One of the most enjoyable things about creating our game ULUS is discovering Mongol history and mythology. One of our main characters is actually an athlete in one of the three major traditional Mongol sports, wrestling–and she is a woman: Khutulun, the Wrestler. The great great granddaughter of Genghis Khan, and daughter of Kaidu, lord […]
Endangered Alphabets in Eight Scripts After the success of my live Open House Zoom series over the summer, I’m going to be offering an autumn live Zoom series called Endangered Alphabets in Eight Scripts. Each talk, which will last about 10-12 minutes (if I can rein in my enthusiasms), will tell the story of […]
The Endangered Alphabets are planning a major project to support the Mongolian people’s efforts to protect and promote their language and its beautiful traditional script, and we’ll need your help. We’re recruiting illustrators and Mongolian calligraphers and translators; we’ll also be launching a fundraiser to create a range of language tools, both educational and fun, […]
It is still remarkably rare for scholars to get involved in creating and promoting new writing systems, so it seems all the more worthwhile to pass along to you an article by Stephen Morey, an Australian scholar and expert in the Tai languages and scripts of South China, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. And as […]
Welcome to the third monthly Endangered Alphabets feature about calligraphy and type design–in indigenous and minority writing systems. Here’s the point. If a script exists only in historical documents, engravings, and inscriptions, it is all too easy to assume it is no longer in use, and the culture that created it has also been lost. […]
Last month, we started a new monthly Endangered Alphabets feature about calligraphy and type design–in indigenous and minority writing systems. Here’s the point. If a script exists only in historical documents, engravings, and inscriptions, it is all too easy to assume it is no longer in use, and the culture that created it has also […]
This time last year I was getting ready to set up an Endangered Alphabets carving exhibition in the Vermont State House–an exhibition whose flagship carving was this tribute to the Native people of the region, the Abenaki. It says “People of the Dawn Lands”–the Abenaki name for themselves–in Abenaki. A lot has happened since then. […]
Our latest Carving of the Week video features the stunning Adinkra symbol system. You can check it out HERE. As always, I wish I knew more than I do, or than I sound as if I do. Anyone who has studied Adinkra–I’d love to hear from you!
Today, August 9, is Indigenous Peoples Day. The Endangered Alphabets Project works to support indigenous peoples all round the world, but I must confess that for the first few years of the project I knew nothing about the indigenous peoples living right here around me. (I was going to write “In my own back yard,” […]
The latest Carving of the Week video: Beria! An indigenously-created script for the Zaghawa language of Chad and Sudan, its symbols were originally based on the ownership marks branded on camels and other livestock. More information on the script at endangeredalphabets.net/alphabets/beria.
