Script Death, Script Birth

When I first started working on the Endangered Alphabets Project, the pre-eminent linguist David Crystal told me that although many scholars were studying language loss, nobody, as far as he knew, was studying script loss.

This is still true 12 years later. How are scripts lost? Are certain kinds of script more vulnerable than others, or is it more that certain cultures or script usages are more vulnerable? Where do the threats come from? And then, what are the effects? How does the loss of its traditional writing system affect a culture? Can the decline be slowed, or even reversed?

In Sunday’s talk, “Script Death, Script Birth,” I’m going to offer a few answers.

I’m also going to look at the converse: How are scripts created? Who creates them? What are the necessary conditions for the adoption, usage, and survival? What is the effect on a culture not of losing its old script but gaining a new one? Can two scripts coexist, or would they compete? And why would someone go to the enormous time and trouble of creating a script for their people when they may not get thanked for their work—in fact, we know of at least four people who were killed for authoring a script for their language community?

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Feb 6, noon EST: Script Death, Script Birth

Register: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0oc-GprDkpHtVkifFdURrbOU_IZobcANYa

Feb 13, noon EST: Writing Beyond Writing

Register: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUuf-mtrTwvGNDuO0-1lWyjQsc5iMdF3yu8

Feb 20, noon EST: Why are mother scripts important?

Register: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYkde-ppz4iHtKsVB9fo30xuUmOKr1zpgKd