Developing practical orthographies for the Iu Mien (Yao), 1932-1986: a case study

• Main Author: Purnell, Herbert C.
• Other Authors: William Carey International University
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2024
• Subjects: Arts and Humanities
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/178925
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

On the fringe of that field known as applied linguistics, there is a rather small area called "orthography." It is so small, in fact, that it has been overlooked in most descriptions of the field (e.g:, Kaplan, 1980:58). Nevertheless, there are people working there. Many of them are linguists concerned with Bible translation (Nida, 1947, 1954; Pike, 1947; Smalley. 1963, 1976) and missionaries, but there are also a few sociolinguists (Berry, 1958; Sjoberg. 1966; Stubbs, 1980), and researchers (such as those from the Central Institute for Nationalities in Beijing), plus an occasional visitor or two examining writing systems in general or attempting to reform spellings.