It has been awhile since I read my first report, but in the complaints and inquiries chapter, I think there is some information there about complaints that were received that Dene languages material was translated into roman orthography rather than syllabics. When I received those complaints, I addressed them to the official languages unit and asked what was the government policy on using syllabics for Dene languages. It had been my understanding that the GNWT had discouraged the use of syllabics for a number of years. Being fairly familiar myself with the syllabic system -- I've even worked with Dene syllabics a little bit -- I realize that the existing system doesn't have a symbol for each sound that can be made in the language.
There was a lot of discussion about whether or not we should try to revise those old Dene syllabics so there would be a better system, so they would better represent the sounds of the language or whether we should try to get all people to use roman orthography, which was developed so there is one symbol for every sound. I wrote a letter to the official languages unit and we talked about it quite a bit. I made them aware of the fact that a lot of people, especially older people, want information translated into syllabics and not into roman orthography for Dene languages. The reply was that GNWT does not actually discourage the use of syllabics for Dene languages and if someone were to apply for funding under one of their community grants to do some work in Dene syllabics, they would consider it. They are not opposed to people using it, but it is not the system they are teaching in the schools because they feel it is not an adequate system. As a linguist, from my point of view, the existing system is somewhat inadequate, although older people have used it for a long time to communicate with each other.
I had a number of complaints or inquiries about syllabics for Dene languages. We addressed it to the official languages unit. For those people who did make the requests, I informed them that if they wanted to make a request to Education, Culture and Employment for a community grant to do some work on Dene syllabics, they could do that.
I do receive a lot of complaints about the fact that there are many Dene translations done using roman orthography. People cannot read them. There are lots and lots of papers being produced, but no one can read them. So that is another thing I have mentioned in my recommendations. We really need to look at what our method of implementing these official languages is. Are we really meeting the need? From my perspective, I get a lot of complaints that there is too much time spent, by Dene translators, doing written material when people cannot read it. Many older people have told me if you are going to write it, then do it in syllabics so at least we can read it. But as far as I know, none of the Dene translators read and write in syllabics, at least not to the extent that they would be able to do translations in them. So that is an area I have brought to their attention. As I said, it is not my role to be able to take any of those actions to implement the program. I am not the government. All I can do is make the recommendations and push and encourage them to do that. But I am not the one who puts the program in place, it is up to the government to decide what they will do with that. It is something that is still an issue that needs to be addressed. Years ago, when I worked in Culture and Communications, I wrote a proposal for the then assistant deputy minister to do research on the Dene syllabics so we could at least document them and find how out many people read and write them. I was told at that time, there were some historical documents people had kept, for example, diaries that people have kept for many years and they are written in syllabics and nobody else can read them. It is important historical information and it would be really useful if we could translate them. The people who wrote them generally are unilingual, they are written in syllabics and very few other people can read them so it would be a lot of information that would be lost if the syllabics are not learned, at least to the extent where we can use those resources and transliterate into roman orthography or put them onto tape.
So I support people using syllabics if that is the way they can communicate. The most important thing is that people can communicate. One of the things that bothers me when we talk about people who are literate in Dene languages and maybe ten per cent of the population -- it is hard to say right now -- who we don't include who are literate in syllabics. They are literate too, but in a different system. So when we are looking at Dene literacy, we should take a count of that as well. It is an issue that needs to be looked at more closely. As I said, there have been a few people who have contacted my office and said they would like to see materials in syllabics and I referred them to Education, Culture and Employment for the community grants available if they want to hire someone to do some translation or minutes of meetings using syllabics. That is about all I can do in my capacity. We don't have the funds for someone to do the research or to deliver the program and services. My job is to bring these situations to the attention of the government and to try to encourage them to take action to meet those demands.