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Posted 03/03/02
A new peer-reviewed journal created exclusively in electronic form could open new doors in the study of linguistics by providing unprecedented - and free - access to empirical data, sound files and video of the world's least-studied languages.
Conceived by Dartmouth College linguists Lindsay Whaley and Lenore Grenoble, Linguistic Discovery is a noncommercial journal devoted to the world's least-studied and endangered languages. Its first issue debuted earlier this winter, offering articles in searchable HTML text as well as in PDF format.
Concern over dying languages has been growing in recent years. Current estimates suggest that as many as 40 percent of the world's 6,800 living languages are likely to go extinct, with another 50 percent having fewer than 10,000 speakers. Some experts estimate that the world is losing two languages a month.
Whaley and Grenoble, who are experts in the Tungusic languages of northern China and Siberia, have long realized the limitations of linguistic print journals.
"Studying language without getting to hear actual dialogue is like being a leaf specialist who never sees actual leaves. You can get a lot of information from books and other sources, but if you don't eventually look at real leaves, you're missing a dimension," said Whaley.
Getting access to print journals about endangered languages can also be problematic.
"These journals are so specialized and expensive that libraries are reluctant to subscribe to them," explained Whaley. "Also, many of the people who study or speak these languages aren't in traditional academic environments; they don't have access to research libraries. Often they're missionaries or people in other types of aid work."
Linguistic Discovery could create opportunities for research that were previously difficult or impossible for linguists of rare languages. For example, intonation, interaction and dialogue studies are common in English and other widely spoken languages. However, linguists have found it more difficult to investigate these areas in less prevalent languages because they didn't have access to enough conversations, Grenoble explained.
She believes Linguistic Discovery could expand the way people look at scholarly publishing by encouraging the inclusion of new kinds of data, like sound and video, as standard parts of a submission.
"Reading is just one aspect of language. No matter how good the phonetic transcription, it's still not the same as hearing it," she says. "This could reinvent the way we think about publishing research."
The new publication debuted in January and was a team effort with the Dartmouth College Library's new Digital Publishing Program. John James, Associate Librarian at Dartmouth and leader of the DPP, acknowledges that "born-digital" scholarly journals are new to academia.
"Probably 99 percent of digital journals are created as extensions of print journals. There are very few that are 'born digital,' and even fewer that aren't commercial or from a professional organization," he said.
However, by establishing itself as a peer-reviewed publication and soliciting articles from noted linguists, Linguistic Discovery could pave the way for other electronic-only journals, he said.
Neither Whaley nor Grenoble knew much about the technical aspects of creating an online publication, so were initially unsure where to begin. However, they knew they wanted the journal to be free, searchable, widely available and archived for long-term access. The technical staff from the library and academic computing proved up to the task.
"The library brings a couple of things to the table. First, there's a long-term view about management of information. We also have a broad awareness of technology issues," said James.
To make sure the text was searchable, articles are available in HTML text, as well as in PDF format.
One of the team's goals was to establish a structure that would allow the linguists to do most of the publishing and maintenance of the journal themselves. The library and technical staff provide support and archiving, but Grenoble and Whaley do the actual preparation of materials and posting to the site. A combination of templates and filters makes the publishing process relatively simple.
The biggest headache the team encountered was making sure the special standardized characters used to represent sounds appear the same on different browsers and operating systems.
"We had no idea what a problem that would be," said Grenoble.
Initial plans are for the journal to come out twice a year. In addition to scholarly articles and opinion pieces, Linguistic Discovery also will include downloadable problem sets that linguistics teachers can use. Future projects for the journal might include online conferences or other types of interactive scholarship.
"The most exciting thing in the end is in what the journal can do in the communication of linguistics," said Ann McHugo, Project Leader for the Linguistic Discovery team and Head of Acquisitions for the Library.
- Tamara Steinert
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