LINGUIST List 17.601
Thu Feb 23 2006
FYI: Call for Submissions
Editor for this issue: Svetlana Aksenova
<svetlanalinguistlist.org>
Directory
1. Pauline
Edwards,
Call for Submissions for the Trafford FirstVoices Publishing Program
Message 1: Call for Submissions for the Trafford FirstVoices Publishing Program
Date: 22-Feb-2006
From: Pauline Edwards <paulinefpcf.ca>
Subject: Call for Submissions for the Trafford FirstVoices Publishing Program
The First People's Culural Foundation is now accepting submissions for the Trafford FirstVoices Publishing Program 2006. Preference given to completed manuscripts but all applications will receive full consideration. If you are writing a book in your Indigenous language, apply now! See below for details.
Publisher pledges $1.6 million for endangered languages
Global effort needed to halt loss of priceless cultural knowledge
(Victoria, Canada and Oxford, UK) Over 6,500 indigenous languages around the world are severely endangered, with the last few remaining native speakers of many dialects dying each year. One publishing company is pledging over $1.6 million to help in the global race to document and teach these languages to youth.
The United Nations Education, Science and Culture Organization (UNESCO) established International Mother Language Day in 1999 to promote and celebrate mother tongues, the most powerful instruments of cultural preservation. UNESCO's goal for the 2006 event is to bring awareness to multilingual education and the role of languages in cyberspace.
To advance this important global cause, Trafford Publishing is making a donation to underwrite approximately $1,600,000 in publishing costs over the next ten years. The programme will make available primers for school children, dictionaries and local stories -- one book will be published in each of 650 endangered languages. Trafford has already published primers in 10 Canadian aboriginal endangered languages.
''When a native language dies out, we've lost forever our chance to learn cultural truths,'' says Trafford CEO Bruce Batchelor. ''Philosophy, lifestyle, science, healing -- all the nuances are tied up in the grammar, vocabulary and way of speaking. It is a tragedy if a language that encapsulates tens of thousands of years of a group's culture is lost forever. It's like standing by watching the destruction of the ancient library at Alexandria, without trying to put out the fire.''
Trafford's pledge was prompted by a request by Bothas Marinda of Namibia to have a book published in the ''Khwedam'' native language of the Bushman of the Kalahari. Peter Brand of First Peoples' Cultural Foundation, a Canadian non-profit which has been helping Marinda, passed along the idea to Batchelor who didn't want to limit this opportunity to only a few first nations or tribes.
''It is somewhat ironic that so many languages have been almost wiped out because of 'modern' culture,'' notes Batchelor. ''and now we can use innovations in publishing and technology to enable and empower locals to document and then teach their languages.''
Trafford Publishing is an innovative company which revolutionized the publishing industry when it created a process known as 'on-demand publishing' ten years ago. Now over 8,000 independent authors from over 100 countries publish their books with the company whose main offices are in Victoria, Canada and Oxford, England. Books are printed 'on-demand' one at a time to fill orders from bookstores and individuals, with most orders placed over the Internet. By linking with distributors and print shops in USA, Canada, Germany and England (with other countries to be added by the end of 2006), Trafford's authors enjoy the world's most extensive on-demand distribution network.
Trafford will make this global printing and distribution capability available to groups working to revitalize indigenous languages around the world.
First Peoples Cultural Foundation has created FirstVoices.com, a pioneering language revitalization technology. Aboriginal groups from 5 continents are using or preparing to use web-based dictionaries that hyperlink to pictures and the sound of each word being pronounced. Brand's team can convert standard PC keyboards for typing aboriginal characters which can be printed on most laser or inkjet printers in the international Unicode font standard.
Trafford Publishing (www.trafford.com) is a one of the world's most prolific publishers, releasing over 3,000 new titles each year. It was the first company in the world to offer 'on-demand publishing' services for business, agencies and individuals. Trafford's services are now being used by independent authors from over 105 countries. Its books are sold through major distributors and retailers around the world, with printing done in Canada, Germany, USA and UK. Trafford uses 'green' energy from solar, wind and other alternative sources to power its own print shop, which uses recycled paper. Some titles are also available as eBooks -- which use only recycled electrons!
FirstVoices.com is a set of web-based languages archiving and teaching resources, developed by First Peoples' Cultural Foundation -- a Canadian-based Indigenous non-profit society, based in British Columbia. Recent exposure for FirstVoices.com at international conferences in Canada, Japan and Botswana are raising the profile of the unique language tools, originally developed for the 198 First Nations in BC. A recent invitation to showcase FirstVoices.com at the second World Information Technology Forum (WITFOR) in Gaborone, Botswana acknowledges the successful development and implementation of a made-in-Canada technology solution developed by Indigenous people, for Indigenous people.
Based on retail pricing applicable to the various currency zones, Trafford's pledge is worth approximately $1,656,850 Canadian dollars or $1,442,900 US or 1,207,600 euro or 876,850 UK pounds sterling.
To request an information kit and application form, Indigenous language teams are invited to contact the Trafford FirstVoices Publishing Program coordinator Pauline Edwards. Email paulinefpcf.ca
Linguistic Field(s): Not Applicable
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