2011 English Annual Update Web - Final

7/29/2019 2011 English Annual Update Web - Final

1/8

Partners in Language Development

First-Language: Bridge to New PossibilitiesOutside a bookshop in Fundong, Cameroon, a school supervisor who trains teachers

and develops curriculum was greeted by a young boy. The supervisor asked, Do you

attend school?

Yes sir, I am in class three.

Can you read?"

The boy answered condently, Yes, I can read in Kom and in English.

Now quite impressed with this young student, the supervisor asked, Can you

also write, or can you only read?"

I can read and write.

The supervisor bought a piece o chalk rom the nearby bookshop and wrote two

sentences in Kom and two in English on the cemented verandathe boy read all oursentences. Then he handed the chalk to the boy, who wrote two long sentences in

Kom and two in English. A growing crowdwitnessing the dierence that mother-

tongue education can makebegan to applaud. Among those in the crowd was the

boys mother, her eyes brimming with tears o joy and pride.

Why was the crowd surprised? Education is usually conducted in English, a language

that Kom children encounter or the rst time when they begin school. Thereore,

most young students struggle with the basics o reading and writing, rarely achieving

any level o uency beore Grade 5. This boy, however, attends a Kom mother-tongue

school which is part o an ongoing SIL Longitudinal Studies Project. When students

receive instruction rst in the language they know best, the dierence can be

dramaticeven young students become uent readers o their mother tongue, which

becomes a bridge to uency in the language o wider communication.

During this past year, SIL has worked alongside hundreds o communities as they

produced materials and implemented plans or multilingual education and literacy.

Language revitalizing eorts such as these allow the mother tongue to continue

to serve a communitys changing needs and provide a bridge or reaching broader

multilingual goals.

This Update highlights a ew o our service opportunities during 2011: the release o

two new onts, the launch o the ScriptSource website, training sessions, materials

development and the presentation o our research. We are privileged to work in

partnerships and networks that advocate or the speakers o ethnic minority languages.

Fredrick A. Boswell

Executive Director

2011 Update


2/8

Launch oScriptSource

The newly launched ScriptSource website provides valuable inormation about

the scripts and alphabets used to represent the worlds languages. It also oers a

platorm or collaboration and development o sotware that supports writing

systems, such as onts and keyboards.

ScriptSource reects SILs deep commitment to producing tools which support

language development or all people. Together with the Ethnologue, ScriptSourceallows researchers, teachers and language community members to quickly locate

vital inormation about languages and scripts.

http://www.sil.org/sil/news/2011/scriptsource.htm

Linguistic and Cultural Diversity Online

O the nearly 7,000 languages spoken today, researchers estimate only 300-500 are

represented on the Internet. The Second International Conerence on Linguistic and

Cultural Diversity in Cyberspace brought specialists rom around the globe to Yakutsk,

the capital o the Sakha Republic, in the Russian Federation. Delegates gathered

to exchange inormation and pursue better solutions on behal o all language

communities.SILs representative to both the 2008 and 2011 conerences, Woody McLendon,

presented SILs position as ollows:

We believe that every language has inherent value, and that speakers o minority

languages and other interested parties should have the tools and techniques

available to protect and enhance their cultural and linguistic heritage. In

many cases around the world, we have witnessed renewed language vitality as

members o a language community are equipped with the capacity to use their

language in new and dierent areas o lie.

http://www.sil.org/icc-2011
http://www.sil.org/sil/news/2011/scriptsource.htmhttp://www.sil.org/icc-2011http://www.sil.org/icc-2011http://www.sil.org/sil/news/2011/scriptsource.htm


3/8

Cameroonian Linguist Makes Signicant Contributions

Grace Tabah had nearly completed her MA in linguistics at the University o Buea when

she learned that SILs Misaje Cluster Project (language development among seven

related languages in Cameroons North West Region) was seeking additional linguistic

researchers. I had received a rm ooting in theoretical linguistics. I was really

delighted to hear o this opportunity to do some practical eldwork, explained Grace.

In addition to her MA studies, Grace has the added advantage o being rom Ndu,which borders the Misaje area. Her easy rapport with the people in the community

has helped her in many aspects o the work--collecting language data, stafng literacy

courses, analyzing the languages and developing writing systems or two o the

Misaje Cluster languages, Cung and Naami. The communities have eagerly embraced

the writing systems, and the work is in the nal stages o review.

I am currently analyzing tone in Cung, which has been a challenge or me, added Grace.

I really enjoy phonology, though, so tone studies are a great opportunity to dig deeper.

Grace is just one o a number o Cameroonian linguists who have contributed

signicantly to language development projects in their country. SIL joins with

communities and local, national and international partners to support language

development eorts around the world.


4/8

Btsid ga goal

ga diizhnde!

Script Support

Digital Implementation or Writing Systems

SIL provides sotware tools or language and cultural data with support or complex

scripts. Computer adaptation o scripts with complex behaviors opens the door to the

benets o digital communications, such as word processing, text messaging and the

Internet. These onts are also powerul tools or the production o printed materials. A

communitys ability to use their mother tongue in these practical ways can be a actor

in the continued vitality o that language.http://scripts.sil.org/Home

AndikaSILs Literacy Font

In 2011 phase three o the Andika literacy ont project was released with a ull set

o over 2,100 characters, enabling its use with the many diverse languages that use

the Roman script. Literacy materials require onts designed or the special needs o

beginning readers. Andika is an easy-to-read, Unicode-compliant sans seri ont with

special alternate glyphs (shapes) or several letters and numbers. Since readability

is a major goal, SIL ont designers have ne-tuned Andika to be clear even in low-

resolution environments. The new eatures are documented on the SIL website where

the ont is available or ree download.

http://scripts.sil.org/Andika
http://scripts.sil.org/Homehttp://scripts.sil.org/Andikahttp://scripts.sil.org/Andikahttp://scripts.sil.org/Home


5/8

Annapurna SIL

Named or a section o the Himalayas in Nepal, Annapurna SIL is a ont or the

Devanagari script, which is used to write more than 120 Indo-Aryan languages o South

Asia.Annapurna SIL provides a Unicode-based ont amily with support or these diverse

languages. The calligraphic design reects the amiliar stroke contrast o the broad pen

nib commonly used or handwriting Devanagari. The ont was designed to be readable,

compact and attractive, suitable or high-quality publications.Annapurna SIL makes useo state-o-the-art OpenType and Graphite technologies.

http://scripts.sil.org/AnnapurnaSIL
http://scripts.sil.org/AnnapurnaSILhttp://scripts.sil.org/AnnapurnaSIL


6/8

Longstanding Partnership Renewed in Ethiopia

In August a new Memorandum o Understanding was signed by representatives

o the Federal Democratic Republic o Ethiopia and SIL Ethiopia. This agreement

ormalizes the commitment to continued partnership. In response to an invitation

by local leaders, SIL began language development work in Ethiopia in 1973. Since

then SIL and Addis Ababa University have collaborated on the linguistic research

o approximately orty o Ethiopias eighty-ve living languages. Registered andlicensed by the Ministry o Justices Charities and Societies Agency, SIL Ethiopia

cooperates with government agencies, Ethiopian churches and other partners in

their language development eorts.

http://www.sil.org/eth-mou

Sixty Years o Partnership with theUniversity o North Dakota

In 2011 SIL and the University o North Dakota (UND) celebrated sixty years o

partnership in linguistics training. The SIL-UND program prepares students to work

in local languages around the world, oering an MA in linguistics and a graduate

certicate in literacy. In addition to spoken languages, most courses include the

analysis and acquisition o signed languages, a special ocus o the program, with

Dea people involved as students and sta.

http://www.sil.org/sil-und60

New Academic Partnerships in Malaysiaand Papua New Guinea

SIL is continually building new mutually benecial partnerships with organizations

and institutions around the world. Two new working partnerships or academic and

proessional cooperation were ormalized this year with Universiti Malaysia Sabah and

Papua New Guineas University o Goroka. These agreements are pathways to joint

research, academic exchange and student development.

http://www.sil.org/training/welcome.htm
http://www.sil.org/eth-mouhttp://www.sil.org/sil-und60http://www.sil.org/training/welcome.htmhttp://www.sil.org/training/welcome.htmhttp://www.sil.org/sil-und60http://www.sil.org/eth-mou


7/8

FieldWorks Training Promotes Language Documentation byMother Tongue Speakers in Malaysia

Sixty participants, many rom the ethnolinguistic minority communities o Sabah and

Sarawak, took part in a workshop which provided training in the use o SILs FieldWorks

language documentation sotware. The workshop was held at Universiti Malaysia

Sabah (UMS) and was co-sponsored by the Centre or the Promotion o Knowledge

and Language Learning at UMS, the Kadazandusun Chair o UMS, the UMS Associationo Mixed-Methods Researchers and SIL Malaysia.

Participants gained practical skills in using FieldWorks to document the languages

spoken in their home communities. Many participants are already in the beginning

stages o starting a community-based dictionary. In addition to the training

component, the workshop also provided opportunities or researchers to discuss

issues pertaining to language and culture documentation.

It is our hope that participants in this weeks workshop will learn to use the

FieldWorks sotware as a tool or both dictionary compilation and also

or storing ethnographic data, with a view to documenting their cultural

heritage and developing more literacy materials in their mother tongues.

UMS Vice Chancellor Proessor Datuk Seri Panglima Dr. Kamaruzaman AmponFieldWorks Language Explorer (FLEx) provides the tools needed by

proessional linguists and anthropologists while remaining accessible

to any researcher with basic computer skills. The sotware supports

tasks ranging rom data entry to the preparation o data or

publication.

http://eldworks.sil.org/fex
http://fieldworks.sil.org/flexhttp://fieldworks.sil.org/flex


8/8

THE

KifuliiruLanguageVolume1

Phonology,Tone,andMorphologicalDerivation

Karen Van Otterloo

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About SILSIL International is a aith-based nonprot organization

committed to serving language communities worldwide

as they build capacity or sustainable language

development. SIL does this primarily through research,

translation, training and materials development.

As a nongovernmental organization, SIL has special

consultative status with the United Nations Economic

and Social Council (ECOSOC) and ormal consultative

relations with the United Nations Educational, Scientic

and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Training is oered by SIL at many institutions around theworld. Course topics include linguistic analysis, language

documentation, cultural anthropology, ethnomusicology

and arts, sociolinguistics, literacy, multilingual education,

translation and language program planning.

SIL operates on contributions rom individuals and

organizations interested in various aspects o language

development. Major contributors include afliated

member organizations o Wyclie Global Alliance. SIL

makes its services available to all without regard to

religious belie, political ideology, gender, race or ethnic

background.

7500 W. Camp Wisdom Road

Dallas, Texas 75236-5629 USA

Phone: 972 708-7400

Fax: 972 708-7350

E-mail: [email protected]

Web: www.sil.org

More reports and audited nancial statements: www.sil.org

Related news items: www.sil.org/sil/news

Background graphic onts: Andika,Annapurna SIL, Charis SIL, andSpanish Sign Language.

Academic PublicationsSIL International Publications oers more than two

hundred titles documenting seventy-seven years

o linguistic and cultural research conducted by

SIL personnel. Seven new works were released in

2011, including The Kiuliiru Language, a two-volume

work documenting the structures and processes o

this Bantu language. Kiuliiru is spoken by 400,000

members o the Bauliiru community in the Democratic

Republic o Congo.

6,909 Languages spoken in the world (Ethnologue)More than 1,980 Active language projects (1.6 billion people)

More than 4,200 Active personnel

More than 60 Nationalities o SIL sta

For over 75 years, more than 15,000 people have been trained through

cooperative programs between educational institutions and SIL.

These statistics oer the most current estimates available.

Involvement in Language Development

by SIL and Related Staf
mailto:info-sil%40sil.org%20?subject=http://www.sil.org/http://www.sil.org/http://www.sil.org/sil/newshttp://www.sil.org/sil/newshttp://www.sil.org/http://www.sil.org/mailto:info-sil%40sil.org%20?subject=

Documents

2011 English Annual Update Web - Final