Alphabet Design Workshops in Papua New Guinea 1 Alphabet Design Workshops in Papua New Guinea∗ A Community-Based Approach to Orthography Development

In this paper, I aim to discuss a method of orthography development that has been widely used in Papua New Guinea since the mid 1990s known as the Alphabet Design Workshop (ADW). Through the ADW method, over 100 language/dialect groups have developed orthographies in the last five years. Based on community interaction, the ADW relies on speakers ’ perceptions of their language rather than phonological analysis, and consequently reflects the ‘sound system ’ in its cultural context as viewed by the speakers of the language. I describe the process of an ADW and the role of outside language specialists as facilitators, not creators of the orthography, with examples from throughout Papua New Guinea. The influence of non-linguistic factors in orthography decision making, such as neighbouring and prestige languages, and dialect standardisation, will be discussed using examples from ADWs. Finally, I mention the breadth of application of this process throughout PNG, and more recently in Thailand where the method has been tried for the first time outside of PNG. This paper is not intended to be a technical pape