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"How To" Newsletter
Introduction
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The Babel Text

This is an archive of the Babel Text site as it existed 5/27/00. It is kept here since it is pointed to by many sites, but the new version is here.

Introduction

A mirror of this site is available here

Zach May, Babel Text Curator

Introduction

The Babel Text is an evolving database comparing how different languages, natural and artificial, can be used to translate the same passage.

Another purpose of The Babel Text is to encourage designers of model languages to demonstrate how those languages would actually be used in sustained discourse. Most langmakers (myself included) do not provide much text actually written in their language. It is hoped that The Babel Text will become a standard document for model-language designers to translate into their languages.

The source document for The Babel Text is Genesis 11:1-9, the story of the breaking of the Tower of Babel. This passage was chosen because:

• Its theme of the creation of new languages from one language is highly appropriate to language development.
• It repeats patterns, making it easier to translate and understand than other passages of its length.
• As part of the Bible, it has already been translated into many natural and artificial languages.
• It is less formulaic and rigid than the Paternoster (The Lord's Prayer), which is currently the passage most used to compare languages.

I first decided to start comparing the texts of artificial languages back in 1996. Prior to that, people often used the Lord's Prayer for comparing real languages, and a few langmakers used the North Wind and the Sun fable. But I had decided on the Tower of Babel story, for the reasons given above. It has struck a nerve as a good choice, and now many people have sent me translations in it.

Additional translations will be added on an ongoing basis. To submit a passage for a natural or model language, you can e-mail the text of the passage to the Babel Text Curator, Zach May. We'll take care of the formatting. Or even better -- post it to your own web page, and let us know the URL, and I'll add a link -- that way you can update it whenever you want.

If you're interested in parallel texts in other languages, check out Jabberwocky.

Regards,

Jeffrey.Henning.com

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