The Process of Spelling Standardization of Innu-aimun (Montagnais) 1
Among the languages of the world, dead or still alive, few have developed a writing system. In addition, literacy among the general population is relatively recent in human history. In fact, for a very long period, only the elite had access to writing, and being able to write was not seen as necessa...
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| Format: | Text |
| Language: | English |
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| Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.411.6948 http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~jar/ILAC/ILAC_21.pdf |
| Summary: | Among the languages of the world, dead or still alive, few have developed a writing system. In addition, literacy among the general population is relatively recent in human history. In fact, for a very long period, only the elite had access to writing, and being able to write was not seen as necessary for everyone. This situation has changed greatly and, in the twentieth century, literacy pretty well became the norm, at least for large national languages. What is the case, then, among minority languages with an oral tradition but with no written one? Is it absolutely necessary that they align themselves with languages that have a well-established literary tradition? In the case of Aboriginal languages, this debate has arisen, and it still provokes controversy, even after 30 years. Here is what Grenoble and Whaley (1998) say on the topic in a recent book on endangered languages: The majority of endangered languages come from oral cultures, where converting the language to a written form poses certain consequences for the continued use of these languages. It is often argued |
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