I am pleased to report that the Endangered Writing Network is already doing well, with lots of new members and growing discussion on the Discord server. Anyone can join by visiting the Network main page and filling out the contact form - all you need is an interest in writing traditions ancient and/or modern, endangerment … Continue reading Endangered Writing Network – new developments
Your Stories: Oreen Yousuf, Harari speaker
My name is Oreen Yousuf and I'm an engineer that focuses on natural language processing (NLP). I'm also incredibly fascinated by the diversity of writing systems used in the world (both past and present). I speak Harari which is a small Ethio-Semitic language that is written in the Ge'ez/Ethiopic script. However, I was born outside … Continue reading Your Stories: Oreen Yousuf, Harari speaker
Introducing our first new VIEWS researcher
Hello! My name is Jordan and I’m thrilled to be joining the VIEWS Project as a Research Associate working on Egyptian and Maya writing. I specialize in the religion and visual culture of ancient Egypt, and my research is guided by what are essentially anthropological questions: what did ancient Egyptians consider as ‘beings’ (termed ‘metapersons’ … Continue reading Introducing our first new VIEWS researcher
Writing and language rights
This post is specially written for Global Language Advocacy Day 2023 (#GLAD23), an international day highlighting the importance and diversity of languages across the world. This year's theme is "Language rights save lives" - in both literal and metaphorical senses. One important strand of the VIEWS project involves using our research on early writing systems … Continue reading Writing and language rights
Etruscan writing.. in Lego!
Happy International Lego Classicism Day to all who celebrate! In my previous research project, CREWS, we tried to do something special for ILCD every year, and I want to continue that with VIEWS - taking our Lego efforts in some interesting new directions and pushing the traditional boundaries of Classics as a discipline. This year … Continue reading Etruscan writing.. in Lego!
Zoom talk by Pippa on Endangered Alphabets, Sunday 12th Feb 2023
I am giving a talk for Tim Brookes's Endangered Alphabets seminar series this Sunday: Sunday 12th Feb, 5pm GMT (12pm EST), by Zoom "Endangered Alphabets, Ancient and Modern" This will introduce my work on vitality/endangerment in ancient writing systems, plus the Endangered Writing Network. Register HERE to join in. All are welcome! ~ Pippa Steele … Continue reading Zoom talk by Pippa on Endangered Alphabets, Sunday 12th Feb 2023
Change to the Endangered Writing Network Launch Event
Please be aware that the Launch Event for the Endangered Writing Network will now take place on Friday 24th February, due to a clash with an unexpected medical appointment. All the details are in THIS POST.
Launch Event: Endangered Writing Network
Please note change of date from the original announcement! This event will now be held on Friday 24th February. We live in a world where thousands of languages are in danger of extinction - and writing has a huge role to play, both in supporting the continued use of threatened languages and as a threatened … Continue reading Launch Event: Endangered Writing Network
Your Stories: Hrant Papazian, Armenian world citizen
Native of Circumstance. Heraclitus stated that war is the father of all things.* In the late 1970s, the Lebanese Civil War triggered a rift in my life that would conceive the creative undercurrent of my adulthood. With the country of my birth and early youth fallen apart, my father pulled off a move to the … Continue reading Your Stories: Hrant Papazian, Armenian world citizen
When ideas of writing spread
People often talk about writing systems as if we can trace them genetically back to a source - for instance, you will see lots of suggestions that all modern alphabets can ultimately be traced back to Egyptian hieroglyphs. But that glosses over rather a lot of details of how writing systems were transmitted from one … Continue reading When ideas of writing spread
The VIEWS project 