MULTILINGUALISM ON THE WEB MARIE LEBERT CEVEIL, Montreal, 1999 & NEF, University of Toronto, 2001 Copyright © 1999 Marie Lebert Dated February 1999, this study is divided into four parts: Multilingualism, Language Resources, Translation Resources and Language-Related Research. It isbased on many interviews. With many thanks to Laurie Chamberlain, who kindlyedited this paper. This study is also available in French: Le multilinguisme surle web. The original versions are available on the NEF, University of Toronto:http://www. Etudes-francaises. Net/entretiens/multi. Htm TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction 2. Multilingualism 3. Language Resources 4. Translation Resources 5. Language-Related Research 6. Index of Websites 7. Index of Names 1. INTRODUCTION It is true that the Internet transcends limitations of time, distances andborders, but what about languages? From the beginning, the main language of the Internet has been English, and itstill is today, but the use of other languages is steadily increasing. Sooner orlater, the distribution of languages on the Internet will correspond to thelanguage distribution on the planet, and free translation software in alllanguages will be available for an instantaneous translation of any website. Butthere is still a lot to do before multilingualism can be really effective. This study is divided into four parts: Multilingualism; Language Resources;Translation Resources; and Language-Related Research. In the chapter about multilingualism, we will study the growth of non-Englishlanguages on the Internet. French will be taken as an example, and the effortsin the European Union relating to the diversity of languages will be examined. In the chapter about language resources, we will give some examples of thelanguage resources available on the Web -- sites indexing language resources, language directories, language dictionaries and glossaries, textual databases, and terminological databases. In the chapter relating to translation resources, we will explore the problemsand perspectives linked to machine translation and computer-assistedtranslation. In the last chapter on language-related research, we will present some projectsrelating to machine translation research, computational linguistics, languageengineering, and internationalization and localization. In August and December 1998, I sent an inquiry, based on three questions, toorganizations and companies involved in languages on the Web. The threequestions were: a) How do you see multilingualism on the Internet?; b) What did the use of the Internet bring to your professional life and/or thelife of your company/organization; and c) How do you see your professional future with the Internet or the future ofInternet-related activities as regards languages? The answers received are included in this study. I express here my warmestthanks to all those who sent me their comments. [As a translator-editor - working mainly for the International Labour Office(ILO), Geneva, Switzerland - I am fascinated by languages in general, so Iwanted to know more about multilingualism on the Web. I found I had some time tolook into the subject and I wrote this paper about the topics I was particularlyinterested in (first version in November 1998, updated in February 1999). I amalso interested in the relationship between the print media and the Internet, and I wrote another paper about these topics too. ] 2. MULTILINGUALISM [In this chapter:] [2. 1. The Web: First English, Then Multilingual / 2. 2. A Non-English Language:The Example of French / 2. 3. Diversity of Languages: The Situation in Europe] 2. 1. The Web: First English, Then Multilingual In the beginning, the Internet was nearly 100% English, which can be easilyexplained because it was created in the United States as a network set up by thePentagon (in 1969) before spreading to US governmental agencies and touniversities. After the creation of the World Wide Web in 1989-90 by TimBerners-Lee at the European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN), in Geneva, Switzerland, and the distribution of the first browser Mosaic (the ancestor ofNetscape) from November 1993 onwards, the Web too began to spread -- first inthe US thanks to considerable investments made by the government, then aroundNorth America, and then to the rest of the world. The fact that there are many more Internet surfers in the US and Canada than inany other country is due to different factors -- these countries are among theleaders in the latest computing and communication technologies, and hardware andsoftware, as well as local phone communications, are much cheaper there than inthe rest of the world. In Hugues Henry's article, La francophonie en quête d'identité sur le Web, published by the cybermagazine Multimédium, Jean-Pierre Cloutier, author ofChroniques de Cybérie, a weekly cybermagazine widely read in the French-speakingInternet community, explains: "In Quebec I am spending about 120 hours per month on-line. My Internet accessis $30 [Canadian]; if I add my all-inclusive phone bill which is about $40 (withvarious optional services), the total cost of my connection is $70 per month. Ileave you to guess what the price would be in France, in Belgium or inSwitzerland, where the local communications are billed by the minute, for thesame number of hours on-line. " It follows that Belgian, French or Swiss surfers spend much less time on the Webthan they would like, or choose to surf at night to cut somehow their expenses. In 1997, Babel -- a joint initiative from Alis Technologies and the InternetSociety, ran the first major study of the actual distribution of languages onthe Internet. The results are published in the Web Languages Hit Parade, datedJune 1997, and the languages, listed in order of usage, are: English 82. 3%, German 4. 0%, Japanese 1. 6%, French 1. 5%, Spanish 1. 1%, Swedish 1. 1%, and Italian1. 0%. In Web embraces language translation, an article published in ZDNN (ZD NetworkNews) of July 21, 1998, Martha L. Stone explained: "This year, the number of new non-English websites is expected to outpace thegrowth of new sites in English, as the cyber world truly becomes a 'World WideWeb. ' [. .. ] According to Global Reach, the fastest growing groups of Web newbiesare non-English-speaking: Spanish, 22. 4 percent; Japanese, 12. 3 percent; German, 14 percent; and French, 10 percent. An estimated 55. 7 million people access theWeb whose native language is not English. [. .. ] Only 6 percent of the worldpopulation speaks English as a native language (16 percent speak Spanish), whileabout 80 percent of all web pages are in English. " According to Global Reach, 92% of the world does not speak English. As the Webquickly spreads worldwide, more and more operators of English-language siteswhich are concerned by the internationalization of the Web recognize that, although English may be the main international language for exchanges of allkinds, not everyone in the world reads English. Since December 1997 any Internet surfer can use the AltaVista Translationservice, which translates English web pages (up to three pages at the same time)into French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish, and vice versa. TheInternet surfer can also buy and use Web translation software. In both cases hewill get a usable but imperfect machine-translated result which may be veryhelpful, but will never have the same quality as a translation prepared by ahuman translator with special knowledge of the subject and the contents of thesite. The increase in multilingual sites will make it possible to include more diverselanguages on the Internet. And more free translation software will improvecommunication among everyone in the international Internet community. To reach as large an audience as possible, the solution is to create bilingual, trilingual, multilingual sites. The website of the Belgian daily newspaper LeSoir gives a presentation of the newspaper in six languages: French, English, Dutch, German, Italian and Spanish. The French Club des poètes (Club of Poets), a French site dedicated to poetry, presents its site in English, Spanish andPortuguese. E-Mail-Planet, a free e-mail address provider, provides a menu insix languages (English, Finnish, French, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish). Robert Ware is the creator of OneLook Dictionaries, a fast finder for 2, 058, 544words in 425 dictionaries in various fields: business, computer/Internet;medical; miscellaneous; religion; science; sports; technology; general; andslang. In his e-mail to me of September 2, 1998, he wrote: "An interesting thing happened earlier in the history of the Internet and Ithink I learned something from it. In 1994, I was working for a college and trying to install a software package ona particular type of computer. I located a person who was working on the sameproblem and we began exchanging e-mail. Suddenly, it hit me. .. The software waswritten only 30 miles away but I was getting help from a person half way aroundthe world. Distance and geography no longer mattered! OK, this is great! But what is it leading to? I am only able to communicate inEnglish but, fortunately, the other person could use English as well as Germanwhich was his mother tongue. The Internet has removed one barrier (distance) butwith that comes the barrier of language. It seems that the Internet is moving people in two quite different directions atthe same time. The Internet (initially based on English) is connecting peopleall around the world. This is further promoting a common language for people touse for communication. But it is also creating contact between people ofdifferent languages and creates a greater interest in multilingualism. A commonlanguage is great but in no way replaces this need. So the Internet promotes both a common language AND multilingualism. The goodnews is that it helps provide solutions. The increased interest and need iscreating incentives for people around the world to create improved languagecourses and other assistance and the Internet is providing fast and inexpensiveopportunities to make them available. " 2. 2. A Non-English Language: The Example of French Let us take French as an example of a non-English language. Since 1996 the number of sites in French has increased significantly. There wereabout 20, 000 sites in French in mid-1997, and more of a third of them were fromQuebec. Since the beginning of 1998 we can see a larger number of new Frenchwebsites, particularly in the field of electronic commerce. "For two years Ihave being waiting for France to wake up. Today I'll not complain about it, "Louise Beaudouin, the Minister of Culture and Communications in Quebec, declaredon February 10, 1998, when interviewed by the daily cybermagazine Multimédium. Until early 1998, Quebec and its 6 million inhabitants had more websites thanFrance did with its 60 million inhabitants. In her interview, Louise Beaudouingave two reasons for France's lagging behind Quebec -- the first is the highcost of phone service, and the second is the widespread use of the Minitel forcommercial transactions. Developed 15 years ago by France Télécom, the French state telephone company, the Minitel is a terminal which gives access to the French videotex network, aswell as facilitating electronic commerce transactions. As this very handy toolhas been in use for years, it slowed down the expansion of French electroniccommerce on the Internet. Little by little, many of the French companies ororganizations with Minitel servers are creating websites, which are cheaper toconsult, easier to use because of hypertext links, and more pleasing to the eyebecause of colors, graphics and multimedia tools. French is not only spoken in France, Quebec, and parts of Belgium andSwitzerland, it is the official language of 49 states (particularly in Africa)and is spoken worldwide by 500 million people. Created in 1970 with 21French-speaking states, the Agence de la francophonie (Agency of FrancophoneCountries) counts 47 members today. Its goal is to be an instrument ofmultilateral cooperation to create a community representing the French-speakingcountries at the international level. Following the decisions of the Heads of States and Governments ofFrench-speaking Countries during their meeting in Hanoi, Vietnam, in November1997, the Fonds francophone des inforoutes (Francophone Fund for InformationHighways) was established on June 3, 1998. Thirteen Francophone states andgovernments participated: the Belgian-French Community, Benin, Cameroon, Canada, Canada-New Brunswick, Canada-Quebec, Côte d'Ivoire, France, Gabon, Lebanon, Monaco, Senegal, and Switzerland. This Fund's mission had been outlined six months earlier, according to severaldirectives given by the Conférence des ministres chargés des inforoutes(Conference of Ministers in Charge of the Information Highways) held inMontreal, Quebec, in May 1997. It supported: democratization of the access toinformation highways; development of education, training and research;reinforcement of content creation and circulation; promotion of economic andsocial development; setting up of a Francophone awareness service;awareness-raising of young people, producers and investors; setting up of aconcerted Francophone presence within the international authorities in charge ofthe development of information highways. The Fund's activities are particularlyaimed at financing multilateral projects which would strengthen partnershipsbetween North and South. French is not only the language of 49 countries and 500 million inhabitants inthe world, it is also the second international language used in internationalorganizations. Despite the real and alleged pressure of the English-speakingcommunity, French-speaking people insist on their language being given a fairposition in the world, and receiving the same consideration given to other mainlanguages of communication, such as English, Arabic, Chinese or Spanish. Just asfor any other non-English language-based culture, the French wish to stand upfor their own language as well as for multilingualism and the diversity ofpeople and culture. At present it is important for any language to be represented through websitesin its own language, with the possibility for Internet surfers to study it in adynamic way through self-taught programs, language dictionaries, or linguisticdatabases. For example, in France, the Institut national de la langue française(INaLF) (National Institute of the French Language) created its site in December1997 to present its research programs on the French language, particularly itslexicon. The INaLF's constantly expanded and renewed data, processed by specificand original computing systems, deal with all the aspects of the Frenchlanguage: literary discourse (14th-20th centuries), standard language (writtenand spoken), scientific and technical language (terminologies), and regionallanguages. In her e-mail response of June 8, 1998, Christiane Jadelot, an engineer atINaLF-Nancy, France, explained: "At the request of Robert Martin, the Head of INaLF, our first pages were postedon the Internet by mid-1996. I participated in the creation of these web pageswith tools that cannot be compared to the ones we have nowadays. I was workingwith tools on UNIX, which were not very easy to use. At this time, we had littleexperience in this field, and the pages were very wordy. But the managing teamwas thinking it was urgent for us to be known through the Internet, a tool manyenterprises were already using to promote their products. As we are a Departmentof Research and Services (Unité de recherche et de service), we have to findclients for our computer products, the best known being the textual databaseFRANTEXT. I think FRANTEXT was already on the Internet [since early 1995], andthere was also a prototype of the volume 14 of the TLF [Trésor de la languefrançaise (Treasure of the French Language), by Jean Nicot, 1606]. Therefore itwas necessary for INaLF activities to be known by this means. It corresponded toa general need. " Every non-English language community is working for its language to berepresented on the Web and for the international Internet to be multilingual. Asan example, a non-profit organization created by the Government of Quebec, theCentre d'expertise et de veille Inforoutes et Langues (CEVEIL) (Centre ofExpertise and Awareness for Information Highways and Languages) is setting up, in a more specifically French-oriented approach, an expertise network and someawareness-raising activities on the language problems of information highways. Guy Bertrand, scientific director of CEVEIL, and Cynthia Delisle, consultant, answered my questions in their e-mail of August 23, 1998. ML: "How do you see multilingualism on the Web?" CEVEIL: "Multilingualism on the Internet is the logical and natural consequenceof the diversity of human populations. Because the Web has first been developedand used in the United States, it is not really surprising that this mediumbegan by being essentially Anglophone (and still is at present). However thissituation is beginning to change and this movement will go on expanding, bothbecause most of the new network users will not have English as a mother tongueand because the [non-English] communities already present on the Web will nolonger accept the hegemony of the English language and will want to use theInternet in their own language, at least partially. We can plan that, in several years, we'll have a situation similar to the one inpublishing regarding the representation of different languages. This means thanonly a small number of languages will be in use (compared to the severalthousands which exist). In this perspective, we believe that the Web -- amongother parties -- should seek to further support minority cultures and languages, particularly for dispersed communities. Finally, the arrival on the Internet of languages other than English, whilerequiring true readjustments and providing undeniable enrichment, points out theneed for linguistic processing tools capable of effectively managing thissituation. These will emerge as the result of research studies and awarenessactivities in areas such as machine translation, standardization, informationlocation, automatic condensation (summaries), etc. " ML: "What did the use of the Internet bring to the life of CEVEIL?" CEVEIL: "Let us first mention that the existence of the Web is one of thegrounds of existence of CEVEIL, as we concentrate our activities mainly aroundthe set of themes of the language use and processing on the Internet. Moreover the Web is our main field for gathering information on the set ofthemes we are concerned with. Among others, we regularly and frequently watchthe sites circulating daily and/or weekly news. At this level, we can saywithout hesitation that we use the Internet more than the other availablewritten resources to carry out our activities. Otherwise we prolifically use electronic mail to maintain relations with ourcontributors in order to obtain information and realize some projects. CEVEIL isa 'network structure' which would survive with difficulty without the Internetto connect together all the people who are implicated. Finally it is useful to point out that the Web is also our most important toolfor distributing our products to our target clients: sending of electronic newsreports to our subscribers, creation of an electronic periodical, informationand document distribution via our website, etc. " ML: "How does CEVEIL see the future of Internet-related activities as regardslanguages?" CEVEIL: "The Internet is here to stay. The arrival of languages other thanEnglish to this medium also is irreversible. Therefore it is necessary to takethese new facts into consideration from an economic, social, political, cultural, etc. , point of view. Sectors such as advertising, vocational training, work in groups or within networks and knowledge management, will consequentlyhave to evolve. As we mentioned above, it brings us back to the necessarydevelopment of really effective technologies and tools which will furtherexchanges in a really multilingual global village. .. " 2. 3. Diversity of Languages: The Situation in Europe Henri Slettenhaar, professor at the Webster University, Geneva, Switzerland, isa trilingual European. He is Dutch, he teaches computer science in English, andhe speaks French too because he lives in France. He answered my questions in hise-mail of December 21, 1998. ML: "How do you see multilingualism on the Internet?" HS: "I see multilingualism as a very important issue. Local communities whichare on the Web should use the local language first and foremost for theirinformation. If they want to be able to present their information to the worldcommunity as well, their information should be in English as well. I see a realneed for bilingual websites. " ML: "How do you see the future of Internet-related activities as regardslanguages?" HS: "As far as languages are concerned, I am delighted that there are so manyofferings in the original languages now. I much prefer to read the original withdifficulty than to get a bad translation. " According to Global Reach, only 15% of Europe's half a billion population speaksEnglish as a first language, and only 28% speaks English at all. A recent studyshowed that only 32% of Web surfers on the European continent consult the Web inEnglish. Founder of Euro-Marketing Associates (including Global Reach), Bill Dunlap, whochampions European e-commerce among his fellow American compatriates, explainedin his e-mail of December 12, 1998 that, contrary to North America, "in Europe[. .. ], the countries are small enough so that an international perspective hasbeen necessary for centuries. " There are many European organizations dealing with multilingualism, such as theEuropean Language Resources Association (ELRA), the European Network in Languageand Speech (ELSNET) and the Multilingual Information Society (MLIS) Programme ofthe European Union. The European Language Resources Association (ELRA) was established as anon-profit organization in Luxembourg in February 1995. Its overall goal is toprovide a centralized organization for the validation, management, anddistribution of speech, text, and terminology resources and tools, and topromote their use within the European telematics RTD (research and technologicaldevelopment) community. Its website is bilingual English-French. The European Network in Language and Speech (ELSNET) has over a hundred Europeanacademic and industrial institutions as members. The long-term technologicalgoal which unites the participants of ELSNET is to build multilingual speech andNL (natural language) systems with unrestricted coverage of both spoken andwritten language. In his e-mail of September 23, 1998, Steven Krauwer, ELSNET coordinator, explained: "-- as a European citizen I think that multilingualism on the Web is absolutelyessential, as in the long run I don't think that it is a healthy situation whenonly those who have a reasonable command of English can fully exploit thebenefits of the Web; -- as a researcher (specialized in machine translation) I see multilingualism asa major challenge: how can we ensure that all information on the Web isaccessible to everybody, irrespective of language differences. [The Internet] is my main instrument to communicate with others, and it is mymain source of information. [. .. ] I am sure I will spend the rest of myprofessional life trying to use IT to take away or at least lower the languagebarriers. " The Multilingual Information Society (MLIS) Programme of the European Unionpromotes the linguistic diversity of the EU in the information society. Itintends to raise awareness of and stimulate provision of multilingual services, tolerable conditions for the language industries, reduced cost of informationtransfer among languages and contribute to the promotion of linguisticdiversity. The home page of the website is in English, and documents are issuesin many of all 11 EU official languages: Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish. Linguistic pluralism and diversity are everybody's business, as explained in apetition launched by the European Committee for the Respect of Cultures andLanguages in Europe (ECRCLE) "for a humanist and multilingual Europe, rich ofits cultural diversity". "Linguistic pluralism and diversity are not obstacles to the free circulation ofmen, ideas, goods and services, as would like to suggest some objective allies, consciously or not, of the dominant language and culture. Indeed, standardization and hegemony are the obstacles to the free blossoming ofindividuals, societies and the information economy, the main source oftomorrow's jobs. On the contrary, the respect for languages is the last hope forEurope to get closer to the citizens, an objective always claimed and almostnever put into practice. The Union must therefore give up privileging thelanguage of one group. " The full text of the petition is available on the Web in the 11 Europeanofficial languages of the European Union. The ECRCLE also asks the revisors ofthe Treaty of the European Union to include in the text of the treaty therespect of national cultures and languages. The proposals are concrete. Inparticular, the petition asks the governments in each country to "teach theyouth at least two, and preferably three foreign European languages; encouragethe national audiovisual and musical industries; and favour the diffusion ofEuropean works. " In Language Futures Europe, Paul Treanor collects links on language policy, multilingualism, global language structures, and the dominance of English. Thesite starts with a comment on the structures of language. It offers texts andessays, sections on EU policy, national policies, and research sites, and linkson the emerging "monolingual movement" in the United States. In his e-mail of August 18, 1998, Paul Treanor sent his comments on thequestions I sent him: "First, you speak of the Web in the singular. As you may have read, I think 'THEWEB' is a political, not a technological concept. A civilization is possiblewith extremely advanced computers, but no interconnection. The idea that thereshould be ONE WEB is derived from the liberal tradition of the single open, preferably global market. I already suggested that the Internet should simply be broken up, and thatEurope should cut the links with the US, and build a systematically incompatiblenet for Europe. As soon as you imagine the possibility of multiple nets, thelanguage issues you list in your study are often irrelevant. Remember that 15years ago, everyone thought that there would be one global TV station, CNN. Nowthere are French, German, Spanish global TV channels. So the answer to yourquestion is that the 'one web' will split up anyway: probably into these 4components: a) an internal US/Canadian anglophone net, with many of the originalcharacteristics; b) separate national nets, with limited outside links; c) a new global net specifically to link the nets of category 2; d) possibly a specific EU net. As you see, this structure parallels the existing geopolitical structure. Alltelecommunications infrastructure has followed similar patterns. I think that it is not possible to approach the Web in the neutral apoliticalway suggested by your study. Current EU policy pretends to be neutral in thisway, but in fact is supporting the growth of English as a contact-language in EUcommunications policy. " 3. LANGUAGE RESOURCES [In this chapter:] [3. 1. Sites Indexing Language Resources / 3. 2. Language Directories / 3. 3. Dictionaries and Glossaries / 3. 4. Textual Databases / 3. 5. TerminologicalDatabases] 3. 1. Sites Indexing Language Resources Prepared by the Telematics for Libraries Programme of the European Union, Multilingual Tools and Services gives a series of links to dictionaries, multilingual support, projects, search engines by language, terminology databanks, thesauri, and translation systems. Created by Tyler Chambers in May 1994, The Human-Languages Page is acomprehensive catalog of 1, 800 language-related Internet resources in more than100 different languages. The subject listings are: languages and literature;schools and institutions; linguistics resources; products and services;organizations; jobs and internships. The category listings are: dictionaries andlanguage lessons. Tyler Chambers' other main language-related project is the Internet DictionaryProject. As explained on the website: "The Internet Dictionary Project's goal is to create royalty-free translatingdictionaries through the help of the Internet's citizens. This site allowsindividuals from all over the world to visit and assist in the translation ofEnglish words into other languages. The resulting lists of English words andtheir translated counterparts are then made available through this site toanyone, with no restrictions on their use. [. .. ] The Internet Dictionary Project began in 1995 in an effort to provide anoticeably lacking resource to the Internet community and to computing ingeneral -- free translating dictionaries. Not only is it helpful to the on-linecommunity to have access to dictionary searches at their fingertips via theWorld Wide Web, it also sponsors the growth of computer software which canbenefit from such dictionaries -- from translating programs to spelling-checkersto language-education guides and more. By facilitating the creation of thesedictionaries on-line by thousands of anonymous volunteers all over the Internet, and by providing the results free-of-charge to anyone, the Internet DictionaryProject hopes to leave its mark on the Internet and to inspire others to createprojects which will benefit more than a corporation's gross income. " Tyler Chambers answered my questions in his e-mail of 14 September 1998. ML: "How do you see multilingualism on the Web?" TC: "Multilingualism on the Web was inevitable even before the medium 'tookoff', so to speak. 1994 was the year I was really introduced to the Web, whichwas a little while after its christening but long before it was mainstream. Thatwas also the year I began my first multilingual Web project, and there wasalready a significant number of language-related resources on-line. This wasback before Netscape even existed -- Mosaic was almost the only Web browser, andweb pages were little more than hyperlinked text documents. As browsers andusers mature, I don't think there will be any currently spoken language thatwon't have a niche on the Web, from Native American languages to Middle Easterndialects, as well as a plethora of 'dead' languages that will have a chance tofind a new audience with scholars and others alike on-line. To my knowledge, there are very few language types which are not currently on-line: browserscurrently have the capability to display Roman characters, Asian languages, theCyrillic alphabet, Greek, Turkish, and more. Accent Software has a productcalled 'Internet with an Accent' which claims to be able to display over 30different language encodings. If there are currently any barriers to anyparticular language being on the Web, they won't last long. " ML: "What did the use of the Internet bring to your professional life?" TC: "My professional life is currently completely separate from my Internetlife. Professionally, I'm a computer programmer/techie -- I find it challengingand it pays the bills. On-line, my work has been with making languageinformation available to more people through a couple of my Web-based projects. While I'm not multilingual, nor even bilingual, myself, I see an importance tolanguage and multilingualism that I see in very few other areas. The Internethas allowed me to reach millions of people and help them find what they'relooking for, something I'm glad to do. It has also made me somewhat of acelebrity, or at least a familiar name in certain circles -- I just found outthat one of my Web projects had a short mention in Time Magazine's Asia andInternational issues. Overall, I think that the Web has been great for languageawareness and cultural issues -- where else can you randomly browse for 20minutes and run across three or more different languages with information youmight potentially want to know? Communications mediums make the world smaller bybringing people closer together; I think that the Web is the first (of mail, telegraph, telephone, radio, TV) to really cross national and cultural bordersfor the average person. Israel isn't thousands of miles away anymore, it's a fewclicks away -- our world may now be small enough to fit inside a computerscreen. " ML: "How do you see the future of Internet-related activities as regardslanguages?" TC: "As I've said before, I think that the future of the Internet is even moremultilingualism and cross-cultural exploration and understanding than we'vealready seen. But the Internet will only be the medium by which this informationis carried; like the paper on which a book is written, the Internet itself addsvery little to the content of information, but adds tremendously to its value inits ability to communicate that information. To say that the Internet isspurring multilingualism is a bit of a misconception, in my opinion -- it iscommunication that is spurring multilingualism and cross-cultural exchange, theInternet is only the latest mode of communication which has made its way down tothe (more-or-less) common person. The Internet has a long way to go before beingubiquitous around the world, but it, or some related progeny, likely will. Language will become even more important than it already is when the entireplanet can communicate with everyone else (via the Web, chat, games, e-mail, andwhatever future applications haven't even been invented yet), but I don't knowif this will lead to stronger language ties, or a consolidation of languagesuntil only a few, or even just one remain. One thing I think is certain is thatthe Internet will forever be a record of our diversity, including languagediversity, even if that diversity fades away. And that's one of the things Ilove about the Internet -- it's a global model of the saying 'it's not reallygone as long as someone remembers it'. And people do remember. " Since its inception in 1989, the CTI (Computer in Teaching Initiative) Centrefor Modern Languages has been based in the Language Institute at the Universityof Hull, United Kingdom, and aims to promote and encourage the use of computersin language learning and teaching. The Centre provides information on howcomputer assisted language learning (CALL) can be effectively integrated intoexisting courses and offers support for language lecturers who are using, or whowish to use, computers in their teaching. June Thompson, Manager of the Centre, answered my questions in his e-mail ofDecember 14, 1998. ML: "How do you see multilingualism on the Internet?" JT: "The Internet has the potential to increase the use of foreign languages, and our organisation certainly opposed any trend towards the dominance ofEnglish as the language of the Internet. An interesting paper on this topic wasdelivered by Madanmohan Rao at the WorldCALL conference in Melbourne, July1998. " [See details of the forthcoming conference book] ML: "What did the use of the Internet bring to the life of your organization?" JT: "The use of the Internet has brought an enormous new dimension to our workof supporting language teachers in their use of technology in teaching. " ML: "How do you see the future of Internet-related activities as regardslanguages?" JT: "I suspect that for some time to come, the use of Internet-relatedactivities for languages will continue to develop alongside othertechnology-related activities (e. G. Use of CD-ROMs - not all institutions haveenough networked hardware). In the future I can envisage use of Internet playinga much larger part, but only if such activities are pedagogy-driven. Ourorganisation is closely associated with the WELL project [Web Enhanced LanguageLearning] which devotes itself to these issues. " Hosted by the CTI Centre for Modern Languages and the University of Hull (UnitedKingdom), EUROCALL is the European Association for Computer Assisted LanguageLearning. This association of language teaching professionals from Europe andworldwide aims to: promote the use of foreign languages within Europe; provide aEuropean focus for all aspects of the use of technology for language learning;enhance the quality, dissemination and efficiency of CALL (computer assistedlanguage learning) materials; and support Special Interest Groups (SIGs):CAPITAL (Computer Assisted Pronunciation Investigation Teaching and Learning), agroup of researchers and practitioners interested in using the computers in thedomain of pronunciation in the widest sense of the word, and WELL (Web EnhancedLanguage Learning), which will provide access to high-quality Web resources in12 languages, selected and described by subject experts, plus information andexamples on how to use them for teaching and learning. Internet Resources for Language Teachers and Learners offers several categoriesof links: general languages resources (centres and departments, dictionaries andgrammars; discussion lists; distance language learning; fonts; journals;linguistics; lists and indexes; miscellaneous; newspapers and periodicals;organizations; resource sites; software; translation and interpreting);language-specific resources; multilingual language sites; search engines andindexes; and commercial language sites (audiovisual, language schools, resourcesand directories, software). Maintained by the Institute of Phonetic Sciences, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Speech on the Web is an extensive list of links organized in various sections:congresses, meetings, and workshops; links and lists; phonetics and speech;natural language processing, cognitive science, and AI (artificialintelligence); computational linguistics; dictionaries; electronic newsletters, journals and publications. Travlang is a site dedicated both to travel and languages. Created by Michael C. Martin in 1994 on the site of his university when he was a student in physics, Foreign Languages for Travelers, included in Travlang in 1995, gives thepossibility to learn 60 different languages on the Web. Translating Dictionariesgives access to free dictionaries in various languages (Afrikaans, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Esperanto, Finnish, French, Frisian, German, Hungarian, Italian, Latin, Norwegian, Portuguese, and Spanish). Maintained by its founder, who isnow a researcher in experimental physics at the Lawrence Berkeley NationalLaboratory, California, the site offers numerous links to language dictionaries, translation services, language schools, multilingual bookstores, etc. Michael C. Martin answered my questions in his e-mail of August 25, 1998. ML: "How do you see multilingualism on the Web?" MCM: "I think the Web is an ideal place to bring different cultures and peopletogether, and that includes being multilingual. Our Travlang site is so popularbecause of this, and people desire to feel in touch with other parts of theworld. " ML: "What did the use of the Internet bring to your professional life?" MCM: "Well, certainly we've made a little business of it! The Internet is reallya great tool for communicating with people you wouldn't have the opportunity tointeract with otherwise. I truly enjoy the global collaboration that has madeour Foreign Languages for Travelers pages possible. " ML: "How do you see the future of Internet-related activities as regardslanguages?" MCM: "I think computerized full-text translations will become more common, enabling a lot of basic communications with even more people. This will alsohelp bring the Internet more completely to the non-English speaking world. " The LINGUIST List is the component of the WWW Virtual Library for linguistics. It gives an extensive series of links on linguistic resources: the profession(conferences, linguistic associations, programs, etc. ); research and researchsupport (papers, dissertation abstracts, projects, bibliographies, topics, texts); publications; pedagogy; language resources (languages, languagefamilies, dictionaries, regional information); and computer support (fonts andsoftware). Helen Dry, moderator of the LINGUIST List, explained in her e-mail of August 18, 1998: "The LINGUIST List, which I moderate, has a policy of posting in any language, since it's a list for linguists. However, we discourage posting the same messagein several languages, simply because of the burden extra messages put on oureditorial staff. (We are not a bounce-back list, but a moderated one. So eachmessage is organized into an issue with like messages by our student editorsbefore it is posted. ) Our experience has been that almost everyone chooses topost in English. But we do link to a translation facility that will present ourpages in any of 5 languages; so a subscriber need not read LINGUIST in Englishunless s/he wishes to. We also try to have at least one student editor who isgenuinely multilingual, so that readers can correspond with us in languagesother than English. " Maintained by the Yamada Language Center of the University of Oregon, the YamadaWWW Language Guides is a directory of language resources by geographic familyand alphabetic family. It covers organizations, teaching institutes, curriculummaterials, cultural references, and WWW links. Language today is a new magazine for people working in applied languages:translators, interpreters, terminologists, lexicographers and technical writers. It is a collaborative project between Logos, who provide the website, andPraetorius, the UK language consultancy which keeps itself constantly informedabout developments in applied languages. The site gives links to translatorsassociations, language schools, and dictionaries. Geoffrey Kingscott, managing director of Praetorius, answered my questions inhis e-mail of September 4, 1998. ML: "How do you see multilingualism on the Web?" GK: "Because the salient characteristics of the Web are the multiplicity of sitegenerators and the cheapness of message generation, as the Web matures it willin fact promote multilingualism. The fact that the Web originated in the USAmeans that it is still predominantly in English but this is only a temporaryphenomenon. If I may explain this further, when we relied on the print andaudiovisual (film, television, radio, video, cassettes) media, we had to dependon the information or entertainment we wanted to receive being brought to us byagents (publishers, television and radio stations, cassette and video producers)who have to subsist in a commercial world or -- as in the case of public servicebroadcasting -- under severe budgetary restraints. That means that the size ofthe customer-base is all-important, and determines the degree to which languagesother than the ubiquitous English can be accommodated. These constraintsdisappear with the Web. To give only a minor example from our own experience, wepublish the print version of Language Today only in English, the commondenominator of our readers. When we use an article which was originally in alanguage other than English, or report an interview which was conducted in alanguage other than English, we translate into English and publish only theEnglish version. This is because the number of pages we can print isconstrained, governed by our customer-base (advertisers and subscribers). Butfor our Web edition we also give the original version. " ML: "What did the use of the Internet bring to your company?" GK: "The Internet has made comparatively little difference to our company. It isan additional medium rather than one which will replace all others. " ML: "How do you see the future with the Internet?" GK: "We will continue to have a company website, and to publish a version of themagazine on the Web, but it will remain only one factor in our work. We do usethe Internet as a source of information which we then distill for our readers, who would otherwise be faced with the biggest problem of the Web --undiscriminating floods of information. " 3. 2. Language Directories The Ethnologue is the electronic version of The Ethnologue, 13th ed. , (editor:Barbara F. Grimes, consulting editors: Richard S. Pittman and Joseph E. Grimes), published in 1996 by the Summer Institute of Linguistics, Dallas, Texas. Thiscatalogue of more than 6, 700 languages spoken in 228 countries is accessiblethrough two search tools: The Ethnologue Name Index, which lists language names, dialect names, and alternate names, and The Ethnologue Language Family Index, which organizes languages according to language families. Barbara F. Grimes, editor of The Ethnologue, wrote in her e-mail of August 18, 1998: "Multilingual web pages are more widely useful, but much more costly tomaintain. We have had requests for The Ethnologue in a few other languages, butwe do not have the personnel or funds to do the translation or maintenance, since it is constantly being updated. We have found the Internet to be useful, convenient, and supplementary to ourwork. Our main use of it is for e-mail. It is a convenient means of making information more widely available to a wideraudience than the printed Ethnologue provides. On the other hand, many people in the audience we wish to reach do not haveaccess to computers, so in some ways the Ethnologue on Internet reaches alimited audience who own computers. I am particularly thinking of people in theso-called 'third world'. " Created in December 1995 by Yoshi Mikami of Asia Info Network, The Languages ofthe World by Computers and the Internet (commonly called Logos Home Page orKotoba Home Page) gives, for each language, its brief history, features, writingsystem, and character set and keyboard for computers and the Internetprocessing. In his e-mail of December 17, 1998, Yoshi Mikami wrote: "My native tongue is Japanese. Because I had my graduate education in the US andworked in the computer business, I became bilingual Japanese/American English. Iwas always interested in different languages and cultures, so I learned someRussian, French and Chinese along the way. In late 1995, I created on the WebThe Languages of the World by Computers and the Internet and tried to summarizethere the brief history, linguistic and phonetic features, writing system andcomputer processing for each of the six major languages of the world, in Englishand Japanese. As I gained more experience, I invited my two associates to writea book on viewing, understanding and creating the multilingual web pages, whichwas published in August, 1997, as "The Multilingual Web Guide" (see its supportpage) in the Japanese edition, the world's first book on such a subject. Thousands of years ago, in Egypt, China and elsewhere, people were moreconscious about communicating their laws and thoughts not in just one language, but in different languages. In our modern world, each nation state has adoptedmore or less one language for its own use. I see in the future of the Internet agreater use of different languages and multilingual pages, not a simplegravitation to American English, and a more creative use of multilingualcomputer translation. Ninety nine percent of the Webs created in Japan arewritten in Japanese!" Maintained on the website of the College Sabhal Mór Ostaig, Island of Skye, Scotland, by Caoimhín P. Ó Donnaíle, European Minority Languages is a list ofminority languages by alphabetic order and by language family. The site alsogives links to other sites dealing with the same subject worldwide. Caoimhín P. Ó Donnaíle wrote in her e-mail of August 18, 1998: "-- The Internet has contributed and will contribute to the wildfire spread ofEnglish as a world language. -- The Internet can greatly help minority languages, but this will not happen byitself. It will only happen if people want to maintain the language as an aim initself. -- The Web is very useful for delivering language lessons, and there is a bigdemand for this. -- The Unicode (ISO 10646) character set standard is very important and willgreatly assist in making the Internet more multilingual. " 3. 3. Dictionaries and Glossaries There are more and more on-line dictionaries. Let us give three examples(English, French and multilingual). In Merriam-Webster Online: the Language Center, a main publisher of Englishdictionaries gives free access to a collection of on-line resources. The goal isto help track down definitions, spellings, pronunciations, synonyms, vocabularyexercises, and other key facts about words and language. The main on-lineresources are: WWWebster Dictionary, WWebster Thesaurus, Webster's Third (alexical landmark), Guide to International Business Communications, VocabularyBuilder (with interactive vocabulary quizzes), and the Barnhart DictionaryCompanion (hot new words). The Dictionnaire francophone en ligne is the web version of the Dictionnaireuniversel francophone, published by Hachette, a major French publisher, and theAgence universitaire de la Francophonie (AUPELF-UREF) (University Agency forFrancophony), which presents the standard French and the French words andexpressions used in the five continents. The Logos Dictionary is a multilingual dictionary with 8 million entry words inall languages. Logos, an international translation company based in Modena, Italy, gives free access to the linguistic tools used by its translators: 200translators in its headquarters and 2, 500 translators on-line all over theworld, who process around 200 texts per day. Apart from the Logos Dictionary, these tools include: the Wordtheque, a word-by-word multilingual library with amassive database (325 million words) containing multilingual novels, technicalliterature and translated texts; Linguistic Resources, a database of 536glossaries; and the Universal Conjugator, a database for conjugation of verbs in17 languages. In Les mots pour le dire, an article of the French daily newspaper Le Monde ofDecember 7, 1997, Annie Kahn wrote: "The Logos site is much more than a mere dictionary or a collection of links toother on-line dictionaries. A cornerstone of the system is the document searchsoftware, which processes a corpus of literary texts available free of charge onthe Web. If you search for the definition or the translation of a word('didactique', for example), you get not only the answer sought, but also aquote from one of the literary works containing the word (in our case, an essayby Voltaire). All it takes is a click on the mouse to access the whole text oreven to order the book, thanks to a partnership agreement with Amazon. Com, thewell-known on-line book shop. Foreign translations are also available. Ifhowever no text containing the required word is found, the system acts as asearch engine, sending the user to other websites concerning the term inquestion. In the case of certain words, you can even hear the pronunciation. Ifthere is no translation currently available, the system calls on the public tocontribute. Everyone can make their own suggestion, after which Logostranslators and the company verify the translations forwarded. " In the same article, Rodrigo Vergara, the Head of Logos, explained: "We wanted all our translators to have access to the same translation tools. Sowe made them available on the Internet, and while we were at it we decided tomake the site open to the public. This made us extremely popular, and also gaveus a lot of exposure. In fact the operation attracted a great number ofcustomers, and also allowed us to widen our network of translators, thanks tothe contacts made in the wake of this initiative. " The dictionary directories are invaluable tools for linguists, such asDictionnaires électroniques (Electronic Dictionaries), OneLook Dictionaries andA Web of Online Dictionaries. Dictionnaires électroniques (Electronic Dictionaries) is an extensive list ofelectronic dictionaries prepared by the Section française des Serviceslinguistiques centraux (SLC-f) (French Section of the Central LinguisticServices) of the Swiss Federal Administration, and classified into five mainsections: abbreviations and acronyms; monolingual dictionaries; bilingualdictionaries; multilingual dictionaries; and geographical information. Thesearch of a dictionary is also possible by key-words. Marcel Grangier, head of this section, answered my questions in his e-mail ofJanuary 14, 1999. ML: "How do you see multilingualism on the Internet?" MG: "Multilingualism on the Internet can be seen as a happy and above allirreversible inevitability. In this perspective we have to make fun of the wetblankets who only speak to complain about the supremacy of English. Thissupremacy is not wrong in itself, inasmuch as it is the result of mainlystatistical facts (more PCs per inhabitant, more English-speaking people, etc. ). The counter-attack is not to 'fight against English' and even less to whineabout it, but to increase sites in other languages. As a translation service, wealso recommend the multilingualism of websites. " ML: "What did the use of the Internet bring to your professional life?" MG: "To work without the Internet is simply impossible now -- as well as all thetools used (e-mail, electronic press, services for translators), Internet is forus an essential and inexhaustible source of information in what I would call the'non-structured sector' of the Web. For example, when the answer to atranslation problem can't be found in websites presenting information in anorganized way, in most cases search engines allow us to find the missing linksomewhere on the network. " ML: "How do you see the future of Internet-related activities as regardslanguages?" MG: "The increase in the number of languages on the Internet is inevitable, andcan only be a benefit for multicultural exchanges. For the exchanges to happenin an optimal environment, it is still necesssary to develop tools which willimprove compatibility -- the complete management of diacritics is only oneexample of what can be done. " Provided as a free service since April 1996 by Study Technologies, Englewood, Colorado, OneLook Dictionaries, by Robert Ware, is the fastest finder for morethan 2 million words in 425 dictionaries in various fields: business, computer/Internet, medical, miscellaneous, religion, science, sports, technology, general, and slang. In his e-mail of September 2, 1998, Robert Ware explained: "On the personal side, I was almost entirely in contact with people who spokeone language and did not have much incentive to expand language abilities. Beingin contact with the entire world has a way of changing that. And changing it forthe better! [. .. ] I have been slow to start including non-English dictionaries(partly because I am monolingual). But you will now find a few included. " A Web of Online Dictionaries, by Robert Beard, is an index of more than 800on-line dictionaries in 150 languages, and other tools: multilingualdictionaries; specialized English dictionaries; thesauri and other vocabularyaids; language identifiers and guessers; an index of dictionary indices; a Webof on-line grammars; and a Web of linguistic fun (materials about linguisticsfor non-specialists). Robert Beard answered my questions in his e-mail of September 1, 1998. ML: "How do you see multilingualism on the Web?" RB: "There was an initial fear that the Web posed a threat to multilingualism onthe Web, since HTML and other programming languages are based on English andsince there are simply more websites in English than any other language. However, my websites indicate that multilingualism is very much alive and theWeb may, in fact, serve as a vehicle for preserving many endangered languages. Inow have links to dictionaries in 150 languages and grammars of 65 languages. Moreover, the new attention paid by browser developers to the differentlanguages of the world will encourage even more websites in differentlanguages. " ML: "What did the use of the Internet bring to your professional life?" RB: "As a language teacher, the Web represents a plethora of new resourcesproduced by the target culture, new tools for delivering lessons (interactiveJava and Shockwave exercises) and testing, which are available to students anytime they have the time or interest -- 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It is alsoan almost limitless publication outlet for my colleagues and I, not to mentionmy institution. " ML: "How do you see the future of Internet-related activities as regardslanguages?" RB: "Ultimately all course materials, including lecture notes, exercises, mootand credit testing, grading, and interactive exercises far more effective inconveying concepts that we have not even dreamed of yet. The Web will be anencyclopedia of the world by the world for the world. There will be noinformation or knowledge that anyone needs that will not be available. The majorhindrance to international and interpersonal understanding, personal andinstitutional enhancement, will be removed. It would take a wilder imaginationthan mine to predict the effect of this development on the nature of humankind. " Initiated by the WorldWide Language Institute, NetGlos (The MultilingualGlossary of Internet Terminology) is currently being compiled from 1995 as avoluntary, collaborative project by a number of translators and otherprofessionals. Versions for the following languages are being prepared: Chinese, Croatian, English, Dutch/Flemish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Maori, Norwegian, Portuguese, and Spanish. Brian King, director of the WorldWide Language Institute, answered my questionsin his e-mail of September 15, 1998. ML: "How do you see multilingualism on the Web?" BL: "Although English is still the most important language used on the Web, andthe Internet in general, I believe that multilingualism is an inevitable part ofthe future direction of cyberspace. Here are some of the important developments that I see as making a multilingualWeb become a reality: a) Popularization of information technology Computer technology has traditionally been the sole domain of a 'techie' elite, fluent in both complex programming languages and in English -- the universallanguage of science and technology. Computers were never designed to handlewriting systems that couldn't be translated into ASCII. There wasn't much roomfor anything other than the 26 letters of the English alphabet in a codingsystem that originally couldn't even recognize acute accents and umlauts -- notto mention nonalphabetic systems like Chinese. But tradition has been turned upside down. Technology has been popularized. GUIs(graphical user interfaces) like Windows and Macintosh have hastened the process(and indeed it's no secret that it was Microsoft's marketing strategy to usetheir operating system to make computers easy to use for the average person). These days this ease of use has spread beyond the PC to the virtual, networkedspace of the Internet, so that now nonprogrammers can even insert Java appletsinto their webpages without understanding a single line of code. b) Competition for a chunk of the 'global market' by major industry players An extension of (local) popularization is the export of information technologyaround the world. Popularization has now occurred on a global scale and Englishis no longer necessarily the lingua franca of the user. Perhaps there is no truelingua franca, but only the individual languages of the users. One thing iscertain -- it is no longer necessary to understand English to use a computer, nor it is necessary to have a degree in computer science. A pull from non-English-speaking computer users and a push from technologycompanies competing for global markets has made localization a fast growing areain software and hardware development. This development has not been as fast asit could have been. The first step was for ASCII to become Extended ASCII. Thismeant that computers could begin to start recognizing the accents and symbolsused in variants of the English alphabet -- mostly used by European languages. But only one language could be displayed on a page at a time. c) Technological developments The most recent development is Unicode. Although still evolving and only justbeing incorporated into the latest software, this new coding system translateseach character into 16 bytes. Whereas 8 byte Extended ASCII could only handle amaximum of 256 characters, Unicode can handle over 65, 000 unique characters andtherefore potentially accommodate all of the world's writing systems on thecomputer. So now the tools are more or less in place. They are still not perfect, but atlast we can at least surf the Web in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and numerousother languages that don't use the Western alphabet. As the Internet spreads toparts of the world where English is rarely used -- such as China, for example, it is natural that Chinese, and not English, will be the preferred choice forinteracting with it. For the majority of the users in China, their mother tonguewill be the only choice. There is a change-over period, of course. Much of the technical terminology onthe Web is still not translated into other languages. And as we found with ourMultilingual Glossary of Internet Terminology -- known as NetGlos -- thetranslation of these terms is not always a simple process. Before a new termbecomes accepted as the 'correct' one, there is a period of instability where anumber of competing candidates are used. Often an English loanword becomes thestarting point -- and in many cases the endpoint. But eventually a winneremerges that becomes codified into published technical dictionaries as well asthe everyday interactions of the nontechnical user. The latest version ofNetGlos is the Russian one and it should be available in a couple of weeks or so[end of September 1998]. It will no doubt be an excellent example of theongoing, dynamic process of 'Russification' of Web terminology. d) Linguistic democracy Whereas 'mother-tongue education' was deemed a human right for every child inthe world by a UNESCO report in the early '50s, 'mother-tongue surfing' may verywell be the Information Age equivalent. If the Internet is to truly become theGlobal Network that it is promoted as being, then all users, regardless oflanguage background, should have access to it. To keep the Internet as thepreserve of those who, by historical accident, practical necessity, or politicalprivilege, happen to know English, is unfair to those who don't. e) Electronic commerce Although a multilingual Web may be desirable on moral and ethical grounds, suchhigh ideals are not enough to make it other than a reality on a small-scale. Aswell as the appropriate technology being available so that the non-Englishspeaker can go, there is the impact of 'electronic commerce' as a major forcethat may make multilingualism the most natural path for cyberspace. Sellers of products and services in the virtual global marketplace into whichthe Internet is developing must be prepared to deal with a virtual world that isjust as multilingual as the physical world. If they want to be successful, theyhad better make sure they are speaking the languages of their customers!" ML: "What did the Internet bring to the life of your organization?" BK: "Our main service is providing language instruction via the Web. Our companyis in the unique position of having come into existence BECAUSE of theInternet!" ML: "How do you see the future of Internet-related activities as regardslanguages?" BK: "As a company that derives its very existence from the importance attachedto languages, I believe the future will be an exciting and challenging one. Butit will be impossible to be complacent about our successes and accomplishments. Technology is already changing at a frenetic pace. Life-long learning is astrategy that we all must use if we are to stay ahead and be competitive. Thisis a difficult enough task in an English-speaking environment. If we add in thecomplexities of interacting in a multilingual/multicultural cyberspace, then thetask becomes even more demanding. As well as competition, there is also thenecessity for cooperation -- perhaps more so than ever before. " The seeds of cooperation across the Internet have certainly already been sown. Our NetGlos Project has depended on the goodwill of volunteer translators fromCanada, U. S. , Austria, Norway, Belgium, Israel, Portugal, Russia, Greece, Brazil, New Zealand and other countries. I think the hundreds of visitors we getcoming to the NetGlos pages everyday is an excellent testimony to the success ofthese types of working relationships. I see the future depending even more oncooperative relationships -- although not necessarily on a volunteer basis. " 3. 4. Textual Databases Let us take the example of two textual databases relating to the French language-- the French FRANTEXT and the US-French ARTFL Project. The FRANTEXT textual database has been available on the Web through subscriptionsince the beginning of 1995. It is prepared in France by the Institut nationalde la langue française (INaLF) (National Institute of the French Language), asection of the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) (NationalCenter for Scientific Research). This interactive database includes 180 millionwords resulting from the automatic processing of a collection of 3, 500 texts inarts, techniques and sciences, representing five centuries of literature(16th-20th centuries). At the beginning of 1998, 82 research centers and university libraries inEurope, Australia, Canada and Japan were subscribing to FRANTEXT, with 1, 250work stations connected to the database, and about 50 questioning sessions perday. The detailed results of the inquiry sent to FRANTEXT users in January 1998are presented on the website by Arlette Attali. In the future, Arlette Attali is thinking about "contributing to the developmentof the linguistic tools associated to the FRANTEXT database and gettingteachers, researchers and students to know them. " In her e-mail of June 11, 1998, she also explained the changes brought by the Internet in her professionallife: "As I was more specially assigned to the development of textual databases at theINaLF, I had to explore the websites giving access to electronic texts and testthem. I became a 'textual tourist' with the good and bad sides of this activity. The tendency to go quickly from one link to another, and to skip through theinformation, was a permanent danger -- it is necessary to target what you arelooking for if you don't want to lose your time. The use of the Web totallychanged my working methods -- my investigations are not only bookish and withina narrow circle anymore, on the contrary they are expanding thanks to theelectronic texts available on the Internet. " The ARTFL Project (ARTFL: American and French Research on the Treasury of theFrench Language) is a cooperative project established in 1981 by the Institutnational de la langue française (INaLF) (National Institute of the FrenchLanguage, based in France) and the Division of the Humanities of the Universityof Chicago. Its purpose is to be a research tool for scholars and students inall areas of French studies. The origin of the project is a 1957 initiative of the French government tocreate a new dictionary of the French language, the Trésor de la LangueFrançaise (Treasure of the French Language). In order to provide access to alarge body of word samples, it was decided to transcribe an extensive selectionof French texts for use with a computer. Twenty years later, a corpus totalingsome 150 million words had been created, representing a broad range of writtenFrench -- from novels and poetry to biology and mathematics -- stretching fromthe 17th to the 20th centuries. This corpus of French texts was an important resource not only forlexicographers, but also for many other types of humanists and social scientistsengaged in French studies -- on both sides of the Atlantic. The result of thisrealization was the ARTFL Project, as explained on its website: "At present the corpus consists of nearly 2, 000 texts, ranging from classicworks of French literature to various kinds of non-fiction prose and technicalwriting. The eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries are about equallyrepresented, with a smaller selection of seventeenth century texts as well assome medieval and Renaissance texts. We have also recently added a Provençaldatabase that includes 38 texts in their original spellings. Genres includenovels, verse, theater, journalism, essays, correspondence, and treatises. Subjects include literary criticism, biology, history, economics, andphilosophy. In most cases standard scholarly editions were used in convertingthe text into machine-readable form, and the data contain page references tothese editions. " One of the largest of its kind in the world, the ARTFL database permits both therapid exploration of single texts, and the inter-textual research of a kind. ARTFL is now on the Web, and the system is available through the Internet to itssubscribers. Access to the database is organized through a consortium of userinstitutions, in most cases universities and colleges which pay an annualsubscription fee. The ARTFL Encyclopédie Project is currently developing an on-line version ofDiderot and d'Alembert's Encyclopédie, ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, including all 17 volumes of text and 11 volumes ofplates from the first edition, that is to say about 18, 000 pages of text andexactly 20, 736, 912 words. Published under the direction of Diderot between 1751 and 1772, the Encyclopédiecounted as contributors the most prominent philosophers of the time: Voltaire, Rousseau, d'Alembert, Marmontel, d'Holbach, Turgot, etc. "These great minds (and some lesser ones) collaborated in the goal of assemblingand disseminating in clear, accessible prose the fruits of accumulated knowledgeand learning. Containing 72, 000 articles written by more than 140 contributors, the Encyclopédie was a massive reference work for the arts and sciences, as wellas a machine de guerre which served to propagate Enlightened ideas [. .. ] Theimpact of the Encyclopédie was enormous, not only in its original edition, butalso in multiple reprintings in smaller formats and in later adaptations. It washailed, and also persecuted, as the sum of modern knowledge, as the monument tothe progress of reason in the eighteenth century. Through its attempt toclassify learning and to open all domains of human activity to its readers, theEncyclopédie gave expression to many of the most important intellectual andsocial developments of its time. " At present, while work continues on the fully navigational, full-text version, ARTFL is providing public access on its website to the Prototype Demonstrationof Volume One. From Autumn 1998 a preliminary version is released forconsultation by all ARTFL subscribers. Mentioned on the ARTFL home page in the Reference Collection, other ARTFLprojects are: the 1st (1694) and 5th (1798) editions of the Dictionnaire deL'Académie française; Jean Nicot's Trésor de la langue française (1606)Dictionary; Pierre Bayle's Dictionnaire historique et critique (1740 edition)(text of an image-only version); The Wordsmyth English Dictionary-Thesaurus;Roget's Thesaurus, 1911 edition; Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary; theFrench Bible by Louis Segond and parallel Bibles in German, Latin, and English, etc.