Yes, most situations are like that in Amerindian languages, and the process to create a more accepted alphabets is a political rather than "academic" one. But now, many Amerindian peoples have intellectual native speakers, many are writers and many are trained in linguistics, so the process to create an alphabet from the native perspective is more than possible, and far desirable, for the reasons you say. For example, Aymara already agreed on an alphabet for all Aymara, Argentina, Bolivia and Chile, and they are in a process to create an Academy of the Aymara language, with representation from all these countries. Similar process I understand is happening in Maya, and in less extent in Mapuche (here, the competing alphabets differ only in a couple representation of specific phoneme). Soon or later, seeing new opportunities for information sharing (such as a Wikipedia in their own language, which is now under consideration in many groups) all Amerindian people will agree on an alphabet for their specific language. ---Rodolfo
Ray Saintonge wrote:
Rodolfo M Vega wrote:
The "language invention" must be done by the native speakers of that language. This is what native speakers of Amerindian languages are fighting for, and are part of United Nations agreements and conventions on language rights for native peoples. I am working with Maya, Mapuche and Aymara, from the Americas, in this issue. Soon, they will ask to have Wikipedia in their own language, including the interface, done by themselves, and not by an "expert gringo". Is this possible based on your "rules"?
Why should there be a problem?
When the language is a pre-literate one there is still the need to develop a symbolic representation, such as an alphabet. One thing that appears to have happened with the languages of the west coast of North America is that alphabets were devised by late 19th century anthropologists on phonetic rather than phonemic grounds. This was fine with the anthropologists who wanted to understand accurate pronunciations, but it would involve distinctions that the native people would not make themselves.
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