Non-profit organization to study, develop and document languages
"Summer Institute of Linguistics" redirects here. For the Linguistic Society of America's Summer Linguistics Institute, seeLinguistic Society of America.
SIL Global (formerly known as theSummer Institute of Linguistics International) is anevangelical Christian nonprofit organization whose main purpose is to study, develop and documentlanguages, especially those that are lesser-known, to expandlinguistic knowledge, promoteliteracy, translate the ChristianBible into local languages, and aidminority language development.
Based on its language documentation work, SIL publishes a database,Ethnologue, of its research into the world's languages, and develops and publishes software programs for language documentation, such as FieldWorks Language Explorer (FLEx)[1] and Lexique Pro.[2]
Its main offices in the United States are located at the InternationalLinguistics Center inDallas, Texas.
William Cameron Townsend, a Presbyterian minister, founded the organization in 1934, after undertaking aChristian mission with theDisciples of Christ among theKaqchikel Maya people in Guatemala in the early 1930s.[3][4] In 1933, he turned to Mexico to translate the Bible into indigenous languages there, as he had done for Kaqchikel. Townsend established a working relationship with the MexicanSecretariat of Public Education under the government of PresidentLázaro Cárdenas (in office 1934–1940) and founded SIL to educate linguist-missionaries to work in Mexico. Because the Mexican government did not allow missionary work through its educational system, Townsend foundedWycliffe Bible Translators in 1942 as a separate organization from SIL. Wycliffe Bible Translators focused on Bible translation and missionary activities, whereas SIL focused on linguistic documentation and literacy education.[5]
Having initiated collaboration with the Mexican education authorities, Townsend started the institute as a small summer training session inSulphur Springs, Arkansas, in 1934 to train missionaries in basiclinguistic,anthropological, and translation principles. Through the following decades, the SIL linguists worked at providing literacy education to indigenous people of Mexico, while simultaneously working with the Wycliffe Bible Translators on Bible translation. One of the students at the first summer institute in its second year, 1935,Kenneth Lee Pike (1912–2000), would become the foremost figure in the history of SIL.[3] He served as SIL's president from 1942 to 1979, then as president emeritus until he died in 2000.
On January 19, 1981, SIL field worker Chester "Chet" A. Bitterman was taken hostage byfar-left guerilla groupM-19 in Colombia who believed SIL was acover operation for theCentral Intelligence Agency (CIA). SIL denied involvement with any government intelligence agency stating that it was against their policy.[6][7]
M-19 demanded SIL withdraw all 209 of its people from Colombia, or else they would kill Bitterman. After 48 days of SIL refusing to yield to the demands, Bitterman was found murdered.[8]
SIL's principal contribution to linguistics has been the data that have been gathered and analyzed from over 1,000 minority and endangered languages,[11] many of which had not been previously studied academically. SIL endeavors to share both its data and the results of its analysis to contribute to the overall knowledge of language. This has resulted in publications on languages such asHixkaryana andPirahã, which have challenged the universality of some linguistic theories. SIL's work has resulted in over 20,000 technical publications, all of which are listed in the SIL Bibliography.[12] Most of these are a reflection of linguistic fieldwork.[13]
SIL's focus has not been on the development of new linguistic theories, buttagmemics, though no longer promoted by SIL, was developed byKenneth Pike, who also coined the wordsemic and etic, more widely used today in anthropology.[14]
Another focus of SIL is literacy work, particularly in indigenous languages. SIL assists local, regional, and national agencies that are developing formal and informal education in vernacular languages. These cooperative efforts enable new advances in the complex field of educational development in multilingual and multicultural societies.[15]
The organization has recently established a new Language and Culture Documentation Services Unit that aims to preserve and revitalize languages threatened by extinction. The creation of this department reflects a growing interest in documenting endangered languages and incorporates a multidisciplinary approach to anthropology and linguistics.[16]
Ethnologue: A Guide to the World's Languages has been published by SIL since 1951.[19][20]
From the 13th edition (1997) onwards, the entire contents of the published book were also shared online. From the 17th edition onwards (2013) the publication shifted to a web-centric paradigm, meaning that the website is now the primary means by which the database is accessed. Among other advantages, this greatly facilitates user contributions. A new edition is now published every February. The 27th edition was released in February 2024 and lists 7,164 languages.
Starting with the 16th edition (2009),Ethnologue uses theISO 639-3 standard, which assigns 3-letter codes to languages; these were derived in part from the 3-letter codes that were used in theEthnologue's 15th edition. SIL is theregistration authority for the ISO 639-3 standard.
With the publication of the 17th edition (2016), Ethnologue launched a subscription service, claiming that the paywall would only affect 5% of users.[21] Users who contribute over 100 accepted changes are rewarded with lifetime free access.
A comprehensive review of the 16th, 17th and 18th editions acknowledged that "[Ethnologue] is at present still better than any other non-derivative work of the same scope" except that "[it] fails to disclose the sources for the information presented.[22]
SIL has developed widely used software for linguistic research.[23]
Adapt It is a tool for translating text from one language into a related language after performing limited linguistic analysis.[24]
In the field oflexicon collection, ShoeBox, the newer ToolBox (Field Linguist's Toolbox),[25] and Lexique Pro[2][26] have largely been replaced by FieldWorks Language Explorer (FLEx Windows and Linux)[1][27][28][29] for linguists and WeSay (also Windows and Linux)[30][31][32] for non-professionals. SIL also provides a "Webonary" website for publishing dictionaries.[33]
SIL has developed several widely used font sets that it makes available asfree software under theSIL Open Font License (OFL).[40] The names of SIL fonts reflect the Biblical mission of the organization "charis" (Greek for "grace"), "doulos" (Greek for "servant") and "gentium" (Latin for "of the nations"). These fonts have become standard resources for linguists working on the documentation of the world's languages.[41] Most of them are designed only for specific writing systems, such asEthiopic,Devanagari,New Tai Lue,Hebrew,Arabic,Khmer,Yi,Myanmar,Coptic, andTai Viet, or some more technical notation, such ascipher musical notation orIPA. Fonts that support Latin include:
Gentium: "a typeface family designed to enable the diverse ethnic groups around the world who use the Latin, Cyrillic and Greek scripts to produce readable, high-quality publications. It supports a wide range of Latin- and Cyrillic-based alphabets."[42]
Doulos SIL: "a Unicode serif font similar in design toTimes/Times New Roman. It contains a comprehensive inventory of glyphs needed for almost any Roman- or Cyrillic-based writing system, whether used for phonetic or orthographic needs. In addition, there is provision for other characters and symbols useful to linguists. It contains near-complete coverage of all the characters defined in Unicode 7.0 for Latin and Cyrillic."[43][44][45]
Charis SIL: "a Unicode-based font family that supports the wide range of languages that use the Latin and Cyrillic scripts. It is specially designed to make long texts pleasant and easy to read, even in less than ideal reproduction and display environments."[46][47][48]
Andika: "a sans serif Unicode font designed especially for literacy use and the needs of beginning readers. The focus is on clear letterforms that will not be easily confused with one another. It supports near-complete coverage for Latin and Cyrillic."[49]
The 1947 Summer Meeting of theLinguistic Society of America passed a resolution that the work of SIL "should be strongly commended by our Society and welcomed as one of the most promising developments in applied linguistics in this country."[50]
SIL's work has received appreciation and recognition in several international settings. In 1973, SIL was awarded theRamon Magsaysay Award for International Understanding. This foundation honors outstanding individuals and organizations working in Asia who manifest greatness of spirit in service to the peoples of Asia.[52] UNESCO Literacy Prizes have been awarded to SIL's work in a number of countries: Australia (1969), Cameroon (1986), Papua New Guinea (1979), Philippines (1991).[53]
In 1979, SIL's agreement was officially terminated by the Mexican government after critiques from anthropologists regarding the combination of education and missionary activities in indigenous communities, though SIL continued to be active in that country.[54] At a conference of the Inter-American Indian Institute inMérida, Yucatán, in November 1980, delegates denounced the Summer Institute of Linguistics, charging that it was using a scientific name to conceal itsProtestant agenda and an allegedcapitalist view that was alien to indigenous traditions.[55] This led to the agreement with theEcuadoran government being terminated in 1980,[56] although a token presence remained. In the early 1990s, theConfederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) demanded the expulsion of SIL from the country.[57] SIL was also expelled fromBrazil,Mexico, andPanama, and restricted inColombia andPeru.[58]
Linguists and anthropologists have criticized SIL's focus on language description, language development, Bible translation, and missionary activities as an effort to change indigenous cultures, which exacerbates the problems that causelanguage endangerment andlanguage death.[59][60][61] Linguists have argued that the missionary focus of SIL makes relations with academic linguists and their reliance on SIL software and knowledge infrastructure problematic in that respective goals, while often overlapping, also sometimes diverge considerably.[62][41]
SIL does not consider efforts to change cultural patterns a form of cultural destruction and points out that all their work is based on the voluntary participation of indigenous peoples. In the SIL view,ethnocide is not a valid concept and it would lead to pessimism to characterize culture change resulting from the inevitable progress of civilization as ethnocide.[63][62] SIL sees itself as actively protecting endangered languages by promoting them within the speech community and providing mother-tongue literacy training.[64][62] Additionally, their expanded interest in preserving threatened languages has resulted in the creation of a Language and Culture Documentation Services Unit.[16]
^Howard, Michael C. (2014).Transnationalism and Society: An Introduction. US: McFarland. p. 196.ISBN9780786486250.
^Hartch, Todd (2006).Missionaries of the State: The Summer Institute of Linguistics, State Formation, and Indigenous Mexico, 1935–1985. Tuscaloosa,AL: University of Alabama Press.ISBN9780817315153.
^SIL,Partnerships, sil.org, USA, retrieved August 24, 2021
^Keith Brown, Sarah Ogilvie,Concise Encyclopedia of Languages of the World, Elsevier, Netherlands, 2010, p. 385
^Stepp, John Richard, Hector Castaneda, and Sarah Cervone. "Mountains and biocultural diversity." Mountain Research and Development 25, no. 3 (2005): 223-227. "For the distribution of languages we used the Ethnologue database produced by the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL). Ethnologue is widely regarded as the most comprehensive data source of current languages spoken worldwide."
^Baines, David. "FieldWorks Language Explorer (FLEx)." eLEX2009: 27.
^Butler, L., & HEATHER, V. V. (2007). Fieldworks Language Explorer (FLEx). Language documentation & conservation, 1(1).
^Ulinski, M., Balakrishnan, A., Bauer, D., Coyne, B., Hirschberg, J., & Rambow, O. (2014, June). Documenting endangered languages with the wordseye linguistics tool. In Proceedings of the 2014 Workshop on the Use of Computational Methods in the Study of Endangered Languages (pp. 6-14). "One of the most widely-used toolkits in the lattercategory is SIL FieldWorks (SIL FieldWorks, 2014), or specifically, FieldWorks Language Explorer (FLEx). FLEx includes tools for eliciting and recording lexical information, dictionary development, interlinearization of texts, analysisof discourse features, and morphological analysis. An important part of FLEx is its "linguistfriendly" morphological parser (Black and Simons, 2006), which uses an underlying model of morphology familiar to linguists, is fully integrated into lexicon development and interlinear text analysis, and produces a human-readable grammar sketch as well as a machine-interpretable parser. The morphological parser is constructed "stealthily" in the background, and can help a linguist by predicting glosses for interlinear texts."
^"WeSay".SIL Software. 2 October 2014. Retrieved2024-07-30.
^tarmstrong (16 November 2012)."WeSay on Linux".WeSay.Palaso.org. SIL International. Archived fromthe original on 2 July 2013.
^Black, H. Andrew, and Gary F. Simons. "The SIL Field-Works Language Explorer approach to morphological parsing." Computational Linguistics for Lessstudied Languages: Texas Linguistics Society 10 (2006).
^Bird, S., & Simons, G. (2003). Seven dimensions of portability for language documentation and description. Language, 557-582.
^"Gentium".SIL: Software & Fonts. SIL International. 2 October 2014. Retrieved20 August 2016.
^"Doulos SIL".SIL: Software & Fonts. SIL International. 2 October 2014. Retrieved20 August 2016.
^Cahill, M. (2011, January). Non-linguistic factors in orthographies. In Symposium on Developing Orthographies for Unwritten Languages‐Annual Meeting, Linguistic Society of America.
^Priest, L. A. (2004, September). Transitioning a Vastly Multilingual Corporation to Unicode. In 26th Internationalization and Unicode Conference, San Jose, CA.
^"Charis SIL".SIL: Software & Fonts. SIL International. 2 October 2014. Retrieved20 August 2016.
^Wells, John. "An update on phonetic symbols in Unicode." In International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Saarbrüken. Retrieved January, vol. 1, p. 2011. 2007.
^"Andika".SIL: Software & Fonts. SIL International. 2 October 2014. Retrieved2016-10-29.
^"Proceedings",Language,24 (3), The Linguistic Society of America: 4, 1947,JSTOR522186.
^Epps, Patience (2005), "Language endangerment in Amazonia: The role of missionaries", in Wolgemuth, Jan; Dirksmeyer, Tyko (eds.),Bedrohte Vielfalt: Aspects of Language Death, Berlin: Weissensee: Berliner Beiträge zur Linguistik.
Cobbs, Elizabeth A. (November 1, 1995), "Thy Will Be Done: The Conquest of the Amazon: Nelson Rockefeller and Evangelism in the Age of Oil – book reviews",The Christian Century.
Hart, Laurie K. (1973), "The Story of the Wycliffe Translators: Pacifying the Last Frontiers",NACLA's Latin America & Empire Report, vol. VII. This article describes SIL's collaboration with US oil corporations and military governments in South America in the 1950s and 1960s.
Headland, Thomas; Pike, Kenneth; Harris, Marvin, eds. (1990),Emics and etics: The insider/outsider debate, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Hvalkof, Søren; Aaby, Peter, eds. (1981),Is God an American? An Anthropological Perspective on the Missionary Work of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, Copenhagen/London: A Survival International Document, International Workgroup for Indigenous Affairs,ISBN87-980717-2-6.
Lewis, Norman (2013),The Missionaries: God Against the Indians, Open Road Media,ISBN9781480433335.
Castro Mantilla, Maria Dolores (1996),El Trabajo del ILV en Bolivia, 1954–1980, Informe Final [The Work of SIL in Bolivia, 1954–1980, Final Report], LaPaz: Undersecretary of Ethnic Affairs, National Secretary of Gender and Generational Ethnic Affairs, Ministry of Human Development. This report in Spanish contains a detailed chart of SIL activities in Latin American countries.
Orlandi, Eni Pucinelli (December 1999), "Sprache, Glaube, Macht: "Ethik und Sprachenpolitik" [Language, Faith, Power: Ethics and Language Policy],Lili - Zeitschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Linguistik (in German),116 (4), J.B. Metzler Verlag:116–141,doi:10.1007/BF03379140,S2CID140368171. The author presents a discourse analysis of the practices of SIL.
Perkins, John (2006),Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, Plume Publishers,ISBN0-452-28708-1. Contains references to alleged SIL missionary activities and displacement of indigenous peoples in South America.
Stoll, David (1982),Fishers of Men or Founders of Empire? The Wycliffe Bible Translators in Latin America. A US Evangelical Mission in the Third World, London: Zed Press,ISBN0-86232-111-5. Criticism of alleged SIL missionary activities.
Willibrand, W. A. (1953),Oklahoma Indians and the Summer Institute of Linguistics.
Yashar, Deborah J (2005),Contesting Citizenship In Latin America. The Rise of Indigenous Movements and the Postliberal Challenge,Cambridge University Press,ISBN0-521-82746-9.
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