Sociolinguistics of Writing

Sindhi language belongs to the ancient culture of Indus civilization and music by Sufi poets which encompasses the rich cultural heritage and folktales of Sindh. Previous empirical studies have reported that Sindhi language is shifting to the mainstream languages in urbanized cities among the youth. However, the culture and identity as an ethnic symbol is maintained by the Sindhi families and youth in multilingual city. Therefore, the present study explored whether the contemporary Sindhi music by Sketches band is contributing to language maintenance or shift of Sindhi among the educated Sindhi youth in Karachi. Furthermore, the study inquired what kind of emotional, cultural, social and individual values are acquired by listening to the music by Sketches band. For this purpose, the study collected data using purposive and snowball sampling from twenty participants. The data collected semistructured interviews, observation and sociolinguistic analysis of the selected songs by Sketches band. The findings of the study showed that the music by Sketches band serves as a source of emotional connectivity, cultural preservation, social awareness and linguistic revival among youth in cities. Moreover, the sociolinguistic analysis of the Sindhi songs showed that the music promotes Sindhi values and culture, and the music serves as a strategy of language maintenance among the educated youth. Hence, language can be maintained by listening to traditional music which acts as a new domain (music) of language use despite language shift process in urban cities.

Il contributo introduce l’applicazione di nuovi paradigmi di analisi sociolinguistica allo studio della scrittura digitale di massa in Italia. Partendo da una ricognizione dei dati quantitativi inerenti al progressivo radicamento dei nuovi media nella società (con riferimento a dati Censis e Istat), se ne discutono le ripercussioni negli usi della lingua, valutati attraverso le prospettive teoriche del cambiamento sociolinguistico e - in particolare - della mediatizzazione della lingua. La parte conclusiva si concentra sull’importanza dell’evoluzione degli usi della scrittura come codice semiotico nell’era digitale, proponendo alcuni spunti di riflessione afferenti al ramo della sociolinguistica della scrittura.

An attempt to preserve and revitalize an endangered language has given rise to the development of orthography. The development of orthographies is highly dependent on issues of acceptability and usability, which must be supported by linguistic soundness. Unfortunately, for orthographic development, sociolinguistic and political considerations trump linguistic considerations. The purpose of this paper is to introduce and highlight the distinctive characteristics of the Kurukh Banna script by comparing it to the Tolong Siki script for Kurux, a north Dravidian language. The relationship between the meticulously crafted 62 fonts of Kurukh Banna script and the sacred Danda Katna exhibits a significant role in the script's widespread recognition in Odisha and neighbouring states. Tolong Siki, the official script of the state of Jharkhand, is a well-balanced amalgamation of many sounds borrowed from different Indian languages. Certainly, the evolution and diversification of orthographic symbols for a language continue until it receives adequate political and social support from a state's governing establishment, an appropriate authority, or its native speakers. Two scripts. Kurukh Banna and Tolong Siki", have emerged for witing the Kurux language in the states of Jharkhand and Odisha, respectively. Keywords: Language Orthography, Kurukh Banna, Tolong Siki, Dravidian, Danda Katna literature. Using Devanagari or any other r Dravidian languages' script will not reflect Kurux identity A Script for language is an essential for the development for a tribe's language, culture and and may hamper its growth as compared to languages having individual scripts like, Odia, Hindi, culture can pr Tamil, Telugu, Santhali etc. Distinctive qualities of Kurux language and expressed and maintained in its literature. The inventory of sounds of language A may or may not reflect that of language B. So, the development of Tolong Siki' or Kurukh Banna' has managed to address all the problems arising out of using other scripts, i.e. lack of glottal ston through implementing the mother-tongue-based multilingual education from class I to V in the There are endeavours being made for the transition from non-literate to literate Kurux language districts of Sundargarh and Sambalpur in Odisha. Till 2011, there were a total of 52 schools where properly be

Il presente contributo intende, tramite lo studio del Linguistic Landscape del mercato di S. Lorenzo (FI), dare testimonianza dei cambiamenti sociali che stanno avvenendo nella città di Firenze. Questo mercato costituisce un perfetto luogo di indagine sia perché è situato in un quartiere che nel tempo è stato interessato da vari flussi migratori, sia perché, come molti altri luoghi del centro storico, sta vivendo una fase di rifunzionalizzazione in senso turistico (touristification), e sia perché è un luogo incentrato sull’enogastronomia, settore centrale in merito alla trasmissione culturale e sempre più importante nelle dinamiche turistiche contemporanee (foodification). Tramite un’analisi delle tendenze nelle scelte linguistiche all’interno del panorama linguistico del mercato, si vuole verificare se gli usi del LL si mostrano coerenti con il contesto sociale della città. Pertanto, tramite un’analisi mista quantitativo/qualitativa si sono osservati i comportamenti degli attori del LL del mercato, principalmente in merito all’uso dell’italiano e del dialetto fiorentino, delle lingue immigrate e di quelle che potremmo definire lingue “turistiche” (inglese, coreano, giapponese, ecc.). In conclusione, si sono riportati alcune prospettive future che una ricerca di questo tipo può sollecitare.

The present contribution intends, through the study of the Linguistic Landscape of the market of S. Lorenzo (FI), to bear witness to the social changes that are taking place in the city of Florence. This market constitutes a perfect place of investigation because: it is located in a neighbourhood that has been affected by various migratory flows over time; like many other places in the historical centre, it is undergoing a phase of re-functionalisation in a touristic sense (touristification); it is a place centred on food, a central sector in terms of cultural transmission and increasingly important in contemporary touristic dynamics (foodification). Using a trend analysis of language choices within the linguistic landscape of the market, the aim is to verify whether the uses of the LL are coherent with the social context of the city. Therefore, using a mixed quantitative/qualitative analysis, the behaviour of the market’s LL actors was observed, mainly about the use of Italian and Florentine dialect, immigrant languages and what could be defined as ‘tourist’ languages (English, Korean, Japanese, etc.). In conclusion, we report some future perspectives that research of this kind can solicit.

This paper introduces a groundbreaking approach to deciphering the Indus script, employed by the Indus Valley Civilization (IVC) from c. 3300 to 1900 BCE. Moving beyond previous methods, my research delves into the intricate structure of the script's signs, aiming to definitively settle the debate regarding its categorization. Specifically, I investigate whether the Indus script functions as an alphabet, presenting compelling evidence for the number of primary signs it comprises. My methodology meticulously examines over 400 signs, encompassing the entire corpus rather than relying on limited samples. This holistic approach utilizes a novel gridbased decomposition technique to visually dissect compound signs, identify diacritics with consistent usage patterns, and uncover the underlying principles of sign extraction. Through this rigorous analysis, I successfully isolate the essential primary signs and illuminate their potential phonetic representations within an alphabetic system. However, I acknowledge the intricate variations in writing styles present across the Indus corpus. These stylistic subtleties, encompassing formation, composition, and combination strategies, contribute to the apparent plurality of signs. Nonetheless, my findings reveal a core set of only 40 fundamental signs, suggesting a remarkably concise system beneath the surface complexity. By presenting this new paradigm for understanding the Indus script, I pave the way for further advances in its decipherment. Continued exploration of the identified core signs and their phonetic associations holds immense potential for unlocking the linguistic insights encoded within this enigmatic script, shedding light on a crucial chapter in human history.

When spelling does not reflect pronunciation to a noticeable extent in a language, language experts of that language, with all good intentions, call for script reform. This seems to have been the case at least of Odia. By and large, the users of the language are unconcerned. But that does not always discourage the experts, most of them at least. "You don't know what is good for you. We do. So do as we ask you to do", is what has been the convention when it comes to the relationship between the experts and the common people.

The Indus script, an enigmatic writing system from the Bronze Age Indus Valley Civilization, remains undeciphered. This paper explores a crucial component of its potential phonological system: vowels, semi-vowels, and diphthongs. By analyzing diacritical marks and their interactions with primary signs, the study identifies key elements and their functions within the script. This analysis contributes to understanding the complexity and potential vocalic range of the Indus script, aiding in its ongoing decipherment efforts.

Work on dialect performance and enregisterment has shown that when dialects are performed it is often through the enactment or indexing of particular enregistered characterological figures and personae. I expand this view by showing that one linguistic feature of “Pittsburghese” is used to create stances that are enregistered along with the characterological figures in this vernacular variety of English. Falling question intonation (FQI) is a common feature of the White Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania variety. I analyze its use in a series of videos posted on YouTube® entitled Greg and Donny. The series depicts conversations among the two eponymous characters and their friends in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. LQI is used by them to take stances that serve to mock the addressee while simultaneously aligning with them, a stance that is typical of working class Pittsburghers. Stance is thus crucial for understanding both the enregistered figures and the use of LQI in Western Pennsylvania.

Abstract: The dialect of the village of Abadeh tashk undergoes clear pheonological change.In many words a consonant is changed to another consonant,that is, it undeagoes alteration,or some consonants are omited that is,elision occurs. In some words, two consonants replace each other that is reversal happers in them. In some other case are in a word insertion happens. It sometimes happens that in a word more than one change occur, In other words, elisionand reversal. Alteration and reversal, alteration and insertion and or all happen to gether.In the dialect under study,in most case elision,alteration. Reversal, increase and elision and reversal happen. [Faranak Ramezani. The Phonetic Processes (Transformations) in the Abadeh Tashk Dialect. Life Sci J

Raji is a little known tribal community whose descendants are the prehistoric Kiratas. They live in dense forests far away from the surrounding Kumauni villages of Pithoragarh district. In 2001 census their population was reported to be 680 in all the nine villages. Sir George Grierson, in his book 'Linguistic Survey of India' had named this language as 'janggali which has only spoken form. Following the framework established by Wurm and the stages of threatenedness discussed in Fishman's GIDS Raji can be assessed as 'potentially endangered and at stage 6,(language) which means the language is at risk.' While chalking out a revitalization programme for this oral language I realized the need of orthography development for this language. It is an established fact that Orthography gives stability to a language and not only conserves it but also helps in the standardization process. So after preparing a small grammar book, with the help of collected phonological and grammatical material of Raji the next important task before me was to develop an orthography system. The present paper focuses on the early stages of orthography development for this previously undocumented indigenous language.

Recent interest in preserving endangered languages has led to a corresponding interest in orthographies for such languages. This paper, based on SIL's decades-long corporate experience as well as literature studies, summarizes the major factors which must be considered when planning an orthography. Issues of acceptability and usability must be balanced with the obvious prerequisite of linguistic soundness. The linguistic issues include the choice of graphemes (” letters of the alphabet”), decisions on word breaks, level of ...

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the picture postcard was the key social networking tool of the day. Through the innovative opportunity to combine with an image, written messages could be exchanged within a few hours, giving rise to a sense of near-synchronous multimodal communication. Untrammelled by the etiquette of letter writing, people traded privacy for a new informality and spontaneity. This paper argues that the key endeavour of the Literacy Studies perspective, to deepen our understanding of writing and reading practices through fuller understandings of sociocultural context, can be achieved through the application of historical methods. With a dataset of 56 cards I investigate material and discursive dimensions of the texts against a background of historical evidence. A fuller version of this paper will appear as Gillen (in press).

Recent interest in preserving endangered languages has led to a corresponding interest in orthographies for such languages. This paper, based on SIL's decades-long corporate experience as well as literature studies, summarizes the major factors which must be considered when planning an orthography. Issues of acceptability and usability must be balanced with the obvious prerequisite of linguistic soundness. The linguistic issues include the choice of graphemes (” letters of the alphabet”), decisions on ...

This is a preliminary proposal to encode the Jenticha script in the Universal Character Set (ISO/IEC 10646). It replaces the preliminary proposal submitted for encoding the script (N3962 L2/10-466R). Changes made to the proposal include the use of English names for signs, the addition of a new combining sign, and more general detail about the proposed characters. Code points have been revised to reflect changes to the allocation for the script in the Unicode Roadmap. 2 Background 2.1 Overview Jenticha is a script used for writing Sunuwar (ISO 639-3: suz), a Kiranti language of the Tibeto-Burman family that is spoken in Sikkim, India and eastern Nepal. Sunuwar is spoken by 40,000 persons in Nepal. The number of speakers of the language in Sikkim is unknown because data for Sunuwar is absent from the 2001 Census of India. However, Sunuwar was recognized as an official language of Sikkim in 1996. Jenticha is a recognized script in Sikkim. Devanagari is also used for writing Sunuwar and is the most commonly used script for the language. Sunuwar (सु नु वार sunuvāra), alternately spelled 'Sunwar', is also known by the name 'Mukhiya' (मु िखया mukhiyā). Both are Nepali exonyms for the language and its speakers. The autonym is को ँ इच kõica, which is normalized as 'Kõits'. The language is called को ँ इच लो kõica lo 'Kõits Lo' or कराँ ती-को ँ इच kirātī-kõica 'Kiranti-Kõits'. The name 'Kõits' is also romanized as 'Koinch', 'Koincha', 'Koints', etc. The script was developed by Krishna Bahadur Jenticha (1926-1991) in 1942. It is known indigenously as जे ँ ःितच े ःसे jetica brese, 'Jenticha Brese'. The script is also called को ँ इच े ःसे kõica brese 'Kõits Brese', or the 'Kõits script'; 'brese', or script, is also romanized as 'brehs' or 'blehs', ie. 'Koinch Brehs'. The script is referred to here as 'Jenticha'. It has no genetic relationship to other writing systems. However, some of its letters resemble those of other scripts, such as Limbu and Latin.

Realizing the relationship in society, in many occasions, people use a switch of two different languages to communicate; they are English and Indonesian language. Code switching is a part of sociolinguistics that is marked when bilingual people shift their language from one to another. Code switching occurs because people compensate their language to cover the lack of proficiency and social motivation that support them to switch their language. This study aims to analyze the code switching used and the types of code switching, and to observe the implementation of beauty vlog used in listening class. This research was displayed by means of descriptive-qualitative in collecting data and the document analysis and observation notes were employed as the research instruments. The data were taken from vlogs downloaded on YouTube especially beauty vloggers “Suhay Salim” in her video “BAGUSAN MANA:Nature Republic vs The Saem Aloe Vera Gel?” and “Titan Tyra” in her video “Lebaran No Makeup Tu...

The interaction between a moving submerged body and a homogeneous/stratified fluid generates a Bernoulli hump, a Kelvin wake, and an internal wake on the water surface. The height distribution of wakes is directly related to the location and motion state of the submerged body. Thus, it is possible to retrieve kinematics information of a submarine from the images of wakes obtained by photoelectric detection equipment. In order to extract the submarine's location and velocity information effectively from the wake photoelectric images, we investigate the relationship between the motion state of moving submerged bodies and wakes in this paper. Bernoulli hump, Kelvin wake, and internal wake models are established based on potential flow theory and thin-ship approximation. We analyzed the wave crestline pattern and the energy characteristics of Kelvin wake components (divergent and transverse waves) and internal wakes at different velocities and diving depths. Finally, we propose a method for estimating the velocity of a submarine based on the wake wavelength and the diving depth inversion method based on the Fourier power spectrum of the Kelvin wake. The results obtained prove the feasibility of using photoelectric equipment to obtain wake images for use in analyzing the kinematics state of submarines, which are of guiding significance for detection and information processing in real-scale submarines.

In this research a model for transliteration is presented for two scripts of Sindhi language that is Perso-Arabic script and Devanagari script, based on an intermediate Roman script. After analyzing both Perso-Arabic and Devanagari scripts, a set of Roman script for Sindhi language is also suggested. Different issues, complexities and problems of Sindhi transliteration are discussed in detail. An algorithm to transliterate between two scripts of Sindhi language is also proposed.

It has been said that exogamous marriages tend to lead to language shift (Igboanus & Wolf, 2009 & Dumanig, David & Shanmuganathan, 2013). In an early study Gal (1978) found that Hungarian women marrying German men in the city of Oberwat had shifted to German to negate their peasant Hungarian ancestry and to move up the socioeconomic ladder. Similarly, David and Dealwis (2011) found in their study of Malaysian Sindhi Hindus that exogamous marriages tend to lead to language shift but is not the only reason for the shift away from the heritage language. Therefore, before mixed marriages take place one should study perceptions of the speech community towards such marriages. In this exploratory study, the perceptions of Sindhi Muslims-men and women and from different socioeconomic groups towards exogamous marriages are studied. With this objective, semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten Sindhi Muslim participants (four male adults and six female adults) who live in Karachi. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, coded and themes were generated after formal consent was obtained. The findings show that language choice in the home domain is shifting because of intercultural marriages. Also, such marriages are frequent among Sindhi community members with a high socioeconomic status who live in cities. Gender plays an equal role too, as the women respondents showed mixed responses towards exogamous marriages while the male respondents had a more positive perception. Such views and perceptions may affect choice of marital partners and language choice in the home domain.

In their summary of the review of the future of English in the 21st Century, or more realistically perhaps, of school English over the next 21 years, the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA), the agency responsible for licensing the curriculum in English schools, identified Creativity, Competence, Cultural Understanding and Critical Awareness as the four overarching themes of the moment. This review is the last in a series in which the writers have looked at recent publications touching on each of these '4 Cs', notwithstanding the objections to the narrowness, and seeming-arbitrariness of these listed items, and the whiff of marketisation in their snappy phonological sloganeering. After all, we might as easily have had the '4 or 5 Ls' of Literacy, Literary Criticism, Learner Identity and Lifelong Learning. But we didn't, and whatever we think about the other three, the word 'Criticism', literary or not, would seem to be an uncontroversial member of QCA's gang of four, sitting easily in the habitus of English studies in its educational context, and being the watchword and core practice of the subject discipline of English Literature, such a central concern in English teaching. The version of literary criticism practised in English schools for so many years had its origins in practical criticism, developed in the earlier decades of the twentieth century by I. A. Richards and others (Dixon, 1991). This had at least some of its origins, and rationale, in the disgust those early movers felt at the physical and moral carnage wrought by the first world war

This paper addresses the Anglo-Saxon personal name inscriptions at Monte Sant’ Angelo in Southern Italy from a sociolinguistic angle. The main interest lies in the mix between Roman and runic writing and its interpretation in the light of individual literacy and the cultural context of medieval pilgrimage. Four from a total of five inscriptions were written in runes; two of these show signifificant influence from Anglo-Saxon scribal practices and Roman epigraphic writing. The fifth Anglo-Saxon name is written entirely in Roman letters. Drawing on theoretical approaches from modern sociolinguistic studies of multilingualism in writing, this study suggests that the use of mixed Roman-runic practices reflects the biscriptal background of the respective carvers and was applied in situ to individualize the inscriptions. However, not all the inscriptions show such a mix; hence either skill or personal preference varied among the pilgrims. The practice of mixing evident in the runic inscriptions does not fully correspond to previously described features of multilingual and multiscriptal writing, which is why a new term, “heterographia”, has been coined in this study to include mixing not only in a language and a writing system, but also on a graphetic and orthographic level. Finally, the use of runes or Roman script for one’s personal name is interpreted as an expression of social identity dependent on the person’s social embedding.

Recent studies propose an autonomous Sociolinguistics of writing (in particular starting from the work of Blommaert (2005) and Lillis (2013)), which gives to this mode of communication the space and the relevance that is due to it. These researches are also a good answer to the Italian issue of the notion of diamesia (see the work of Pistolesi 2015, but also the exclusion of the diamesic axis from the representation of Italian architecture (ri) proposed by Berruto, 2011). The article, after discussing writing as an object of sociolinguistic speculation, applies the sociolin-guistic analysis to a written variety of Italian-coming from the web (a forum in the web site of online reviews of hotels and other services)-in particular showing how writing is a social practice that implements the work of identity building.

Giuliana Fiorentino. Sociolinguistica della scrittura: varietà del web nel repertorio linguistico italiano Abstract La diffusione della scrittura come forma di comunicazione di massa rende sempre più necessario ripensarne lo studio e avvicinarsi alla lingua scritta secondo propsettive nuove. In questo contributo si propone di applicare alla lingua e ai testi prodotti sul web un approccio in termini di varietà linguistiche da collocare nel repertorio linguistico italiano in un quadro autonomo rispetto a quello che include le varietà del parlato. Si aderisce in questo modo alla prospettiva di una sociolinguistica della scrittura (Lillis 2013) e più in particolare alla concezione della scrittura come pratica sociale. Dopo aver presentato e discusso diverse varietà linguistiche presenti sul web, con particolare riguardo ai social network, si conferma la validità dell'approccio e si indicano alcune linee per future ricerche.

The purpose of this research is to study the orthographical errors made by the native English second language (L2) learners of Sinhala. A blend of similarities and dissimilarities are visible between the orthography of English and Sinhala. Even though both languages are written horizontally in left to write direction, they do not share any scripts (letters) in common such as in English and French or English and Spanish. Sinhala has an alpha-syllabary written system, whereas English has an alphabetic written system. Due to the transfer effect (the influences from the first language (L1) on learning a second language (L2)) the native English students, who were learning communicative Sinhala, tended to mark errors in orthography in and outside the classroom. I have used the three most related theories for this study: The Transfer Theory, the Error Analysis and the Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis. This paper discusses five major categories in which the second language students of beginner level have made errors while practicing their Sinhala orthography. The data was collected from 35 students over a period of 5 years and has been analyzed using qualitative methods. The qualitative data analysis revealed seven major categories of errors commonly done by the second language students of beginner level while practicing their Sinhala orthography.

This thesis is on the sociolinguistics of writing. It investigates the use of scripts for the Sindhī language of South Asia, both from a diachronic and synchronic perspective. The thesis first analyses the rich but understudied script history of the Sindhī language from the tenth century to modern times. In doing so, it investigates the domains in which certain scripts were used, and identifies definite patterns in their distribution. Particular attention is paid to Perso-Arabic and Devanāgarī, which emerged as the two most widely used scripts for the language in the twentieth century. The diachronic analysis draws on several linguistic, literary and other academic works on the Sindhī language and brings to the fore hitherto neglected data on historical script use for the language. The thesis then presents and analyses oral interview data on community opinion on the recent proposal to use the Roman script to read and write Sindhī. The synchronic analysis is based on original fieldwork data, comprising in-depth qualitative interviews with fifty members of the Indian Sindhī community of diverse backgrounds and ages from various geographical locations.

Empirically, this work is one of the first to provide a comprehensive diachronic and synchronic review and analysis of script practices in the Sindhī community specifically from a sociolinguistic perspective. It also provides revealing insights into the kinds of expectations an urbanised, highly educated and socioeconomically successful minority has of a writing system for its language. In doing so, the study challenges the prevalent simplistic claim in the literature that minority communities are desirous of seeing their language in writing. Most importantly, this work indicates the emergence of a so-called new variety of Sindhī phonology in India, which differs subtly from the old variety phonology. The implications of this subtle shift in phonology for Sindhī pedagogical material form a key part of the findings of this study.

Theoretically, this work contributes to the concept of orthographic transfer, which is the phenomenon of phoneme-grapheme correspondences in a particular orthography being inadvertently applied to another orthography. The study also affirms the presence of a scriptal diglossia, or digraphia, in script use for the Sindhī language, where the use of particular scripts for the language is implicitly determined by domain and context. The potential impact of orthographic transfer and digraphia on the pedagogy of lesser-learnt languages is a key part of the study’s findings.

Methodologically, the juxtaposition of historical and present-day sociolinguistic factors at play offers a fresh and nuanced look at the rise and fall of scripts in the context of a language with a centuries-old written tradition.

The study concludes that usage of a particular script for a language is not the result of a simplistic binary opposition between authoritarian imposition and voluntary choice. Rather, it is a reflection of several pragmatic and symbolic considerations by the community in question. The thesis puts into perspective the various psychological, socioeconomic and cultural forces at work in determining script use for the Sindhī language. In doing so, the thesis makes several additions not just to the existing body of knowledge on the Sindhī language, but also to the fledgling field of inquiry that is the sociolinguistics of writing. These varied and unique contributions set the study apart from previous research on the subject.

Drawing on data collected primarily among young Egyptians, in this paper I discuss script-fusing – a literacy and semiotic practice of combining letters from two scripts, in this case Arabic and Roman, within a single word. I focus on its employment in digital environments, particularly Twitter, where some Arabic speakers adopt it to stylize their screen names. As a springboard for an analysis of the metalinguistic commentary on this practice, provided by several Twitter users and one Egyptian graphic designer, I offer a historicized interpretive framework for thinking through its creative potential and social semiotics by discussing it against the backdrop of Franco, an alternative way of writing Arabic using the Roman script supplemented by digits. Franco practices emerged as a response to technological constraints in the early days of the internet when Arabic script was not supported. This is no longer the case, but Franco has nevertheless not disappeared: not only is it still occasionally used for digital writing, it has also become a literacy resource used in a variety of offline domains. I argue that, instead of becoming redundant for writing Arabic, the Roman script is being further appropriated, resemiotized and aestheticized through acts of fusion with the Arabic script. Its cultural biography in Egypt (and arguably the Arab world) thus shows itself as a trajectory from a practically oriented, often contested, creative working around the technologically-induced lack of script choice, to an aesthetically, and at times ideologically, motivated engagement with the current profusion of linguistic and semiotic resources that are creatively blended together in acts of indexing and, indeed, iconicizing modern Egyptian and Arab cosmopolitanisms.

This paper will cover the rich but understudied history of the usage of the Roman script (ABCD…XYZ) for the languages of the Indian Subcontinent. The romanisation of languages in various non-European multilingual regions, such as East and South-East Asia, Africa and the Middle East, has been relatively well-documented and studied. However, any comprehensive diachronic analysis of the—ultimately unsuccessful—attempts at romanising languages in India has yet to appear. This paper is an initial effort in that direction. ***

This paper comprises two sections. The first section, spanning the years 1616 to 1947, will first deal with the initial efforts by Europeans in India to transcribe Indian languages in the Roman script. It will then describe the subsequent attempts by various European and Indian proponents to introduce a uniform romanisation system throughout India, and their eventual failure. The second section will seek to answer various questions that arise during the preceding historical analysis, based on the Framework for the Comparative Analysis of Romanisation (Aytürk 2010a, 2010b). ***

Since this paper largely deals with the period prior to the Partition of British India into modern-day India and Pakistan in 1947, the term ‘India’ in this paper shall mean the entire Indian Subcontinent.

In most of the literature concerning children’s digital literacy practices it is claimed that there is a mismatch between children’s creative out-of-school use of digital media and the dreary literacy reality of school; the suggestion is that the school experience should be enriched following children’s out-of-school practices. In this chapter data from quantitative and qualitative research concerning translocal digital writing by Greek children is used to question this dominant thesis. The critique focuses on three issues: (1) on a clear trend for overgeneralization, based mainly on data from the English speaking world; (2) on the emphasis on vernacular literacies, underestimating the children’s full range of literacies, and, (3) on a significant silence with respect to the historical dimension in studying contemporary communication phenomena.

In this paper, I look at three YouTube comedians of Indian heritage. What is interesting about these comedians is their use of code-switching (CS), deploying aspects of Punjabi English and Vernacular American English. These bilingual comedians switch codes as part of their “presentation of self” (Goffman 1959) as a means to present and preserve their ‘Indian’ selves, both in contrast to and in conjunction with their Canadian upbringing and urban environment. CS is an important component of constructing ethnic identity, as others have argued (cf. DeBose 1992 and De Fina 2007, among others). Switches between dialects are crucial to understanding the sociolinguistic “stance” of the speaker towards her audience and towards her own identity (Jaffe 2009). In this study I apply the idea of 'intra-linguistic' CS to the videos of these Indian- Canadian YouTube comedians. The comedians employ multiple codes in their videos as an important element of multi-faceted identity construction.

This Response to the Special Issue of JOS ‘The sociolinguistics of writing in a global context: Objects, lenses, consequences’ argues that:
a. There are good reasons for bringing more linguistically and more ethnographically orientated work closer together at the present time.
b. The challenges Lillis and McKinney identify for work on writing also apply to sociolinguistic work more generally (i.e. the traditional monomodal approach to writing, the tendency to construct writing as an object of study in terms of relatively inert texts and the strong standard and error discourse.)
c. The construction of writing as an ideological semiotic object within the articles in this Special Issue illuminates questions which have long preoccupied the New Literacy Studies concerning the local/global opposition and the epistemological divide between texts and practices.
The Response also reconsiders Lillis and McKinney’s overall aim for the Special Issue and highlights some unresolved questions

The Arabic script in Africa contains sixteen papers on the past and present use of Arabic script to write African languages. These writing traditions, which are sometimes collectively referred to as Ajami, are discussed for single or multiple languages, with examples from all major linguistic phyla of Africa but one (Khoisan), and from all geographic areas of Africa (North, West, Central, East, and South Africa), as well as a paper on the Ajami heritage in the Americas. The papers analyze (ethno-) historical, literary, (socio-) linguistic, and in particular grammatological aspects of these previously understudied writing traditions and exemplify their range and scope, providing new data for the comparative study of writing systems, literacy in Africa, and the history of (Islam in) Africa.

It is estimated that about 15 million Black adults (over one third of the population) are illiterate... The lack of access to basic education, including literacy and numeracy, has consigned millions of our people to silence and marginalisation from effective and meaningful participation in social and economic development.(ANC Education

ABSTRACT Recent interest in preserving endangered languages has led to a corresponding interest in orthographies for such languages. This paper, based on SIL's decades-long corporate experience as well as literature studies, summarizes the major factors which must be considered when planning an orthography. Issues of acceptability and usability must be balanced with the obvious prerequisite of linguistic soundness.