-`la rosa de los vientos - makizaหห˗
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hii~
this is something that have been on my mind for quite a while. so i was reading a wikipedia article about the cia-cia language living in the city of baubau in indonesia. like many indigenous languages, it's oral and there's a need for a written script. and like many young people today, in a world of writing, the interest of learning a purely oral language is trending downwards.
i believe they tried to use a latin script but it just wasn't sticking to the students. so they looked at different scripts in the world and thought, why not try using hangul, a korean writing system. it became a such huge success that they were able to create a dictionary a year after they have officially adopted it! there's a youtube video showing students writing in hangul on the white board, as well producing textbooks in the script. it's amazing how quickly the turnaround of a once rarely spoken language becomes the standard in the community.
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| cia-cia language written in hangul |
and that kind of got me thinking, well, are there any other scripts that could best fit a indigenous languages where it's purely oral? and this can be complicated to answer, depending on where the language is being spoken. in the americas, europe, and most places in africa, the latin script is well-favored if not, then cyrillic (broadly speaking). in china and taiwan, the chinese script is used. the ainu and okinawan languages in japan uses katakana (maybe a little hiragana here and there). but usually people will stick to what's more familiar and comfortable, thus using similar scripts.
so that raised another question, do writing systems help or hinder indigenous language revitalization efforts?
im more familiar with native american languages and latin script so i'll be talking about it.
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central sierra miwok dialect spoken in central california using IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet)
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the issues that arise when finding a script are: 1) does the new script best represent the sounds? 2) will people retain the new alphabet system? 3) people can be stuck in the box that they don't see what's outside of it.
starting off with the first question, using an alphabet that doesn't best fit the spoken language can do huge damage for language revitalization. in the example of the cia-cia language, when they used the latin script, it was hard to find a letter that best represent [pah] or [ta]. while researching, hangul had characters for those sounds [ํ] [ํ], so it became the standardized script for them. and this is something that can be difficult to deal with when thinking of a script to use. for most native american languages, using a latin script can make it less flexible to be able to represent a sound, especially with 26 letters. think tones, pronunciations that cannot be found in English, or glottal stops (writing wise). some may have found a way to make it work but others turn towards other scripts to help out.
secondly, it's important for the community feel comfortable using the writing system. this kind of ties into the first point, where the script has to best fit with the spoken language. i think what becomes a successful script is when people can easily pick it up, regardless of fluency level. this is something that i have witnessed within my community. during our language meetings, our elderly speakers were able to write it down while the beginners picked it up easily. it's truly an exciting thing to witness for a linguist (nerd) like me. accessibility is what can help get people to use the language more often. and not only that, being able to print papers or post about it online can bring more interest in the language. granted, if there's already a script readily at hand to type it out on the computer or phone. non latin scripts, such as cherokee and inuktituk, had to be programmed to unicode to use for various digital signage. reviving or creating a script such as those can become a symbol of pride for communities. but i'd imagine it took a long time to get to that point.
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cherokee syllabary written on t-shirt |
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anti-smoking campaign written in inuktitut syllabics |
thirdly, sometimes people may stay thinking inside the box that they can't think outside of it. this is something that i noticed while working in a language program. sometimes, the people who are learning from our program are stuck in the "western" mindset, where there's one way or no way. it can be hard for them to understand that some words have multiple ways to use, depending on the context. especially with dialects. dialects can to be tricky to document since some may think their dialect is superior than the others. in my honest opinion, just stick with one and once you have enough to go off of, then you can expand to others. arguing about with dialect is best can cause setbacks such as delay of documentation or standardization of the script. people will have a say in what spelling will look better for a word. or how a word is spelled in a different dialect, leading to suppressing dialect diversity. another one is having a direct dictionary translation of the word. sometimes some words take a while to explain it fully. with my experience, i know elders explain things in a roundabout way or in a story form to truly understand a phrase. it takes patience and time for people to start understanding how the language works to come in with a different approach to learn.
a secret fourth thing is that writing systems takes a lot of money. teaching materials, training people, technology (design programs, making a keyboard, translation sites, etc.), or perhaps a dedicated language center. this can also turn people away from having a script and keep the language orally since it's a lot of work.
a writing script's success depends on different factors. i find that what separates communities is how they utilize the script. if they embrace it, it can become a powerful asset for revitalization. once it starts to be more strict or stiff is when it can cause damage. dialect diversity can be pushed aside like alienating speakers being told how they speak is wrong. it's important to have flexibility with orthography because of that.
so, do writing systems help or hinder indigenous language revitalization efforts? i have a more positive outlook so i like to think it helps. writing systems can support language revitalization efforts, but the spirit of the language rests on the voices of the those who want to keep it alive.
แฏ★ angel
