@Endangeredalphabets@mastodon.social
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Endangeredalphabets

@Endangeredalphabets@mastodon.social

Living on the shores of Lake Champlain, working to protect and promote Indigenous and minority cultures by helping to revitalize their writing systems.

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Endangeredalphabets, to random
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My mistake. I've been telling people that the rural Chinese script Nüshu is the only script to have been created and used by women. It turns out there have been five or even six scripts invented or used mainly or even exclusively by women. Check out the latest (so far) at https://www.endangeredalphabets.com/2024/05/21/womens-scripts-galore/. Of course, this means you'll never again trust anything I tell you, which is probably wise.

Endangeredalphabets, to random
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Many, many thanks to Stephen Snyder of Boston for pulling me in on this story about an Ogham-engraved stone found in a garden in the English Midlands. https://theworld.org/segments/2024/05/09/ancient-irish-script-found-in-an-english-garden . Support your local NPR station!

Endangeredalphabets, to random
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Here you are, folks--a free sample from my new book Endangered Alphabets Sudoku. 24 puzzles, each with introductory text as you see here. Have fun with it, and share it with your peeps! The book itself can be ordered at https://www.endangeredalphabets.com/endangered-alphabets-merchandise/

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Endangeredalphabets,
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@shekinahcancook Thanks for the boost!

Endangeredalphabets,
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@shekinahcancook In a sense, that's the point. This is actually a very simple sudoku, but it demands a kind of image processing we're not used to. And that puts us in the same position as a refugee or immigrant who has to try to deal with a new set of letters/symbols in order to survive. But there is actually a trick, in this case: you give each symbol a number from 1-9, solve with numbers as usual, then resubstitute. Piece of cake.

Endangeredalphabets, to random
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Many followers of the Endangered Alphabets Project are coders, with good reason: in a sense, all writing is code, and all scripts are codes specific to their cultures. But sometimes the codes are quite literal, and potentially enormously powerful, as I explain in my essay at https://wordpress.com/post/glli-us.org/46080. As usual, I explore this topic more fully in my new book Writing Beyond Writing, available at https://www.endangeredalphabets.com/writing-beyond-writing/.

Endangeredalphabets, to random
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I was wondering what I was doing four years ago, right when the first terrifying wave of COVID was crashing down over all of us. Apparently I was carving “Thank you all” in Balinese, in amazingly fine-grained basswood, for an exhibition at Planet Word in Washington DC—which was the first professional casualty, for me, of the pandemic.

Endangeredalphabets, to random
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Remember I posted this Iban poem a week ago, and asked for help translating it? Well, I have been sent a translation by the very man who is working to popularize the script, Dr Bromeley Philip, and I have incorporated both into a short essay you can find at https://www.endangeredalphabets.com/2024/03/23/another-writing-creation-writing-loss-writing-rediscovery-narrative/.
As usual, I see in the poem and its translation some important truths about writing itself. I can't help it. But this essay also includes an idea that came to me in the shower, which turns out to be very significant.

Endangeredalphabets,
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@raymccarthy https://www.theborneopost.com/2021/07/11/dunging-script-into-the-millennium/

Endangeredalphabets, to random
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My Spring Sale of carvings has arrived early in these strange times, but it features some of my best work, plus considerable savings. Check out the details at https://www.endangeredalphabets.com/2024/03/14/climate-change-spring-sale/

Endangeredalphabets,
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@luis_in_brief I would love to do a commission in Ajami. Do you have text I can work from? A preference for wood, and for dimensions?

Endangeredalphabets, to random
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Isn’t that just a thing of beauty? The chant “Om shanti shanti shanti om” in the Pallava script used on monuments in Angkor a thousand years ago. Text courtesy of Zafry Hadi. Gold gouache paint on hand-carved rosewood. Another http://endangeredalphabets.com carving.

Endangeredalphabets, to random
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Announcing a global MINORITY SCRIPT HANDWRITING CONTEST! Write anything by hand in a minority script (from the list at endangeredalphabets.net) and send it to me by March 15th (tim@endangeredalphabets.com) to win a fountain pen handmade for the Endangered Alphabets in burl wood. Tell your friends!
(By the way, this says "matur nuwun"--thank you very much--in Javanese. Handwriting by Koen.)

Endangeredalphabets, to random
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Do we wish each other "Happy International Mother Language Day"? Or is it a day of concern, of mourning? Of action? https://www.endangeredalphabets.com/2024/02/21/international-mother-writitten-language-day/

Endangeredalphabets,
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@raymccarthy
There's overlap between endangered languages and endangered alphabets, but there are also differences. Many people in Java still speak Javanese, but their own script was abandoned when Indonesia achieved independence after WWII. So the language is less endangered than the script. Both the Cherokee script and language, though, are endangered. My challenge is that people like this journo think in terms of languages, but nobody thinks about scripts.

Endangeredalphabets, to random
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What a luxury to be able to work on this all day. And for those of you who voted for gold or silver paint (I didn't have any copper, though that would have been epic), here's how it turned out.
And for those of you who weren't in on the discussion, um, 10 hours ago, this is the chant "Om shanti shanti shanti om," a prayer for peace, in a script that was used around Angkor about a thousand years ago.
More of this kind of stuff can be found at endangeredalphabets.com.

Endangeredalphabets, to random
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Folks are signing up for the Writing Beyond Writing Book Club, which launches in ten days! Should be some fascinating discussions! Details at https://endangeredalphabets.com/2024/02/05/the-writing-beyond-writing-book-club/. Two sessions accommodate every time zone. Free digital copy of the book. Please boost!

Endangeredalphabets, to random
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Amazon has made it almost impossible to find my book Writing Beyond Writing, hidden at https://www.amazon.com/Writing-Beyond-Tim-Brookes/dp/0990442888/, even though it has 5 stars. It's not searchable by title or by my name. I'm told it will get more findable if people click that link, even if they don't buy it. I know it's dangerous to click on links in posts on social media, but by now many of you know me. Please give it a try. Tim

Endangeredalphabets, to random
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World Endangered Writing Day has left behind an Easter Egg, so to speak--the chance to win one of my carvings. Read all about it at https://www.endangeredalphabets.com/2024/01/25/the-day-is-done-but-the-game-survives/

Endangeredalphabets, to random
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Just in time for World Endangered Writing Day! A chat with author Tim Brookes
@TBAlphabets
about why scripts need to be preserved, and what's going on for this new event.

Wherever you get your podcasts.

http://becauselanguage.com/90-enpoopification/

Endangeredalphabets, to random
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Check out my latest article: Tim Brookes talks about his new book Writing Beyond Writing: "part travelogue, part essay, part crusade." https://linkedin.com/pulse/tim-brookes-talks-his-new-book-writing-beyond-part-essay-tim-brookes-oma5e

Endangeredalphabets, to random
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This amazing sculpture, which says “ Good morning “ in the extinct Pallava script of South Asia, is going on sale to help meet the costs of World Endangered Writing Day. Starting bid is $500. Contact me if you are interested.

Endangeredalphabets, to random
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One of the people we'll be featuring on World Endangered Writing Day as helping to revive his culture's script is Tamir Purev. Here he is practicing and discussing his Mongolian calligraphy: https://youtube.com/watch?v=HNgKBtwrBfU&t=119s #WEWD2024 #WorldEndangeredWritingDay

Endangeredalphabets, to random
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My favorite Alphabets photo of 2023 is….this carving of the word “writing” in the Kulitan script, used for the Kapampangan language of Luzon, now the heart of the World Endangered Writing Day logo. Free registration for the day’s events is now open at wewd.io/register!

Endangeredalphabets, to random
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Writing Beyond Writing is not just a book with beautiful pictures (thanks to Alec Julien's design and photos from the Incunabula Library). One of the central questions of the book is, when did writing stop being art, and why? What have we lost in separating the two, and industrializing writing? Can we heal the wound? And in fact is there a reconvergence taking place, right now? Get your signed copy at https://www.endangeredalphabets.com/writing-beyond-writing/.

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