Fw: session on writing systems

[Susan Penfield]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Perry Gilmore 
To: Ofelia Zepeda ; Sue Penfield ; Leisy at aol.com ; Beth Leonard ; Teresa McCarty 
Sent: Wednesday, March 09, 2005 8:07 PM
Subject: Fwd: session on writing systems


FYI...Perry

Begin forwarded message:


  From: Leanne Hinton <hinton at calmail.berkeley.edu>
  Date: March 9, 2005 7:16:31 PM MST
  To: sla_membership at lists.berkeley.edu, linganth at ats.rochester.edu
  Cc: munro at ucla.edu, stantonw at gse.upenn.edu
  Subject: session on writing systems

  Hello everyone,

  Last year we had a session on "New Writing Systems" at the AAA. Because of the change of venue, only three of us gave papers in that session. Some of the people who couldn't come would still like to give their papers this year, but since that would not make a full session, I'd like to invite other people to submit papers on this topic as well.  We need to submit this session by April 1, .  Since I am organizing another session this year and giving a paper in it, I can't participate (other than be an avid audience member), but if someone else will volunteer to chair it and be the official organizer, I'd be happy to put it together with that person.

  Here is last year's session abstract:

  New Writing Systems

  Indigenous peoples and minority groups are developing new writing systems for their languages, sometimes with linguists, and sometimes on their own.  While it might be thought that decisions around the development of a new writing system are primarily about the sounds of the language, in fact such decisions are fraught with great social and political issues.  Feeding into the orthographic design are concerns of ethnic identity and alliances, and bias toward or away from writing systems in the dominant language due to political concerns. The specific goals for use of the writing system will also be a factor, such as whether it is for recording of a healthy living language, or for the teaching of an endangered language, and whether there is a large pool of scholarly writing on the language that the community must consult for the sake of language revitalization.  Linguists and language learners may want a system that clearly specifies pronunciation, but speakers don't need every sound specified and may prefer a simpler system, or one that has symbols and spelling rules like a system they are already familiar with. New writing systems may be for indigenous peoples who have traditionally entirely oral means of expression, or may be developed by or for minority groups to replace older writing systems, as an expression of a new kind of ethnic identity or a new relationship to the dominant society.  Whose agenda is met by a particular orthographic design, what needs and uses the new writing system fulfils, and how it reverberates in the community it is designed for, is the topic of this session.

  -- 

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   Prof. Leanne Hinton
   Chair, Dept. of Linguistics
   1203 Dwinelle Hall
   University of California
   Berkeley, CA 94720-2650

   email: hinton at calmail.berkeley.edu
   fax: (510) 643-5688
   phone: (510) 643-7621
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