Publisher:
Summer Institute of Linguistics, Academic Publications
Published:
c1989
Language:
English
Alibris ID:
13559777761
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Seller's Description:
Good. 22 cm, 154 pages, wraps, former owner's stamp and notation inside front cover SIL International (formerly known as the Summer Institute of Linguistics) is a U.S. -based, worldwide, non-profit organization, whose main purpose is to study, develop and document languages, especially those that are lesser-known, in order to expand linguistic knowledge, promote literacy, translate works into local languages, and aid minority language development. The organization was founded by William Cameron Townsend, an American missionary to Guatemala where he worked among the Kaqchikel Maya people. In 1933 Townsend turned to Mexico with the purpose of translating works into indigenous languages there, as he had done for Kaqchikel. Townsend established a working relation with the Mexican ministry of education under the progressive government of Lazaro Cardenas and founded SIL to educate linguists to work in Mexico. Through the following decades the SIL linguists worked with providing literacy education to indigenous people of Mexico. SIL gradually extended its work to other regions of the world where indigenous languages were spoken, including Papua New Guinea, Southeast Asia and Africa. While initially SIL's staff only received basic training in linguistics and anthropology, gradually the organization came to be professionalized and today many have advanced degrees. SIL has more than 6, 000 members from over 50 countries. Based on their language documentation work, SIL publishes a database, Ethnologue, of its research into the world's languages. SIL also develops and publishes software programs for language documentation, such as FieldWorks Language Explorer (FLEx) and Lexique Pro. SIL also holds formal consultative status with the United Nations, and has been recognized by UNESCO for their contributions in Asia. William Cameron Townsend (July 9, 1896-April 23, 1982) was a prominent twentieth-century American missionary who founded the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL International), which emphasied translations of work into minority languages and the facilitation of literacy in minority languages.
