List of resources on the Internet compiled by `Nicholas19' and posted to the LibriVox forum in September 2009
Greetings LibriVox!
For some time now I have been interested in recording language books
for Librivox. In the previous year or so I have been quite busy with my
last year of undergraduate studies and in the year before that I was
travelling. Before going on my year abroad I recorded “Dr. Esperanto’s International Language” by Ludwik Zamenhof, the creator of Esperanto. I also started “The Esperanto Teacher – A Complete Course for Non-Grammarians” by Helen Fryer. This project has now been completed. Last summer, I started a project in Esperanto, Alicio en Mirlando, but this is not directly a language project. I have also recorded Persian Self-Taught in Roman Characters with English phonetic pronunciation by Shayk Hasan. This is currently being proof-listened, but should be available soon enough. I am currently about to finish Arabic Primer by Sir Arthur Cotton, a very basic book on Arabic.
I believe that Librivoxers should develop a language learning
resource on Librivox that would enable anyone and everyone to have the
opportunity to learn languages for free!
There are many old textbooks available online. Of course, one could
download these textbooks and work through them oneself without listening
to a recording, but there is an important point about language learning
that needs to be emphasised. Language, properly learnt, does not begin
with the written word. It begins with the spoken word! Language learning
begins with listening. Speaking follows listening and then reading and
writing come last of all. Quite often people learn languages in a very
backwards manner. Providing free, public domain audiobooks of all the
best language textbooks and readers will enable anyone to learn
languages for free. This is a service that we could offer the world. If
anyone has any knowledge of French, they can set up a French project. If
anyone knows Spanish, a Spanish one, etc. Books on classical as well as
modern languages could be recorded.
I would like to encourage Librivoxers with some knowledge of
languages to initiate projects for these or similar books, grammars,
primers, etc. Even if one only knows English, there are numerous
primers, grammars and other works for those who are learning this
language. I can’t set up projects for many different languages, but I
urge other Librivoxers to consider doing this. Let us strive to develop
such a language learning resource so that Librivox can become the first
and best place to learn languages online! I imagine the ebay sellers who
use our recordings will benefit considerably from this as well –
financially… Language learning is a big business. Pimsleur, Linguaphone,
Rosetta Stone and Teach Yourself Books could attest to that. But why
should people have to pay hundreds of dollars just to collect enough
resources to learn a language at home? If Librivox provided such a
service, we could liberate the field of language learning from its
current financial constraints. We would be making language learning easy
and affordable, accessible to anyone and everyone.
The Self-Taught series is a good place to start. “Persian
Self-Taught” is mostly a phrasebook. I haven’t examined the others but I
think they’re mostly similar. Here are the ones I could find on the
Internet Archive (and ManyBooks.net):
I can't yet find an online copy of Latin Self-Taught by John Topham.
The Spanish Self-Taught book doesn't seem to be available on Internet
Archive yet. Here are some other self-instruction books for Spanish:
Welsh: How to learn Welsh, being an English-Welsh vocabulary &
phrase-book, for the use of travellers and students = Llyfr ymddiddanion
a geir-lechres gyflawn Saesneg a Chymraeg, a wasanaeth teithwyr ac
elfrydwyr (1900)
http://www.archive.org/details/howtolearnwelshb00wrex The tourists' English-Welsh vocabulary : containing the exact mode
of pronouncing the Welsh alphabet, with a collection of useful phrases
and familiar dialogues (1853) by Humphreys http://www.archive.org/details/touristsenglishw00hump
Other Books on Languages: The Struggle for the Hebrew Language in Palestine (1914) by Zionist Organisation Actions Committee
http://www.archive.org/details/struggle ... 00commgoog The mastery of languages; or, The art of speaking foreign tongues idiomatically (1864) by Prendergast
http://www.archive.org/details/masteryl ... 00prengoog Handbook to the Mastery series: Rev. and greatly improved: New impr. (1868) by Thomas Prendergast
http://www.archive.org/details/handbook ... 00prengoog The Study of Living Languages by Sir Arthur Cotton
http://books.google.com/books?id=evwvAA ... q=&f=false The Aural System Being the most direct, THE STRAIGHT-LINE METHOD for
the SIMULTANEOUS FOURFOLD MASTERY of a FOREIGN LANGUAGE teaching
simultaneously to SPEAK, UNDERSTAND, READ, AND WRITE, by a Linguist of
nearly 40 years standing, and nearly 20 years resident abroad (1895) by
Anonymous
http://manybooks.net/titles/anonymous2916329163.html The human speech sounds, tracing the evolution of the forty-three
speech sounds in the human voice through all their series, classes,
kinds and forms to the limit of audible distinction; describing their
organic formations; together with the positions of the mouth parts and
establishing and exemplifying the physiologically correct pronunciation
of all their ninety-three different forms; also giving thoroughgoing
inflection and articulating exercises, rules for audible syllabication
and the logical notation of the sounds ([1918]) by Luthy
http://www.archive.org/details/humanspe ... 00luthuoft A Philosophical Essay for the Reunion of the Languages or, The Art of Knowing All by the Mastery of One by Pierre Besnier (1675)
http://manybooks.net/titles/besnierp156 ... 649-8.html Adamitics, an essay on first man's language; or, The easiest way to
learn foreign languages, for the use of middle- and highschools (1914)
by Anton von Velics
http://www.archive.org/details/adamitic ... 00veliiala On the Evolution of Language – First Annual Report of the Bureau of
Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1879-80 by J.
W. Powell (1881).
http://manybooks.net/titles/powelljw1881818818-8.html
PS. I had mentioned the topic of language books quite a while back (see: http://librivox.org/forum/viewtopic.php ... highlight= ), but now I feel that I need to really encourage this idea and promote it among Librivoxers afresh and with more direction.