Bethany Deibler

Symposium 2010

Writing the Unwritten

There are about 6,900 languages in the world. Approximately 60% of them have some

sort of written language; however, the remaining percentage does not. Some of these unwritten

languages are dying, most are underrepresented and the exact number of unwritten languages is

practically impossible to discover. If a person wanted to learn one of these many unwritten

languages, how would he go about it? Learning a language without a writing system is very

different from classroom learning; grammar and morphology aren’t taught separately. This

process is often called “Field Linguistics”. It will be up to the learner to figure out if the

language uses root-and-pattern, reduplication, or suppletion morphology for its verbs, nouns,

adjectives, etc. as “…the languages on which field linguistics is done typically have few if any

native speaker linguists, and one of the priorities of some field linguists is to train native

speakers in the techniques of linguistic analysis” (Aronoff and Rees-Miller 131). This then leads

into writing down and analyzing the language which is an entirely different process. Writing

unwritten languages is a difficult process. Before that can happen though, the language must be

learned. The learner must decide the method that would work best and invest in many hours of

hard work and perseverance in order to develop a writing system. Alan Healy quotes Larson and

Smalley, “There is no way to learn a second languages without devoting time to it, not just a

good block of time each day but a rather significant segment out of the learner’s life” (10). The

first set of questions to ask oneself in this process has to do with how to learn the language; what

is needed to learn the vocabulary? What is needed to learn the grammar? The second set of

questions to ask oneself in this process has to do with how to write the language; which writing

system should be used? Which rules apply to this language? Are there new rules to be created?
 2

The first thing to do before beginning this massive task is to make sure you have the

essential tools. These will include the International Phonetic Alphabet as well as knowledge of

different types of languages. Languages families are classifications that help make

generalizations about languages. Trying to compare a language with another language from a

completely different language family will not be productive. A classic example is that many

people think that English belongs in the Romance language family. This is not the case and

when compared to French or Italian, English doesn’t really make much sense as it belongs with

the Germanic language family. With this in mind, it may be helpful to learn a written language

that is related to the target languages if possible. With these two tools the next step is to move in

with the target language group of people. Recording the language, both in audio and on paper

will be the main focus before moving on to analyzing the data.

The first part of a language people typically want to know is vocabulary. Even if the

learner doesn’t know the correct grammar to use with these words, they can be learned and used.

If possible, it is extremely helpful to learn the questions, “How do you say…?” or “What is

this?” Nida gives a list of common vocabulary to start out with. It is important not to get carried

away learning masses of vocabulary. His suggestions are under the following categories: Body

parts, Clothing, Objects about the house, Relationships between people, Articles used in native

occupations, Fauna Flora, Geographical and Astronomical Objects (Learning, 61). Another

aspect that people can get caught up in while learning vocabulary is asking for very specific

objects. In the body parts category, it is wise to learn finger and hand before attempting to learn

the words for fingernail or wrist.

There are several methods to go about collecting the data. The first method is, to some

extent, an individual method. The language learner will get as many words from as many
 3

different people as possible making it a very practical way to get the most authentic uses of the

language. My grandfather, Ellis Deibler, used this method in order to get “all [his] data to be

natural, unelicited” (E. Deibler, personal communication, November 19, 2009). My grandfather

did not use an intermediate language; instead, he went about the village with a notebook in his

pocket and every time he heard a new or unfamiliar phrase, he wrote it down and guessed the

meaning. The informants thought he was crazy, but he insisted that only the target language be

spoken. He started from the very beginning and did not have any prior knowledge of the

language before he started the project.

A second method of learning is more of a one-on-one method. The learner will have a

special language consultant that will meet with him each day, helping the learner either by

translating words for him or teaching a lesson of some sort. This may cause problems as the

learner cannot accurately get the differences in the language from an individual person, as every

person has his/her own idiolect. This learner will usually begin by learning specifically how to

say, “How do you say____?” in the target language and proceed from there, asking for all the

words he wants. This method is most often used either with a third intermediate language shared

by the learner and helper, or in the learner’s informant language. As the learner masters more

and more of the language, he can slowly edit out all of the common language and focus more on

the target language. My grandmother, Martha, used this technique in learning a language. While

she learned a language already written, it was a language that had been recently written and thus

did not have any specific materials written for learning the language. “…as soon as I learned

something in Cakchiquel I didn't use Spanish anymore for that word, expression or concept” (M.

Deibler, personal communication, November 20, 2009). Some of the characteristics of this

method include meaning as the primary important factor, encouraging communication as early as
 4

possible from the very beginning, and emphasis on fluency and acceptable language use rather

than accuracy, as well as more self-structured than the other methods. The student plans out

what he wants to learn each day and goes at his own pace learning what he wants to learn.

Translation is used when needed and the learner will slowly replace his L1 with the target

language.

A third method mentioned by E. Deibler is that the language learner would simply listen

to and repeat the language for six months before writing down the language. This would

simulate learning a first language as children, who listen to the language for 1 to 3 years before

they begin speaking. This “active” method is believed to help students learn to understand a

language by listening to it in large quantities. The direct method does away with all translation,

dictionaries and teaching of grammar rules. However, one potential drawback is how much

longer this method may take compared to the others. Also, if no writing was involved for the

first six months of immersion in the culture, the learner would need to have a good memory.

There are a couple of aspects of learning an unwritten language that apply to all these

methods. Audio recordings of the language are an important part of this learning process. It

helps provide a method of study and analysis when the informants are not available or get tired

of repeating over and over. Recordings are much easier to rewind and repeat for studying and

analyzing as many times as needed. Also, for practicing the language, total physical response

(TPR) is very helpful for cementing words and actions together. For example, if the learner was

learning English, when he learns the word for “sit”, he will sit down while saying the word. This

leads to a good time to learn how to say “stand up”. Doing these actions while repeating the

words works well for physical learners. This can be practiced with any informant and is often

fun. However, this can only be used for concrete ideas and action verbs. Sarah Gudschinsky
 5

(1967) has 8 points that learners of unwritten languages should commit to. The first is listening

to normal conversation of informant speakers. This is easy to do if the learner is using the first

learning method mentioned. However, this point will be crucial for the learner who is meeting

one-on-one with an informant to get data from other speakers. As time progresses, the learner

should eventually be able to participate in these conversations. The second is making

conversation with many individuals. Even small, curious children can help the learner. It is said

that once a language learner can communicate with children, they truly know the language. The

third is spending time listening to recorded materials. This resource will help the learner to get

details accurately and must be utilized often. The fourth is gathering new data from several

different sources. This is important to get a better scope of the entire language and includes not

only different people, but different manners of presentation as well. Stories are often told in a

different manner than every day speech and music can be something completely different as

well. The fifth is processing data; the learner must keep up with and review everything

discovered throughout the day. A system to organize everything will be mentioned later. The

sixth is organizing lessons. Each lesson should focus on both the sounds of the language and the

grammar. The seventh is drilling and memorizing each new lesson. The lessons should be short

enough that they can be learned and reviewed daily. Finally, the eighth talks about practicing the

sounds of the language for a long period of time. Getting the sounds of the language down will

immensely help with fluency (Gundschinsky, 5-6). Each one of these points will not necessarily

apply to every language learner as it depends on the method of learning.

After deciding what method or methods to use in recording the data, one must figure out

how to record it. With today’s technology we have video cameras, digital recorders, laptops, or

there is always the old fashioned pen and pencil. Videotaping speakers can be very helpful in
 6

figuring out the sounds as the visual of their mouth moving shows better how to pronounce the

words. However, many of the places where unwritten languages exist are in third world

countries and will be unused to and unable to support new technology. Laptops can also be an

effective transportable method of typing up data on the spot, but as with any electronic device,

one never knows when it may malfunction. Electricity often causes issues in third world

countries as well. Pen and paper will be the most mobile and easiest to work with so the learner

must have these available at all times in order to be prepared.

After the data has been collected, the material must be organized and processed in order

to make the learning process a bit easier. Luc Bouquiaux and Jacqueline Thomas have three

steps. “Processing involves three different stages: examination, classification, and reproduction”

(72). These three stages can be done separately or simultaneously, but the learner must not put it

off and end up with stack and stacks of data. Bouquiaux and Thomas describe a precise system

that can be used to organize the collected data. A system of cards should be used to insure that

extremely accurate data can be kept. Each card will include the vernacular in IPA transcription,

the speaker’s initials to keep track of different dialects, the year, the literal translation, the root,

and room for several different translations. This can be difficult with many different scraps of

paper with transcriptions to keep track of, but completing this process will make the data more

available and accessible in one place. Computers may also be put to good use in this step as

well.

The classification process will be done on several levels. To begin, the phonemes must

be classified. Starting with a list of the phonemes in the language, they will be classified into

voiced or unvoiced, nasal, continuant, bilabial or labio-dental, etc. After the phonemes have

been classified, the grammar must be classified. The Introduction to Fieldwork splits the
 7

grammatical classifications into three groups as well: the word level, the phrase level, and the

clause level (92). The word level has to do with the derivational forms and compounds. The

phrase level has to do with phrases which are made up of noun and verb phrases. The clause

level sorts different utterances. These are divided into two classes as well. The first analyzing the

simple clause, and the second classifying them from the simplest to the most developed (93).

Classifying the texts will include organizing the collected data into legends or myths,

stories, or histories.

It is important to note that this process takes a lot of guess work and linguists often guess

incorrectly. One of the first things to do after collecting data is to figure out the phonemic

inventory of the language. Break down the words into segments to figure out the environments

of each sound. Claire Bowern suggests using minimal pairs as a tool (Bowern 38). Perhaps they

were heard from two different people, but really mean the same thing, or they are very similar

sounding with completely different meanings. She also suggests rhyming words. This may be

strange to the culture, but often catches on quickly. Using recordings or lists that you have

made, ask informants if two words start or end with the same letter. Bowern also gives a list of

speech differences that aren’t usually considered in English that should be thinking about. Some

languages pay attention to and differentiate meanings according to aspiration, nasalization,

glottal stops, and double articulation. The position in the mouth as well as the method of

articulation is important to understand. If possible, get the informants to assist in showing where

each separate phoneme is pronounced in the mouth. Using this chart may be helpful in this

process.
 8

Other things can get confused as well; palatal stops and palatal affricates, voiceless

laterals and trill are often confused with [s] or [ʃ], bilabials and labio-dentals can be confused as

well (Bowern 41). These are just the problems that can occur with the consonants. Once all the

sounds of the language have been identified, it will also be helpful to make a personalized IPA

chart for that language. Then, as Gudschinsky suggested, practice them over and over.

Vowels are often much more difficult to distinguish because many of them sound so

similar. For example, the rounding of vowels can rarely be detected without looking at the

speaker’s mouth shape. With vowels, we must keep in mind diphthongs, rounding, as well as the

position in the mouth. Some languages do not have diphthongs and only use pure vowels. This

chart shows all the possible vowels as well as the position in the mouth.
 9

Something else to consider is the presence of stress and tones in the language. Many

Asian languages use tones. Tones are difficult to identify, and once identified; distinguishing

them is just as big a task. “…tone is not only lexical; in some languages tone marks grammatical

information, such as person or tense” (Bowern 70). Many speakers of tonal languages don’t

realize that they use tones, thus making the work even more difficult. Using hand gestures to

associate high tones with a higher hand and low tones with a lower hand, is useful in helping the

informants understand. Then they can help the learner by describing with their hands the correct

tone that should be used. Stress is also an important factor when learning and describing a

language as it can affect the comprehensibility of the speaker. Stress marks should be included

in the learner’s transcriptions. “Stress is manifested by a combination of intensity (loudness),

duration (length) and pitch. Stressed syllables tend to be longer, louder and higher in pitch than

unstressed syllables” (Bowern 69). It affects single words as well as whole sentences which in

turn affect the rhythm and smoothness of the language. In English, stress is used to put weight

on certain words. For example, the sentence, “She didn’t tell me.” will have a different

connotation than the sentence, “She didn’t tell me.” or “She didn’t tell me.” or “She didn’t tell

me.” A foreign language learner is generally commented on good language use if he can get the

rhythm of the language correctly and speaks smoothly.

 10

Other phonological things to take into consideration are the maximum number of

consonants or vowels that can appear together and how certain letters change in different

situations. How are the words generally put together? Is the languages based off of a CV

(consonant vowel) structure?

When uncovering the morphological rules of the language, there are several things to

keep in mind. What kind of case system does the language use? There is the nominative and

accusative case system, as well as an ergative and absolutive system. They are very different

from each other. Not only are cases different, the way they go about using transitive and

intransitive verbs will most likely be different from the learner’s first language. The cases and

verbs are different as well as the order of the sentence. When moving onto the sentence level of

the elicitation process, it is best to start with a simple sentence and only change one thing at a

time to get the clearest elicitation. Bowern gives this example,

The cat is chasing the mouse.

The cat is chasing the mice.

The cats are chasing mice.

One cat is chasing two mice.

The cat is eating the mouse.

The mouse died. (74)

This allows the learner to get simple information as it goes from mouse to mice, cat to cats. The

learner should be able to discover the plural marker of the language from these three sentences.

It is best to start simple by changing just one thing before attempting to change many things in

the sentence. Other sentences should be created to discover other things such as the cases used,

prepositions, and different tense or aspect markers.

 11

As we move on to larger portions of the language, from the phoneme base to sentence

structure it is important to remember that “No part of a language can be adequately described

without reference to all other parts” (Nida 2). Using what the learner has already discovered will

help understand the language as a whole. “A language is not a departmentalized grouping of

relatively isolated structures; it is a functioning whole, and the parts are only fully describable in

terms of their relationship to the whole” (Nida 2-3).

As mentioned before, it is probably best to know about the languages in the surrounding

areas and use a similar alphabet. This choice is entirely up to the linguist, however, as manyt of

the informants know nothing about writing. The next step will be to decide if each sound will

get its own symbol. Some languages use one symbol for a combined sound. For example,

Russian uses the symbol ‘Я’ for the sound [ja]. Asian writing systems use a single symbol for

complete words or phrases. English has many sounds for one symbol depending on the

environment. The letter “a” can be pronounced as [æ], [ɔ], [ɑ], and [ə]. This doesn’t even begin

to touch on the diphthongs which often make things ever more difficult to understand. Perhaps

the unwritten language would be better off by using a new or different separate symbol to

represent diphthongs. Most languages can use the alphabet from a surrounding language and

simply add new symbols for new or different sounds.

More often than not, the learner will get similar but different words for one object or idea.

This may be a case of different dialects from a different area or from a different age group as

language is always changing. In fact, Nida mentions this giving special attention to the fact that

unwritten languages change just as much as written ones. “All languages change, and the rate

varies at different times in the history of any one language. We must be aware of such tendencies

and, in describing a language, recognize the significance of fluctuating forms” (Nida 3). Also,
 12

what people should say is often not the correct or “proper” way of saying things in that language.

It is good to know the differences in pronunciation, but this creates a problem for the learner.

The word will be difficult to transcribe. Depending on how different the word is said, there

could be as many as five different possible spellings. If, by this time, the informants have

become interested enough in the language writing process, it would be best to get them to agree

on the “dictionary” form of a word.

After the learner understands the morphology and phonology, he can begin to write and

describe the language. Some rules from other languages may apply, but in many cases, new

rules will have to be written as they pertain to that particular language only. Once again, if the

informants have become interested enough to learn more about their language, they can help in

this process. Things like special or irregular verbs should be noted. If the language does not

allow two vowels next to each other, how will the language change if this should occur? Some

language groups are not used to pronouncing certain consonant sounds together while other

languages have several consonants. EXAMPLE Every language either has an irregular verb for

“to be” or it is expressed in a different manner.

Learning a new language as an adult is hard enough with an established writing system;

without writing it is many times more difficult. The personality of the learner also plays a

significant part in the learning of an unwritten language. It is often said about learning a

language that you must be willing to sound like a fool. The learner must not be afraid to make

mistakes. Mistakes often create lessons that will never be forgotten. However, any person with

enough motivation will be successful in the daunting task of learning an unwritten language.

Practice and repetition of the target language is the most efficient way to improve in the

language.
 13

Another aspect of learning an unwritten language is that the learner will automatically get

the culture along with the language, simply by analyzing and studying what words are learned.

For example, if the learner encountered the word for dog along with the word for food or eating,

he might come to the conclusion that in this culture, dogs are simply kept for food. If all this

isn’t hard enough, there are the differences of living in a culture and lifestyle that he will have to

get used to on top of all this.

Since these are “unwritten” languages obviously the natives will be illiterate in their

language; some may know an outside trade language, but most will be clueless about seeing their

language in writing. Teaching them to read and write is the next step in this arduous process as

well as translating or writing books for them to study with.

Some things may still be possible in a language even though there’s no know languages

with that aspect yet. Even though there are millions of things we know about languages, it is

important to go into a project like this with an open mind to new ideas and new aspects of

language. (Samarin 4??)

 14

Works Cited

Aronoff, Mark and Janie Rees-Miller eds. The Handbook of Linguistics. Malden, Massachusetts:

Blackwell Publishers, 2001. Print.

Bouquiaux, Luc and Jacquiline Thomas. Studying and Describing Unwritten Languages.

Bowern, Claire. Linguistics Fieldwork: A Practical Guide. New York: Palgrave Macmillan,

2008. Print.

Gudschinsky, S. C. How to Learn an Unwritten Language. Santa Ana: Holt, Rinehart and

Winston, Inc., 1967. Print.

Healy, Alan, ed. Language Learner’s Field Guide. Ukarumpa, Papua New Guinea: Summer

Institute of Linguistics, Inc., 1975. Print.

Nida, Eugene. Morphology: The Descriptive Analysis of Words. Ann Arbor, MI: University of

Michigan Press, 1949. Print.

---. Learning a Foreign Language. New York, NY: Missionary Personnel of the Foreign

Missions Conference of North America, 1950. Print.

Samarin, William J,. Field Linguistics: A Guide to Linguistic Field Work. New York, NY: Holt,

Rinehart, and Winston, Inc., 1967. Print.