IMHO, there isn't a better way to start a language learning site than with an article about a mighty and noble language project that has been going on for about two decades now. I learnt about it many years ago and have been patiently waiting for Serbian linguists and other language aficionados from these parts to kindly start contributing to the Serbian part of the Project. As a rule, however, our sense of national duty always seems to take on all sorts of not-so-intellectually demanding forms (frequently bordering downright silliness) and rarely ventures into such areas. But, instead of lamenting over the current language and overall cultural situation in our country, I might just as well try to do something about it and hopefully others will join in. So, Step 1: inform the public. Therefore, with this I present The Rosetta Project. For those not in the know, let me first explain about the name. The word Rosetta most frequently refers to the Rosetta Stone – a granite slab chiselled in two languages – Ancient Egyptian and Greek and three different scripts (hieroglyphics, Demotic and Greek) and is considered to be the earliest evidence of translation. Dating from 196 BC, It was found near the town of Rosetta (Rashid) in the Nile Delta in Egypt (1799) and played the key role in deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs. It frequently symbolises the diversity of human languages. And, it is owing to this emblematic attribute that the stone lent its name to the project described below. Rosetta Project: Building an Archive of ALL Documented Human Languages (Abridged and adapted from the Home and About pages of the Rosetta Project site.) The Rosetta Project is a global collaboration of language specialists and native speakers working to build a publicly accessible digital library of human languages. The Rosetta Project is The Long Now Foundation's first exploration into very long-term archiving. The first prototype of a very long-term archive is The Rosetta Disk - a three inch diameter nickel disk with nearly 14,000 pages of information microscopically etched onto its surface. it can be read by the human eye using 500 power optical magnification. The disk rests in a sphere made of stainless steel and glass which allows the disk exposure to the atmosphere, but protects it from casual impact and abrasion. With minimal care, it could easily last and be legible for thousands of years. The Rosetta Disk collection has as its core a set of "parallel" information - the same texts, the same set of vocabulary, the same kinds of description - for over 1,000 human languages. The idea to collect parallel texts was inspired by the original Rosetta Stone, which had the same basic text (a decree) inscribed in three different scripts. By working back through known languages and scripts, scholars were able to decipher ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic writing, thereby unlocking the encoded history of an ancient civilization. Since that beginning, The Rosetta Project collection has grown to over 100,000 pages of documents, as well as language recordings, for over 2,500 languages. The collection is now housed as a special collection in the Internet Archive, and we continue to expand the collection through new materials and contributions. As a linguistic collection, The Rosetta Project also serves to draw attention to the drastic and accelerated loss of the world’s languages. Just as globalization threatens human cultural diversity, the languages of small, unique, localized human societies are at serious risk. In fact, linguists predict that we may lose as much as 90% of the world’s linguistic diversity within the next century. Language is both an embodiment of human culture, as well as the primary means of its maintenance and transmission. When languages are lost, the transmission of traditional culture is often abruptly severed meaning the loss of cultural diversity is tightly connected to loss of linguistic diversity. To stem the tide and help reverse this trend, we are working to promote human cultural and linguistic diversity, as well as to make sure that no language vanishes without a trace. |
MORGAN MOTORS GLOSSARY the world over = all over the world craftsmanship = the skill someone uses to make beautiful things with their hands, zanatsko umeće to establish = to found, to create a three-wheeler = a bike or a car that has three wheels, trotočkaš a 4-4 = a " four-by-four", a system in which a car's engine powers all 4 wheels evenly, vozilo sa pogonom na sva četiri točka iconic = important or impressive because it seems to be a symbol of sth core = central, key, essential ash = a kind of a widespread deciduous tree, jasen bespoke = specially made for the customer who orders it, pravljen po narudžbi tailored = fitted, made or produced to fit closely to one's measures, skrojen heritage = qualities, traditions and features that have continued over many years and have been passed on from one generation to another, legacy cutting-edge (adj.) = the latest, most modern, innovative a roadster = a sports car with no roof and only two seats a two-seater = dvosed in excess of = more than to assemble = to put parts together to make the whole approximately = not precisely, not exactly, roughly multiple = more than one significant stake = major part venture capitalist = an investor who provides capital to companies with a high growth potential eponymous = in the title role to facilitate = to make sth easier or more likely to happen Lord Lucan Crime Mystery Glossaryto shroud = surround a situation or an object making it mysterious and secret
subsequent = that comes after or later Earl = grof to grab (the) headlines = get a lot of publicity from media bloodstained = covered with stains of blood a stain = a mark on sth that is difficult to remove, mrlja to burst (into a place) = to enter suddenly with a lot of energy or force Countess = grofica an assault = an attack substantial = big, considerable ground floor = the floor of a building that is level or almost level with the ground outside basement = the floor of a building which is partly or completely below ground level premises = all the buildings and land that something occupies in one place unharmed = not injured or hurt to fetch = go and get to splash = (of a liquid) to hit something and scatter in a lot of small drops to be battered = to be heavily beaten blunt = not sharp lead = soft, grey, heavy metal, olovo, olovni piping = same as pipe, cev to bend/bent, bent = saviti to doze (off) = to sleep lightly usu during the day, to nap, dremati insistently = to keep insisting incoherent = to be talking in a confusing and unclear way a ward of court = pod sudskim starateljstvom to reside = to live or stay somewhere the battery is/was flat = akumulator je (bio) ispražnjen to admit = to allow someone to come in dishevelled = very untidy, unkempt flannels = men's trousers (made of flannel) to sponge (off) = to wipe with a sponge to peep = to have a quick look at something, often secretly ad quietly a smear = a dirty or oily mark to persuade = to talk sbd into doing sth, nagovarati to validate = to confirm or prove that sth is true or correct to abandon = to desert, leave a place bandaged = wrapped, uvijen, umotan CROSSWORD |