Great SIL, poor Brazilians!

Ainda na onda das mortes na lingüística, este blog sai da sua costumeira instrospecção para ser mais informativo (só para expulsar a alergia – alergia: que coisa de viada, Filomena!).
Quem viu o texto estilo SIL da morte de Derbyshire? Des, o Ben 10 das selvas. Aqui vão alguns pequenos trechos ilustrativos:


During their holiday in the jungle of what is now Guyana, something
happened to Des that was literally life-changing.
One afternoon Des decided to walk back on his own from one village to
another, but instead got completely lost. Attempting to retrace his
steps was no use; he couldn't find the point at which he had strayed
from the usual path. He wandered about until long after nightfall,
and began to be very concerned indeed. There was no sign of any
paths, or of human habitation anywhere in the area, and he had been
wandering for miles and miles. He had no food or drink or survival
aids of any kind, and he was hopelessly lost in trackless forest.
He spent the night amid the alien sounds of South American tropical
jungle, well aware that he might die there and never be found. And in
the privacy of his prayers, he made a firm promise: if he could be
delivered from this situation, to get back to Grace and his friends,
he would dedicate the rest of his life to God's service.

As glórias de Ben (Des, sorry!) seguem então, até que:


Bobby Kennedy spent three days with Des among the Hixkaryana,
sharing the daily lives of the people in the village and getting to
know Des and Grace and their work. Kennedy was an excellent guest,
participating fully in village life with its various hardships and
never complaining. One afternoon, as Des and Bobbie were bathing in
the Nhamunda river, Kennedy asked Des: "What's the name of this river?"

"The Nhamunda", Des told him.

"I want to remember the name," said Kennedy, "because just now,
right here in this river, I have decided to run for President of the
United States."

Compensa ler até o final para se divertir com a estória completa de Des 10. E finalmente saber mais uma vez sobre o povo salvo pelo SIL:


Des had obtained two excellent contributions to HAL. Des tried hard
to find Brazilian academic linguists to write descriptive material
on Amazonian languages, but it was not until 1998 that we at last
managed to get one: a major contribution from a non-SIL linguist,
by Alexandra Aikhenvald (a Russian-born Brazilian citizen) appeared
in volume 4 of HAL. Brazilian linguistics students began to apply to
American graduate programs (some went to MIT to work with Ken Hale).
In 2000, Lucy Seki, whose work I first heard of from Des, became the
first Brazilian-born linguist ever to publish a book-length grammar
of an Amazonian language (Kamaiura).



Vai se fuder…