Today’s 3 links are for writing systems:
Thoth’s Pill: An Animated History of Writing with NativLang
YouTube video series
12 videos ranging from 2 to 6 minutes that playfully summarize major historical developments in writing systems. Colorful animated videos with voiceover. The full series is also available as a single 47-minute compilation video at the end of the playlist. Closed captions in English; some videos, including the compilation, have closed captions in additional languages.
Inuktitut Writing System with Tom Scott
YouTube video
6 minute video describing the Inuktitut writing system, an abugida (alphasyllabary). Makes reference to syllable structures and language typology. Professionally produced. Closed captions in English and 18 additional languages.
Creating a Writing System with Artifexian
YouTube video
8 minute video outlining the dimensions to consider when creating a writing system for a constructed language (conlang). Includes information about types of writing systems and limitations of different writing mediums. PowerPoint-style slides with voiceover. Closed captions in English, Chinese, French, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.
A distraction:
Many of us have been dealing with this “new normal” for so long now that it doesn’t feel so new, though it’s still difficult. We hope that you’re coping okay, and finding comfort in small things.
See you on Friday for a resource guide about world Englishes.
Liz, Lauren, Gretchen, and Kate
About Mutual Intelligibility
Mutual Intelligibility is a project to connect linguistics instructors with online resources, especially as so much teaching is shifting quickly online due to current events. It's produced by Lauren Gawne and Gretchen McCulloch, with the support of our patrons on Lingthusiasm. Our 3 Links editor is Liz McCullough, and our Resource Guide contributor is Kate Whitcomb (Layman's Linguist).
The newsletter consists of 3 Links on a topic on Mondays and Wednesdays and longer Resource Guides on Fridays, both of which are free and will always remain free, but if you have a stable income and find that they’re reducing your stress and saving you time, we're able to fund these because of the Lingthusiasm Patreon and your contributions enable us to fund more guides, more quickly.
Here’s where you can tell us which topics would be useful for you. The more requests we get for a specific topic, the more it helps us prioritize resources that will help the most people.
Here’s where you can send us links (of either things you’ve made or have found useful) for potential inclusion in future newsletters. You can send a single link, or a set of three which may become a 3 Links guest-post! (With credit to you.)
If you have other comments, suggestions, or ideas of ways to help, please email mutual.intellig@gmail.com.