The SUMMER INSTITUTE OF LINGUISTICS (SIL) comprises, in its own words, "a small band of men and women who have taken on the gigantic task of reaching the unreached tribes living in some forgotten comers all over the world," in recording their languages, translating into them the Bible and other "works of a high moral worth," and then teaching these tribal peoples to read the materials prepared for them.

SIL began by accident. In 1917 in the midst of World War I, William Cameron Townsend, 21 and a junior at Occidental College in Los Angeles, Califomia, overheard an old woman charge that those going off to war were "cowards" because they left the missionary work for women. He quit school and joined the Bible House of Los Angeles. Earning his own passage money by loading fruit crates on the docks, he sailed to Guatemala with a salary of $25 a month and a trunkload of Spanish-language Bibles.

He was a good salesman but he found his market limited: over three-fifths of the people in Guatemala could neither understand nor read Spanish. The Cakchiquel Indians who made up this group of illiterates were formerly a powerful and skillful tribe. They had been reduced to servitude because they did not speak Spanish and were therefore shut off from the mainstream of Guatemalan life.

Townsend determined to learn Cakchiquel and take "God's word" to them in their own tongue. In 1919 he married a girl from Chicago whom he met in Guatemala, gave up selling Bibles and went to live with the Indians, learning their dialect, giving them what medical help he could and translating the New Testament into their language. He trained native helpers but even so the work was exhausting, mentally and physically.

In 1931 he presented the first copy of his Cakchiquel New Testament to the Guatemalan president, but his task was not completed. The Indians could not read; what good was a translation if no one could read it? He dedicated himself now to teaching, but both his and his wife's health deteriorated. The following year tuberculosis on his part and a heart ailment on hers forced the Townsends to return to California.

Recuperating in his sister's home in Santa Ana (outside Los Angeles) he had time to read and think. He discovered that nearly half the adults in the world were illiterate, partly because the languages they spoke had never been written. Of some 3,000 known languages, i.e., mutually unintelligible systems of speech, 2,000 were not recorded, therefore there were no translations of the Bible in these languages. He determined to do something about it.

About this time Leonard L. Legters, a missionary friend, called on him to urge him to undertake for the Indians of Mexico what he had done for those of Guatemala. Townsend agreed but suggested first a summer institute to train others in techniques which had been developed by the newly recognized science of linguistics (the study of language as a speech system). He realized the job was too great for him and his wife to tackle alone. Two American universities had regular four-year programs in linguistics but Townsend, knowing few people could afford to spend that much time in preparation, developed a crash course for the three summer months when people would most likely be free to attend.

The first summer course, called the Summer Training Camp for Prospective Bible Translators, was held June 7 to September 7, 1934 at Happy Valley Farm in Sulphur Springs, Arkansas, where the Townsends were living because of Mrs. Townsend's health. Two students signed up. The course was keyed for work with the Indians of Mexico. Materials covered were Indian tribal history, customs, religion, taboos, and economic and cultural status; Spanish; the techniques of linguistics and translation; and how to work and live with Indians.

After a second summer of training in 1935 the Townsends, their niece and three others began work among the Tarascans, Mixtecs and Aztecs. Besides language research, these pioneers took time to introduce new plants to their Indian hosts and improved agricultural methods. An outgrowth of this work was a friendship that developed between Townsend and the President of Mexico, Lazaro Cardenas, who came to see for himself what the "Townsend group" was doing. He was sufficiently impressed to urge them to expand their work into other countries. Their friendship led Townsend to write a biography, Lazaro Cardenas, Mexican Democrat, which was published in 1952 and was instrumental in opening the Philippines to SIL work that same year.

The term SUMMER INSTITUTE OF LINGUISTICS was used for the first time in 1936, but the organization was not officially incorporated as such until 1942 when the University of Oklahoma invited Townsend to bring his summer courses into the university curriculum. Because of constitutional restrictions on religious teaching in a state institution, the Townsend organization was divided into sister units, the SUMMER INSTITUTE OF LINGUISTICS and the Wycliffe Bible Translators, to separate the academic aspects from the religious. Both were incorporated at the same time in Santa Ana, California. The purpose of Wycliffe (named for the first man to translate the Bible into English) is to recruit candidates for SIL, transmit funds, and maintain relations with supporting churches and individuals. In other words it assists and backstops SIL in its home country. Membership is in both organizations but service is in one or the other.

The goal of both is translation and publication of the Bible— at the very least the New Testament—in all the spoken languages of the world. SIL emphasizes the scholarly aspects of this jointly acknowledged project. It takes a scientific, academic, government-related approach, rather than the religious, church-oriented approach of Wycliffe. As SIL says, "While we are motivated by the desire to serve God and humanity, we are at the same time scientists dedicated to the study of languages. And when we complete our linguistic investigations, we shall go, leaving behind our base for education."

Both SIL and Wycliffe believe that literacy and the ability to read Christian scriptures in their own language will raise the spiritual, moral—and eventually social and economic—lives of the mainly tribal minority peoples with whom they work. Justification for their belief can be found in such statements as made by a new literate in the Philippines who said: "Before you came there was only darkness. Now there is light."

When the summer courses moved to the University of Oklahoma in 1942 there were 130 students in attendance. They came from 32 states and 12 foreign countries. SIL courses are now held at three state universities—Oklahoma, Washington and North Dakota—and at Gordon College in Massachusetts; in Brisbane, Australia; the University of Auckland, New Zealand; and in Germany and Great Britain. They attract some 500 students from all over the world.

Applicants for SIL training may be any age—Townsend himself is still active in his 70s. Volunteers over 60 and those who volunteer for specific professional or technical work (e.g., pilots or teachers) are designated as Short-Term Assistants, although they may extend their service indefinitely. All must accept the basic principles of Protestant Christianity, be dedicated and of goodwill; they are usually required to have a college degree. As Kenneth L. Pike, current President of SIL and outstanding professor and consultant in the field of linguistics, has said, "The best are still none too good when an entire culture may be at stake. But if priority must be assigned, understanding concern outranks cold academic competence."

The summer training courses are taught by SIL professors under the auspices of the universities. Wives take the same training as husbands because they serve as a team. If a volunteer is accepted for training he must show that he has financial support for these courses and for his succeeding years in the field. Support usually comes from church, family or other private individuals. The volunteer himself must obtain it.

Three three-month training sessions are required. The first summer course is primarily in linguistics, the modern science which has developed techniques of identifying speech sounds and reducing them to alphabetical signs. For 11 weeks trainees spend one hour a day listening to sounds collected from around the world, learning to recognize them, to repeat them and find patterns in them. The next step is to assign the important sounds (phonemics) to a phonetic (sound) alphabet, i.e., "the set of marks on paper which tell which wiggles of the vocal apparatus are required to produce the sounds."

Students next listen to the dialect in which they hope to work, transcribe it into the phonetic alphabet, and the phonetic alphabet into the alphabet of the national language of the country. They then work out a system of spelling and determine the proper grammar syntax system for phrase and sentence formation. The last step is translation of English or national language materials into the dialect being studied. Accurate translation, however, can come only from living among a people, learning their customs, thought modes, religious ideas and taboos. The summer courses are but preparatory to the years that lie ahead.

The first summer session for a volunteer, then, is 11 weeks devoted to phonetics (speech sounds), phonology (history and theory of sound changes in a language), phonemics (the smallest unit of speech that distinguishes one utterance from another), morphology (wordforming elements and processes), syntax (arrangement of words in phrases or sentences), anthropology (man in his environmental and social-cultural relationships) and literacy (reading and writing). For those accepted for further training, a second, more intensive, summer session is required the following year.

In 1943 Peru requested that SIL work with the Indians in her jungles. In order to prepare 25 volunteers for the rigorous life they would find there, SIL added a jungle training course to the two summer courses. It (or arctic training) is now obligatory for all. The first jungle course was established in Chiapas, Mexico, in 1944. All members of a volunteer's family—including young children—must undergo this training in survival under conditions of minimum comfort and maximum self-reliance.

The first six weeks are spent at the base camp on the edge of the jungle where volunteers are taught the basics of primitive living: how to construct mud and wattle homes, build and row a canoe, slaughter pigs and chickens for food, make mud ovens and render first-aid. The latter is not only for their own protection but in order to help the peoples among whom they will be living. They also learn to be alone in the jungle for longer and longer periods of time and to hike greater and greater distances. They are taught what berries are safe to eat, which vines hold water they can safely drink and how to recognize and avoid deadly snakes.

The last six weeks are spent at an advance base deep within the forest. This period is climaxed by a four-day survival hike of approximately twenty-five miles. The selection process is such that by the time they reach jungle training only about one percent fail. Today jungle camps are also operated in Ghana for those going to Africa, and in New Guinea for those preparing for the South Pacific.

Volunteers are always sent out in pairs at least, a husband and wife or two single women or men. When they arrive at the base headquarters of their selected country, they can expect further specific orientation in tribal history, language and customs. For example, in the Philippines they may take intensive conversation courses at the Inter-Church Language School in Lipa City. Moreover, the first thing they do when they settle in their area of work is hire a local person to help them learn the specific dialect as quickly as possible.

In their village of work they are expected to make their own housing arrangements, renting a house or arranging with villagers to help them build suitable shelter. They live as the tribal people, drawing water from river or well and depending on kerosene or wood for lighting and cooking. They can resign at any time, although few have done so. They must, however, resign if they marry other than another SIL volunteer; the Institute feels that dedication to the job must be complete.

SIL recognizes no liturgy or ritual and makes no attempt to proselytize, but work is usually centered in an area where there are missionaries who will carry on Christian teaching with the tools left behind by the SIL volunteers. Workers abide by the "constitution" which governs each specific field branch. They are entitled to a month's annual leave and a furlough at the end of four or five years—one month for each year of service.

As a backstop to the volunteers working in the field, is the Jungle Aviation and Radio Service (JAARS). Established in 1948 to make it feasible to send families into the jungles of Peru, the aviation service began with one U.S. Marine Corps surplus Grumman amphibious plane. Today there are more than 30 planes in eight countries, including the Philippines, and at least one helicopter. JAARS headquarters is near Charlotte, North Carolina, on 250 acres donated by local businessmen. Facilities there include a landing strip, hangars and homes for technicians.

JAARS has to fly over exceedingly difficult, often uncharted terrain, land under extremely adverse conditions, and fly in the frequently turbulent skies of the tropics. The motto of the pilots is, "We do our best—and the Lord does the rest." The wisdom of this attitude is proven by the fact that in its 22 years of service JAARS has never had a fatal accident.

JAARS plane service is primarily to transport people to their base of operations and out. It not only provides emergency service, but cuts routine trips to minutes instead of hours, and hours instead of days. It also makes egress possible during the rainy season when volunteers might otherwise be stranded in mountains and jungles for weeks.

JAARS offers emergency service to villagers as well as to volunteers. In 1965, for example, JAARS flew 70 mercy flights in the Philippines alone, and cooperated with the Philippine airforce in search flights for downed planes.

The radio service complements the aviation service and is used not only in ground to air communication, but to keep in touch with volunteers in remote areas. A roll call of volunteers begins each day, and doctors and linguistic consultants are on constant duty to provide medical and professional advice.

When SIL signed a formal agreement with the government of Peru in 1945 it established the pattern of SIL/government relations which have continued. Although usually preceded by informal visits to the country of interest by SIL officers, access to a country is sought through official government channels.

SIL work in Asia began in 1953. Dr. Richard S. Pittman had visited the Philippines in 1951 on his way back from conducting a three-month seminar in Brisbane, Australia. He was interested in investigating the possibilities of linguistic research in the Philippines; he also thought in terms of the Philippines as a "staging area" for other countries of South and Southeast Asia. Pittman had with him sample word lists from 34 of the unwritten Philippine languages taped by Gospel Recordings in 1949. He estimated that there were 100 or so yet to be identified and noted that 60 distinct minority groups made up 12 percent of the country's population.

Pittman called on Carlos P. Romulo, Secretary of Foreign Affairs, and on Ramon Magsaysay, Secretary of National Defense. Magsaysay, who was responsible for peace and order in the country, understood the advantages of reaching the tribal peoples and minorities outside the mainstream of Philippine life. When Pittman returned to the States he sent Magsaysay a copy of Townsend's book on Cardenas. Magsaysay was impressed by the similarity of the problems faced by Mexico in the 1930s and the Philippines in the 1950s, and by the way in which Cardenas handled them. Pittman feels the book forged a link which helped make possible the agreement between SIL and the administration of President Elpidio Quirino which was signed on February 28, 1953. Pittman signed as Deputy General Director for SIL and Cecilio Putong as Secretary of Education for the Philippines.

The next step for SIL was to acquire the approval of the governor of Bukidnon, the province on the island of Mindanao where, at the request of the government, SIL planned to begin work. With the governor's assent, that of the barrio (community) captain was obtained. The president of Mindanao Agricultural College at Musuan, Bukidnon, offered office space and housing to the fledgling project. From this base during the first year, 22 SIL volunteers studied eight tribal languages.

In 1954 Nasuli, 18 kilometers from Malaybalay, was leased for a conference and Workshop site. This center developed into the permanent administrative, linguistic and transportation headquarters for teams working in the south. It was also the main headquarters until 1967.

Nasuli consists of 13 hectares of partly-leased and partly-owned land. Today it has a workshop center, meeting hall, office building, three school buildings and lodging for children of SIL volunteers (80 were attending school here in 1970 in grades one through eight), a staff house, hangar and an airstrip. In 1959, a similar center was developed at Bagabag, Nueva Vizcaya, in northeastern Luzon.

For 16 years SIL's Manila office was in a Quonset hut on the grounds of the Institute of National Languages of the University of the Philippines (UP). When for reasons of "greater efficiency'' it became the main headquarters, it relocated in an office building in Quezon City, the nominal capital of the Philippines and close to the main UP campus. Headquarters staff today consists of a director, assistant director, accountant, linguistic consultant and publications manager. Its two Filipino secretaries are its only salaried personnel.

JAARS came to the Philippines September 5, 1958 when the then Director of SIL, Howard McKaughan, and Juan C. Pajo, Executive Secretary of the Philippine government, signed an agreement permitting SIL to maintain and operate an aviation service and radio network. In November the first plane arrived, a gift of the people of Seattle, Washington, and was so christened, "Any Diwa ng Seattle."

According to the agreement title belongs to the Philippine Air Force; it is assigned to the 601st Liaison Squadron. It and its sister planes—gifts of the people of Pontiac, Michigan (1964), San Diego, California (1964), Jackson, Mississippi (1972) and Rockford, Illinois (1973), are to be used and maintained by SIL as long as the Institute remains in the country. SIL pilots must obtain Philippine licenses.

Four of the five planes are Helio-Couriers and the fifth is a Piper Super Cub. The Helio-Courier is a single engine, five seat, all metal plane which is stall-proof and spin-proof and when fully loaded can land and take off on a 200-meter runway at 30 miles per hour. These factors are extremely important in the mountains and jungles where airstrips must often be carved out of the forest or blasted off mountain tops by SIL volunteers and hired village labor. Moreover with its low cruising speed, close turning ability and an ingeniously designed winch, it can lift a man out of the jungle without touching down.

Although JAARS-Philippines does not operate where commercial routes exist, it regularly uses some 65 airstrips—government, private and SIL-operated. In 1973 JAARS planes flew a total of 1,700 hours and transported 216 tons of cargo and 6,925 passengers, including Philippine government personnel needing to reach remote villages.

The radio service is under the supervision of the Philippine Army Signal Corps. As with the air service, "equipment is acquired by the SIL, donated to the Philippine government and operated and maintained by SIL." Thirty-nine stations are presently in operation, from Mountain Province in the north to Sulu in the south, with three communication centers: Manila, Bagabag, and Nasuli. Besides the single sideband radio receivers for volunteer use—devised by Lawrence Walrod, a "mechanical genius"—which can operate on car batteries, JAARS-Philippines has sophisticated Lear equipment: a 14 VDC ADF unit, an ADF 12E and a VHP tower control communications radio. Nine radio technologists and operators maintain and operate the equipment.

Ninety-five percent of the people of the Philippines speak dialects of the Western Malayo-Polynesian language group. Eight are recognized by the government Bureau of Public Schools as the basis for first and second year school instruction: Cebuano, Tagalog, Ilocano, Hiligaynon, Bicol, Pampango, Pangasinan and Samar-Leyte, in order of usage. These are related, but largely mutually unintelligible. Groups outside these mainstream dialects have for the most part remained illiterate because it was not possible to become literate in their own tongue. This is the language-cultural minority that SIL linguists seek out. Daniel H. Weaver, Acting Director of SIL-Philippines at the present time, writes: "We trade upon three facets in their mentality that are common to almost all primitives, their pride in their own language, their eagerness to better themselves economically, their insatiable curiosity."

A survey team first tests the range of the dialect and the linguist volunteer attempts to settle in the center of the language area. He usually finds that it is not hard to be accepted by the people with whom he lives—his very errors in speaking their language often endear him to them—but it is hard to understand the deeper meanings of the culture and to communicate in depth until he has mastered the language pattern—which SIL finds the most important key to the study of alien conceptual systems.

His first step then is to listen to the language sounds and, if it has not been done, write them in a phonetic alphabet and transpose them into the alphabet of the country. It will take a research team anywhere from six months to two years to arrive at a practical spelling. The time involved is dependent on everything from the health of the linguists and structure of the dialect, to the amount of agricultural and medical aid the team feels called upon to supply. By 1970, orthographies (standardized spellings) for all 42 dialects studied had been drawn up. After considerable testing 23 had been approved by the Philippine Department of Education for its own use, and the 19 others were in the last stages of testing. Four dialects have been added since 1970 and eight more are scheduled for research this year. This is possible because 16 new members joined SIL-Philippines in 1973. Dictionaries in Inibaloi and Tausug are underway; the former is nearly completed.

SIL began training Filipino linguists to assist in language analysis in the field as early as 1955-56. The first linguistic workshop was conducted in 1962 by Pittman. In 1963 Pike conducted a three-month workshop for representatives of 30 Philippine and 2 Vietnam language groups. For the past three years SIL has run its traditional first summer training course in Bagabag for the benefit of interested Filipinos, hoping to get more of them into the field and eventually work itself out of a job. To date, only four trainees have joined the volunteers.

The next step is to translate into the newly devised spelling system primers, government health and agricultural manuals, Bible stories, literary works "which have proven invaluable to mankind," songs, folktales and even riddle books. The goal of translating the New Testament into simple understandable words usually takes about 15 years. It is essential to train a fluent native helper for this work since the choice of words and meanings must take into consideration tribal customs and taboos. To date "primers, pedagogical materials and aids and supplementary reading materials have been prepared in 35 languages spoken in Luzon and Mindanao," according to Weaver, and many such materials are included in the list of approved supplementary reading in public schools.

In 1968 SIL cooperated with the Adult and Community Education Division of the Bureau of Public Schools to hold seminars to instruct teachers in local dialects. This has been continued and is especially important because it is the policy of the Bureau to instruct children for their first two years in their own tongue. In 1970, in cooperation with the public school system of Sagada in Mountain Province, SIL conducted a Writers Workshop for 45 teachers to produce materials in the Kankanay language. Eight booklets were developed which are now being used by the schools in adult education. Three Writers Workshops were held in 1973; these involved over 70 people from 11 minority groups. Together they produced nearly 60 booklets which provide a minority outlook, useful both for their own peoples and for those who hope to understand them. Besides producing and printing these booklets SIL has published over 20 other primers, health manuals and folktales during 1973 alone.

Attesting to SIL's value, a senior education official h.as said, "We cannot afford to be away from the SIL. We cannot do the work alone. We use the materials that they prepare. They're the ones who speak these languages."

The third step undertaken by volunteers is to teach the village people to read the materials made available in their language. SIL believes that the greatest force for change is education and that literacy will "unlock many of the forces" that hold people back from full community participation and progress. Because literacy is achieved in their own language it enables minorities to move with a sense of pride in their own culture into the broader national culture. By 1970, the average increase in literacy in the areas of research was 15 to 20 percent.

Work is first begun with senior adults. If the tribal elders learn to read, younger adults and children can be convinced to follow suit. Literacy Instructors Institutes began to be held in 1965 and are now being conducted in many areas. Men and women who are thoroughly familiar with their own culture and who have a natural ability for leadership are taught how to teach others—particularly other adults —to read. This grew out of a successful pilot project for speakers of Ilianem Manobo.

A formal agreement of cooperation was signed in 1960 between SIL and the University of the Philippines, the culmination, as SIL notes, "of a very pleasant relationship which has existed since our entry into the Philippines." The agreement states that, besides linguistic research; translation of health and agricultural handbooks, government bulletins, and books of "high moral and patriotic value;" and promotion of literacy, SIL will publish the results of its project studies and engage in collecting ethnological and ethnobiological data. As a result SIL has donated to the UP Museum of Anthropology artifacts from six minority cultures, and to the Institute of National Languages a concordance written in Tagalog which lists the important and common words of 30 local languages.

SIL volunteers have published more than 150 technical articles on the Philippine languages studied, many of these in Philippine journals of language teaching or linguistics in order to make known as quickly as possible to "end users" what SIL has learned. A three volume report, Discourse, Paragraph and Sentence Structure, based on a workshop conducted by Dr. Robert E. Longacre, was printed and distributed in 1964.

From the beginning SIL linguists have been invited to teach or present special lectures at the UP. In 1954, both Pittman and McKaughan were appointed lecturers in linguistics in the Graduate School. In 1959 the Institute for Language Teaching in the College of Education invited SIL members to teach during the summer and the 1960 agreement spelled out specific courses of instruction. The Institute of National Languages has used the results of SIL research to broaden the national language by incorporating within it words SIL has found in common usage throughout the islands.

SIL also serves the Philippines as a consultant on minorities. Its director presently is on the Board of Advisers of the Presidential Assistant on Minorities (PANAMIN), secretary to the Council of Voluntary Agencies, and consultant on cultural minorities to the Civic Action Office of the Department of National Defense—an organ of the military involved in community development projects. SIL's work has resulted in a better understanding of the minority peoples of the archipelago and has helped create a deeper Filipino consciousness.

SIL helped establish the Linguistic Society of the Philippines and participated in the First National Conference on Volunteers and several UNESCO-sponsored conferences, including: "Education of Cultural Minorities," conducted at the UP for teacher-educators, "Continuing Education," and "Literacy Problems in the Philippines."

In 1967 SIL-Philippines followed a practice proven in Latin America of setting up a Council of Advisers composed of nine distinguished national leaders. It offers advice, acts as a sounding board for public opinion and as a liaison between SIL and the government and the local people. The advisers have no policy setting role but help generate a broader understanding of SIL, both within their specific organizations and in the community at large.

As Pittman foresaw, the Philippines has proved to be a "staging area" for SIL activities in other parts of South and Southeast Asia. In 1957, just four years after work began in the Philippines, an agreement was reached between SIL and the government of Vietnam. By the end of 1970 some 55 volunteers were in that country working with 20 tribes. They have stayed on in spite of increasingly difficult wartime conditions, including the Tet Offensive in 1968 which resulted in the destruction of their center at Kontum. Not only have they remained, others have since joined them and the number of tribal groups whose languages they are studying has increased to 30. In 1966 SIL work began in both India and Nepal; by 1970 some 30 to 40 volunteers were working in each country among tribes. Work also began in New Guinea in 1956, in Indonesia in 1971, and in Cambodia in 1972.

Today language research is going on in 26 countries: 12 in the Americas, 6 in Southeast Asia including Australia, 2 in South Asia and 6 in Africa. There are over 3,000 volunteers world-wide from 21 different nations and one colony: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Columbia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Great Britain, Guyana, Hong Kong, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Republic of South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States. By far the greatest number come from the U.S.

Volunteers provide their own financing which is usually routed through Wycliffe because of its tax exempt status. They draw up their own budgets and have a major decision-role in overall SIL expenditures. Ten percent of total donations are kept by SIL for use in equal shares by the headquarters in Santa Ana and the field branch offices.

Members also have a major role in the administration of SIL. They have a right to be heard at all times, whether in international conferences or to rebut charges made against them. Leaders, who are chosen by the membership, hold office for a limited time and are then usually "recycled" into the field.

Although each member is expected to assume maximum responsibility for his own work and living situation, each is also disciplined by having others to report to—whether it is the Board of Directors which reports to the International Conference, or the volunteer in the field who must submit his language analysis, spelling system or translation to his peers or to a committee of experts.

SIL volunteers are financed by individuals and churches, but public and private foundations and organizations have provided both in-kind and monetary aid for SIL projects. The governments of the countries where volunteers work supply logistical assistance, tax free status and public and academic support. CARE and UNICEF have supplied food for distribution by SIL to malnourished women and children in tribal villages; Operation Handclasp has provided books for schools and libraries. In 1967 the U.S. National Science Foundation gave a continuing grant for the "Linguistic Information Retrieval Project" undertaken by SIL and the University of Oklahoma; this has made possible the use of an IBM 1410 computer to accelerate linguistic comparisons and translations.

The U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW) has made travel and workshop grants available. For example, in both 1967 and 1968 HEW grants made possible the travel of Longacre from Mexico and Pike from the U.S. to attend workshops at Nasuli.

The Asia Foundation has been particularly generous. It has paid the transportation costs of donated books and it has provided funds directly or indirectly for publishing primers and supplementary reading materials in the newly written languages. Equally importantly, it has funded surveys of the area-spread of various languages. The Ford Foundation has also contributed.

Government officials, scholars and educators in the 26 countries in which SIL has worked have words of praise and gratitude for the contribution made by the Summer Institute of Linguistics to their societies. President Ferdinand Marcos has credited SIL-Philippines with having played a major role in the increase in literacy in that country—from 49 percent in 1939 to 83.4 percent in 1973. In presenting SIL with a Presidential Citation in April this year, Marcos also commended SIL for its "humanitarian acts of mercy." Volunteers are invariably described as sincere, dedicated, open, hard working and "very Christian and very self-giving." Perhaps the-praise most appreciated is that expressed, among others, by Arnold Toynbee after he visited a SIL camp in the jungles of South America. "It is not very common for the strong to dedicate themselves to the service of the weak as you are doing," he wrote, but "thanks to your work for the Indians, the terrific impact of modern civilization upon their life is being eased, so that their encounter with the modern world may perhaps have a happy ending . . . .

January 1974
Manila

REFERENCES:

"Ethnic Groups and Media of Instruction," Higher Education and Development in Southeast Asia. Paris: UNESCO. Vol. 3, pt. 2, 1967, p. 163-165.

First Decade, 1953-1963. Manila: Summer Institute of Linguistics.

"Gift from California: A Linguistics Plane," Manila Times. September 26, 1964.

Hefley, J.C. Peril by Choice. Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1968.

Huxley, M. and C. Capa. Farewell to Eden. New York: Harper & Row, 1964.

Martin-Roquero, C. T. "The Culture of the Central Mindanao Manobos," Graduate and Faculty Studies. Manila: Centro Escolar University. Vol. 19, 1968.

Maryott, Alice. "The Summer Institute of Linguistics, Philippine Branch," Philippine Journal for Language Teaching. Manila Vol. 4, nos. 1-2, 1966.

Ng, Willie. "20 Year Work of Linguistics Body is Lauded," Manila Bulletin December 19, 1973.

Roces, Alejandro R. "I Write as I Write," Manila Chronicle. March 14, 1968.

Summer Institute of Linguistics, Anniversary Publication, 1953-1973. Manila.

Summer Institute of Linguistics, Annual Report 1968; 1971-1972; 1973; 1974. Manila.

Torrevilla-Suarez, Domini. "Scholarly Missionaries," Philippine Panorama. Manila. September 9, 1973.

Unitas. Manila: University of Sto. Tomas Press. Vol. 40, no. 1. March 1967.

Wallis, E. E. God Speaks Navajo. New York: Harper & Row, 1968.

Wallis, E.E. and M.A. Bennett. Two Thousand Tongues to Go. New York: Harper & Row, 1964.

Who Brought the Word? Sta. Ana, California: Wycliffe Bible Translators, Inc. in cooperation with Summer Institute of Linguistics, 1963.