 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. The Babel Text has become the 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 Hebrew Scriptures, it has already been translated into many natural and artificial languages.
It is less formulaic and rigid than the Paternoster (The Lord's Prayer).
I first decided to start comparing the texts of artificial languages back in 1995. 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, please fill out this form.
If you are interested in parallel texts in other languages, check out Jabberwocky.
Regards,
Jeffrey Henning
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