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Update 'translate/translate-alphabet/01.md' 

Issue 179 Simplified and made to fit better with MAST process.
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Susan Quigley 2019-08-21 20:38:20 +00:00
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@ -5,15 +5,23 @@ It is important to make your alphabet easy to learn and read. One way to do this
If a neighboring language already has an alphabet, and if that language has similar sounds to your language, it might work well to simply use their alphabet. If not, then it may work to use the alphabet from the national language that you learned in school.
However, it is likely that your language has sounds that the national language does not, and so it will be difficult to use this alphabet to represent all of the sounds of your language. In that case, it is good to think about each sound in your language. Write out the national language alphabet on a piece of paper from top to bottom. Then write a word from your language next to each letter that either starts with that sound or has that sound in it. Underline the letter that makes that sound in each of the words. You can add punctuation notations to create sound markers that are not part of the alphabet. For example a sudden stop (glottal stop) or intake of breath can be noted with apostrophes or other marks.
First try to write out several words in your language using the neighboring or national alphabet. When you are done, ask a mother tongue speaker of your language who is literate in the national language to read those words. Are they able to read them? What feedback or suggestions do they have?
There may be letters in the national alphabet that your language does not use. That is fine. Now think about the sounds from these words that you had a hard time writing, or that you could not find a letter for. If the sound is similar to a sound that you did find a letter for, then maybe you can modify that letter to represent the other sound. For example, if you have a sound represented by "s", and a similar sound that there was no letter for, you could add a mark to the letter for the similar sound, such as putting ' or ^ or ~ on top of it. If you find that there is a group of sounds that seem to all have the same kind of difference from the national language sounds, then it is good to modify that group of letters in the same way.
Now try writing one word in your language for each letter of the neighboring or national alphabet. That language may have sounds that your language does not have. That is fine. However, as you are writing the words you may find that your language has sounds that the national language does not have. You will need to decide how to represent those sounds.
Once you have finished this exercise and cannot think of any more sounds in your language, try writing a story or write down something that happened recently. As you write, you will probably discover sounds that you had not thought of earlier. Continue to modify letters so that you can write these sounds. Add these sounds to the list you made earlier.
There are several ways to deal with this issue.
Take your list of sounds to other speakers of your language who also read the national language and see what they think about it. Maybe they can suggest a different way to modify some letters that is simpler or easier to read. Also show these other people the story you wrote and teach them to read it by referring to your list of words and letter-sounds. If they can learn to read it easily, then your alphabet is good. If it is difficult, then there might be parts of the alphabet that still need work to be simpler, or there may be different sounds that are being represented by the same letter, or there may be some sounds that you still need to find letters for.
1. If there are letters in the other language that represent sounds in that language the your language does not have, you may be able to use one of those letters to represent a sound in your language.
It is good to continue to work on this alphabet together with other speakers of your language who read the national language well. You can discuss the different sounds and decide on the best way to represent them together.
2. If a sound in your language is similar to another sound in your language then you may be able to use one letter for both sounds, but modify that letter for one of the sounds by changing its shape a little or by adding a mark to the letter. For example, if you have a sound represented by *s*, and a similar sound that the other language does not have, you could add a mark to the letter to represent that sound, such as *š*, *ṣ*, or *ș*.
If the national language uses a writing system other than the Latin alphabet (from which the letters of the English alphabet come), then think about the different marks that you could use to modify the symbols so that they can represent the sounds of your language. It is best if you can mark the symbols in ways that can be reproduced on a computer. (You can experiment with the writing systems in a word processor or with the keyboards in https://keyman.com) If you need help creating a keyboard, send an email request to <helpdesk@techadvancement.com>. When you use symbols that can be typed on a computer keyboard, then your translation can be stored, copied, and distributed electronically, and then people can get it for no cost and read it on tablets or cell phones.
3. Another way is to combine the letter with another, such as is done in English with *ch*, *sh*, *th*, and *ng*.
If you find that there is a group of sounds that seem to all have the same kind of difference from the national language sounds, then it is good to modify that group of letters in the same way.
For all of these, you will need to tell people what those letters represent. They may not realize that those letters represent sounds different from those in the national language.
Make a list of all the letters you propose to use in your language. As you and the team work on Bible translation, start by using the letters in your list. As you work, you may discover other sounds that you need to represent. Or you may realize that you are representing one sound two different ways. The translation team should discuss how to represent these sounds, agree on a way to represent them, and continue translating. This may be an ongoing process.
If the national language uses a writing system other than the Latin alphabet (from which the letters of the English alphabet come), then think about the different marks that you could use to modify the symbols so that they can represent the sounds of your language. It is best if you can mark the symbols in ways that can be reproduced on a computer. (You can experiment with the writing systems in a word processor or with the keyboards in https://keyman.com) If you need help creating a keyboard, send an email request to <helpdesk@techadvancement.com>.