SIL Peru

Chapter 9 of "Developing Orthographies for Unwritten Languages," Publications in Language Use and Education 6. Some chapters of this book were presented as papers at the LSA Symposium in 2011.

This case study of alphabet development, use and change through nearly six decades summarizes the phonological properties of Yanesha' (an Arawakan language spoken in Peru) that challenge alphabet makers. It also sketches the history of Yanesha' alphabet decisions, as well as the history of formal and informal literacy programs and literature production in Yanesha'. Finally, it recounts the recent decision-making process for the revised Yanesha' alphabet, in which Yanesha' bilingual teachers and community leaders were the chief players. The resulting official alphabet enables the Yanesha' to produce their own school texts and literature using any computer with a Spanish keyboard.