Babel The Language Magazine | May 2013
Endangered Alphabets Answers
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5. Which of the following are genuine names
of existing minority scripts, and which are
anagrams?
Ahom Ge’ezMalayalam
N’KoWolof
1. Indonesia. The creation of one nation out of some
17,500 islands, many of which had developed their own
identity, culture, language and even writing system, and
then the adoption of a single official language and script
means that many of the indigenous scripts have fallen
into disuse. Indonesia is home to at least half a dozen
endangered alphabets. Australia would have been a
good guess, as Australia is home to more endangered
languages than any other country, but they did not have
their own writing systems in the conventional sense. If
you answered “San Marino,” you are clearly just guessing.
If you answered “Switzerland” you should be ashamed of
yourself.
2. Beadscript, Hexahue and Qelsh are fictional. Elvish
was created by a certain J.R.R.Tolkien. Klingon –
seriously? Pollard Miao and Elder Futhark – better known
by its colloquial name of Runes – are, or were, real
scripts.
3. Lewis created, or perhaps re-created, Bassa Vah
(Liberia); Evans created a syllabary for the Cree that was
adapted for many First Nation languages in Canada;
Sequoyah created Cherokee. Pitman created a highly
successful shorthand – it’s your call whether that’s
actually an alphabet. Cyrillic was named after St. Cyril,
but he didn’t invent it. George Bernard Shaw proposed
new ways of spelling the English language, but didn’t
invent a writing system. King Zog of Albania has nothing
to do with anything. Samuel Eto’o is one of the world’s
best soccer players. Where have you been?
4. Nushu, the secret Chinese women’s script. It was not
officially identified, outside the community of women
users, until 1983. Linear B is not an endangered alphabet
– it’s an extinct alphabet. Xnffq is not an alphabet at all.
It’s a suppressed sneeze.
5. None of these are anagrams, though Malayalam is a
palindrome.
4. Which endangered language/alphabet was
discovered by non-users most recently?
Baybayin CherokeeNushu
Linear B
Xnffq
3. A number of alphabets or syllabaries are thought
or known to have been the creation of a single
person. Which of the following did NOT create
an alphabet? (There may be more than one
correct answer.)
Dr. Flo Darvin
Lewis
Sir Isaac Pitman
The Reverend James Evans
Sequoyah
St. Cyril
George Bernard Shaw
King Zog of Albania
Samuel Eto’o
2. Which of the following languages/writing
systems are artificial – in other words, were
specifically created for films, TV series, works
of fiction, or purely for intellectual amusement?
(There may be more than one correct answer.)
Beadscript
Elder Futhark
Elvish
Hexahue
Klingon
Pollard Miao
Qelsh
1. Which of the following countries is home to the
most endangered alphabets?
Indonesia
Australia
Switzerland Canada
San Marino
When I first went on Omniglot.com, I was struck by so many things, among them the number of languages
I’d never heard of, and the number of languages that either seemed to have been made up recently for
intellectual amusement or seemed to be altogether fictitious.
So with that in mind, I offer you this little quiz. Needless to say, you can find the answers on the Internet very
quickly. The aim is for you to try to see how far you can get without cheating (i.e. researching via Omniglot,
Wikipedia, Ethnologue, and so on). Here goes: (cover the answers on the right!)
The Endangered Alphabets Quiz
by Tim Brookes
Ludic Linguistics
Ludic Linguistics
The Linguistics Olympiad
This issue we have chosen a fairly straightforward puzzle from the International Linguistics Olympiad, for
those of you new to linguistics methods. Let us know how you get on with it. There’s be a harder one next
issue, for puzzle addicts!
Explanation and solution below. (Cover the answers below)
Apinaye
Apinaye belongs to the Ge language family of Brazil. Currently it is spoken by fewer than 800 people, and
therefore is seriously endangered. The following are some sentences in Apinaye, along with their English
translations. You will see some letters here that do not occur in the English or Portuguese writing systems.
You do not need to know exactly how these letters are pronounced in order to solve this problem:
1. Kukrε kokoi
The monkey eats.
2. Ape piŋetš kra
The child works a long time.
3. Ape kokoi ratš
The big monkey works.
4. Ape ratš mï mεtš
The good man works a lot.
5. Ape mεtš kra
The child works well.
6. Ape punui mi piŋetš
The old man works badly.
Q1. Translate the following into English:
1. Ape ratš mi mεtš.
2.Kukrε ratš kokoi punui.
3. Ape piŋetš mi.
Q2. Translate the following into Apinaye:
4. The big child works a long time.
5. The old monkey eats a lot.
5.Kukrε ratš kokoi piŋetš.
4.
Ape piŋetš kra ratš.
Q2. Translate the following into Apinayé:
The man works a long time.
3.
The bad monkey eats a lot.
2.
The good man works a lot.
1.
Q1. Translate the following into English:
Apinaye Answers
Apinaye villagers, Brazil
Coming up next issue
Because you're worth it!
Helen Morrow reveals the
linguistic trickery in how we're sold
beauty fixes and 'must-haves'.
PLUS
New accents
Sign Language
Kevin Watson demonstrates how
A-level student Kateryna Pavlyuk tells us what
contact between populations gives
sign language has in common with spoken
rise to new accents, with examples
languages.
from the UK and New Zealand.
Drink me!
Katie Wales tracks attribution of language to
inanimate objects in literature and beyond.
Babel The Language Magazine | May 2013
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