[net.nlang] Esperanto and Computers: translation, speech systhesis, on-line stuff

neal@druny.UUCP (Neal D. McBurnett) (03/03/85)

The European Economic Community is sponsoring the Dutch company BSO
	(in Utrecht) to study semi-automatic translation between European
	languages using an Intermediate Language (IL) based on Esperanto,
	First, a non-linguist would enter the original text, while
	the system (a set of 5 68000's) translated it into the IL,
	and asked questions (in the source language) to resolve ambiguities.
	The end user would then use a workstation equipped with a single
	68000 to call up the database of IL text and translate (fully
	automatically) selected material into the desired target language.
	They are writing the system in PROLOG, using a Vax running UNIX
	as the development system.  (Anyone know how to get to this vax?)

	A feasibility study was published in October of '83 by A. Witkam
	entitled "DLT: Distributed Language Translation -- a Multilingual
	facility for videotex information networks."  You can get it from
	ELNA.  It is mostly linguistic in nature (but very readable),
	but also describes the hardware and software in some detail.
	There is a good bibliography.

I have heard that the most complete of all Esperanto dictionaries, the
	Plena Ilustrita Vortaro, has been put on a floppy disk.  I assume
	this does not include the definitions, but who knows?  I don't
	know where to get it yet.
I have several things on-line:
	An introduction to Esperanto
	All the rules of grammar (all 16 of them :-))
	The first lesson of the Free Postal Course in Esperanto
	A Franz Lisp program which will do a simple word for word
		transliteration of Esperanto into English (it's only about a 150
		line program, so if you have a different version of lisp, or
		no lisp at all, it shouldn't be too hard to patch something
		together.)
	A 2600 word dictionary
	A list of the 500 most common roots
	A copy of an Eliza-like Doctor program in Franz Lisp which uses
		Esperanto
	A cute fable
	4 lessons out of Butler's "Esperanto for Beginners"
	Instructions on some WordStar macros to facilitate putting
		circumflexes and breves over letters.

Bruce A. Sherwood has written lots of very high quality articles relating
	to Esperanto, computers, and teaching.  He and his wife Judith
	developed a wealth of Computer-Aided-Instruction materials
	when they were affiliated with the PLATO project at the University
	of Illinois (He's now at CMU: bs1b@cmccte; Judy is js6r@cmcctf).  Among
	them was a good-quality speech synthesis capability using a votrax.
	Here are some references:
	"New Technology Provides Computer Voices for Education",
		B. Sherwood, Speech Technology, Fall 1981.
	"Fast Text-to-Speech Algorithms for Esperanto, Spanish, Italian,
		Russian, and English," Intl Journal of Man-Machine Studies,
		B. Sherwood, 10 (1978).
	"Speech Synthesis applied to Language Teaching", Studies in Language
		Learning, B. Sherwood, 3 (1981).
	"Computer Processing of Esperanto Text", B. Sherwood, Studies in
		Language Learning, 3 (1981).
	"Computer Voices and Ears Furnish Novel Teaching Options", J. Sherwood
		and B. Sherwood, Speech Technology, Sept/Oct 1982.
	
Jim Deer of Portland (503 643-2252) has developed the "E1" drill program
	for practicing Esperanto on an IBM PC or other Basic machine.
	He is also interested in developing an Eliza-based program for
	giving advice to beginning Esperantists ("Project LOLO").

John Wells (in England) has also developed a computer drill program.

Proposed projects:
Amri Wandel (in Maryland, umcp-cs!cvl!amri, who will also teach at the
	UC San Francisco Esperanto courses this summer) is the director
	of the Esperanto section of UNISPACE.  This project aims to
	create a microcomputer education system which can instruct
	the youth of the world (especially in third-world countries)
	about computer science, economics, international relations, etc.
	The instruction will occur in the form of a simulation of
	space navigation, international relations, the world economy, etc.
	Esperanto will be the only language which the players can use
	to communicate among themselves.  This project is based in Vienna,
	and is sponsored by the United Nations (this year is the
	"International Year of Youth").

I would like to work on an Esperanto adaptation of the Writer's Workbench
	software (English language advice, developed by Bell Labs).

Yearly Conference: Interkomputilo (seems to usually be in Hungary in December)

Publications:
	Komputilteknika Vortaro is a technical dictionary which I have
		not yet been able to get. (Hungarian, German, Russian, English,
		and Esperanto.)
	Internacia Komputado is published in Hungary every 3 months
	There are several volumes of collected articles from previous
	years of IK and the Interkomputilo conference.  Among them:
		Mikrokomputiloj, Periferioj kaj Aplikoj,
		Tekstoprilaboro (text processing),
		Instruado de matematiko kaj komputotekniko.
	There are also primers on Pascal and Algol 60, and lots of other stuff.

Subscribers to CompuServe can discuss Esperanto in the "Good Earth" Special
	Interest Group ("GO HOM-145").  Go to your local Radio Shack to sign
	up for CompuServe (~$20 to sign up, $6/hour afterwards).

As I understand it, the Central Office of the Universal Esperanto Association
	in Rotterdam has a UNIX system: anyone know if it is on the net?

-Neal McBurnett, ihnp4!druny!neal, (303) 538-4852
 Boulder CO, 494-6495