There were several things I thought I might blog about today, but for various reasons, I can’t just yet. But it won’t be long now, I thought, as I stared at myself in the mirror making funny teeth-brushing faces. Long Now…well, as I discovered a short while back, that is not just a saying, it is an idea. And in the manner of most great ideas, it has stopped being just an idea, but went on to become an organization. Then a project, and then a movement.
The Long Now Foundation is something I discovered via a BBC special a few months ago. Those who know about my own unshakeable obsession with time may not be surprised about this new fascination of mine. There seems to be a museum now dedicated to it in San Francisco and a series of lectures. This might all be a bit “outre” for some. But one project that they have undertaken seems without question to be worthwhile, and that is the “Rosetta Project.” This is a “global collaboration of language specialists and native speakers working to build a a publicly accessible digital library of human languages.” An understanding of the evolution of language around the globe and across the centuries — now that ‘s an idea any language user could be interested in. And as native cultures and their indigenous languages become more and more endangered around the globe, the creation of a library which will preserve these nearly-lost languages stops being just a good idea and becomes a necessity.
While I’m waiting to talk about other things, I thought I’d pass this along to any who might not already know about it. Food for thought on an early Thursday morning.
I’d heard about the Rosetta Project, but (somehow) not the Long Now Foundation. And it is interesting, thank you.
Brilliant! Thanks for sharing, Sue.
Very interesting…am now going to go and find out more 🙂
C x
Rosetta looks fascinating. When my son was studying French in Paris one of his lecturers was a native Latin speaker. Latin is spoken in a small part of South West France. My daughters boyfriend’s first language is Welsh. I know not that unusual in the realm of things, but it does sound strange when he rings his mum from our house and rattle on in Welsh.
Hi Sue
I’ve given you an award on my Chez Aspie blog and also blogged about Beyond Bluechrome.Going to follow the Rosetta Project link now.
I thought you’d all be interested in this….and DJ, thanks for the award!!!