Of the 7,000 languages spoken around the world, around 60% are threatened, moribund or nearly extinct. Many of these are not or have never been written down. Some have their own writing tradition – but of the world’s distinctive writing systems, 85-90% are endangered. Of these, some will be heritage systems while others are more recent creations, facing challenges like limited resources, digital disadvantage, lack of acceptance and political hostility.
Writing endangerment is a form of cultural and linguistic endangerment that has received very little direct attention. Similarly, there has been no systematic study of the ways in which writing can best be used to support minoritised, indigenous and endangered languages. VIEWS research is tackling these issues, and forging innovative approaches that build on the history of language endangerment and script loss over the last 5,000 years. But we cannot do it alone – only by working together can we make a difference to the communities affected by the endangerment of language, writing and culture.
Please join us in our efforts to bring people from diverse backgrounds together in the fight against language and writing loss: from academics working in linguistics, writing systems and anthropology to language activists, typographers, digitisation specialists, publishers, designers, artists, practitioners and, above all, members of affected communities. By bringing our voices and skillsets together we have the power to make a difference.
We operate principally through two networks under the headings of the Endangered Writing Research Network and the Script Keepers Network. Everyone is welcome to join our networks, whatever your background and interests, and we encourage expressions of interest for collaborations and ideas for new initiatives. Explore the links below to find out what we are doing and what you could do to help turn the tide.
To join our networks, send an email to project director Pippa Steele and her colleagues at views@classics.cam.ac.uk (please tell us your name, location and your reasons for joining).
Our mission at a glance (click each point to expand)
Research
Pursuing, disseminating and collecting research on endangerment of historical and emergent writing traditions and the use of writing as a support for endangered languages.
Discussion
Creating new spaces and opportunities for discussion, from online meetings, seminars and discussion events to conferences, open to all.
Awareness
Raising awareness of the plight of communities whose languages and writing traditions are under threat, through events and social media campaigns.
Collaboration
Working together with groups and individuals to devise new strategies for maintaining languages and writing traditions, and to find the necessary funding and resources to support them.
Action
Making a difference to the communities affected by language and writing endangerment, through consultancy and skill pairing, focusing on everything from raising awareness and improving resources to supporting Unicode proposals and digitisation.
Two networks, one mission
The Endangered Writing Research Network is the research wing of our operations, forging a new interdisciplinary field focused on the many traditional and emergent scripts of today’s world alongside historical scripts. Members come from inside and outside of academia, some researching very specific topics while others have more general interests. We host a lively discussion forum through our Discord server.
Email us to join the Endangered Writing Research Network: views@classics.cam.ac.uk.
The Script Keepers Network is the action wing of our operations, where a wide range of interested parties come together to collaborate on specific problems related to individual scripts. Members may be people offering their skills and time (be it in writing, digitising, education, designing, linguistics, fieldwork, etc) or individuals or groups asking for help with a traditional or emergent script.
Explore the separate Script Keepers Network website HERE.
Please note that donations made through the Script Keepers Network page do not come to the VIEWS project and are administered by the Endangered Alphabets project. At VIEWS we do not take direct donations, but if you are interested in supporting particular collaborations financially you are welcome to get in touch to discuss possible avenues for doing so.
Explore our resources
Partners and collaborators
We are proud to work in close collaboration with our friends at the Endangered Alphabets Project, and a consortium of international experts.
Endangered Alphabets, run by Tim Brookes
Visit the Atlas of Endangered Alphabets
- RISE UP: Revitalising Languages and Safeguarding Cultural Diversity
- Living Tongues Institute
- Endangered Languages Project
- Global Coalition for Language Rights
We are registered as a participant in the UNESCO Decade of Indigenous Languages, 2022-2032.
Excerpt from the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (Article 13), 13th September 2007:
Indigenous peoples have the right to revitalize, use, develop and transmit to future generations their histories, languages, oral traditions, philosophies, writing systems and literatures, and to designate and retain their own names for communities, places and persons.
The banner at the top of this page includes images of Mongolian calligraphy, traditional isiBheqe in South Africa from which isiBheqe soHlamvu has developed and a sign in the Badugu script in Tamil Nadu.
The VIEWS project 