SIL International

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SIL International

SIL International (the official name of what was originally the Summer Institute of Linguistics) is a U.S.-based

United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
, worldwide Evangelical Christian

Evangelicalism

Evangelicalism is a Protestantism Christian movement which began in Great Britain in the 1730s.Most adherents consider its key characteristics to be: a belief in the need for personal conversion ; some expression of the gospel in effort; a high regard for Biblical authority; and an emphasis on the death and resurrection of Jesus....
non-profit organization

Non-profit organization

A nonprofit organization is any organization that does not aim to make a profit, and which is not a public body....
, whose main purpose is to study, develop and document lesser-known language

Language

A language is a form of symbol communication in which elements are combined to represents something other than themselves. Language can also refer to the use of such systems as a general phenomenon....
s, in order to expand linguistic

Linguistics

Linguistics is the science study of natural language. Linguistics encompasses a number of sub-fields. An important topical division is between the study of language structure and the study of Meaning ....
knowledge, promote literacy

Literacy

The traditional definition of literacy is considered to be the ability to read and write, or the ability to use language to Reading , Writing, Listening, and Speech communication....
and aid minority language

Minority language

A minority language is a language spoken by a minority of the population of a country. Such people are termed linguistic minorities. With a total number of 193 sovereign states recognized internationally and an estimated number of roughly 5,000 to 7,000 List of languages by name spoken worldwide, it follows that the vast majority of la...
development.

SIL International is the sister organization of Wycliffe Bible Translators

Wycliffe Bible Translators

Wycliffe Bible Translators is a nonprofit organization dedicated to making a translation of the Bible in every living language in the world, especially for cultures with little existing Christian influence....
, an agency dedicated to translating the Bible

Bible

The Bible is the central religious text of Judaism and Christianity. The exact Books of the Bible is dependent on the religious traditions of specific denominations....
into minority languages.

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Encyclopedia

SIL International (the official name of what was originally the Summer Institute of Linguistics) is a U.S.-based

United States

Evangelicalism

Non-profit organization

A nonprofit organization is any organization that does not aim to make a profit, and which is not a public body....
, whose main purpose is to study, develop and document lesser-known language

Language

Linguistics

Literacy

Minority language

Wycliffe Bible Translators

Bible

The Bible is the central religious text of Judaism and Christianity. The exact Books of the Bible is dependent on the religious traditions of specific denominations....
into minority languages. The organization provides a database of its research into the world's languages through its Ethnologue

Ethnologue

Ethnologue: Languages of the World is a web and print publication of SIL International , a Christianity linguistics service organization, which studies lesser-known languages, primarily to provide the speakers with Bibles, in their native language....
, a database of the world's languages. It has more than 6,000 members from over 50 countries.

History

SIL International started as a small summer training session in the U.S. state

U.S. state

A U.S. state is any one of the 50 state of the United States that share sovereignty with the federal government of the United States . Because of this shared sovereignty, an United States is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of Domicile ....
of Arkansas

Arkansas

Arkansas is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States of the United States. Arkansas shares a border with six states, with its eastern border largely defined by the Mississippi River....
in 1934 to train missionaries

Mission (Christian)

A Christianity mission has been widely defined, since the Lausanne Congress of 1974, as that which is designed "to form a viable indigenous Christian Church-planting and world changing movement." This definition is motivated by a Christian theology imperative theme of the Bible to make God known, as outlined in the Great Commission....
of what later became Wycliffe Bible Translators

Wycliffe Bible Translators

Linguistics

Anthropology

Anthropology is the study of humans and humanity in its totality. Anthropology has origins in the natural sciences, and the humanities. In Great Britain it was originally divided into physical anthropology and cultural anthropology, which itself was divided into archaeology, technology, ethnology and sociology ....
and translation

Translation

Translation is the hermeneutics of the Meaning of a text and the subsequent production of an Dynamic and formal equivalence text, likewise called a "translation," that communicates the same message in another language....
principles. The founder was William Cameron Townsend

William Cameron Townsend

William Cameron Townsend was a prominent Christian mission whose ministry began in the early twentieth century. The organizations he founded, Wycliffe Bible Translators and SIL International , remain active, and focus on producing Bible translation of the Bible in minority languages, and on facilitating literacy in minority languages....
(1896-1982), a former Disciples of Christ

Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

The Christian Church is a Mainline Protestant denomination in North America. It is often referred to as The Christian Church, Disciples of Christ, or more simply as The Disciples....
missionary to Guatemala

Guatemala

Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize and the Caribbean to the northeast, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast....
. Its headquarters are located in the southern section of Dallas, Texas.

From the 1950s to 1987, SIL training was hosted by the University of Oklahoma

University of Oklahoma

University of Oklahoma, abbreviated OU, is a coeducational public university research university located in Norman, Oklahoma. Founded in 1890, it existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two became the state of Oklahoma....
in Norman

Norman, Oklahoma

Norman is the largest city in and the county seat of Cleveland County, Oklahoma in the U.S. state of Oklahoma, and is part of the Oklahoma City Metroplex Metropolitan Statistical Area....
. The agreement between the university and SIL was terminated in 1987 after a controversy about SIL being involved in missionary activities and its relationship with Latin American governments. SIL training is now offered in many locations around the world.

One of the students at the first summer institute in its second year 1935 was Kenneth Lee Pike (1912–2000), who was to become the foremost figure in the history of SIL. He served as SIL's president from 1942 to 1979, then as president emeritus until his death in 2000. He worked at the University of Michigan

University of Michigan

The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan is a public university research university located in the state of Michigan. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan, which also includes two regional campuses in University of Michigan-Flint and University of Michigan-Dearborn....
for many years. SIL's current president is Dr. John Watters, who took the office in 2008, after serving as executive director from 2000 to 2007.

Affiliated bodies and other offices

Besides the headquarters in Dallas, SIL has offices and locally incorporated affiliated organizations in several countries:

Africa

Cameroon
Cameroon

The Republic of Cameroon is a unitary state of central and western Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west; Chad to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to the south....
: Yaoundé
Yaoundé

Yaound?, , is the capital city of Cameroon and second largest city in the country after Douala. It lies in the centre of the nation at about 750 metres above sea level....
(central office), Bamenda
Bamenda

Bamenda, also known as Abakwa and Mankon Town, is a city in northwestern Cameroon and capital of the Northwest Province, Cameroon. The city has an estimated 446,000 inhabitants and is located 366 km north-west of the Cameroonian capital, Yaound?....
(regional office), Maroua
Maroua

Maroua is the capital of the Far North Province of Cameroon, on the Ferngo River and Kaliao Rivers. The city has an estimated 299,600 inhabitants and is a centre of cotton industry....
(regional bureau for the north of the country)

Americas

Brazil
Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is a country in South America. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, occupying nearly half of South America, the List of countries by population country, and the fourth most populous democracy in the world....
: Cuiabá
Cuiabá

Cuiab? is the capital city of the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso. It is located in the exact centre of South America and is in conurbation with the neighbouring town of V?rzea Grande....
Colombia
Colombia

Colombia , officially the Republic of Colombia , is a country in north-western South America. Colombia is bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the north west by Panama; and to the west by the Pacific Ocean....
(1962–2002)
Mexico
Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federalism constitutionalism republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico....
: Instituto Lingüístico de Verano (Mexico)
Instituto Lingüístico de Verano (Mexico)

The Instituto Ling??stico de Verano A.C. is a non-profit organization incorporated in Mexico with the legal status of a civil association . It is the affiliate body in Mexico to the overarching parent organization SIL International, a worldwide United States-based evangelicalism Protestantism organization that sponsors the study, documentati...
, based in Tlalpan
Tlalpan

Tlalpan is the largest of the 16 delegaciones into which Mexico's Mexican Federal District is divided. Tlalpan is the home of Ajusco, a volcanic mountain peak and National Park, one of the highest mountains in Mexico City....
(Distrito Federal)
Peru
Peru

Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
: Instituto Lingüístico de Verano (Peru), based in Lima
Lima

Lima is the Capital and largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chill?n River, R?mac River and Lur?n River rivers, on a coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean....
Suriname
Suriname

Suriname , officially the Republic of Suriname is a country in northern South America. Originally, the country was spelled Surinam by English settlers who founded the first colony at Marshall's Creek, along the Suriname River, and was Geographical renaming Nederlands Guyana, Netherlands Guiana or Dutch Guiana....
(1968–2001)

Asia

China
China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
: cooperation with a number of research organizations and government agencies.
Philippines
Philippines

The Philippines, officially known as the Republic of the Philippines, is a country in Southeast Asia with Manila as its capital city. It comprises 7,107 islands in the western Pacific Ocean....
: Manila
Manila

The 'City of Manila' , or simply 'Manila', is the Capital of the Philippines and one of the 17 cities and municipalities that make up Metro Manila....

Oceania

Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands ....
: Ukarumpa
Ukarumpa

Ukarumpa is a gated community and intentional community that is the main center for Summer Institute of Linguistics in Papua New Guinea, located in the Eastern Highlands Province....

Contributions

SIL's principal contribution to linguistics has been the data that has been gathered and analysed from over 1,000 minority and endangered languages, many of which had not been previously studied academically. SIL endeavors to share both the data and the results of analysis in order to contribute to the overall knowledge of language. This has resulted in publications on languages such as Hixkaryana

Hixkaryana language

Hixkaryana is one of the Carib languages, spoken by just over 500 people on the Nhamund? river, a tributary of the Amazon River in Brazil. It is one of a few known natural languages that normally use Object Verb Subject word order, and may have been the first such language to be described ....
and Pirahã

Pirahã language

Pirah? is a language spoken by the Pirah? people — an indigenous people of Amazonas , Brazil, who live along the Maici river, a tributary of the Amazon River....
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. Most of these are a reflection of linguistic fieldwork.

SIL's focus has not been on the development of new linguistic theories, but tagmemics

Tagmemics

Tagmemics is a linguistic theory developed by Kenneth L. Pike in his book Language in Relation to a Unified Theory of the Structure of Human Behavior, 3 vol....
, though no longer promoted by SIL, was developed by Kenneth Pike, who also coined the words emic and etic

Emic and etic

Emic and etic are terms used by some in the social sciences and the behavioral sciences to refer to two different kinds of data concerning human behavior....
, more widely used today in anthropology.

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.

SIL provides instructors and instructional materials for linguistics programs at several major institutions of higher learning around the world. In the United States

United States

Biola University

Biola University is a Private university, non-denominational, conservative evangelical Christian university located near Los Angeles. Biola's main campus is located in the city of La Mirada, California in Los Angeles County, California....
, Moody Bible Institute

Moody Bible Institute

Moody Bible Institute was founded by evangelist and businessman Dwight Lyman Moody in 1886. The campus, located in the heart of Chicago on the Near North Side, Chicago, has remained at the same location chosen by Moody 120 years ago....
, Houghton College

Houghton College

Houghton College is a 4-year Christian liberal arts college, affiliated with the Wesleyan Church. Houghton's main campus is in Houghton, New York, in the Genesee River of southwestern New York; a secondary suburban campus is in West Seneca, New York, a suburb of Buffalo, New York....
, University of North Dakota

University of North Dakota

The University of North Dakota is a public university in Grand Forks, North Dakota, United States. Established by the Dakota Territory Assembly in 1883, six years before the establishment of the U.S....
, Bryan College

Bryan College

Bryan College is a Christian liberal arts college in Dayton, Tennessee. It was founded in the aftermath of the 1925 Scopes Trial to establish an institution of higher education that would teach Creationism....
, University of Texas at Arlington

University of Texas at Arlington

The University of Texas at Arlington, often referred to as UT Arlington or UTA, is a nationally-recognized comprehensive doctoral/research university in Arlington, Texas, US....
, the Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics

Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics

The Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics is a Graduate school located in the southwest corner of Dallas, Texas. It provides training for Applied linguistics work in minority language around the world....
and Dallas Theological Seminary

Dallas Theological Seminary

Dallas Theological Seminary is an evangelical theology seminary located in Dallas, Texas and the North American institution for popularizing the theological system known as Dispensationalism....
. Other universities with SIL programmes include Trinity Western University

Trinity Western University

Trinity Western University is a Private university, Christian liberal arts university located in Langley, British Columbia , British Columbia, Canada....
in Canada

Canada

Canada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean....
and Charles Darwin University

Charles Darwin University

Charles Darwin University is an Australian public university with around 20,098 higher education students studying as of 2007. It has campuses in the Darwin, Northern Territory suburb of Casuarina, Northern Territory, Palmerston, Northern Territory, Alice Springs, Katherine, Northern Territory , Nhulunbuy, Northern Territory....
in Australia

Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
.

SIL also presents the fruits of some its research through the International Museum of Culture. Located in Dallas, it was developed by linguists and anthropologists associated with SIL International for the purpose of celebrating peoples of diverse cultures in an effort to promote greater appreciation and understanding of cultural differences.

International recognition

SIL holds formal consultative status with UNESCO

UNESCO

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations established on 16 November 1945....
and United Nations

United Nations

The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are to facilitate cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, Social change, human rights and achieving world peace....
, and has been publicly recognized by UNESCO for their work in many parts of Asia. SIL also holds non-governmental organization

Non-governmental organization

Non-governmental organization is a term that has become widely accepted for referring to a legally constituted, non-business organization created by natural or legal persons with no participation or representation of any government....
status in many countries.

SIL's work has received appreciation and recognition in a number of international settings. In 1973, SIL was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award

Ramon Magsaysay Award

The Ramon Magsaysay Award was established in April 1957 by the trustees of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund based in New York City. With the concurrence of the Philippine government, the prize was created to commemorate Ramon Magsaysay, the late president of the Philippines, and to perpetuate his example of integrity in government, courageous...
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. Other notable examples include a UNESCO award and the 1979 International Reading Association Literacy Award for literacy work in Papua New Guinea.

Ethnologue and the SIL code

The Ethnologue, a guide to the world's languages, is published by SIL. It assigns three-letter codes to languages, which are widely used by other linguists. The 15th edition of the Ethnologue was published in 2005 and generally uses the ISO 639-3

ISO 639-3

ISO 639-3 is an international standard for language codes. The standard describes three-letter codes for identifying languages. It extends the ISO 639-2 alpha-3 codes with an aim to cover all known natural language languages....
standard. SIL is the registrar for the ISO 639-3 standard.

Controversy

Missionary activities

At a conference of the Inter-American Indian Institute in Mérida, Yucatán

Mérida, Yucatán

M?rida is the capital and largest city of the States of Mexico of Yucat?n and the Yucat?n Peninsula. It is located in the northwest part of the state, about 35 km from the Gulf of Mexico coast, at ....
, in November 1980, delegates denounced the Summer Institute of Linguistics for using a scientific name to conceal its religious agenda and capitalist

Capitalism

Capitalism is an economic system in which wealth, and the means of producing wealth, are private property and controlled rather than commonly, publicly, or state-owned and controlled....
view that was alien to indigenous traditions.

In 1979, SIL's agreement with the Mexican

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federalism constitutionalism republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico....
government was officially terminated, but it continued to be active in that country. The same happened in 1980 in Ecuador

Ecuador

Ecuador , officially the , literally, "Republic of the equator") is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, by Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west....
, although a token presence remained. Remnants of SIL presence were protested in every subsequent Native South American uprising. In the early 1990s, the newly-formed organisation of indigenous people of Ecuador CONAIE

CONAIE

The Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador or more commonly, CONAIE, is Ecuador's largest Indigenous peoples organization....
once more demanded the expulsion of SIL from the country. By the 1980s, SIL was expelled from Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is a country in South America. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, occupying nearly half of South America, the List of countries by population country, and the fourth most populous democracy in the world....
, Ecuador

Ecuador

Mexico

Panama

Panama, officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America and, in turn, North America. Situated on an isthmus connecting North and South America, some categorize it as a transcontinental nation....
, and restricted in Colombia

Colombia

Colombia , officially the Republic of Colombia , is a country in north-western South America. Colombia is bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the north west by Panama; and to the west by the Pacific Ocean....
and Peru

Peru

Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
.

Today, according to SIL's annual report

Annual report

An Annual report is a comprehensive report on a Company activities throughtout the preceeding year. Annual reports are intended to give shareholder and other interested persons information about the comapny's activities and financial performance....
, it is funded by donations from individuals, churches, and other organizations, channeled to SIL by the Wycliffe Bible Translators.

External links

Official website

Freely available complex scripts technology, Unicode
Unicode

Unicode is a computing industry standard allowing computers to consistently represent and manipulate Character expressed in most of the world's writing systems....
font
Font

In typography, a font is traditionally defined as a complete character set of a single size and style of a particular typeface. For example, the set of all characters for 9-point Bulmer italic type is a font, and the 10-point size would be a separate font, as would the 9 point upright....
s and documentation from SIL's Non-Roman Script Initiative
SIL launches free open-source software at World Summit on the Information Society
World Summit on the Information Society

The World Summit on the Information Society was a pair of United Nations-sponsored conferences about information, communication and, in broad terms, the information society that took place in 2003 in Geneva and in 2005 in Tunis....
. Software to bridge the digital divide for ethnic minority languages (SIL International Media Release)
SIL Response to Errors in "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man"

Criticism

Carmelo Ruiz: Book review of Thy Will Be Done, The Conquest of the Amazon by Gerard Colby and Charlotte Dennett (Harper Collins 1995, ISBN 0-06-016764-5). Background of the work of SIL in the Amazon region.
Cedric Muhammad: (BlackElectorate, May 13, 2001)
Nikolas Kozloff: Robertson Only the Latest Controversy In a Long and Bizarre History (Council On Hemispheric Affairs, September 19, 2005)
Paul Heggarty:

Other websites

JAARS
Jungle Aviation and Radio Service

JAARS, formerly Jungle Aviation and Radio Service, is the technical arm of the Wycliffe Bible Translators, and is headquartered in Waxhaw, North Carolina....
: JAARS is headquartered in Waxhaw
Waxhaw, North Carolina

Waxhaw is a rapidly growing town located in Union County, North Carolina. The population is currently estimated to be 7,400 and counting. Waxhaw is a suburb of Charlotte, North Carolina....
, North Carolina
North Carolina

North Carolina is a U.S. state located on the Atlantic Seaboard in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north....
. Its purpose is to provide technical support services to Wycliffe Bible Translators
Wycliffe Bible Translators

Wycliffe Bible Translators is a nonprofit organization dedicated to making a translation of the Bible in every living language in the world, especially for cultures with little existing Christian influence....
and to SIL International.
Kittipong Thavevong: (The Nation, Bangkok, via the German presence at the World Summit on the Information Society
World Summit on the Information Society

The World Summit on the Information Society was a pair of United Nations-sponsored conferences about information, communication and, in broad terms, the information society that took place in 2003 in Geneva and in 2005 in Tunis....
)