User:Drmaik/sil

(Contributions)

SIL's principal contribution to linguistics has been the data that has been gathered and analysed from over 1,000 minority languages, many of which had not been previously studied academically. This has significantly enriched linguistic knowledge, and has resulted in publications on languages such as Hixkaryana and Piraha which have challenged the universality of some linguistic theories.

SIL's focus has not been on the development of new linguistic theories, but tagmemics, though no longer promoted by SIL, was developed by Kenneth Pike, who also coined the words etic and emic, more widely used today in anthropology. Other groundbreaking linguistic work has included the study of focus in Ejagham by John Waters...*more here*, and advances in the understanding of discourse analysis of Biblical Hebrew and New Testament Greek. SIL also has developed widely-used phonetic fonts, and been involved in the choice of characters for unicode.

SIL has also arguably enhanced the vitality of some minority languages through its linguistic work, development work and advocacy for minority groups. For instance, in 1968 Norman Lewis, an anti-SIL journalist, predicted the extinction of one group among which SIL were working: the population has significantly increased. *language*?