ÿþ<HTML><HEAD> <TITLE> otherlanguage.org's list of resources for endangered languages, linguistic diversity and AI speech links </TITLE> <META NAME="description" CONTENT="otherlanguage.org's list of web resources for endangered languages, linguistic diversity, linguistic minorities and AI speech and grammar links"> <META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="otherlanguages.org , endangered languages , signals , literature"> <FONT color=#999999 face=Arialsize=6><B> </HEAD> <A name="top of menu"> <BODY aLink=#800080 background=index.html_files/back.gif bgcolor=#efefef link=#999999 text=#000080 vLink=#aaaaaa> <TABLE border=0 width=1200 height=27> <TBODY> <TR> <TD align=center vAlign=top bgcolor=ae77cf> </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> <B><FONT color=#999999 face=Arial size=6> <A href="http://www.otherlanguages.org" target="_blank">otherlanguages.org</A></FONT> <FONT color=#210000 face=Arial size=3></B><FONT color=#210000 face=Arial size=3> <TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=5 width=600> <TBODY> <TR> <TD align=left vAlign=top> <TABLE border=0 cellPadding=5 cellSpacing=5 height=600 width=145> <TBODY> <TR> <TD align=left vAlign=top COLOR="#999999"FACE="Arial" SIZE="4" <B><FONT color=#999999 face=Arial size=4>...Informacje o jzyku <P><B><FONT color=#999999 face=Arial size=3> <A name="top of menu"> <P>wstp w jzyku <BR> <A href="/index.html" target="_blank">angielskim</A> / <A href="/basque0.html" target="_blank">baskijskim</A> / <A href="/brazilianportuguese0.html" target="_blank">brazylijskiej wersji portugalskiego</A> / <A href="/dutch0.html" target="_blank">holenderskim</A> / <A href="/russian0.html" target="_blank">rosyjskim</A> / <A href="/swedish0.html" target="_blank">szwedzkim</A> / <A href="/hungarian0.html" target="_blank">wgierskim</A> / <A href="/italian0.html" target="_blank">wBoskim</A> <P><A href="/chinese0.html" target="_blank"> <IMG SRC="/inchlink.gif"></A> <P> link do strony <A href="/imodejapanese0.html" target="_blank">i-mode</A> <P> <A href="/japanese0.html" target="_blank"> <IMG SRC="japanese.html/japanesemenu/0jmc.jpg"></A> <P> </FONT> <P> <FONT color=#d99999 face=Arial size=8><b>#</b></FONT> <P><FONT color=#999999 face=Arial size=4 <B> <A href="/www/languages1.htm#dictionariestranslation" target="_blank"> <B>sBowniki, tBumaczenie</A></B> <P><B><FONT color=#a9d999 face=Arial size=8><B>#</FONT><B> <P><FONT color=#999999 face=Arial size=4><A href="/www/languages1.htm#otheralphabets" target="_blank">inne alfabete</A> <P><A href="/www/languages1.htm#non-alphabeticscripts" target="_blank"> skypty, które nie oparte na alfabecie</A></FONT> <P><FONT color=#d9c999 face=Arial size=8>#</FONT> <P><FONT color=#999999 face=Arial size=4><A href="/www/languages1.htm#endangeredlanguages" target="_blank">jzyki zagro|one wymarciem</A> <P><FONT color=#efb9d9 face=Arial size=8>#</FONT> <P><FONT color=#999999 face=Arial size=4><A href="/www/languages2.htm#signlanguages" target="_blank">jzyki migowe</A></FONT> <P><FONT color=#ffffff face=Arial size=8>#</FONT> <P><FONT color=#999999 face=Arial size=4><A href="/www/languages2.htm#maps" target="_blank">mapy</A></FONT> <P><FONT color=#bfcfef face=Arial size=8>#</FONT> <P><FONT color=#999999 face=Arial size=4><A href="/www/languages2.htm#songsandmusic" target="_blank"> piosenki/muzyka</A></FONT> <P><FONT color=#bfafef face=Arial size=8>#</FONT> <P><FONT color=#999999 face=Arial size=4><A href="/www/languages2.htm#deadlanguages" target="_blank">jzyki wymarBe</A></FONT></B> <P><B><FONT color=#c6a6b9 face=Arial size=8>#</FONT> <P><FONT color=#999999 face=Arial size=4><P><P><B><FONT color=#cde979 face=Arial size=8>#</FONT> <P><FONT color=#999999 face=Arial size=4>lista jzyków <P> <A href="/www/languages1.htm#otherlinks" target="_blank">Linki nie zwizane z jzykami</A> <P> </B> <P></B></P></FONT></FONT></B></FONT></B></B></FONT></FONT></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> <TD ?left?></TD> <TD> <TABLE border=0 cellPadding=5 cellSpacing=5 width=490> <TBODY> <TR> <TD align=left vAlign=top></B><FONTcolor=#999999 face=Arial size=3> <FONT color=#999999 size=2>to links pages [<A href="/www/languages1.htm" target="_blank">1</A>] [<A href="/www/languages2.htm" target="_blank">2</A>] [<A href="/www/languages3.htm" target="_blank">3</A>] [<A href="/www/languages4.htm" target="_blank">4</A>] <P> <FONT color=#999999 face=Arial size=2> <B><I><FONT color=#999999 face=Arial size=3> Can you translate the next 300 words into <A href="/www/languages1.htm#hindi" target="_blank"> <FONT color=#e2888d>Hindi<FONT color=#999999></A> or <A href="/www/languages1.htm#korean" target="_blank"> <FONT color=#c45848>Korean<FONT color=#999999></A>?; if so please <A HREF="mailto:contact@otherlanguages.org">contact me</A> and there will be revelry. </B></I> <P> <FONT color=#210000 face=Arial size=3> <H3>Jzyki wymieraj ka|dego tygodnia i kto si tym przejmuje?</H3> My tak  otherlanguages.org krok po kroku staje si zródBem informacji o ponad piciu tysicach mniejszo[ci jzykowych i bezpaDstwowych jzykach caBego [wiata. <P> Tysice unikalnych jzyków wymiera. Mowa tu o od piciu do sze[ciu tysicach jzyków na caBym [wiecie. WBa[ciwie nie wiemy, co tracimy, jaka literatura, filozofia, sposób my[lenia zanika ka|dego dnia. <H3>Wic?</H3> By mo|e niedBugo bdziemy |aBowa utraty tysicy kultur lingwistycznych, nawet bardziej ni| |aBujemy bezsensownego wymierania wielu gatunków zwierzt i ro[lin. <P> Nasza planeta jest w coraz wikszym stopniu zdominowana przez garstk gBównych monokulturowych jzyków takich jak chiDski (mandaryDski i kantoDski), hinduski, arabski, indonezyjski, urdu, hiszpaDski, portugalski, angielski, suahili, rosyjski, japoDski i bengalski. <P> Wszyscy ludzie mówicy tymi jzykami s wspaniali a te jzyki s fascynujce. Ale istnieje jeszcze 5,000 jzyków. <H3>Czy mowa te| o jaki[ konkretnych ludziach?</H3> Mniejszo[ci jzykowe to wspólnoty zwykBych ludzi, których jzyk ojczysty nie jest jzykiem urzdowym kraju, w którym |yj. Mówicy po szwedzku mieszkaDcy Finlandii, francuskojzyczni Kanadyjczycy, wgierskojzyczni obywatele SBowacji, wraz z setkami innych grup, tworz mniejszo[ci jzykowe. <P> Jzyki niektórych najbardziej intrygujcych i maBo znanych wspólnot kulturowych s caBkowicie bezpaDstwowe. Tak jest w wypadku jzyka LapoDczyków |yjcych za KoBem Polarnym, SardyDczyków na Sardynii, ludu Ainus w Japonii, Czirokezów w USA, Szkotów mówicy w jzyku gaelickim w Wielkiej Brytanii, Fryzyjczyków w Holandii, Zulusów w PoBudniowej Afryce. Jest tylko kilka setek suwerennych paDstw i terytoriów, a wic ponad 5,000 jzyków, to jzyki ojczyste ludzi, którzy s  lingwistycznymi bezpaDstwowcami. <P> <H3>Jak Ty mo|esz im pomóc?</H3> Nie musisz uczy si jzyka zagro|onego wyginiciem  podobnie zamieszkanie w lesie tropikalnym nie pomo|e w powstrzymaniu jego destrukcji. <P> Na pocztek po prostu poinformuj swoich przyjacióB o stronach internetowych takich jak ta. <P> Szerokie zainteresowanie spoBeczeDstwa t tematyk pomaga lingwistom w zbieraniu funduszy i organizowaniu nauki unikalnych jzyków. <P> To prawda. S ludzie, którzy uwielbiaj jzyki obce i bd szcz[liwi uczc si ich w imieniu reszty z nas, ale ci ludzie potrzebuj wsparcia, tak jak zoolodzy, botanicy czy historycy. <P> <B> <FONT color=#999999 face=Arial size=3> to contact the Polish translator, e-mail via <A href="mailto:markgriffith@yahoo.com">markgriffith@yahoo.com</A> </B> <FONT color=#210000 face=Arial size=3> <P> Broader public interest makes it easier for linguists to raise funds and organise people to learn these languages while there's time. <P> That's right. There are people who love languages and are happy to learn them on behalf of the rest of us, but they need support, just like zoologists, botanists, or historians. <P> <H3>Fewer languages still sounds good to me</H3> Depends what you think languages are for. They're not just a tool for business. We never said you should learn three or four thousand rare languages - or even one. And which ones we make children learn in school, or whether we should force children to learn languages at all, is another question. <P> A century ago - before we understood ecology, and when we cared less about wilderness, most educated people would have laughed at the idea of worrying about plants or animals going extinct. Now we understand how important species diversity is for our own futures, we are more humble, and more worried. <P> In the same way, linguistic triumphalism by English-speakers who hated studying foreign grammar at school is dangerously ignorant as well as arrogant. Few of us know what we are losing, week by week. How many people realise these languages have scientific value? <H3>Scientific value?</H3> You can think of these languages across the planet as beautiful cathedrals or precious archeological sites we are watching being destroyed. That should be motive enough. <P> But these five thousand languages also hold clues to the structure of the human mind. Subtle differences and similarities between languages are helping archeologists and anthropologists to understand what happened in the hundreds of centuries of human history before written history. And that is one of our best chances of understanding how human brains developed over the thousands of centuries leading up to that. <P> Study of the mind and study of language go hand in hand these days. The world's most marginal languages are actually precious jigsaw pieces from an overall picture of who we are and how our species thinks and evolves. Every tiny language adds another brightly-coloured clue to this academic detective story. <P> Yet researchers have hardly started sifting through this tantalising evidence, and language extinction is washing it away right in front of us. <P> And worst of all, most people have no idea that there is this fantastic profusion of cultures across our world, let alone that they are in danger of extinction. Even just more people learning that there are still five thousand living languages in the world today (most of us would answer five hundred or fifty) is already a huge help. <P> We English-speakers hardly notice English - it's like air for us. But every other language is also an atmosphere for an entire cultural world, and each of these worlds has people whose home it is. Each language encapsulates a unique way of talking and thinking about life. Just try some time in a foreign prison, being forced to cope in another language, and you'll realise how much your own language is your identity. That's true for everyone. <H3>Minority languages are a human-rights issue?</H3> One of the most basic. <P> Dozens of millions of people worldwide suffer persecution from national governments for speaking their mother tongue - in their own motherland. <P> Many 'ethnic' feuds puzzling to outsiders had as their basis an attempt to destroy a linguistic community. Would the Northern Ireland dispute be quite so bitter if we English had not so nearly stamped out the Irish Gaelic language, for example? Almost nowhere in the world does a language community as small as the few thousand Rheto-Romanic speakers - the fourth official language of Switzerland - get the protection of a national government. Next time you see some Swiss Francs, check both sides of the banknote. <P> But outside exceptional countries like Switzerland or the Netherlands, speakers of non-official languages have a much less protected experience. <P> Speakers of minority languages are often seen as a threat by both the governments and the other residents of the countries where they were born, grew up, and try to live ordinary lives. <P> They experience discrimination in the job and education markets of their homelands, often having no choice but to pursue education in the major language of the host state - a deliberate government policy usually aimed at gradually absorbing them into the majority culture of that country. <P> Most governments are privately gleeful each time another small separate culture within their borders is snuffed out by a dwindling population or a deliberately centralising education system. <P> The United Nations is no help. It is an association of a couple of hundred sovereign states based on exclusive control of territory, almost all of them anxious to smother any distinct group or tradition that in any way might blur or smudge the hard-won borders around those pieces of territory. <P> The usual approach by sovereign states is to deny their linguistic minorities even exist. <P> Mark Griffith, site administrator / <A href="mailto:markgriffith@yahoo.com">markgriffith@yahoo.com</A> <P> <FONT color=#999999 face=Arial size=4><B> <A href="#top of menu">back up to top of page</A></B> <P> <FONT color=#999999 face=Arial size=1> <P> <A name="*2oakleaf3">*2</A> image from <A href="http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/3440091694/ref=pd_bxgy_text_1/302-2968317-1052855" target="_blank"> 'Bäume'</A>, with thanks to <A href="http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/index=books-de&field-author=Kremer%2C%20Bruno%20P./302-2968317-1052855" target="_blank"> Bruno P. Kramer</A>, and <A href="http://www.kosmos.de/index.htm" target="_blank">Franckh-Kosmos Verlag</A> <FONT color=#999999 face=Arial size=3> </B></FONT></P></FONT></FONT></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></FONT></FONT></FONT> <P> <a target="_top" href="http://w.extreme-dm.com/?login=dutch0"> <img name=im src="http://w1.extreme-dm.com/i.gif" height=38 border=0 width=41 alt=""></a><script language="javascript"> <!-- an=navigator.appName;d=document;function pr(){d.write("<img src=\"http://w0.extreme-dm.com", "/0.gif?tag=dutch0&j=y&srw="+srw+"&srb="+srb+"&", "rs="+r+"&l="+escape(d.referrer)+"\" height=1 ", "width=1>");}srb="na";srw="na";//--> </script> <script language="javascript1.2"><!-- s=screen;srw=s.width;an!="Netscape"? srb=s.colorDepth:srb=s.pixelDepth;//--> </script><script language="javascript"><!-- r=41;d.images?r=d.im.width:z=0;pr();//--> </script><noscript><img height=1 width=1 alt="" src="http://w0.extreme-dm.com/0.gif?tag=dutch0&j=n"></noscript> </BODY></HTML>