The Red List project, and why it is so important
Dear Friend of the Endangered Alphabets:
I wish I could sit down with you, one on one, and explain just how radical a change we are trying to effect with the upcoming Red List project.
(I have a short video in which I try to do just that, but the file’s too big to insert here. If you’re on Facebook, it’s at https://www.facebook.com/
In brief, it goes like this:
1. As the Red List of Endangered Species demonstrated, you don’t know you have a problem until you go out and identify all the species and count how many, or how few, of each are left. (In our case, of course, it’s not species but forms of writing.) It takes a TON of work, but it’s essential, because…
2. Once you have the numbers, you can see where the problems are, how serious they are, and you can even start to work out what caused them. Documentation leads to analysis leads to policy. Just as importantly…
3. Once you can do #1 and #2, you can demonstrate need, and if you can demonstrate need, you can start to pursue funding. At the moment there are NO grants around endangered alphabets, NO foundations or agencies whose job is to address the crisis, NO budgets for faculty to teach courses and supervise research. I’m regularly contacted by students who want to study minority writing systems, but there are simply no programs. In short…
4. Once the Red List is published, this sequence of events kicks in, the invisible becomes visible, a non-issue finally appears on people’s radar, and the entire process or revitalization–such as is under way in the field of endangered languages–can begin.
So the Red List is much bigger than our Atlas of Endangered Alphabets. It’s on a scale that will make academia, and foundations, and the NGO world, and even governments take notice, and say “Yeah, maybe we should print textbooks in this minority group’s script after all,” or “Okay, we’ll have hospital signage that everyone can read because that might be important, you know.”
We can’t do it without you.
Our first 72 hours have brought in over $1,400 towards our goal of $11,500 by October 1, but the remaining $10,000 isn’t going to raise itself. Please support us now, at https://www.
And then, if you would, please forward this email to someone you know who cares about languages, writing, and social justice.
Thanks.
Tim
