No fewer than two opportunities to see the Endangered Alphabets (and me) this week if you’re in Vermont, upstate New York or Quebec. On Thursday evening at 6 p.m., the Alphabets are part of a double-exhibition at Norwich University in Northfield, Vermont. One part features artwork from 19th-century expeditions led by Norwich grads; the Alphabets […]
Here we go—the Endangered Alphabet Game Kickstarter campaign is now live at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1496420787/endangered-alphabet-games! I must admit, I’m kicking myself that it has taken me seven years to realize that one of the best ways to revive an endangered language, written or spoken, is by creating games. But here we are now, and this Kickstarter is […]
COMING SOON: my Kickstarter to raise money to create board games in endangered alphabets for indigenous kids. The image in this photo is one of my series of faux-Scrabble tiles, in Sundanese, from western Java. The tiles were recently on display at the LocWorld34 conference in Barcelona and at Mundolingua in Paris–a big hit. Seriously, […]
The ten tiles of the Endangered Alphabets Board Game, just needing a few coats of finish and a professional photo shoot. These tiles, each 10″x12″, are for exhibition; the aim is to use them as a springboard to raise $5,000 to make alphabet board games in endangered languages for indigenous schoolchildren in Bangladesh. Watch out […]
It’s a rare interviewer who asks me questions I’ve never been asked before: https://soundcloud.com/dougarobinson/saving-endangered-alphabets-with-tim-brookes.
Two carvings for my forthcoming exhibition at Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont, on International Mother Language Day. Both say “mother tongue,” the top one in Thai Lanna, the lower one in Mandaean. The woods are monkey pod and olive respectively. The exhibition will open the day before International Mother Language Day–namely, February 20th–and will be […]
One of the touching and altogether wonderful features of my current Kickstarter campaign is the fact that a number of linguists, recruited by the indefatigable Naoki Watanabe and working through Facebook, have translated my overall project description into other languages. As someone who after a lifetime of writing has had only one book translated into […]
This is why I love what I do. Early this morning Jerson Partible contacted me asking me if I want to carve something in Tagbanwa. I had never even heard of Tagbanwa. Within a couple of hours he had sent me this. It’s the phrase “mother tongue,” and it will be part of my exhibition […]
Our good friend (and member of the Endangered Alphabets Advisory Board) David Crystal has released yet another book–perhaps a little more tongue-in-cheek than his Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language, but surely destined to be another classic. Here is the press release:
I’m going to be showing and talking about a selection of Endangered Alphabets carvings in the near future–at the Lyceum in Bedford, Massachusetts at NOON on Sunday, May 15th, in Room 202. If you’re nearby, please swing by and say hello! Tim P.S. Thanks to the citizens of Springfield, Vermont, for a great turnout to […]
