Preserving the world's endangered writing systems

February 23, 2007

Karen Stollznow, a postgraduate researcher from the University of New England, is a member of a team in the United States that is working to preserve the scripts of ancient, obscure and minority languages by making them intelligible to computer systems.

"We share our writing system, the (modern) Latin script, with hundreds of other languages," Ms Stollznow said. "But there are many other kinds of alphabets in existence – scripts that generally use a symbol for each sound. Other writing systems include abjads (representing consonants only), syllabaries (that represent syllables), and ideographs (images that represent ideas). "

"Just as English is dominating the economic world, our writing system is dominating the computer industry," she said. "Imagine if your script wasn’t recognised by your computer. This is a serious problem faced by many speakers and scholars throughout the world."

The Script Encoding Initiative (SEI) was established in 2002 at the University of California (UC), Berkeley (where Ms Stollznow is currently a lecturer and researcher). It aims to encode over 100 historical and modern scripts and script elements that are not yet supported in Unicode (the universal computing standard for the representation of text in all modern software). The SEI project is led by Dr Deborah Anderson of UC Berkeley, in conjunction with Unicode Vice-President Rick McGowan. "The project entails the enormous task of collecting historical, linguistic and demographic data, creating proposals, seeking funding, and liaising with communities," Ms Stollznow said.

"Scripts currently not encoded include historical forms, living minority scripts, and others undergoing a revival," she explained. "Some are obscure and short-lived. The Albanian Buthakukye script was used for only a short period in the mid-19th century. There are ancient scripts like the Egyptian and Mayan hieroglyphs, the Aztec pictographs, the Indus Valley script, and Linear A. Some are 'parent' scripts, like Aramaic – the proto-script of many Eastern scripts – and Brahmi, the ancestor of all modern Indian and many Asian writing systems. Others are exotic, mysterious scripts, like Rongo Rongo, an undeciphered script from Easter Island, Nushu, the secret 'women's writing' of China (created and used exclusively by women), and the Bassa Vah of Liberia (a secret code used by the Bassa people to avoid slave traders). Sadly, many scripts are poorly attested, with few examples still in existence. There are only a few stone inscriptions of the Byblos and Palmyrene scripts, scant remains of Pyu on burial urns, and a small assortment of artefacts inscribed with Cypro-Minoan."

"The domain that has provided us with the most prolific and best-preserved examples has been belief systems," she continued. "Many endangered scripts were created for liturgical or ritualistic purposes. Astrological charts, incantation bowls, magical spells, scriptures and prayers: these can all be tools of scientific inquiry when they are the sole examples of an otherwise extinct writing system. The Indonesian Batak script is understood and written only by priests. Christian missionaries were fervent in translating the Bible and prayers into local scripts (like Father LeJeune, who created the Chinook script and produced a publication that lasted 30 years, bringing religion and literacy to these indigenous people). Writing is often connected with paranormal beliefs: for example, the Ersu Shaba of China and Tibet, a picture writing system in which colour expresses meaning, is used to write scriptures that are recited in divination and when treating the sick."

“As history, culture, communication, and art, it would be tragic to lose these remarkable scripts," Ms Stollznow concluded.

For more information, visit: http://www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/sei/index.html

Posted by Jim Scanlan at February 23, 2007 02:47 PM