patkaiist
commented
1 year ago Hello Sicheng. Thank you for reaching out. The current situation is that I am indeed in the middle of a full rewrite, with the specific purpose of better searchability but also an increased usefulness for scholars and language learners. However, due to job responsibilities, I have not been able to complete this as yet. I hope to do so by the end of the year, with much of the work already done. We're familiar with 中国语保平台, and I agree about usability. It was originally set up to draw some of the attention away from Phonemica, of which we were receiving a lot some years back. If you'd like, feel free to email me at yhilan.ko@gmail.com and we can have a discussion about some of the finer details surrounding the rewrite. Talk soon. Kellen
@keyilan Dear Kellen,
I hope this email finds you well. My name is Sicheng Mao, and I am a Chinese student currently preparing for my PhD thesis in France. I have a deep interest in phonetics and dialects, particularly Chinese dialects. Recently, I was inspired by the geoguessr game and decided to create a dialect guesser game that involves guessing the geolocation based on the dialect spoken in an audio clip. To accomplish this, I am in need of free dialect audios.
Initially, I discovered the 中国语保平台 (zhongguoyuyan.cn), which is an official database designed for the preservation of Chinese dialects. However, I encountered difficulties in accessing the materials on this platform as they require permission, and the website is not web scraper-friendly. That's when I came across Phonemica, and I was amazed to see the tremendous effort you and your team have put into collecting dialect materials. I truly appreciate your passion and dedication to this project. It's remarkable, especially considering that professionals sponsored by the government often lack the wiki spirit.
Regrettably, I noticed that the home page of phonemica.net indicates that the website is currently in read-only mode and was expected to be fully functional again by February 2021. I'm concerned about the status of the website and sincerely hope that it hasn't disappeared indefinitely. If there is any assistance I can provide, I would be more than willing to volunteer and help you complete the codebase or even undertake a complete rewrite.
To demonstrate my abilities and dedication, I would like to share a few personal web projects I have developed out of pure passion:
While I must acknowledge that my front-end techniques are far away from professional-level, I have acquired these technical skills on my own through self-learning and the support of the open-source community. I suggest that we consider a complete refactor of the original codebase, given the significant changes in front-end technologies and best development practices over the years.
I would be grateful if you would accept my offer to volunteer and contribute to Phonemica. Additionally, if you have any means of contacting Steve Hansen (司圆直) and Qi Jiayao (祁嘉耀), I would be grateful if you could convey my best greetings and deep respect for their self-motivated efforts in preserving Chinese dialects.
Thank you for your attention. I look forward to your response.
Sincerely, Sicheng Mao
p.s. I've sent this to your gmail but I'm afraid that it was recognized as a spam, so I put it here again.