Friday 18 September 2015

Indigenous languages, literacy and the myth of the “unwritten language”

Fully (sic) a bliodgi: Indigenous languages, literacy and the myth of the “unwritten language”

Are Indigenous languages written languages?

Yes. Yes, they are. The notion that Indigenous languages aren’t written languages is a myth, and an apparently pervasive one.

(...)

Because it seems when someone tries to say that Indigenous languages aren’t written languages, what they really mean is that they are primarily spoken languages and that they don’t have a significant literary tradition like more prestigious languages such as Latin, English or Chinese.

This is also a short-sighted view.

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