Wikitongues Seeks to Save World’s Dying Languages
维基世界语致力于挽救世界濒危语言
http://www.51voa.com/VOA_Special_English/wikitongues-seeks-to-save-world-s-dying-languages-81415.html
2019-02-13
1) Experts say there are about 6,500 languages spoken throughout the world. But the United Nations estimates that about half of these languages are in danger of disappearing.
专家说全世界大约有6500种语言，但是联合国估计约有一半的语言都有灭绝的危险。
2）The U.N. cultural agency, or UNESCO, lists languages it considers endangered on its Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger. UNESCO collects information on the languages and then increases efforts meant to prevent them from dying out.
联合国教科文组织（UNESCO）在其《世界濒危语言图集》上列出了它认为濒危的语言名单。教科文组织收集这些语言的信息，然后下大力气，旨在防止这些语言灭绝。
3）One non-profit organization seeking to save world languages is a New York-based group called Wikitongues. Officials from Wikitongues say the organization has a simple goal: to provide the tools and support that people need to save their languages.
纽约有一个叫维基世界语的非营利性机构也致力于挽救世界语。维基世界语的工作人员说：我们机构的目的极其简单，就是给濒危语言的族人提供工具和支持。
4）Daniel Bogre Udell is the co-founder of Wikitongues. He told VOA that when a language disappears, many other things can go away as well. For example, parts of a community's culture, knowledge and identity can also be lost.
维基世界语的联合创始人Daniel Bogre Udell跟VOA说：当一种语言消失，好多其他的东西也随之消失了。比如说，该群体的文化、知识、群体识别性也没有了。
5）Because of this, Udell believes the process of bringing languages back must be done by community members themselves, "from the ground up," he said.
鉴于此，Daniel Bogre Udell认为：复兴这些语言的事情必须由社群内部成员来做，“从源头上复兴”。
6）”There is no way an outside organization can save someone's language for them.” “外来组织挽救别人自己的语言，这是不可能的。”（我们提供工具和支持）
How it works 维基世界语如何运作？
7）Wikitongues was launched in 2016 as an open internet collection of world languages. The self-described "community" is operated by volunteers from around the world. The collection is in the form of language videos that people add to the Wikitongues website.
维基世界语发起于2016年，是一个开放性的网络平台，收集世界各地语言，“社群”（community）由世界各地的志愿者来运营，以视频的形式收集世界各地语言。
8）Wikitongues says that, even with the internet's wide reach, less than 1 percent of all languages are actively represented online.
维基世界语说：即使现如今网络这么发达，我们也就收集了不到1%的世界语言资料。
9）There are currently more than 400 languages and dialects represented on Wikitongues' YouTube channel. Some, like English, Farsi and Mandarin, are spoken by hundreds of millions of people.
维基世界语的YouTube网页上现有400多种各地语言和方言，有一部分是像英语、波斯语和汉语普通话，全世界有数亿人在说。
（Farsi [ˈfɑ:si:] 波斯语，属于印欧语系—伊朗语族—西支，是伊朗和塔吉克斯坦的官方语言 ，也是阿富汗斯坦境内两种主要语言之一(另一种是普什图语)。波斯语还分布于中亚其他地区，波斯语在塔吉克斯坦称为“塔吉克语”。全世界使用波斯语的人口约有1亿。）
10）Others are more uncommon. Bora, for example, is spoken by only a few thousand people in the Amazon regions of Peru and Colombia.
还有一些不太常见，如Bora语是南美洲亚马逊河流域的秘鲁、哥伦比亚的语言，只有几千人说这种语言。
11）Udell says more than 1,500 people from 70 different countries have added videos to the system. 70多个不同国家1500多人在我们网站上上传了视频。
12）”We have people from India who record dozens of languages, which is beyond their own," he said.
其中有印度人录下了数十种语言，超出了他们的想象。
be beyond sb：(informal) to be impossible for sb to imagine, understand or do
使某人无法想象（或理解、做等）
13）”We have another volunteer from Scotland who is one of the last speakers of a variety of Scottish dialects," Udell added. "He's in the process of reclaiming them, revitalizing, and building a dictionary for them.” 还有一个苏格兰的志愿者，他是苏格兰众多方言最后一批会说的人之一，他正在想办法让这种语言恢复使用、重新焕发活力，还在为这种语言编写字典。
14）Udell says there are many examples of languages that disappeared but later returned to use. "Hebrew went extinct in the 4th century BC, and was revived in the 1800s. Now once again, it's the mother tongue of half of the world's Jewish population."
维基世界语的联合创始人Daniel Bogre Udell说：也有很多语言原本消失了，后来又恢复了使用。“希伯来语公元前4世纪的时候就灭绝了，19世纪的时候复兴了，现在它是世界上半数犹太人的母语。”
本材料源自51voa.com官方网站，经过本人节选、后期翻译而成，若有翻译的不妥当的地方，欢迎指正
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