SeaLex

[Doug Cooper]

Dear SeaLangers:

I have taken the dual liberties of writing a web page for SeaLex,
dedicated to Southeast Asian lexicography, and of suggesting that
SeaLex issues be included in SeaLang-L discussion.  I think that
SeaLangers will be interested in any SeaLex topics and vice versa,
and that starting up yet another mailing list means wasting yet
more time dealing with spam and bounced mail.

  Why not just rely on AsiaLex?  Because SEA is a natural grouping.
SEA lexicographers in general share a variety of common etymological
and typological interests; while those of use who work with Indic-
derived writing systems in particular face a variety of common
technical problems.

  These issues are not being addressed by AsiaLex, which covers
an impossibly large area of unrelated languages in theory, focuses
mainly on Japanese,  Chinese, and Korean in practice, and often has
conference venues that are prohibitively expensive for folks out here.
In the August 2003 AsiaLex conference, not one of the 83 papers,
symposiums, and posters mentioned any SEA langugage.  This isn't
AsiaLex's fault, of course, but it does seem obvious that SEA
lexicographers aren't participating in AsiaLex activity.

  SeaLex, like SeaLang, is meant to provide a focal point for dicussion,
along with a bit of administrative support (like web-siting or
announcements).  If folks feel that SeaLex needs a constitution,
officers, formal membership, dues, conferences, publications, etc.,
then SeaLang is the logical place to run a flag up the pole and see
if anybody salutes.

  I will - unless there is an objection from the throng - try to see
if I can arrange access, through the most convenient and open
local facility (perhaps the main Chula library?), to some useful
resources that at present do not appear to be available anywhere
in mainland Southeast Asia, including:

- a subscription to the Oxford _International Journal of Lexicography_,
- several dictionaries of SEA languages (like the Headley '97 Khmer).

  Any and all suggestions would be gratefully received,
  Doug Cooper

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doug at th.net             http://crcl.th.net
(662) 246-8946     Fax (662) 246-8789