Opinion: Can’t read c̓aləχʷəlenəx? For Indigenous Canadians, that’s a point of pride. – The Washington Post
December 8, 2022
Is being forced to use the English alphabet to communicate basic information about yourself a form of cultural oppression? In Canada, this is a question that seems to be popping up more and more as Indigenous citizens — and in some cases, citizens of other non-European backgrounds — oppose using letters not their own.
For many Indigenous nations in Canada, these written versions of their languages were introduced only relatively recently, often by non-Indigenous linguists. Rather than create entirely new alphabets, many of these scholars pulled heavily from the special characters of European text. Accordingly, today many untranslated Indigenous Canadian words appear as a distinctive medley of Latin letters, numerals, punctuation marks, and niche symbols from math and phonics rarely seen outside academia.
Read More: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/08/indigenous-alphabets-canada-communication-language/