How does a language community sustain their language in the face of ever-increasing forces of language shift? This volume, both a textbook and a handbook, is the result of ten years of reflection by the authors in light of SIL International's 80 years of fieldwork in local language communities. Using the Sustainable Use Model detailed here, readers learn how to advise maintaining use of their language at a sustainable level. This could include, not only the level of active literacy, but also levels of orality and identity. The book is aimed at "on the ground" workers involved with a community, to address issues arising from language and culture contact. M. Paul Lewis (Ph.D., sociolinguistics, Georgetown University) did fieldwork in Guatemala, was general editor of the Ethnologue(R), and is a Sociolinguistics Consultant with SIL. His research interests are language endangerment, language policy and planning, and language documentation. He has consulted and trained on six continents. Gary F. Simons (Ph.D., linguistics, Cornell University) is Chief Research Officer for SIL and Executive Editor of the Ethnologue(R). He was involved in language development in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, co-founder of the Open Language Archives Community (OLAC), and co-developer of the ISO 639-3 identifiers for the world's languages. "In this clearly written monograph, Lewis and Simons lay the groundwork for those who [work] with members of local language communities, to help them implement diverse activities that most effectively lead to a sustainable level of language use. They build appropriately upon the groundbreaking work that was carried out several decades ago by sociolinguists such as Charles Ferguson, Robert Cooper, and Joshua Fishman." - Adapted from the Foreword by G. Richard Tucker

Sustaining Language Use: Perspectives on Community-Based Language Development

Politics & Social Sciences

Lewis, M Paul

Simons, Gary F

Anthropology

Summer Institute of Linguistics, Academic Publications

This book was designed to enable someone with no previous knowledge of Arabic to learn to speak Sudanese Colloquial Arabic, also known as Khartoum Arabic. The approach used is eclectic, using a combination of dialogues, drills, grammatical explanation, role plays and ideas for conversation, to help the various kinds of learner, since not everyone acquires a language in the same way. There are also vocabulary lists for each lesson, and a glossary of all words used. People who have previously used the course have either hired a private tutor to take them through the lessons and provide them with practice, or have attended a class where they could interact with other learners. However, fluency can only be attained by using what one learns, so the course aims to encourage friendship with Sudanese people and immersion in the culture, which are richly rewarding experiences. Despite the length of time since this book's first publication there is still nothing else like it available for the beginner in Arabic. Andrew M. Persson has an M.A. from Oxford University in Oriental Languages and an M.A. in Sudanese &amp; African Languages from the University of Khartoum. Janet R. Persson has an M.A. in Linguistic Science from the University of Reading. She is joint author with Rianne Tamis of Sudanese Arabic--English, English--Sudanese Arabic: A Concise Dictionary. The Perssons were involved for many years in linguistic research and language development with SIL International in Sudan and what is now South Sudan, including working in Sudanese Colloquial Arabic.

Sudanese Colloquial Arabic for Beginners

Persson, Andrew M

Persson, Janet R

The Semantic and Structural Analysis (SSA) commentaries are designed to assist Bible translators and Bible translation consultants. Due to the careful attention to meaning at all levels of the discourse, they should also be useful for Bible scholars, teachers, preachers, and anyone interested in a thorough understanding of the biblical text. The analysis is firmly based on discourse linguistics and assumes that each New Testament book is an integrated whole. The analytical process involves detailed study of the grammar, lexicon and discourse structure of the Greek, with the aim of clearly presenting the meaning of the text and the linguistic evidence on which the meaning is established.

A Semantic and Structural Analysis of Revelation

Reference

Persson, Andrew

Words, Language & Grammar

Misunderstood: one thing foreigners never want to be! But Africans and Westerners, interpreting the world through different cultural lenses, misunderstand each other with alarming regularity. This is sometimes funny, sometimes scandalous, but always damages credibility.  This book is designed to promote cultural competence among Westerners working in Africa and among Africans living in the West. Cultural competence--knowing what one needs to know to act in a manner acceptable in a society--is the first step to credibility and the surest antidote to being misunderstood. DiGennaro creatively introduces dialog between two fictitious characters: Juma as the African voice, and Wesley as the Western voice. They articulate their culture's perspectives on seven themes, themes which were identified by Westerners in Africa and by their African co-workers, as the most chronic points of cross-cultural stress: organization, finances, friendship, spirituality, communication and conflict, leadership, and work. Easy to read and broad in approach, this book is ideal for North Americans and Europeans who desire to expand their appreciation and comprehension of Africans' social reality. Debbi DiGennaro (M.A. in Social Work, The Ohio State University) moved to East Africa in 2008. She leaned heavily on her training in social sciences to facilitate her understanding of work and relationship patterns in Africa. Based in Nairobi with her family, DiGennaro currently leads the regional team of a faith-based NGO.

Acclimated to Africa: Cultural Competence for Westerners (Publications in Ethnography)

Business & Money

DiGennaro, Debbi

Management & Leadership

Bajju Christian Conversion in the Middle Belt of Nigeria (Publications in Ethnography)

History

McKinney, Carol V

Africa

Baranzan's People: An Ethnohistory of the Bajju of the Middle Belt of Nigeria (Publications in Ethnography)

An Introduction to Field Phonetics

This articulatory phonetics course is designed especially for students whose aim is to learn an unwritten language. It teaches how to pronounce and transcribe virtually all the known sounds of the world's languages. The authors incorporate data from current research on a number of sounds, including two recently documented sounds (the labial flap and the interdental approximant). The McKinneys also provide fresh information on fortis-lenis consonants based on research of the Nigerian language, Jju. The majority of the book teaches the articulatory details of specific speech sounds, but chapters also include acoustic phonetics, palatography, the fascinating area of dialectal differences, and practical considerations for conducting phonetic field work. Anecdotes from the authors' and others' field experiences enliven the book. Another strength is phonetic exercises given in each chapter and the Appendices that cite data from many of the lesser-known languages of the world. An extensive Glossary and list of references help to not only review the basic concepts, but also provide resources for the interested student to dig deeper. Norris McKinney (Ph.D., University of Michigan) and Carol McKinney (Ph.D., Southern Methodist University) conducted fieldwork for over ten years while living among the Bajju people of northern Nigeria. Both have taught articulatory phonetics, and Norris also taught acoustic phonetics. He began writing this book as an update on data taught in SIL phonetics courses. Norris passed away before this book could be published, and Carol has brought this work to completion on his behalf.

McKinney, Norris P

Understanding Biblical Hebrew poetry is a formidable task and the complexity rises exponentially when attempting translation. This collection of studies examines both the analysis of select Psalms and their translation into English and a Bantu language. Wendland uses his "literary functional equivalence" (LiFE) approach to translation to discuss parallelism, chiastic structures, and other aspects of Hebrew discourse in poetry, and how these are manifested on both the micro- and macro-levels of a particular Psalm.
Readers of this volume will - better appreciate the beauty and power of the Psalms with their diverse artistic and rhetorical features, - be able to develop their own method of investigating biblical poetry, - understand how to apply analytical insights to the practice of translation, and - evaluate translation techniques in published Scripture versions.
This book gives analytic insights to translators, researchers, or commentators on biblical poetry.

Studies in the Psalms: Literary-Structural Analysis with Application to Translation (Publications in Translation and Textlinguistics)

Literature & Fiction

Wendland, Ernst R.

Poetry

The Semantic Structure of Written Communication

This work provides a brief overview of the basic relationships of meaning and structure of a language. The overview is followed by a more detailed analysis and practical application of the semantic relationships from the lowest level propositions through the highest level units of the text. A significant portion of the work addresses the semantic relations and roles of the communication units.  The theory described in The Semantic Structure of Written Communication is applied in the books in the Semantic Structure Analyses Series. Each book has a systematic presentation, via a standard format and a tightly controlled discourse analysis of the Semantic Structure of the Greek text of the New Testament. The books in the Semantic Structure Analyses Series are designed to be used as a special kind of commentary to help translators find the precise meaning of the Source Language text. The SSA books are especially useful at points where regular New Testament commentaries are in disagreement or do not address themselves to the questions that translators are obliged to answer in the process of their work. In its format, an SSA includes a display of the semantic content and structure of each paragraph and each grouping of paragraphs in the text, in a form somewhat resembling a tree diagram. Also included are notes and comments justifying the analytical and exegetical decisions presented.

Beekman, John

Callow, John C

Kopesec, Michael F

Bible Translation: An Introductory Course in Translation Principles, Fourth Edition

Bible Translation: An Introductory Course in Translation Principles continues to provide crucial, practical training for those preparing to translate the Bible or contribute to Bible translation in other ways.

Barnwell, Katharine

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