<h3 class="storycat" style="border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:15px;vertical-align:baseline;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);margin:1em 0px 0.5em;padding:0px;color:rgb(59,70,41);font-family:Arial,sans-serif">November 5, 2012</h3>
<h2 class="storytitle" style="border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:18px;vertical-align:baseline;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);margin:1em 0px 0.5em;padding:0px;color:rgb(59,70,41);font-family:Arial,sans-serif">UBC researchers create alphabet for endangered language in Ghana</h2>
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Tags: <b style="border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background-color:transparent;margin:0px;padding:0px"><a href="https://news.ok.ubc.ca/tag/ikbsas/" rel="tag" style="border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background-color:transparent;margin:0px;padding:0px;color:rgb(97,112,75)">Irving K. Barber School of Arts and Sciences</a>, <a href="https://news.ok.ubc.ca/tag/learning/" rel="tag" style="border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background-color:transparent;margin:0px;padding:0px;color:rgb(97,112,75)">Learning</a></b></p>
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Written language may improve access to education, health care, and government</h3><div id="attachment_6317" class="wp-caption alignright" style="color:rgb(93,93,93);font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:12px;border-width:0px 0px 3px;border-bottom-style:solid;border-bottom-color:rgb(221,221,221);outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background-color:rgb(248,248,248);margin:0.4em 0px 1.5em 1.5em;padding:0px;float:right;width:360px">
<img class="size-full wp-image-6317" title="Robyn Giffen and Vida Yakong " src="https://news.ok.ubc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Robyn_Vida-blog.jpg" alt="Robyn Giffen and Vida Yakong " width="350" height="467" style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 4px; "><p class="wp-caption-text" style="border:0px;outline:0px;font-size:0.8em;vertical-align:baseline;background-color:transparent;margin:0px 4px 4px;padding:0px;line-height:1.5em;color:rgb(102,102,102);background-repeat:initial initial">
Robyn Giffen and Vida Yakong with the new Nabit alphabet</p></div><p style="color:rgb(93,93,93);font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:1.5em;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background-color:transparent;margin:1em 0px;padding:0px">
Fourth-year UBC undergraduate student Robyn Giffen has teamed up with PhD candidate Vida Yakong to create a writing system for the language of Nabit, an oral spoken language in Northern Ghana.</p><p style="color:rgb(93,93,93);font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:1.5em;border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background-color:transparent;margin:1em 0px;padding:0px">
By first creating an alphabet, and consequently a fully-functional writing system, Giffen and Yakong hope people in the Nabdam district in Northern Ghana will have better access to essential services of education, health care, and government. All are currently delivered in a language not fully understood by most Nabit speakers, which limits their ability to influence those essential services.</p>
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<font color="#5d5d5d" face="Arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12px;line-height:18px"><a href="https://news.ok.ubc.ca/2012/11/05/ubc-researchers-create-alphabet-for-endangered-language-in-ghana/">https://news.ok.ubc.ca/2012/11/05/ubc-researchers-create-alphabet-for-endangered-language-in-ghana/</a></span></font></p>
<p style="border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background-color:transparent;margin:1em 0px;padding:0px"><font color="#5d5d5d" face="Arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12px;line-height:18px"><br></span></font></p>
<p style="border:0px;outline:0px;vertical-align:baseline;background-color:transparent;margin:1em 0px;padding:0px"><font color="#5d5d5d" face="Arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12px;line-height:18px">(via Indigenous Tweets)</span></font></p>
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