More on the Ndebe Project
I've been going crazy contacting people that I think will be key to this project plus my homework constantly torments me, but this is what I've been able to do this weekend.
I've set up an online workspace, got a domain for the organisation, and, I've broken down a lot of the work so that those of you that are interested in this can start thinking about what you might want to get involved with.
Conversely, you could just join the Facebook Group : The Igbo Academy and find out all this stuff because I've already posted it there, but I love you guys, and the more people know, the better, so for your sake I will post it here too.
This project is going to be carried out by means of an online workspace. Once it is set up, each member will have to sign into the workspace with a username and password. There are no obligations to join the workspace. You can just be a member of the facebook group and give us support from here.
Once signed into the workspace, there are a number of different teams you can join, who will of course be working on different aspects of the writing system. I'm going to let you know the teams that have been created so far so that you can get an idea of what needs to be done and start thinking about what you'd like to get involved with.
The teams up so far are:
1. Consonants (Mgbochiume) - People on this team will need to develop glyphs/letters to represent the consonantal sounds in the Igbo language. Consonants should follow a particular format (this will be discussed later)
2. Vowels (Udaume) - People on this team will need to develop glyphs/letters to represent the vowel sounds in the Igbo language.
3. Blends (Udamkpi) - People on this team will need to develop glyphs/letters to represent the blend sounds (Gb, Gh, Gw, Kw, etc) in the Igbo language. Currently these sounds are represented by TWO letters in English, whereas they should be represented by ONE.
4. Numbers - People on this team will need to develop glyphs/letters to represent the numbers in the Igbo language.
5. Mathematical Symbols -- People on this team will need to develop glyphs to represent mathematical symbols in the Igbo language.
6. Punctuation - People on this team will need to develop glyphs to denote punctuation in the Igbo language.
7.Tone and Stress - Igbo is obviously a tonal language, so people on this team will need to develop glyphs to show High Tone, Mid Tone, Low Tone, and to denote stress on letters or words.
8. Nsibidi Shorthand - People on this team will develop a LOGOGRAPHIC shorthand from the Nsibidi script (which is PICTORIAL)
Other teams will be formed and of course everything is open to discussion, modification, and re-modification.
Please let us know your ideas, thoughts, opinions, and if you're interested in any of the teams!
Remember, this project is largely COLLABORATIVE, so if you have any questions, let me know in the comments, or if you have any suggestions ditto.
I should sleep. But I'm high on birthday cake. Yes, my Neverending Birthday Cake is still remaining three weeks after my birthday. I'm going to throw what's left in the trash because seriously, it is scaring me yo. Plus I just finished watching the Biggest Loser and now I feel guilty.
Happy Easter by the way!