Orthography Development and Revision

Here are some resource suggestions to help you gain an overview knowledge of the kinds of factors which may influence the adequacy of an orthography: 

• The SIL Global orthography videos videos give brief overviews of a number of topics related to orthography. These are suitable for initial training, most being 15 minutes or less. 

• Cahill, Michael. 2014. "Non-linguistic factors in orthographies." In Developing orthographies for unwritten languages, edited by Michael Cahill and Keren Rice. SIL International.  

• Chapters 7 & 8 of:
  Karan, Elke. 2006. "Writing system development and reform: a process." MA diss., University of North Dakota. 

• Smalley, William. 1959. "How shall I write this language." The Bible Translator 10(2):49-69 

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

• Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of an existing orthography

• Work through some orthography descriptions and identify the strengths and drawbacks of the various symbols, spelling rules, word breaks, etc.

• Interview community members about their attitudes and perceptions of the symbol choices, spelling rules, etc. of their orthography, and their perception of how these affect comprehension.

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

• Work with members of a language community to evaluate an existing orthography, and explore possible next steps where relevant.

• Using SIL Global's "Orthography Assessment Tool", evaluate a given orthography with community input, and following which facilitate community discussion of next steps.

• Interview community members about their attitudes and comprehension while reading a wordlist or test.

Here are some resource suggestions to help you gain knowledge of how the interaction and balancing of various factors may vary from situation to situation: 

• The various case studies in:
  Michael Cahill and Keren Rice, eds. 2014. Developing orthographies for unwritten languages. SIL International. 

• The various case studies in:
  Jones, Mari C. & Damien Mooney, eds. 2017. Creating orthographies for endangered languages. Cambridge University Press. 

• Smalley, William. 1959. "How shall I write this language." The Bible Translator 10(2):49-69 

• Swan, Philip. 2023. "Mark my words! Writing Namblong, according to Namblong, by Namblong, for Namblong." SILA working papers. 

Here are some resource suggestions to help you gain knowledge of using participatory methodologies when assisting language communities:

• Easton, Catherine. 2024. "A community-based participatory approach to orthography development in Papua New Guinea: The Alphabet Design Workshop." 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. 

• Lew, Sigrid. 2019. "Proposing a facilitated participatory approach for Southeast Asian minority language design." Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society 12(1). 

• Page, Christina. 2024. "Orthography development in Southeast Asia: A facilitated participatory approach case study." 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. 

• More resources about community participation 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). 

• Observe a community dealing with orthography choices and reflect on the factors involved and how they were prioritized.

• Assist in a relevant community event which uses participant methodologies.

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

• For different types of orthographic issue, assist a language community (or language communities) to make decisions on these issues, using relevant participant methodologies.

Here are some resource suggestions to help you gain knowledge about testing orthographies. 

• Karan, Elke. 2013. "The ABD of orthography testing: Integrating formal or informal testing into the orthography development process." Work Papers of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, University of North Dakota 53(1). 

• Karan, Elke. 2014. "The ABD of orthography testing: Practical guidelines." Work Papers of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, University of North Dakota 54.

• Roberts, David and Stephen L. Walter, eds. 2021. Tone orthography and literacy: The voice of evidence in ten Niger-Congo languages. John Benjamins. 

• Schroeder, Leila and Cathryn Bartram, eds. 2025. Testing African Orthographies. Publications in Linguistics Use and Education 9. SIL Global.

• Vitrano-Wilson, Seth. 2016. "Reading syllable-spaced versus word-spaced text in Hmong Daw: Breaking up isn’t so hard to do." Writing Systems Research 8(2):234–256.

• Wright, Jennifer. 2012. "Testing and revising a tone orthography proposal for Chrambo (Bambalang)." Ministry of Scientific Research and Innovation, Cameroon.

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

• Work with a mentor to plan and implement an investigation comparing ease of reading and/or writing for different orthographic alternatives.

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

• Plan and implement an investigation comparing ease of reading and/or writing, including analysis of the empirical data, and discussion of the results with the community.