Contributing
The catalog is built from published descriptions. Every entry names its source and quotes the passage it is based on, and we ask the same of every correction.
Please do not submit corrections that are not attested in published sources. Native-speaker judgements, field notes, class handouts and personal communications cannot go into the catalog, however well founded, because a reader cannot check them. If you have unpublished data, the way in is to publish it, or to deposit it somewhere citable, and then point us at it.
AccStack needs your help!
- A published description we missed. A grammar, article, dissertation or sketch that describes the language's stress or tone and is not in its bibliography. Give the full citation and, if you can, the page or section where stress or tone is discussed.
- A misreading of a source. The entry says one thing and the quoted passage, or another passage of the same work, says another. Quote the passage and give the page.
- A newer or better-founded study. An instrumental or corpus study that confirms, refines or contradicts the description the entry rests on. Say what it measured and what it found, with the page.
- The wrong language. The entry is about a different variety than its source describes, or the Glottocode is wrong, or two entries describe the same language.
- Something the source states that the entry leaves out. Secondary stress, exceptions, the domain of the rule, a tone system, downstep. Quote the passage.
- Bibliography fixes. A work marked as paywalled that has an open copy (give the address), a work marked "not located" that a library holds, a wrong citation, a duplicate.
- A language with no entry that has a published description. Give the citation.
- Typotron problems. A wrong typology, a crash, a result that disagrees with a published analysis: give the constraint set or the input file, what you expected, what you got, and the browser you used.
Sending us a source
To contribute a source we have not read (a grammar, an article or a thesis, or the relevant pages of one), email sources@accstack.org with the citation, the language and the pages. We read and quote the passage with attribution, and we do not publish or redistribute what you send.
How to submit
Corrections and additions are handled as issues on GitHub, one language per issue, so that each one can be checked against its source and linked from the release that applies it. The tracker has a form for each kind of report: a catalog entry (its stress or tone coding), a missing source, a bibliography error, and a Typotron problem. Anyone with a GitHub account can file; email works just as well.
On GitHub, pick the template that fits and fill in its fields. Every catalog correction, by either route, needs:
- Language
- Name and Glottocode, as on the entry.
- Field
- Which part of the entry is wrong or missing: the stress type, the stressed syllables, the exceptions, the domain, the tone system, the source.
- Source
- Full citation of the published work, with the page or section.
- Passage
- The sentence or two from the source, quoted exactly, with a translation if it is not in English.
- Change
- What the entry should say instead.
Step by step, if GitHub is new to you
- Sign in at github.com (a free account takes a minute; the username can be anything).
- Click the tracker you want above: Catalog for an entry's stress or tone coding, Bibliography for a missing or misdescribed work, Typotron for the calculator.
- GitHub shows a short list of templates. Click Get started next to the one that fits.
- Fill in the boxes: the language and its Glottocode as shown on the entry, the published source with the page, the passage quoted, and what should change. Issues are public: do not attach scans of published works there. Quote the sentence or two that matter and give the page, or email the pages to sources@accstack.org.
- Click Submit new issue. You get an email when someone replies; answer by replying to the email or on the page.
One language per issue. If you file in the wrong tracker, nothing is lost; we move it.
What happens next
We read every issue, check the passage against the source, and apply the change in the next release of the catalog with a link back to the issue. Releases are numbered on the catalog page. An issue we cannot verify against a published source is closed with a note saying so.