 Some successful modern reforms of writing systemsSpelling reforms in Indonesia and MalaysiaMatching language and writing systemsIndonesian and Malaysian writing system reforms are remarkable. They are a remarkable example of two different countries agreeing on the same spelling reform - only paralleled by Spanish and Portuguese orthographic agreements with their ex-colonies of the New World. They are remarkable for the commonsense nationalism that enabled them to take on the sensible though 'foreign' roman alphabet for their writing systems. It was remarkable because they made their roman alphabet spelling system official at a time when they were still jubilant at their postwar expulsion of their enemies, the Dutch and English, the two colonial powers who had introduced that alphabet into their respective colonies. Rather than reverting to pre-colonial scripts, they set a principle of 'treasuring but not clinging' to the old scripts of Arabic or Hindu derivation. Not that it was easy. Omar (1989) gives an an account of the difficulties and final success of the moves to reform. The roman alphabet suits the two very similar languages
very well, since they have simple vowels, which are readily
represented. It has been claimed to be an important factor in Indonesia's rise to an estimated 70% literacy despite still limited schooling - although there have been reports (eg Indonesia's New Illiteracy, Hull, 1981) deploring lost enthusiasm - perhaps as individual students discovered they were not benefiting personally from its promise of better employment and conditions. See also: 1 Writing systems World writing systems, Chinese logographic writing system , The'mixed' Japanese writing system , Korea's amazing writing system , Syllable writing systems , New and recent writing systems 2.Writing system reforms - overview Society and writing systems, Writing system reforms 3. Some writing system reforms in the past 150 years Chinese writing reforms - Japanese writing reforms, Korean writing reforms,Spelling reform in Indonesia and Malaysia, Netherlands spelling reforms, Portuguese spelling reforms , Russian spelling reform, Spanish spelling reforms , Spelling reform in Turkey 4.Related issues to writing and reforms - Adapting to spelling reform in Greenland , Spelling and literacy in Cuba and Nicaragua - India's failed writing system reform 5. Language and writing systems in Arabic, Danish, Faroe Islands, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Hebrew, Norwegian, Serbo-Croatian, And see the Home Page Ozideas for more Australian Alternativ Ideas |
