6. Approval: Conduct a second alphabet workshop to present the revised alphabet to mother tongue speakers for their approval. Request approval from relevant government agencies for the final alphabet.
Ideally, when people develop an alphabet for their language, they follow a process like the one above. However, community members may want to begin their MTB MLE programme quickly and do not have time to analyze their language first. Working together, and with support from language experts, they can develop an initial alphabet for their language, which they can test, and then revise as needed, as MT speakers use it inside and outside of school.
Examples from many countries: Developing alphabets for minority languages
People with experience in developing or revising alphabets for minority languages have identified factors that will help or hinder acceptance of new alphabets. Here are some of the important questions that MT speakers can ask:
Political factors:
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Does the national government have a policy on minority language alphabets or scripts? If so, how will this affect decisions about our alphabet?
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If our language has several or many dialects, will the alphabet give preference to any one dialect over the others? If yes, will that be acceptable to all groups?
MTB MLE RESOURCE KIT Including the Excluded: Promoting Multilingual Education
Linguistic factors:
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What kind of writing system is best for our language( e. g., phonemic, syllabic, morphophonemic, morphemic)?
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Do the letters or symbols we want to use represent the important parts of our language( consonants, vowels and semi-vowels, stress, tone, etc.) consistently and clearly?
Sociolinguistic factors:
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Will different groups of people in our language community( examples: well educated, less educated, children, political leaders, teachers) agree that this alphabet represents our language well?
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In addition to MT speakers, which people or groups of people will be concerned about the way this language is written?( Examples: government officials, politicians, linguists, religious leaders) Can representatives of some or all of those groups have a part in developing the alphabet?
Educational factors
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Will the alphabet help MT students in early primary grades to learn to read and write the language?
•• Will it help students when they are ready to transfer to the official school language?
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