%40yahoogroups.com>
> 
>  >
>  >
>  > David,
>  >
>  > I have considered doing the same thing in case my work falls into the
>  > wrong person's hands.
>  >
>  > -Chaz
>  >
>  > On Dec 17, 2009, at 9:20 AM, David Frank wrote:
>  >
>  > I remember learning from my dialectology professor (some 30+ years 
> ago) that a practice among
>  > dictionary publishers was to throw in a made-up entry or two, so that 
> if those spurious entries showed
>  > up in someone else's dictionary, plagiarism could be proven.
>  >
>  >
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-- 
________________________________________________


Dr. Martin Benjamin
Executive Director, Kamusi Project International
http://kamusi.org

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