From the Rosetta Project website:
The Rosetta Project is a global collaboration of language specialists and native speakers working to develop a contemporary version of the historic Rosetta Stone. In this updated iteration, our goal is a meaningful survey and near permanent archive of 1,000 languages. Our intention is to create a unique platform for comparative linguistic research and education as well as a functional linguistic tool that might help in the recovery or revitalization of lost languages in unknown futures.
Today Wired published an article about the Rosetta Project, Word Up: Keeping Languages Alive. An excerpt:
When Napoleon's troops discovered a granite slab in 1799 containing Greek and Egyptian hieroglyphic translations of ancient text dating back to 100 B.C., they unearthed more than 1,000 years of history.
Now, a group of scientists and engineers are crafting a modern Rosetta stone that will preserve more than 1,400 of the world's 7,000 languages on a 3-inch nickel disk.
Fifty to ninety percent of the world's languages are predicted to disappear in the next century, according to the The Rosetta Project, a collaborative, open-source endeavor by language specialists and native speakers around the world who are creating a "near permanent" archive of the world's languages.
Developers of the modern Rosetta disk hope they will help future generations recover lost languages that are now on the brink of extinction.
An ambitious and fascinating project. I suspect linguists have more fun than the rest of us.
Posted on November 4, 2002 10:15 PM. Filed under: language.