From Sarah Brett-Smith‘s 1980 conference paper “Speech Made Visible: The Irregular as a System of Meaning” (published 1984; abstract here):
Bamana methods for transcribing the spoken word… cannot be clear… [To] fulfill their purpose they must evade linguistic systematization and the socially (perhaps even politically) disruptive possibility of mass communication by introducing aberrant visual symbols which prevent immediate comprehension. Like the spoken, the transcribed word must remain indistinct and allusive; knowledge may thus rest secure in the shadowy realm of the aged or the exceptionally gifted.
Speak Your Mind