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FROM UNWRITTEN LANGUAGE TO ALPHABET

April 19, 2008

by Tim Valentine

For the past month, I have been taking a course called Phonemics. In previous writings I have given a short definition as to what it is. I will now explain in greater detail as to what this all entails.

Phonemics is made up of the words “phone”, which means sound, and “emic”, which means insider’s view. What we actually say in a language is often quite different from what we think we say. What we actually say also requires much more than the 26 symbols that we use to write it down! So how do we get from an unwritten language to an alphabet that is easy to use and acceptable to those who are fluent speakers?

Phonemics first requires “phonetics.” This term, as you may suspect, is the sound as it seems from an outsider’s point of view. There is a phonetic alphabet that is used to summarize almost every sound that is possible to make with the human mouth. The church planter first will write down what he hears the tribal person saying. After gaining a list of a few thousand utterances and has sufficient knowledge of the language, one can begin the process of phonemics.

The first part is called “interpretation.” This is a process that is used to determine whether something is considered two sounds or one. In English, a good example would be the sound “ch.” Phonetically, it is two sounds: “t” plus “sh.” We, as English speakers, think of it as one sound. We discover this by seeing how this sound is distributed. For example, if consonant clusters never appear first in a word, but “ch” does, then it would seem that “ch” is one sound, and not two.

The next part is called “analysis.” This is the process to see if two different sounds are seen as one sound by the native speaker. The words “teeth” and “teethe” suggest this. The “th” have two different sounds, but we spell them with the same two letters. Likewise, “s” when it is said after a voiced letter (like “dogs”), is pronounced like a “z.” One symbol would represent sounds that “unite” together. We do that in English: we spell the plurals with “s” even when we say “z.”

The last part is creating an “orthography.” In other words, we are creating an alphabet that is easy to understand. It needs to be simple so one does not have to go through great agony to memorize spellings of words as we do in our language. Everything should be spelled the way it sounds! The alphabet should also use the same symbols as in the national language.

There has been some argument as to whether one should introduce literacy to a non-literate culture. There is an “orality” movement that many organizations endorse. The case for literacy is very apparent, however. We want to be able to see people be able to read the Bible in their own language without help from foreigners. It is imperative if we want to see the next generation of believers (after the foreign church planters have left) have a Biblical worldview. Making recordings can only go so far in the environments where tribal people live. There are also practical issues, such as getting tribal people to read so outsiders will not take advantage of them. It is essential if we want to see a church function on its own without the help of outsiders.