Ep12: You Can't Play Scrabble in Urdu: Endangered Alphabets and Minority Scripts

Title: Languaging in Hampton Roads

Episode 12 : You Can’t Play Scrabble in Urdu: Endangered Alphabets and Minority Scripts

Hosts: Jill Winkowski and Prue Salasky

Date: Dec. 31, 2024

Length: 48:20

Publication Frequency: Fourth Friday (approx)  of each month

Co-hosts Jill Winkowski and Prue Salasky invite listeners to join them at https://languagemuseum.org as they present on ‘languaging in Hampton Roads’ to The National Museum of Language, part of its monthly online speaker series. The event runs from 2 to 4 p.m EST  on Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025; registration is free at https://languagemuseum.org/speaker-series/#lghr

The talk will be recorded and available on the NML site going forward.

This month we interview Tim Brookes, a teacher, writer, and wood carver.  Fifteen years ago Brookes launched the Endangered Alphabets Project to raise awareness about — and to preserve — the estimated 275 minority scripts threatened with extinction. While there are 7,000 spoken languages still extant, there are only 300 scripts worldwide. Brookes memorializes the scripts by carving them in wood, a unique blend of art and literacy.

He will host his 2nd Annual World Endangered Writing Day on Jan. 23, 2025 at https://www.endangeredwriting.world/  following the success of the inaugural event last year. Live-streamed speakers include script inventors, digitization experts, font creators, community activists and in-the-field researchers.

Find an archive of last year’s event at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHR3fRN60tw&list=PLYG37Sb2buKjaMtjztHjDc5pSS1a1jorr). 

According to Brookes, his website https://www.endangeredalphabets.com/ will feature a gallery that “celebrates a remarkable phenomenon that is springing up worldwide: people who are reviving their traditional scripts by teaching them through calligraphy workshops.” There will be give-aways and a quiz. 

Brookes’ two most recent books are “An Atlas of Endangered Alphabets” and “Writing Beyond Writing,” available through his website or Amazon. 

In our wide-ranging interview with Brookes, edited for length, we discuss minority scripts around the world, cursive writing in the U.S.,the effects of printing and mechanization, and address the question, “What is writing?” We even find some connections to Hampton Roads, our local region.