Documenting the Stories and Technology of the Sora People
We are currently in the final stages of editing a series of short videos in which Sora speaker Arjun Sabar discusses the origin and significance of the Sora Sompeng writing system.
We are subtitling these videos in English as well as in Hindi so that the content may be accessible to Sora diaspora communities in India as well as interested viewers worldwide. The videos will be published on our YouTube channel in April 2022.
Update: the videos are out. Watch the whole series in our Sora playlist on YouTube, starting with Arjun Sabar explaining the Sora Sompeng alphabet:
Arjun Sabar discusses the Sora Sompeng Writing System (screenshot from video with English subtitles)
Arjun Sabar discusses the Sora Sompeng Writing System (screenshot from video with Hindi subtitles)
Arjun Sabar discusses the Sora Sompeng Writing System (screenshot from video with Hindi subtitles)
The co-lead scientist on this Sora cultural documentation project is Opino Gomango. He is a native Sora scholar and multimedia creator who has been working for over 10 years as a trained, professional linguist in collaboration with Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages.
This project was funded by a National Geographic Citizen Science Grant entitled: “Citizen science and cinematography: Documenting stories and technology of the Sora tribe” (India, 2019-2021). Their support is gratefully acknowledged.
Findings from this project will also be included in the publications resulting from Sora Typological Characteristics: Towards a Re-Evaluation of South Asian Human History, supported by the National Science Foundation Linguistics Grant Award NSF/BCS #1844532.