The Linguist

32 The Linguist Vol/63 No/3 thelinguist.uberflip.com OPINION & COMMENT How to build a website As a linguistic entrepreneur, I hope my story might help others who want to launch a linguistics website. I have created two websites with domain names in Mandarin Chinese and English, which serve as infrastructural support for my linguistics research and consultancy business. The idea is to start with a website that is operational but still in development and to make it 'optimal' over time. When planning a website, my philosophy is that what to market (i.e. content) should be prioritised over how to market it (i.e. which channel). Branding is also key. To uplift potential visitors' confidence in me, I am applying for associate membership of CIOL through its recently launched fast-track route. Beyond that, how should we, as language professionals, think of the domain names of our websites in a way that makes them meaningful, pronounceable and memorable? How can we make our websites 'discoverable' without paying huge advertising fees? These were my concerns when considering domain names. I first came up with 語言學創建.香港 and its English translation linguisticscreation.hk. One connotation of 創建 ('creation') is entrepreneurship. But this English domain name is too long. Thus, I thought of 語言學網絡.香港 and linguisticsnet.hk, and Is revitalisation the way to go? Languages such as Scots and Gaelic are in the process of making strong revivals in Scotland. With 1,541,693 people in Scotland speaking Scots in 2011, campaigns such as Oor Vyce are pressing to have Scots legally recognised as an official language. It makes me ask, why? What are the repercussions of this? Why are these languages being revitalised? Who speaks them any more? These are questions that I fear will remain unanswered with new revitalisation policies. As an English speaker, Scots is somewhat easier to comprehend than Gaelic. Its roots stem from English and Scottish vernacular, and both languages are Germanic. According to Oor Vyce's campaign page, Scottish identity and culture play a part in revitalising the language. Contemporary Scottish writers are using Scots, with Irvine Welsh including moments of Scots dialect in his novel Trainspotting (1993). For Scots to be utilised in Scotland, it would undeniably have to undergo language planning, but such efforts are not without difficulties. When Gaelic was officially introduced into Scottish schools in 1985 the intention was clear: to uphold Scottish heritage and oblige younger generations to learn it. So where are we now with Gaelic? Well, in large cities like Glasgow or Edinburgh, it is almost never spoken. With a 41% increase in Scottish students going to Scottish universities in the past year, you would expect Gaelic speakers to be increasing at Scottish universities. Not so. It seems that students who learnt Gaelic at school are not going on to speak it in day- to-day life. So, I find myself asking whether languages like Scots or Gaelic are truly vital to my generation's lived experience of Scottish culture. May Anderson, CIOL Student affiliate SCOTS HERO: Statue of poet Rabbie Burns (1759-1796) in Dumfries, where he is buried © PEXELS CHAN WING LAU created the bilingual brand 語言學網絡香港 / Linguistics Networking Hong Kong (LNHK). How to protect yourself and your clients legally will depend on your jurisdiction, but in Hong Kong, where I am based, all firms must be registered with the government. It is also important to register domain names. By registering with the Hong Kong Domain Name Registration Company Limited I can access their free web2social service, providing plug-and-play templates to build basic websites efficiently. SEO (search engine optimisation) enables both human users and search engines to find and explore relevant websites. It is a relatively technical process but Google Search provides helpful guides (see https://developers.google.com/search/docs). Social media networking is also useful. As a professional platform, LinkedIn can strengthen your online presence. To drive traffic to a website, it recommends following its user guide (https://cutt.ly/vezySimZ). Inserting a url into your LinkedIn profile is another effective strategy. Starting a business with two websites is a 'bottom-up' strategy that is contrary to a conventional approach, which starts with mission statements, budgets and business models. My aim is to build an online presence first. By sharing linguistic know-how with fellow linguists, my websites will evolve organically and sustainably.

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