Cooperation with Universities
Since 1975 SIL personnel have cooperated with Thai scholars at several universities, including Mahidol, Thammasat, Chulalongkorn, Payap, and Mae Fah Luang. At these universities, SIL personnel have:
Taught courses to MA and PhD students in linguistics, anthropology, multilingual education, translation, and ethnomusicology.
Cooperated with Thai scholars to survey and map Thailand’s languages, of which there are more than 70.
Published research on the languages and cultures of Southeast Asia in scholarly journals in Thailand and internationally.
Organized language and culture preservation workshops for minority communities.
Produced computer fonts for minority languages.
The Linguistic Institute library, housed at Payap University, Chiang Mai, serves researchers interested in Southeast Asian languages. SIL International also maintains the Ethnologue, an encyclopedic reference work cataloging all of the world’s known languages.
Over the years, SIL members have been able to join and collaborate with Mahidol University professors and staff who are part of the Research Institute for Language and Culture of Asia (see picture below). In 2009, SIL and Payap University celebrated 20 years of formal cooperation that began with the Linguistic Department and also includes the Linguistics Institute. A commemorative booklet was published and a portion can be viewed here.
