Now that the Balinese lontar project on Palmleaf.org has proven successful, the Internet Archive recently suggested that we move it to a well-established platform so the Balinese community can take over management, and so it can be maintained long-term. The obvious choice is Wikisource, both because of the nature of the content (lontar works are […]
PanLex project director David Kamholz recently attended the UNESCO High-level Event, “Making a decade of action for indigenous languages”. Held February 27–28 in Mexico City, the event brought together diverse stakeholders from around the world to plan for the 2022–2032 International Decade of Indigenous Languages (IDIL) that the UN has proclaimed. PanLex wants to be […]
Words for animals often have interesting histories. Some, like English mouse, have remained almost unchanged for centuries (millennia, if you go back to Indo-European). Others, like English dog, can be tracked only so far before the trail runs dry. The word for bear was altered in many Indo-European languages through a process called taboo deformation. […]
Every November 5, the United Kingdom celebrates Guy Fawkes Night. Guy Fawkes was an Englishman who attempted to blow up the House of Parliament in 1605. The story is fairly well known—but why was this guy named Guy? What kind of a name is that, anyway? As it turns out, it’s kind of a long […]
In the previous two updates, we described the Balinese lontar digitization project that PanLex is managing for Internet Archive. The goal is to continue the digitization of the Balinese Digital Library’s scanned lontar (palm-leaf manuscripts) by transcribing them into Unicode text, using the keyboards discussed in the last update. This work has now gotten underway […]