Linguistics

Below you will find suggestions of resources and activities to help develop your knowledge and skills for the Linguistics competencies for orthography consultants.

For a fuller list of resources relating to orthography, visit SIL Global’s orthography website (here). You will find resources on a wide range of different orthography-related topics, resources focused on particular geographic areas, and SIL Global’s orthography video series.

Phonetic Transcription

Can transcribe phonetic data in IPA, using acoustic phonetic software as relevant to aid and check transcriptions.

Transcribe phonetic data from the local area in IPA, including suprasegmentals, making appropriate decisions about the level of phonetic detail included in the transcription.
If relevant to the context, use software for acoustic phonetics, as necessary, to aid transcription.

Rationale: Since most orthographies base their representation on sounds, it is important to know what those sounds in a language actually are.

Expand this section to find suggestions of resources and activities to help develop your knowledge and skills in this area.

Here are some resource suggestions to help you develop knowledge and skills in phonetic transcription:

The IPA Help International Phonetic Alphabet software program.
SIL Australia Phonetics Practice tool
SIL tone perception training online tutorial
International Phonetic Association's webpage of links to phonetics resources
Speech Acoustics video series on YouTube, in particularː Speech Acoustics 1 - introduction, Speech Acoustics 3 - what we can see, Acoustics 6 - consonants.
Praat tutorial on YouTube.

Here are some examples of activities for developing your ability to apply your knowledge (working with a mentor as appropriate).

Transcribe in IPA the common sounds of the local area, including suprasegmental contrasts.
Find out transcription best practices in the local context, particularly for related languages, and practice hearing and transcribing common distinctions.

Here are some examples of activities for developing your ability to assist teams and local communities.

Transcribe or verify a wordlist in IPA, including suprasegmentals, making appropriate decisions about the level of phonetic detail.

Determining Contrasts

Can identify all the main phonological contrasts of a language.

- Identify the phonemes of the language.
- Identify tonal contrasts in the language, both lexical and grammatical.
- Assist teams and language communities in exploring phoneme-grapheme mapping, and (where relevant) orthographic representation of tonal contrasts.

Rationale: Orthographies are typically based on contrasts, with a separate character (or combination of characters) for each contrastive element.

Expand this section to find suggestions of resources and activities to help develop your knowledge and skills in this area.

Here are some resource suggestions to help you develop knowledge and skills in identifying phonological contrasts and representing them orthographically:

Chapters 1 & 2 of:
Burquest, Donald A. 2006. Phonological analysis: a functional approach. SIL Global.
Chapters 1 & 2 of:
Bartram, Cathryn. 2013. Introductory Phonology. Gloucester: Centre for Linguistics, Translation and Literacy.
SIL Global orthography video 9: representing consonants and vowels.
SIL Global orthography video 10: Tone - introduction and lexical tone.
SIL Global orthography video 11: Tone - grammatical tone.
SIL Global orthography video 13: Other suprasegmentals.
Some further resources on vowels and orthography can be found on the SIL Global orthography website here.
Further resources on tone and orthography can be found on the SIL Global orthography website here.

Here are some examples of activities for developing your ability to apply your knowledge (working with a mentor as appropriate).

Based on phonetic data or a workshop situation, make an inventory of segmental phonemes for a given language.
Make a list of tonal contrasts, both lexical and grammatical, for a given language.

Here are some examples of activities for developing your ability to assist teams and local communities.

Apply a participatory approach to identifying the phonemes and tonal contrasts (if relevant) of a language, for example:
- Rasmussen, Kent. 2024. Phonology first: Methods that delay phonetics for better collaboration. In Participatory linguistics: Methods and case studies from around the world. Language Documentation & Conservation Special Publication no. 29, edited by Timothy Stirtz, Michael Cahill and Philip Davison. University of Hawai'i Press.
- Kutsch Lojenga, Constance. 2024. Participatory Research in Linguistics for language and orthography development: A practical guide. In Participatory linguistics: Methods and case studies from around the world. Language Documentation & Conservation Special Publication no. 29, edited by Timothy Stirtz, Michael Cahill and Philip Davison. University of Hawai'i Press.

Phonological Processes

Can identify the main phonological processes of a language.

- - Identify the main phonological processes (segmental and suprasegmental) that occur in the language
  - Recognize differences in types of phonological process (e.g. lexical versus post lexical processes) and implications for level of orthographic representation.
  - Assist teams and language communities in exploring how best to spell words and morphemes.

Rationale: An understanding of how and why the sounds of a word vary can help to determine the best spelling for the word.

Expand this section to find suggestions of resources and activities to help develop your knowledge and skills in this area.

Here are some resource suggestions to help you develop knowledge and skills in identifying phonological processes:

Chapter 3 of:
Burquest, Donald A. 2006. Phonological analysis: a functional approach. SIL Global.
Chapters 5 & 6 of:
Bartram, Cathryn. 2013. Introductory Phonology. Gloucester: Centre for Linguistics, Translation and Literacy.
Snider, Keith. 2014. "Orthography and phonological depth." In Developing Orthographies for Unwritten Languages, edited by Michael Cahill and Keren Rice. SIL International.
SIL Global orthography video 14: Phonological levels.

Here are some ideas of activities for developing your ability to apply your knowledge (working with a mentor as appropriate).

Use the questions given in the "layman's guide" in Snider (2014: 44-46) to distinguish the different phonological processes of a given language.

Here are some ideas of activities for developing your ability to assist teams and local communities.

Having distinguished the different phonological processes of a language (e.g. by the "layman's guide" mentioned above), facilitate a community discussion about the pros and cons of different possible spellings.

Morphosyntax

Can identify the basic morphosyntactic structures of a language that relate to word break issues.

- - Identify morphemes and morpheme breaks.
  - Determine basic syntactic structures.
  - Recognize compound words and clitics.
  - Assist teams and language communities in exploring word break issues in the orthography.

Rationale: Determining morpheme and word boundaries is an essential part of determining where breaks or joining should take place in the orthography.

Expand this section to find suggestions of resources and activities to help develop your knowledge and skills in this area.

Here are some resource suggestions to help you develop knowledge and skills in morphosyntax:

Chapters 1, 2, 3, 5 of:
Payne, Thomas E. 2006. Exploring language structure: A student's guide. Cambridge University Press.
Dyken, Julia R. van, and Constance Kutsch Lojenga. 1993. "Word boundaries: key factors in orthography development." In Alphabets of Africa, 3–22, edited by R. Hartnell. UNESCO and SIL
Eaton, Helen and Leila Schroeder. 2012. Word break conflicts in Bantu languages: Skirmishes on many fronts. Writing Systems Research, 4:2, 229–241.
Kutsch Lojenga, Constance. 2014. "Basic Principles for establishing word boundaries". In Developing Orthographies for Unwritten Languages, edited by Michael Cahill and Keren Rice. SIL International.
SIL Global orthography video 15: word divisions.
More resources about orthographic word divisions can be found on the SIL Global orthography website here.

Here are some ideas of activities for developing your ability to apply your knowledge (working with a mentor as appropriate).

Identify the morphemes and basic syntactic structures of a language.
Work through the orthographic word division criteria given in Kutsch Lojenga (2014: 91-99) for a given language

Here are some ideas of activities for developing your ability to assist teams and local communities.

Apply a participatory approach to identifying the morphosyntactic structures of a language, for example:
- Stirtz, Timothy. 2024. Rapid Grammar Collection: Language communities owning the orthography development process. In Participatory linguistics: Methods and case studies from around the world. Language Documentation & Conservation Special Publication no. 29, edited by Timothy Stirtz, Michael Cahill and Philip Davison. University of Hawai'i Press.
- Having worked through the criteria given in Kutsch Lojenga (2014: 91-99), facilitate a community discussion on the pros and cons of writing various morphemes joined or separate.

Linguistics Participant Methodologies

Can select and use relevant participant methodologies to help native speakers discover linguistic features of their language.

- - Use participant methodologies to discover phonemic contrasts, selecting the most appropriate methodology for the situation and context.
  - Use participant methodologies to discover morpheme and word breaks, selecting the most appropriate methodology for the situation and context.

Rationale: Involving native speakers in the discovery stages is important for both usability and acceptance.

Expand this section to find suggestions of resources and activities to help develop your knowledge and skills in this area.

Here are some resource suggestions to help you gain knowledge of linguistic participant methodologies:

Kutsch Lojenga, Constance. 2024. Participatory Research in Linguistics for language and orthography development: A practical guide. In Participatory linguistics: Methods and case studies from around the world. Language Documentation & Conservation Special Publication no. 29, edited by Timothy Stirtz, Michael Cahill and Philip Davison. University of Hawai'i Press.
Rasmussen, Kent. 2024. Phonology first: Methods that delay phonetics for better collaboration. In Participatory linguistics: Methods and case studies from around the world. Language Documentation & Conservation Special Publication no. 29, edited by Timothy Stirtz, Michael Cahill and Philip Davison. University of Hawai'i Press.
Stirtz, Timothy. 2024. Rapid Grammar Collection: Language communities owning the orthography development process. In Participatory linguistics: Methods and case studies from around the world. Language Documentation & Conservation Special Publication no. 29, edited by Timothy Stirtz, Michael Cahill and Philip Davison. University of Hawai'i Press.
Stirtz, Timothy, Michael Cahill and Philip Davison, eds. 2024, Participatory linguistics: Methods and case studies from around the world. Language Documentation & Conservation Special Publication no. 29. University of Hawai'i Press.

Here are some ideas of activities for developing your ability to apply your knowledge (working with a mentor as appropriate).

Assist native speakers discover a linguistic feature of their language.

Here are some ideas of activities for developing your ability to assist teams and local communities.

Use one or more participant methodologies to help native speakers discover phonological and morphosyntactic features of their language.

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