All times listed are in Eastern Standard Time (UTC -5)
Samar Sinha
Coordinator, Center for Endangered Languages, Sikkim University (India) and Principal Investigator for Sikkim’s Endangered Language Documentation Project.
With guest Samar Sinha. Very few academics are conducting detailed linguistic, anthropological and historical studies of minority scripts, let alone involving themselves in efforts at revitalization. Samar Sinha, of the Center for Endangered Languages of Sikkim University in northern India, is at the epicenter of this combination of study and advocacy. Hosted by Tim Brookes, founder of the Endangered Alphabets Project and author of Writing beyond Writing.
Olgierd Uziemblo
Sign and Symbol research group at Warsaw University
Western definitions of writing are remarkably narrow and exclusionary, restricting the term to purely phonetic writing systems while the world’s scripts are significantly broader and richer. The Sign and Symbol Research Group, based at the University of Warsaw, takes a different approach, one that is broader, deeper, more colorful, and more alert to the possibilities of how meaning can be and has been conveyed across the world, examining symbol systems that have been ignored, scorned and massively misunderstood. Hosted by Tim Brookes, founder of the Endangered Alphabets Project and author of Writing beyond Writing.
Very little research has been conducted into how and why scripts fall or are forced out of usage—yet if we understood those processes more clearly, we might be better equipped to save or revive today’s beleaguered languages and scripts. Dr Philippa Steele of the Visual Interactions in Early Writing Systems Project at Cambridge University looks for clues in scripts that have not been used for thousands of years. Hosted by Michael Reid.
Dr. Pippa Steele
Principal Investigator of Visual Interactions in Early Writing Systems,
University of Cambridge
Most of the work that goes into trying to save or revive minority languages and scripts is unfunded, unacknowledged, and largely unappreciated. At the core of World Endangered Writing Day was a ceremony to recognize those efforts. See also details online at https://wewday.webflow.io/showcase/2024-award-winners. Hosted by Tim Brookes, founder of the Endangered Alphabets Project and author of Writing beyond Writing.
Tim Brookes
Executive Director, Endangered Alphabets
Creator of World Endangered Writing Day
As another core event of the first World Endangered Writing Day, the online Atlas of Endangered Alphabets was relaunched with 100 added scripts. See endangeredalphabets.net. Hosted by Tim Brookes, founder of the Endangered Alphabets Project and author of Writing beyond Writing.
Tim Brookes
Executive Director, Endangered Alphabets
Creator of World Endangered Writing Day
The people who study writing most thoroughly and perceptively are not linguists—they are type designers. Kajama will explain why she is studying Chakma history, geography and aesthetics in order to create a new and culturally-authentic Chakma font.
Kajama Chakma
Graduate student in the world-renowned typography graduate program at the University of Reading (UK)
Dr. Sabine Hyland explores the textile media that expand our concept of writing, in particular the khipus of the Andes. How did these knotted and colored cords record bureaucratic data, such as population censuses and labor tribute, during the Inca Empire? How have khipus continued to be used in remote corners of the Andes, and what remarkable qualities do they incorporate to encode information? Hosted by Tim Brookes, founder of the Endangered Alphabets Project and author of Writing beyond Writing.
Sabine Hyland
Anthropology, University of St Andrews (UK)
Jade Jue Wang Szilas
University of Geneva
Dr. Jue Wang Szilas presents her work in developing a multilingual MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) on China's endangered Naxi Dongba pictographic script. Hosted by Tim Brookes, founder of the Endangered Alphabets Project and author of Writing beyond Writing.
Dr. Maung Nyeu addresses the dismaying widespread question of how to create a mother-tongue education program when there are no trained teachers, no published teaching materials, the community speaks multiple languages—and the region is militarized?
Maung Ting Nyeu
Founder of ourgoldenhour.org, a non-profit saving endangered languages and cultures through education, illustrated folk tales, and teaching using indigenous languages
Anshuman Pandey of Unicode addresses the crucial question: Does digitizing minority scripts, so they can be used on electronic devices, help to save them? And if so, what is the process, and what are the challenges? Hosted by Tim Brookes, founder of the Endangered Alphabets Project and author of Writing beyond Writing.
Anshuman Pandey, Deborah Anderson
Script Encoding Initiative
This session is generously sponsored by Phrase.
Languages are our medium. Just like water for fish, we coexist and build together only through language. It is what makes us human, and what carries our cultural treasures. How do advances in artificial intelligence and machine translation coexist with these truths? A discussion with Gabriel Fairman, founder and CEO of Bureau Works. Hosted by Tim Brookes, founder of the Endangered Alphabets Project and author of Writing beyond Writing.
Sponsored Content
Gabriel Fairman
Founder and CEO, Bureau Works
Amalia Gnanadesikan, Tim Brookes
Author
Executive Director of Endangered Alphabets
Who better to sum up the day’s events, insights and discussions than the author of The Writing Revolution: Cuneiform to the Internet? Hosted by Tim Brookes, founder of the Endangered Alphabets Project and author of Writing beyond Writing.
