A New Writing System for Indigenous Amazonian Languages - TYPE01
Created to support and uplift the communication of Indigenous Amazonian languages, Silabario Amazonico encourages designers to carve out new approaches to type design that centre the whole, defined features of the languages they convey, as opposed to the infrastructure and mediation of the Latin alphabet.
Ancestral Typography (Cecilia Vilca) — AFT
Ancestral Typography is both a methodology and an artwork that combines AI and Typography to preserve indigenous languages from, by, for, and with their communities, fighting stereotypes about technology and learning.
Can an alphabet save a culture? | Microsoft Unlocked
What does it mean to lose a language? Deep knowledge, passed down over millennia—gone. Ways of thinking about the land, the sea, the sky, and the flora and fauna that inhabit them. Rituals and recipes. Myths and memories, erased. And for those who spoke the language, it means losing a part of themselves.
Inca Khipu: The record and writing system made entirely of knots |
The khipu is an ingenious alternative device to a counting system, first introduced by the Wari and developed by the Inca. It was made up of a series of coloured, twisted and knotted cords that stored information, like the number of people in a community or the amount of food harvested. Honestly, the verdict is still out on exactly how these were used, but we do know from Spanish chronicles that they were also used to record histories, poems and even songs.
Language 101: Mnemonic Devices as Proto-Writing
Writing is a relatively recent human phenomenon, having evolved independently in diverse cultures throughout the world at different times. Like other innovations, the symbol system that writing is did not simply appear, but rather it evolved from earlier symbol systems. These earlier symbol systems which evolved into writing are considered to be forms of proto-writing.
Polynesian Genealogical Instrument
Each thread, made of woven coconut fiber, is a genealogical line and each knot is a generation. The genealogy goes back to the mythical origins of Earth, materialized by the oblong ball on top, made of wood
Tallies Used as Social Displays on Pacific Islands
In the 19th century, the Torres Strait Islanders did not have a numeral system and used sticks to keep counts. Sticks were tied to a string, forming a bundle (called kupe) that could be rolled and unrolled when needed. Kupes
The Cherokee Alphabet | PBS LearningMedia
Learn about the story of Sequoyah, a Cherokee man who developed an alphabet for the Cherokee language in 1821, in this video segment adapted from AMERICAN EXPERIENCE: “We Shall Remain.” Like most Native American groups at the time, the Cherokees did not have a written language. Sequoyah’s alphabet helped preserve the Cherokee language and Cherokee culture, especially after the Cherokees were forced to leave their native land by the 1830 Indian Removal Act.
This Indigenous Mexican Language Made Its Own Writing System
Today, there are hundreds of indigenous languages and dialects of those languages spoken throughout Mexico. Chatino and Mixteco are two of the languages spoken in and around the Oaxaca region.
What is Māori typography?
Te Reo Māori was traditionally an oral language similar to many indigenous cultures. Writing systems were not familiar to Māori until 1769 where Māori were introduced to the written language by Pākehā. Early Māori writing can be found printed, carved and painted in a number of different parts of Māori society.
Who Put Native American Sign Language in the US Mail? - Not Even Past
In 1890, a strange letter with “hieroglyphic script” arrived at Pennsylvania’s Carlisle Indian Industrial School. It was sent from a reservation in the Oklahoma Territory to a Kiowa student named Belo Cozad. Cozad, who did not read or write in English, was able to understand the letter’s contents—namely, its symbols that offered an update about his family. The letter provided news about relatives’ health and employment, as well as details about religious practice on the reservation.
Yakama Time Ball
Women from the Yakama Native American tribe used strings of hemp as personal diaries. Each major event in their life was represented by a knot, a bead or a shell. This mnemonic device is called an Ititamat, or counting-the-days ball, or simply time ball.
