Becoming Literate in Swo

Swo is a well-developed language, by which I mean that its speakers find no problem in dealing with all the issues of life without recourse to other languages. It has a "mature" morphological system, both for nouns and verbs, as well as a highly complex and structured sound-system. That does not mean the speakers can write it, however. I know one speaker who has tried to write personal names in the language and gotten all tangled up in writing the phonetic form of the language rather than its phonemic form. He has not proceeded very far. Others have tried to use the writing system of Bulu. That, too, has been frustrating. In order to help show the Swo people the path forward, we have made a 1-page "alphabet chart" that shows the letters in alphabetical order on one sheet of paper. For each letter, there is a word that exemplifies the use of the letter, and an illustration of the word. Its enduring virtue will be serving as publicity for the innovation, written Swo. It also helps desensitize people to the "funny" characters. This teaches them the number and identity of the characters in their language, and their order in the Swo alphabet, but it is not otherwise pedagogically useful. For them to become literate, however, we will have to write primers for the various audiences: a primer series for complete illiterates and a slim and simpler volume those who are literate in French or in Bulu but who want to read and write Swo. This is a transition primer. We have organized its contents and will be now starting on the first lessons.