The Mission to Save Endangered Alphabets and Cultures with Tim Brookes
Tim Brookes
Founder, Endangered Alphabets Project; Author of Writing Beyond Writing
85% of the World's Alphabets Are Already Endangered
Of the world's 6,000 to 7,000 languages, half will be extinct by the end of the century. But there is a parallel crisis that almost nobody talks about: 85% of the world's alphabets are already endangered. Tim Brookes, founder of the Endangered Alphabets Project, has spent over 12 years researching, carving, and advocating for writing systems that are on the verge of disappearing.
Tim was born in England, educated at Oxford, moved to the United States in 1980, and is the author of 17 books. He founded the Endangered Alphabets Project in 2010 with his first exhibition of carvings in indigenous and minority scripts. Since then, he has exhibited and spoken at more than 150 institutions including Oxford, Cambridge, Yale, Harvard, the Smithsonian, and the Library of Congress. His latest book is Writing Beyond Writing: Lessons from Endangered Alphabets, and he launched the world's first World Endangered Writing Day on 23 January 2024.
We Are Still Here
The episode opens with a story from the morning of the recording. Tim had just attended a historic moment: the first time the Missisquoi Abenaki flag was raised outside of their home county in Vermont. The Abenaki Circle of Courage, an after-school group for Native and non-Native kids, performed a drumming ceremony for 300 elementary school students. Tim presented a carving in a custom Abenaki font, designed by his graphic designer based on traditional Abenaki clothing and artwork, that reads: we are still here.
The Abenaki are largely invisible because nearly 100 years ago, the eugenics movement forcibly sterilised thousands of Abenaki women, causing the community to hide their identity for generations. They are still in the process of returning to public life.
When Your Father's Library Burns
Tim shares the story that shifted his motivation from curiosity to urgency. In the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh, a man told him matter-of-factly that his father had been the greatest living Chakma writer with the largest collection of manuscripts in the Chakma script. When the man was six, the military came into their village, burned down their house, and killed his father. He grew up unable to read or write his own script because he never saw it again. Education in that region is officially in the national language that nobody speaks, using a script nobody in the area reads.
Everything written in a traditional script becomes unreadable within two generations once the script falls out of use. Tim received an email from a young Javanese woman who had found letters from her grandfather, who had been involved in the Indonesian struggle for independence. She was desperate to read them but they were written in traditional Javanese script and she could not.
Why We Don't Think About Alphabets
Tim explains that endangered alphabets is such a new concept that people routinely respond with endangered languages when he raises the topic. The reason: 75% of the world's countries use the Latin alphabet as a primary or secondary script. For most of us, writing is just writing. We do not understand what it would be like to have your own writing system tied to your identity. But for the Cherokee, for example, their script is enormously powerful as a symbol of nationhood even if the majority of Cherokee people can no longer read it.
They Clung to Their Fear as If to an Electric Fence
The conversation takes a fascinating detour into Tim's two hitchhiking trips across America, 25 years apart, in 1973 and 1998. Both times he found kindness, generosity, and people going out of their way to help. But in 1998, everyone he knew told him it was too dangerous, even though FBI violent crime statistics showed the country was less dangerous than in 1973. When he returned alive with amazing stories, his friends did not want to hear that their fears were unfounded. He wrote what he considers one of the best sentences he has ever written: they clung to their fear as if to an electric fence.
Respect May Include Not Being Allowed In
Tim's parting advice is rooted in respect. Some indigenous communities have chosen a policy of inclusiveness that invites non-Native people in. Others are wary, and for very good reason. One Abenaki woman told him about an anthropologist who was allowed to study their community, wrote a book, became famous and wealthy, and none of it went back to the tribe. Respect, Tim argues, may sometimes mean accepting that you are not allowed in, or being shown things that are uncomfortable, or hearing generations of loss and grievance.
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Tim: Endangered alphabets is such a new concept that I will often have a conversation with someone where I will say something about endangered alphabets, and they will respond with the phrase, endangered languages, because we don't think about the writing we use. And the reason we don't think about it is because 75% of the world's countries either use the Latin alphabet as a primary or as a secondary script. And so for us, it is just writing. We don't understand what it would be like to have your own writing.
Brian: Did you know that of the world's 6,000 to 7,000 languages, half will be extinct by the end of the century, and that 85% of the world's alphabets are already endangered? Today we are talking with Tim Brookes, the founder of the Endangered Alphabets Project. They help preserve endangered cultures by using their writing system to create artwork and educational materials. Tim was born in England, educated at Oxford, moved to the United States in 1980. He is an editor, guitarist, teacher, soccer coach, and author of 17 books. He founded the Endangered Alphabets Project in 2010 with his first exhibition of carvings in indigenous and minority scripts. He has exhibited and spoken at more than 150 institutions including Oxford, Cambridge, Yale, Harvard, the Smithsonian, and the Library of Congress. His latest book is Writing Beyond Writing: Lessons from Endangered Alphabets. Tim, welcome to The Native Experience.
Tim: Thanks for inviting me.
Brian: Tell us about yourself and what you are nerding out on right now.
Tim: I was born in England and grew up in a variety of places around the UK. I moved to the US because at the time it felt like the place where optimism lived, where it was possible to do things other people had not done and to invent your life in interesting ways. I have been a guitarist and a soccer coach. All this time I have been a writer. Then about 12 years ago I stumbled onto what has really become my life's work, researching and promoting and supporting endangered alphabets.
Brian: You did something this morning that you were excited about.
Tim: Since about 2016, I have been working with the Abenaki, the local indigenous people to Vermont and northern New England. I realised I had been working with indigenous and minority groups all around the world but why was I not doing anything with the people right next door? I was working alongside somebody who was a significant figure in the Abenaki community, which is interesting because they are somewhat invisible. Nearly 100 years ago, the eugenics movement set out to forcibly sterilise thousands of Abenaki women. The Abenaki disappeared, denied their identity, and vanished. They are still in the process of returning to the public eye.
Tim: I have done a number of carvings in Abenaki. I work with the leading teacher of the Abenaki language. We use a font that my graphic designer created specifically based on Abenaki traditional clothing designs and artwork. This morning was a historic moment. There is an after-school group called the Abenaki Circle of Courage. They are inclusive, Native and non-Native kids, and they learn traditional arts and skills and respect. They did a drumming ceremony for an elementary school. This was the first time that the Missisquoi Abenaki flag had been raised outside of the county immediately surrounding their headquarters. About eight or nine of the Abenaki kids did a drumming performance and there must have been 300 elementary school kids sitting in huge concentric circles getting into it. I had done a carving for them which in Abenaki says, we are still here.
Brian: Where did the shift from curiosity to urgency happen for you?
Tim: The first time was in Bangladesh. I met representatives of several indigenous groups in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. They have endangered alphabets. This guy said to me very matter of factly, my father was the greatest living Chakma writer. He had the largest collection of manuscripts and books in the Chakma script. When I was six, the military came into our village and burned down our house and killed my father. He grew up not being able to read and write his own script because he never saw it. In that area, education is officially in the national language, which nobody speaks, using the national script, which nobody reads. He had managed to become moderately successful but only by completely abandoning his Chakma identity. He could speak his mother tongue but he could not read or write the Chakma script.
Brian: What is the barrier when you try to educate comfortable, middle-class people about this?
Tim: There are a couple worth thinking about. The first is that this lack of knowledge is not necessarily wilful ignorance. In Bangladesh, I know plenty of educated middle-class Bangladeshis who have no idea what is going on in that region because it never makes the news. The second is that endangered alphabets is such a new concept. In the early 1960s, nobody used the phrase endangered species. The assumption was that if animals died out, it was their own stupid fault. The Red List of Threatened Species woke people up to a new phrase and a new way of thinking. In the 1990s, the same began to happen with endangered languages. People had believed languages died out because no one was interested in them. But the research showed languages become endangered when their entire culture becomes endangered. People give up their language because it is more necessary to speak the language of a more dominant culture.
Tim: Endangered alphabets is such a new concept that people respond with endangered languages because we don't think about writing. 75% of the world's countries use the Latin alphabet as a primary or secondary script. For us, it is just writing. We don't understand what it would be like to have your own writing. People only start to get it when I show them pictures or carvings.
Tim: Everything written in a traditional unique script will be unreadable within two generations. I got a very moving email from a young Javanese woman who had found letters from her grandfather, who had been involved in the Indonesian struggle for independence. They were written in traditional Javanese script and she could not read them. So much of that collective knowledge is lost, and with it our connection with our own history.
Tim: A writing system is so visually powerful that there are cultures that still use letters from their script on the state seal, on banknotes, on a flag, or on a stamp, even if the majority of people cannot read them. The Cherokee script is enormously powerful to the Cherokee because it says, we are our own people, our own nation, even if they cannot actually read what is written.
Brian: You moved to the US because you thought it was a place for optimism. What did you mean?
Tim: I was at college from 1971 to 1974 in England. I gravitated towards the Americans who were passing through. They were open to new ideas, they had read things I had not, they had the desire to travel and explore. I came to the US in 1973 on my summer vacation and hitchhiked around. I headed to Berkeley because it was the centre of new ideas and things being invented. Then 25 years later in 1998, I did it again.
Tim: What fascinated me in 1998 was how scared Americans were of America. They were not scared of their immediate neighbours, but they thought people somewhere else were going to kill or rob them. Everywhere I went, just like 1973, I found kindness and generosity. I produced the FBI violent crime statistics showing the country was less dangerous than in 1973. They found it impossible to believe. When I came back, I thought I would be evidence that they were wrong. I wrote a sentence in that book that is one of the best I have ever written: they clung to their fear as if to an electric fence. They did not want to hear that their fears about their country were unfounded.
Tim: When you become a parent, part of the contract is that you take on an extra degree of vigilance. And if you don't, you are not a good parent. Some of the people who were most afraid were relatively liberal, educated people. If you are not outraged, you are not paying attention. If you are not afraid, you are being wilfully blind. Which is completely false.
Brian: Tell us about World Endangered Writing Day.
Tim: I just finished writing my latest book, Writing Beyond Writing. David Crystal, one of the top writers on language in the world, read an early draft. I said to him, in many countries there is a day dedicated to wisdom or knowledge or writing. We don't have anything like that. And he wrote in the margin, you should invent it. So January 23rd, 2024, is going to be the world's first World Endangered Writing Day. We are going to have talks, discussions, panels with people from all over the world. One person is talking about reviving indigenous scripts in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. Another specialises in Andean writing forms like Khipu. I have video from around the world of people doing pop-up calligraphy workshops on the streets in Kathmandu, reintroducing traditional scripts that were banned for decades. And there are quizzes and games and interactive stuff.
Tim: Over the last couple of years I have been researching for my online atlas of endangered alphabets, which went up in 2019 with about 100 of the world's minority scripts. On January 23rd we are launching the second wave, another 100 scripts. There is one used in Indonesia solely during ritual circumcision ceremonies. You start realising that writing is very close to magic. And the third thing is the publication of my book, Writing Beyond Writing. All of your listeners should rush out and pre-order at endangeredalphabets.com.
Brian: How do you know you are communicating something correct when carving in scripts you cannot read?
Tim: Fairly soon after I started, I decided to do a carving in Nepalese for a friend. His writing was blunt and uninteresting so I thought I would curve off the ends and add some gracefulness. Then I thought, in doing that I may be completely screwing with the meaning. So I roughed it out in pencil and sent it to him. My fear was that it said, the Dalai Lama is an idiot. He said no, you are okay.
Tim: When you get a script used by only a handful of people, they may use it differently. One person says this is how it is. Another from another village says that letter is wrong. You start realising that authority comes into this, whether communal or governmental. If writing is entirely about self-expression, it becomes a beautiful thing, kind of like my handwriting that nobody else can read.
Brian: What is your advice for creating a truly native experience?
Tim: The underlying thing has to be respect. One of the things you have to respect is that some people may not want to talk to you. Some indigenous communities are wary and mistrustful for very good reason. One Abenaki woman sat me down and told me about an anthropologist who was allowed to study their community. He wrote a book, earned tons of money, got promoted and became famous, and none of that went back to the tribe.
Tim: Some tribes have decided on a policy of inclusiveness that invites non-Native people in. Others are wary of what that may lead to, or more likely what it has led to in the past. The respect is at the heart of all of it, but that respect may include not being allowed in, or being shown things that are uncomfortable, or being talked to in a way that represents generations of loss and grievance.
Brian: Tim, thank you so much. EndangeredAlphabets.com is where all your books and information are.
Tim: I am so glad you invited me. This is great.
Brian: Tim Brookes, founder of the Endangered Alphabets Project. Remember, always strive for authenticity and embrace the power of native experiences.