Another carving from my series for International Mother Language Day.
The Manchu script is unique in a very unusual way. Created by a Chinese emperor in imitation of the iconic vertical script of the all-conquering Mongols, it was the imperial script for centuries. Usually this would be enough to guarantee its usage and ascendancy, but over time Mandarin came to seem more civilized, more modern, and the Manchu language and script dwindled to the point where the language was used only to shout commands in the army, and the script was used only by historians and scholars.
In American walnut.
Dimensions: 36” x 12”
Manchu “Mother Tongue”
Tim Brookes was born in England and educated at Oxford before moving to the United States in 1980.
An editor, guitarist, teacher, soccer coach and author of 23 books and numerous articles and essays, he founded the Endangered Alphabets Project in 2010 with his first exhibition of carvings in indigenous and minority scripts.
Since then he has exhibited and spoken at more than 150 colleges, universities, libraries, museums, and galleries including The Barbican Center, West den Haag, Oxford, Cambridge, Yale, Harvard, the Smithsonian Institution and the Library of Congress, while working with a wide range of cultures to create games and educational materials for learning and promoting minority scripts.
His latest books are An Atlas of Endangered Alphabets, Writing Beyond Writing: Lessons from Endangered Alphabets and By Hand: Can the Art of Writing Be Saved? The last book explores the importance of the act and the art of writing by hand—and was written by hand.
After 50 years in the US, he has just moved back to Cambridge, England, where he is delighted to be starting collaborations of all kinds with people from all walks of life.
All sales go toward the costs of running the Endangered Alphabets Project, which is not supported by any institution, agency or foundation and thus depends very heavily on sales of books and carvings.
For more information on this script, see the Atlas of Endangered Alphabets at endangeredalphabets.net.
Email: tim@endangeredalphabets.com
Website: endangeredalphabets.com
Instagram: @endangeredalphas