2,500 volunteers across the Middle East are compiling a Web 2.0 dictionary in Arabic

[Nouran Ibrahim]

Dear all,

Thought this might be interesting - and pretty relevant to what we've been doing.

http://thenextweb.com/me/2012/04/29/2500-volunteers-across-the-middle-east-are-compiling-a-web-2-0-dictionary-in-arabic/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+TheNextWeb+(The+Next+Web+All+Stories) 

--
Best Regards
Nouran Ibrahim A.Raouf

[Tom Trewinnard]

Thanks for this link Nouran - looks like a fascinating project. I'm sure that them using "Classical Arabic"  helps them overcome certain challenges, but I hope that they produce something that reflects usage.

T

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Meedan Translations" group.
To post to this group, send an email to meedan-tr...@googlegroups.com.
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to meedan-translat...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/meedan-translations?hl=en-GB.

--

Tom Trewinnard  |  Program Manager  |  Meedan  |  +44 7922538218  |  @tom_el_rumi  |  skype: tom.trewinnard  

twitter  |  press  |  blog  |  news  |  videos  |  facebook

[George Weyman]

I find this really fascinating.  A partner of ours in Egypt recently said the term المدونة المباشرة sounded stiff and formal.  But this is surely a new media term?  The notion of 'liveblogging' is pretty recent.  But for this individual, the formal Arabic usage did not gel with the dynamic, informal, conversational medium that the word was describing.  

If attempts to develop classical Arabic dictionaries are centered on 'standardizing' terminology, rather than on capturing usage, won't they quickly become a crowdsourced 'Academie Francaise' (the French body that attempts to frenchify and standardise new terminology - www.academie-francaise.fr)?  If you ask people what they should say, as opposed to listening to what they say, you get very different answers.

I think the time has really come to embrace and celebrate the conversational Arabic that is bubbling up around the web, and try to capture this imaginatively.  What do others think?

Best
George

George Weyman  - Senior Program Officer, Meedan |
+44 7792 921298 +44 203 0155306 |
Meedan in Wired - http://bit.ly/Meedan-in-Wired |
Meedan Explained in 60 Seconds - http://bit.ly/Meedan-in-60Seconds  |
Meedan on Twitter - twitter.com/meedan | Meedan Blog – http://meedan.org/blog/ |