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Seetion I. The orthograph.y of the Indian ll&n@,;es of Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia

The inmediate development of the literacy campaigns attracts attention

therefore first of Bll t o t he ID!Itters relating to orthography and t he written

form of t he language s and dialects involved. In t he followi ng statements upon

these poin t s, sdvantege will bs taken f reel y of t he way in which the points

have been stated by the records of tbl conference snd by Dr. Pike ' e report a,

We are greatly i ndebted to t hese two sources for very olear and valuable state–

ments on t he various matters.

It is nauifest f rom pest studies and from the axamination mede by Dr. Pike

and from the resulta of the conferenoe t hat it ie impossible t o provid• one

single orthography for all of the

In~.ian

languages end diale cts of t he ares.

It ie olear, however, that it is possible to go a

~onside rable

distanoe i n t he

direction of such consistent use of symbols fo r sounds that, with substantial

universality, a given symbol

repres~nt s

the ""me eound in all of the dialecta,

differenoes in dialects being cared for by the use of sdditional eymbole for

oounds that are a ddi tional and t he subtraction of eymbols for eounds that are

lacking.

It is aleo manifest that

is de sirable for the orthogrsphy to be relatad

to Spenish orthography in a useful ID!Innsr,

These two conoeptions of the orthographic tesk ere basad on the coJIVio–

tions (1) that the orthographies which result should facilitste the preaent

and futura relstions between all the peoples of t he area and (2) should do

this just as far as it can be done without creating for the gre3t populations

in the several dialects difficultiee within their particular orthography which

would hinder significantly their passage from illiteracy to literacy end their

growth in literacy. Every possible meaoure should be taken to advance literacy

but these meaeures in turn should contribute to interdialect and interlanguage

relations.

It should aleo be added that wblre an issue involves a balancing of valuee

to vaat illiterate, ad.ult multitudes as contrasted. with values to elements

growing out of Spenish- speaking aspect of the environment, the formar has been

regardod by the Society as the more significant for the futura and in the long

run; thie therefore has exerted. an ad.ditional influenoe on clo;e deciaions.

In thoee instances where the alternativas meda choice d.ifficult, it is

neceaaary th!lt decision be made es wiaely as poasible and, once made, firmly

tollowed by a ll oonoerned,

.la a preface to the detallad treatment we draw here, from the Conference

lo corda, Dr. Pike '• importan

statement on the general conei darationa and

premiaee involved in the construction of the orthography.

Principles of alphebet fo:rtnation as influenced by the cultural eituation.

"0"" of the firet !tema which came before the conference was the asseas–

mant of the cultural situation in which a new alphabet would be launched, and

the featnrea of that situatior. whioh would affect the choice of the lettera of

that alphabet.

the conference proceeded, theae cultural trends became very

important in the deciaions and in the principles upon which deci aions are based.