Algeria, especially since they took the choice to teach the Amazigh languages using the Latin alphabet it now is mostly an aesthetic thing in public signs. Libya I believe does use Tifinagh for its education, there is a significant Amazigh community in proportion to the full population, at first there was an attempt by some individuals there at using a different system based on the eastern Libyco-Berber script. Tunisia has a very small Amazigh population so not really much linguistic claims there. Morocco and Tuareg communities (around southern Algeria, Mali and Niger) are the main actors in the modern usage of Tifinagh, this account
is interesting, it's a person sort of standardizing traditional Tifinagh for use in Tuareg, and this person specialized in all sorts of Moroccan literature including modern Amazigh literature
"Konkani in the Roman, Kannada, Perso-Arabic and Malayalam scripts are not officially recognised after the passing of the Official Language Act 1987 in Goa. Same is the case for awards at the all-India level, where only the Devanagari script is treated as 'official'. Inspite of this, the first two scripts are being actively used, and one hopes the last-two won't die. Incidentally, Article 29 of the Constitution of India forbids discrimination on, inter alia, grounds of script."
For the Balinese script, the Balinese government is doing a lot of work keeping it going by requiring public signs to be in the script.
A script keyboard was developed by a colleague that is now supported by the government and there is a variety of competitions for the government led "Balinese language month" every February. School children are required to learn the script as well.
Some of our team who are teachers/professors teach the script in their classes. The head of our local board regularly has children over to his house for an after school script program and he often judges script competitions as well.
Organizationally, we include the script of words in our online dictionary and we have an area in the wiki designated for Baligraphy which is art made out of script words. Our baligraphy work will be featured in an upcoming film about Balinese art.
In Indonesia, the calligrapher Endo Fernandez, a muralist and street artist, is running similar workshops in schools for the traditional Lontara script of Sulawesi.
“I have visited 9 middle schools in my town Parepare, South Sulawesi. Each school for two days. And next week, me and my team will collect all the students’ work and we will have an exhibition to show their work, and some other events like a coloring aksara lontara competition for kindergarten, a lontara poetry reading competition for primary school, and for middle school a writing aksara lontara competition.”
The scripts of the powerful are usually the least vulnerable. Paradoxically, one of the most endangered scripts in the world is Manchu, once the imperial language and script of China.
Like its ancestor the Mongolian bichig script, Manchu is inherently calligraphic, with swooping and ornate initial and final letters for each word, and as such it is entirely fitting that one person at the heart of the efforts to revive Manchu is a calligrapher.
His Han Chinese name is Ye Ming; his Manchu name is Yehenala Yulin, according to a Chinese newspaper, and he belongs to the Yehenala clan of the Manchu inlaid blue flag.
"My parents were very strict with me when I was a child,” the article quotes him. “In order to help me develop good habits and character, I hired a teacher to teach me calligraphy before school. When I got older, I started to study Manchu-Chinese calligraphy, Jurchen script, Manchu seal characters and Manchu calligraphy. It started out as my parents’ expectations, and later became my lifelong hobby.”
“At present,” he wrote to me via Twitter, “Manchu writing in China is only studied by research institutions and has little practical application among the people. It is limited to historical buildings such as the Forbidden City and house numbers in Manchu autonomous regions. Over the past 20 years, I have increased the use of Manchu in some shops, businesses and ordinary Manchu families.”
His skill (and stamina) were eventually recognized and rewarded. In September 2020, Ye Ming became a member of the Chinese Calligraphers Association; in July 2022, he was hired as a visiting professor by the Academy of Fine Arts of Tsinghua University, responsible for teaching the course "Manchu and Chinese Calligraphy Creation."
On February 2, 2022, the Manchu-Chinese work "Manxiang Xiaoguan," translated and written by Ye Ming, was broadcast on CCTV 2; on October 15 of the same year, Ye Ming's work "Dragon" was broadcast on Beijing Satellite TV. At the end of 2022, Ye Ming's Manchu and Chinese calligraphy work "National Unity, One Family" was exhibited in the Macau Special Administrative Region of China--all the more remarkable given the Chinese government's general lack of support for ethnic minority cultures, languages and scripts.
Two crucial factors in the revival of any script or spoken language, in fact, are the support of government and the availability of teaching materials.
Due to his influence in the field of Manchu calligraphy and cultural creative products, Ye Ming participated in the compilation of the book "Concise Manchu Chinese," which was one of the few Manchu teaching materials officially published in China after the founding of the People's Republic of China.
“In order to protect Manchu writing," he told me, "it is more important to let more people know how serious his crisis is.
"I am also letting some relevant people in China know the seriousness of the Manchu crisis through my propaganda, and I have also made some people accept the crisis of Manchu script.”
Another valuable Manchu resource is the Manchu Studies Group.
It has historically posted short, informal writings by graduate students working on Manchu materials, but it's a platform for anything related to Manchu, read both by academics and by enthusiasts (who might themselves be overseas Manchu).
Meanwhile....
In Indonesia, the calligrapher Endo Fernandez, a muralist and street artist, is running similar workshops in schools for aksara lontara, a.k.a. the traditional Lontara script of Sulawesi.
“I have visited 9 middle schools in my town Parepare, South Sulawesi. Each school for two days. And next week, me and my team will collect all the students’ work and we will have an exhibition to show their work, and some other events like a coloring aksara lontara competition for kindergarten, a lontara poetry reading competition for primary school, and for middle school a writing aksara lontara competition.”
And another sign of life for the Bugis/Lontara script: one of the very few dictionaries in the world to incorporate a traditional or minority script has just been published, a Bugis-English-Indonesian dictionary that includes text in the Bugis/Lontara script. The author is Douglas Laskowski. A round of applause for all concerned, please.
Native North American Typographers
Type Drives Culture Conference from the Type Directors Club—Native North American Edition
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