World languages: Endangered Alphabets Exhibition opened in New York

August 1, 2011 Sachem Public Library, New York, opened an exhibition devoted to the vanishing forms of writing, Endangered Alphabets. Opening of the exhibition was preceded by a lecture by artist and writer Tim Brookes, highlighting the genesis of the Endangered Alphabets Project.

Under his project Brooks has decided to focus not only on the danger of language extinction, but also the threat of extinction of alphabets, which now number fewer than a hundred. These forms of writing are understood by only few adults, they are not studied at school and almost never used.

The exhibition includes 14 maple planks with carved characters of the endangered alphabets, in particular, the Cherokee syllabic alphabet and the writing of Inuit dialects of Canada. In addition, the library exhibits a book covering the Brooks’ research work.

According to the official site of the project, all the tablets feature the same text - Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the UN in 1948 - "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood."  

The Endangered alphabets Project was first presented in 2010 in Wales at the annual conference on endangered languages. Then the Brooks’ collection was exhibited at several universities.

There are 6 to 7, 000 languages in the world, and more than 2, 000 of them are on the verge of extinction.