Produced by Al Haines
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
1. Introduction
2. Multilingualism
3. Language Resources
4. Translation Resources
5. Language-Related Research
6. Index of Websites
7. Index of Names
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