Slashdot Mirror
Dying Languages, Fading Formats
utopyr writes "A story on BBC News looks briefly at the problems in preserving human languages in digital formats. The scope of the problem? Of the world's roughly 6,500 languages (of which, fewer than 500 are listed here), half will be extinct within the century, as the last speakers die. However, formats are proving even more ephemeral than human memory."
Translating the bible? And here I've been thinking that it helped in translating Egyptian hieroglyphs. Boy is my face red.
You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door. There is a small mailbox here.
Yoda is the only known speaker of FORTH.
(or in FORTHese:
FORTH known speaker yoda only is.
)
Unfortunately, it is a dying language.
(or in FORTHese:
language dying unfortunately it is
)
It must be preserved.
(or in FORTHese:
Perserved, it must be.
)
I agree. Let's start by retraining the 275 million people in the United States to all use the metric system like the other 5.8 billion people on the planet do. Then we'll move on to language.
Fascism should more properly be called corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate power.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
The world does have a common language. English. Just ask any English speaking person. If you're talking to someone that doesn't appear to understand english you just have to speak slower and louder.
All Space Aliens also speak english.
Everyone should speak Klingon! Why should any one group of people have it any easier than any other group? To be completely fair to everyone, the language we unify on should be Klingon.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Or did anyone else expect to see COBOL on the list?
Oh, wait. Human languages...sorry.
The society for a thought-free internet welcomes you.
U rilly tnk it'z a prob? Y?
"Lord, grant that I may always be right, for Thou knowest that I am hard to turn" -- A Scots-Irish prayer
I stand corrected... you are right. :)?
Latin still lives on at the Vatican. But do they really speak it fluently and everyday? Otherwise it is exactly as we meant. It is not a daily language but it was preserved and it certainly did help out with some things didn't it?
As for medicine, yes it is the neutral medical and scientific naming schema.
And by the way, my lengthy replies were angry responses to the first post on the main thread. All the warmongering and the way they're treating it like its a game of command and conquer or team fortress it makes me sick!! FUCK the mainstream media!! (there, now I feel much better, lemme go make a cup of coffee... anyone for FRENCH roast
-DaedalusHKX
" What luck for rulers that men do not think" - Adolf Hitler
We need federally protected LISP online communities and e-casinos to preserve the heritage. Tourist shareware crafted with time-honored LISP artwork. Movies and songs promoting LISP battles of valor against JAVA and C oppression on the wide open e-frontier. Our flag will bear the symbol of dead parantheses to represent our suffering!
Happy Fembots are made with LISP!
This is an old joke, which I had absolutely no part in creating. Read aloud for best enjoyment, and to annoy your surrounding cube-mates: The European Union commissioners have announced that agreement has been reached to adopt English as the preferred language for European communications, rather than German, which was the other possibility. As part of the negotiations, Her Majesty's Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a five-year phased plan for what will be known as EuroEnglish (Euro for short). In the first year, "s" will be used instead of the soft "c." Sertainly, sivil servants will resieve this news with joy. Also, the hard "c" will be replaced with "k". Not only will this klear up konfusion, but typewriters kan have one less letter. There will be growing publik emthusiasm in the sekond year, when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced by "f". This will make words like fotograf" 20 persent shorter. In the third year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkorage the removal of double letters, which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horible mes of silent "e"s in the languag is disgrasful, and they would go. By the fourth year, peopl wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" by "z" and "w" by " v". During ze fifz year, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou", and similar changes vud of kors be aplid to ozer kombinations of leters. After zis fifz yer, ve vil hav a reli sensibl riten styl. Zer vil be no mor trubls or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech ozer. Ze drem vil finali kum tru.
We have invented SMS txt msgs and l33t-sp34k!
When I am king, you will be first against the wall.