I'm just posting to announce that my husband, David, who is webmaster for OIDFA, has just released a facility on the OIDFA website for translating between common lace terms in different languages. Although there are printed lace dictionaries available, the distinctive features of this facility are: 1. It is freely accessible to anyone with an internet connection. 2. For each language the terms are certified by native speakers. 3. Each term is accompanied by a defining image. 4. Discrimination is made between rare and common words in that translations of rarer words are provided, but these words are not given as translations of terms from other languages.
The URL is http://www.oidfa.com/translate.html . Although only four languages are currently available in addition to English and French (the official OIDFA languages), anyone can contribute additional languages, without having any knowledge of lace terms in another language, merely by identifying the images. In this way it is hoped that, for example, a Czech/Japanese translation can be achieved without requiring any individual to know lace terms in both these languages. The number of terms is currently quite small (40) but the focus is on words that appear in instruction or pattern books, and which Google Translate will not handle properly. The use envisaged is for people reading lace books in languages other than their own (and non-English speakers with a general knowledge of English translating lace terms into English correctly - Lazy loops anyone?). Although this is a predominantly English speaking list, we encourage any non-English lacemakers whose language is not represented (Italian? Spanish? Japanese?) to contribute either on-line or by contacting us by email. The rule is native-speakers only. Jean PS For technical reasons the facility doesn't currently work at all on the iPhone, or well on the iPad. However these problems will be addressed in due course. - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachne.modera...@gmail.com. Photo site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lacemaker/sets/
