Brewster Kahle wrote:

>[on a recent trip to India, Dr Om Vikas from the Ministry of Information gave a
presentation and one of the slides really hit me hard. I have reproduced it
here, with permission. ... ]
>
>
>Is there gain in knowledge or loss of knowledge?
>
>* From an estimated 10,000 world languages in 1900, about 6,700 languages
survived in 2000. Two percent of the world's languages are becoming extinct
every year.
>
So? Perhaps we're more aware of the loss now, but this has always
happened. If there's no-one around to speak a language, and there are no
written records in that language, then its gone.

>* There is worldwide, un quantifiable erosion of cultural participation,
knowledge and innovation.
>
No there isn't. Or at least, not in my neighborhood. This sort of
assertion is worthless without eveidence (i.e. quantifiable). It's just
moral vanity.

>* With the loss of language, we lose art and ideas, scientific information and
technological innovation capacity.
>
Maybe. But I see no diminution in the output of those things, so I'm
inclined to disagree. Also, if we're heading towards unity in language,
doesn't that foster the exchange of ideas? Is there anything which can
be expressed in one language but not in another? (Some recent
translations of the Tao te Ching suggest that _anything_ can be
expressed in English, given a good translator.)

>* World-level literacy is improving. More people can read than ever before, but
fewer people create stories.
>
Hmmm. I direct you to the Fiction department of Borders. Not everyone
can create stories, and the story-teller has always held a special place
in any society. viz. Borders again.

>* There is a tendency from being creators to consumers at the time when
technology could have amplified our creative capacities.
>
I have friends -- non-Geek -- who spend their spare time creating music
and messing with images on their home computers. But not everyone is
artistic. And what does this have to do with language anyway?

>* UNESCO study (1999) of 65 languages: 49 languages (75%) had experienced real
decline in the number of works translated from these languages to other
languages.
>
>* The proportion for English arose from 43 percent in 1980 to over 57 percent
in 1994.
>
>* The share held by top four translated languages (English, Spanish, French and
German) rose from 65 percent in 1980 to 81 percent in 1994.
>
Yes, but what does this mean? Are publishers less willing to publish
translations? Are more authors writing in English? Is that because
that's where the big market lies? Statistics can obscure as well as
enlighten.

>* According to a UNESCO study involving the world's 140 most published authors:
90 out of 140 were English writers in 1994 compared to 64 out of 140 in 1980.
>
>* There is a collapse in authorship, translation and quality in other
languages.
>
OK, you got me worried now. But see my comment aboive re. markets. Are
publishers driving this? I believe also that authors sometimes have to
pay translators to do the translation. Could be a number of factors here.


Cheers!

Steve

--

Stephen Thomas,
Senior Systems Analyst,
University of Adelaide Library
UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE SA 5005
AUSTRALIA
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