Trivia about the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL)

International Decade of the World’s Indigenous People

Fifty years ago, the first Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) linguists arrived in the Philippines at the invitation of President Ramon Magsaysay and others. Twenty years later, SIL achieved the distinction of receiving the Magsaysay Award for International Understanding. Today SIL is recognized as an international NGO in consultative status with UNESCO and the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations.

SIL has provided linguistic research and vernacular materials in almost 100 languages/dialects of the Philippines. The Department of Education, Translators Association of the Philippines, and the Linguistic Society of the Philippines are long-term partners along with UP, De La Salle University, PNU and others. Numerous community-based associations in language areas where SIL has worked now carry on similar translation and literacy programs for themselves. The 50th Anniversary Bibliography of SIL Philippines lists almost 3500 titles of academic research and literacy publications for the benefit of the minority peoples of the nation. The work SIL began in the Philippines has spread to benefit minority groups across Asia and the Pacific.

Stamps featuring the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL)